If you're a new restaurant manager and you're
struggling with table visits, like what to say,
it's awkward, how to handle this properly,
or if you're a seasoned
restaurant manager or owner and you're just not doing this enough.
It's so important that you do this.
Stick around, I'm going to share one of my biggest tips for you
on how to properly visit with a table.
Hey, everybody. Ryan Gromfin here – author, speaker,
chef, restaurateur, and the founder
of the Restaurantboss.com and Clickbacon.com.
What an honor to be here with you today. I appreciate your time.
I want to talk about table visits
or table touches as people call them.
Now, this is going to be kind of a casual video because
there is no right way or wrong way to do this,
but there are some tips that I have to make this easier for you.
There's really two types of table visits or table touches.
The first one is way more casual and that's one that comes from your server.
30 seconds to a minute after they drop off the food,
that's more of a check-in
is everything okay? Is everything cooked properly?
Do you need anything?
Did I forget to bring the ranch dressing that you asked me for three times?
Write it down servers.
Those are huge when it comes to people tipping you.
If I told you, I want ranch and you bring me my burger without ranch,
I'm angry now.
So write that stuff down and make sure it happens, but anyway,
this is a casual conversation.
Now, the common question is, is everything okay?
How is everything? And to that question,
what response do we usually get?
Fine, okay, great; right?
Hey, folks, how is everything? Fine.
That doesn't help us. Now,
the question that I want to ask is,
is everything exceeding your expectations?
Or did that steak exceed your expectations?
Or is that steak exceeding your expectations?
That's a much harder question to ask,
and if your servers are capable of that and you can train them on it,
you can get them comfortable with it,
it's a great question because you're not going to get answers like
fine or okay or great.
If I say, is that steak exceeding your expectations?
You're going to hear, well, it's a little salty,
or it was a pinch overcooked,
or I was expecting it to come with a sauce.
What a great opportunity to say, oh, I'm so sorry,
we'd be happy to bring you something, what would you like?
Would you like some steak sauce? Would you like some hot sauce?
Would you like some of our Demi gloss or you know whatever?
If it's a burger – oh, I was expecting, you know this,
or I was expecting that. I don't know what the answer is going to be,
but the answers are going to be great.
The problem is, most servers have a hard time with this.
So this is where the manager touch comes in.
Now, if you're kind of a family casual restaurant,
the manager touch isn't as important, but I still love it,
but if you're anything more than like casual family dining,
if you're at all like medium level or fine dining,
we absolutely need a manner to touch on every table.
So, the first thing I want to do is,
I want to teach you this more empowering question.
Managers, you have no excuse, you should never be asking how is everything.
You should never just be walking up to a table and just being like –
hi, folks! How is everything? That's lame.
You should always be introducing yourself
and then asking if everything's exceeding their expectations
or if that particular dish is exceeding their expectations.
That is going to give you way better feedback.
Now here's the thing - whatever they're about to say to you,
feels like it could be damaging, like oh my god!
If I ask that question, they're going to tell me all these things we did wrong.
Those are gifts, that's fantastic.
Welcome that into your life.
What a gift that they're giving you the opportunity to fix something
before they tell their friends about it and never come back.
It is a gift. If they tell you,
they were expecting this and not that
and you hear that a few times,
what an amazing opportunity to improve your menu.
To give guests what they want,
or to fix it right then and there.
If they say, they were expecting it to come with a sauce,
go get them a sauce.
If they say that they were expecting it to be cooked a little more,
go get it cooked a little more. If they were expecting it to have
a bigger side of French Fries,
go get them a few extra French Fries, whatever it is,
but exceed their expectations.
And the only way to exceed their expectations and know
what their expectations are.
Another tool I want to give you as a tool called LAST.
L.A.S.T - write that down. LAST stands for listen,
apologize, satisfy, and think.
So, the first thing is, we got to listen actively,
introduce yourself and then listen,
right? Apologize. Let them know how sorry you are
about what happened if there was a problem, of course,
that it didn't exceed their expectations.
I'm really sorry about that,
that's something maybe we need to look into changing on the menu,
or we need to work on training with our
service to make sure that you know that ahead of time.
I'm definitely going to make a note of that.
You know satisfy, give them whatever they need and then thank them,
genuinely thank them.
If I handed you a gift today, if I handed you a new iPad or a laptop
or a new car,
you'd be like thank you so much, that's awesome.
These people are giving you gifts,
they're telling you how to improve,
how to attract more customers,
how to satisfy more customers.
Genuinely thank them for that gift.
You know, I just want you to think of this as
if someone were in your house.
If a friend were in your house,
you would introduce yourself to this new friend. You would say, hi.
You would welcome them.
You would thank them for coming over.
You would be a little more personable with them.
And I think sometimes like
we get into the restaurants and we forget that these people are your guests.
So when you're touching their table, it's not this formal process of, oh!
I haven't touched this table, I got to touch the table.
It's a check-in,
are they happy?Are they comfortable? Can you get them anything,
right? If they were guests in your home –
hey, guys, you're doing alright? Do you need anything?
Is this TV show okay? Do you want to watch something different?
What do you guys want to do today? Are you hungry?
Right? It's that same thing. Just kind of chill out a little bit.
Ask a better question.
Be prepared with what to do if they give you an answer that you weren't expecting,
but more than anything,
just treat them as if they were guests in your home because that's
what they are.
Anyways, I hope this was helpful for you today.
I'm honored that you're here spending time with me.
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sorry about that.
Have a wonderful day! And I'm looking forward to seeing you guys next week.
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