How to Take & Work Orders Efficiently. In Your Restaurant, Bar Spain.
One of the secrets of running a successful Bar, Restaurant on the Costa del Sol is:
Train your staff to operate to a system.
Especially when it comes to taking down customers orders!
There is nothing worse for slowing down the flow rate from the customers table through the kitchen and finally back to the table, than a set of staff who have no common system for working/processing orders.
I worked for Ford Motor C0. when I was young. I was one of 14,000 staff. when I first arrived I couldn’t understand how the output of 14,000 office staff could be co-ordinated. Here’s how it’s achieved in a nut shell:
They have a massive office solely dedicated to writing systems/procedures. These people who ensure that 14,000 staff can operate together in a highly efficient way are called “Systems Analysts”.
To run a bar/restaurant successfully which employs staff, you must become your own Systems Analysts.
Here’s how we take and process orders to a strict system:
Any item on our menu is described in detail, so all staff must be taught the same system of short hand and must use it at all times when taking down orders
The short hand must be simple. The simpler the better!
e.g. Our short hand looks like this:
Cheeseburger with onions, chips and a side salad and a gin & tonic for table 4, would be written as follows:
4.
1* ch/b+ons+chips
1*sal green.
Everybody who works in my pizzeria uses this system.
The advantages are:
- Can be written quickly
- Can be read quickly. This is very important for the chef as he may have as many as 30 orders hanging on pins in front of him, at any one time. He can read them quickly and hold them in his memory easier.
- Don’t have to decipher several different ways that staff choose of writing down the same thing.
- No mistakes in what arrives at the customer’s table.
- Speeeds up the work flow
Teach me How to Choose Staff Bar/Restaurant Spain
Having good staff in your bar/restaurant in Spain will bring in extra trade
and lead to increased profits, so it’s very important to learn the correct criteria when choosing staff.
Bear in mind that most clients will like or dislike a waiter/waitress based on the first impression
that the member of staff gives them. If they like your staff, they will return to eat and drink in your bar restaurant regularly and if they don’t like your staff, you will probably lose their custom.
When you interview a person to be a waiter in your bar/restaurant, I would recommend that you take a minute at the beginning of the interview to sense the first impression that they give to you, because if you are put-off them in any way, your clients will react in the same way.
Here are some negative points that I personally would use to move an applicant down my short list as an employee.
- Slouching or lazy posture
- Scruffy appearance
- Heavy smoker or drinker
- Unduly shy
- Mumbles when speaking
- Not much personality
- Only speaks his/her mother tongue and is unwilling to study a second language
I have listed some of the criteria that would render an applicant unsuitable for bar/restaurant work. There are other criteria, but basically, if you don’t take a liking to the applicant after 5 min the rule of thumb is simply;
keep looking
Positive criteria, in no particular order. I look for all these qualities in each of my staff members;
- Trustworthy (Ask for references)
- Shows alertness
- Basically attractive Physically
- Basically attractive personality
- Smart appearance
- Good upright posture
- Clearly has the ability to converse freely (articulate and not shy)
- Speaks a second language at least basically and is prepared to study that language
- Punctual
- Not adverse to working extra hours
- Shows some ambition to learn new skills, like pizza making etc
The right person for you bar/restaurant, who is going to help grow your business will have all the above qualities and that person potentially you will be able to train up with new skills and develop into a valuable long term employee.
