Training: Smile of success

Inspiring confidence in your staff pays dividends, finds Phil Mellows.

It has become a cliché in the pub industry - albeit a true one - that you can't train someone to smile. A focus on personality rather than experience now informs many a recruitment strategy. But while that makes it easy to rule out career miserable sods at interview stage, there is a vast swathe of ordinary mortals whose mood responds positively to environment - and the confidence they feel.

Staff who believe they can do a great job and are allowed to do so tend to be happy and readily communicate that happiness to customers.

People who are empowered, both by their manager and their own confidence, to deliver a level of service that goes just a little beyond what customers expect can help your pub to stick in their memory and bring them back for more.

So training is vital when it comes to keeping that smile in place. And don't underestimate what you can do to help staff give that bit extra.

Frontline staff from hotels and bars across America who enrol on the Vine to Dine wine programme at Sutter Home's California winery might be surprised to find that the course is as much about customer service as it is about telling a pinot from a cabernet.

For Barry Wiss, who heads the training centre, the motto is "our product is service". He explains: "I don't care what you're selling, if you think your product is service you'll do well, there's something magic happening between you and your customers.

"It's all about knowledge. Make your staff knowledgeable and you have confident, content staff - and that gives you content customers. Give a member of staff a little bit of knowledge and they'll want to show it off."

First, though, come the basics. You need to assess your customers' expectations and train your staff to meet them. Here's Barry's checklist:

• The greeting: A survey has shown that's the most memorable thing for customers
• Cleanliness: The toilets are a reflection of the kitchen
• Organise a 15-minute meeting before each shift to get your team focused
• Personal hygiene. Check those finger nails
• Lighting and music to set the mood
• Time serving courses to suit customers' moods. Learn to read your customers. Are they in a hurry? Communicate that to the kitchen
• Have rules for how things are served
• Make sure staff know the menu and are confident enough to talk about it and answer questions
• Be attentive rather than intrusive.

Special occasion​

"Get all that down to a science and then go two per cent beyond it," says Barry. "It doesn't take any more than that and it's what makes you different - something your customers don't expect. They'll remember you for it and the perception will be that it's something for free."

Among Barry's suggestions for that extra two per cent are:

• Serve free warm bread at a meal, or perhaps an unusual alternative, such as potatoes
• Encourage your chef to come out of the kitchen. Your customers will love to meet them
• Arm staff with unusual facts about the products you sell
• Find out whether customers are there for a special occasion. It gives you a chance to sell up to a premium product
• Train staff to use "picture words" when describing something to fix an idea in the customer's mind
• Always look out for opportunities to introduce an element of surprise.

Make most of staff potential​

Barry Wiss will be speaking - and giving visitors a taste of what his Vine to Dine programme is like - at the 2005 Publican HR & Training Conference in London on November 3. For more information go to www.publicanconference.co.uk​. To book a place call Michele Hams on 020 8565 4399 or email zvpuryru@gurchoyvpna.pbz​.

They're all MAD​

Staff from five community pubs are now officially certified MAD after completing a service standards programme designed to "Make A Difference". The scheme, now in its second year, is run by the managed house division of Bedford brewer Charles Wells and goes beyond the usual training given to managers and staff, says HR & recruitment manager Jackie Metcalfe.

"Customer relationships are as important as they have ever been," she says. "MAD is already having an impact in pubs."MAD consists of four four-hour modules covering:

• customer care
• body language and grooming
• complaint handling and telephone techniques
• upselling and working relationships.

After each module staff commit to making one change in their workplace, the effect of which is monitored on a follow-up visit to the pub.

Pictured: Staff from the Eaton Oak, St Neots; the Beehive, Welwyn-Garden City; the Plough, Stoney Stratford; the King William, Kempston and the Bull, Olney, with their MAD certificates.​