Restaurant service is everything your staff does to enhance the overall guests' experience. 

From answering the phone and accepting the reservation, greeting the guests at the door, and seating them, through suggestive selling and actual service of the meals, to the bringing of the bill, taking the payment and sending the guests home with a kind word and a "Thank you"!

Everything we do in the restaurant for our guests is Restaurant Service!

High-quality restaurant service is essential to the success of the restaurant! We rely on regular guests as much as any other business in the world to be profitable! 

A study shows that a happy guest will return to your restaurant, spend more money, and remain a regular for four to five years! 

A highly satisfied guest will return to your restaurant more often, will spend even more money, and will remain a regular for approximately eight years! 

So match a delicious meal with excellent restaurant service, and you have a winner. Almost! 

There is a third factor that makes or breaks your business, and that is pricing! Even the best restaurant service with the most delicious meal will not compensate for the overpriced menu! Know your guests well, do the research, and price your experience fairly.

Factors that affect the quality of the restaurant service:

1. Well trained staff - to provide your guests with an amazing experience, you need to train your staff not only to know and follow the proper service procedures but to work as a team with finesse and efficiency.
2. Motivation - even the best-trained waiter with a great deal of knowledge and experience will not provide the guests with an excellent restaurant service if he has no motivation. Demotivated staff is the primary reason your guests are not receiving the service they deserve!
3. Control and punishment - the truth is that without control and punishment even the best motivated and honest people swerve from the right path once in a while. So, after you have trained your staff and after you have motivated them to do the best job they possibly could, you have to make sure they follow the rules and if they don't - there should be consequences!

Ten Steps of Restaurant Service that will make you successful:

• Answering the phone - the best-case scenario is to have the call answered within three rings with a standardized greeting. The host should be friendly but professional and to follow the LQA standard of booking a reservation.
• Greeting the guests and seating them - establish eye contact from a distance, smile, and take a step ahead to greet the guests. If no one is at the door when the guests arrive, someone has to welcome them within 30 seconds of their arrival and apologize for the delay.
• A waiter has to greet the guests within two minutes after they have been seated, present the menus, the daily specials, and take a drink order.
• Drinks and wine (if ordered) should be served before the food arrives on the table.
• After he serves the food, the waiter has to make two minutes-two bites check and make sure everything is up to the guests' expectations.
• The waiter should be friendly but professional in his communication with the guests, maintain eye contact with them at all times, and anticipate the guest's needs. The best way to show your guests you care is to anticipate their needs and take action before the guests have made their request.
• The waiter should maintain the table clean during the meal and refill the drinks promptly.
• The waiter should present the bill to the guests with a sincere "Thank you" and finish the payment as quickly as possible.
• Every member of the team should greet and thank a guest who happens to pass by on his way to the door.
• It is crucial to thank the guests, inquire if they are satisfied with the service, and invite them back before they leave the restaurant.

Final Take

Those are the ten steps your staff should follow, no matter if you are running a fast-food restaurant, a cafe, or a Michelin star restaurant. If you are running a fine dining restaurant or an up-scale restaurant and you would like to provide your guests with the best restaurant service ever, you should train your employees by the LQA Standard.

The leading quality assurance standard is the highest level of restaurant service.

The Hospitality Industry is going through a tough period at the moment. In times like these, you lean on your regular and loyal guests for survival. You won't have those kinds of guests if you have not practiced a great restaurant service for years. 

You won't have those guests without your well-trained and highly-motivated waiters too. 

A lot of hotel jobs and restaurant jobs were lost because of the Pandemic.

With the restart of the economy, millions of Hospitality jobs will be available. Having happy and loyal employees will help you get back to business faster than your competition. That will be a huge advantage!

The restaurant business is tough, and only the best survive! It all starts with providing an excellent restaurant service to your guests!