Provisions: Save the Date
September 25th is National Foodservice Workers Day! Hooray for us! It’s the day to tip our hats, and maybe add a little extra tip, to all the servers, cooks, dishwashers, stewards, hosts, bartenders, baristas, chefs, bakers, lunch ladies, hash-slingers, food runners, sommeliers, maître d’s and the managers who herd all these cats in the uniquely special environment of the food world. Food workers serve customers in fine dining restaurants, private clubs, fast food establishm
Omotenashi: The Spirit of Japanese Hospitality
O-mo-te-na-shi. Some words in foreign languages don't have a simple translation into English, and omotenashi is one of them. The most widely accepted definition is "Japanese hospitality" or "Japanese service". The term gained widespread attention during the bid process to the International Olympic Committee in 2013, and is becoming even more frequently heard in advance of the 2020 Olympics--to be held in Tokyo. The Michelin guide defines omotenashi as: '“Omote” means public f
Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Three)
using online instruction allows learning to more easily become a continuous process and not just a sporadic special event. And because onlin
Provisions: Cultivating Opportunities with a Wine by the Glass Program
Wine by the glass offerings can be a strong contributor to a private club’s food and beverage program, creating a fun social environment for
A Service “Blueprint” Helps Build a Great Member Experience
Here’s a familiar sight at every golf club: Long-time members arrive, eager for a relaxing day on the course. Their tee time comes up, and after stopping in the golf shop for their cart reservation, they go out to the first tee to begin their round. They’re cheerfully greeted (by name!) by the staff, led to their cart, which is clean and charged and ready to go, and a great day of golfing begins. It’s precisely this seamless scenario that led them to join this club in the fir
Provisions: How to Handle Special Orders
A well-known bit of fact in Club food and beverage service is that special order requests occur every day, multiple times a day. Special requests often create friction and stress between service staff and back of house, and can bring unintentional discomfort to members and guests who may feel that their request is seen as an inconvenience. Since special requests occur with such frequency, preparing for the inevitable would be a good course in managing them. Chefs never want t
Five Steps to Reaping Rewards of a Strong Service Culture
“If you don’t get culture right, nothing else matters.” John Taft, CEO, RBC Wealth Management The word “culture” has many meanings. For most people, it refers to a community’s shared tastes and values, including things like social norms, music choices, food and fashion preferences, sports loyalties, religious beliefs, and many other mores and customs. Sometimes communities with a shared culture are specific to one particular location; sometimes they exist in many places at on
Provisions: Let's Talk About The Importance of Pre-Shift Meetings
We often find ourselves talking a lot about timing when it comes to food and beverage service. Each player on the team from the host/hostess to the servers, cooks, and managers are responsible for keeping the dining room flowing and managing the timing of the table. However, the most important time in any food and beverage operation is the 15 minutes before each shift begins: the pre-shift meeting. Photo by Paul Sarlas Call it the warm-up, sound-check, or preflight run-throug
Cultivating Your Service Culture
This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2014. Customer service means different things to everyone. Wikipedia defines customer service as “The provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.” Businessdictionary.com defines it as “All interactions between a customer and a product provider at the time of sale, and thereafter.” But what does this mean in the club business? My general rule of thumb is to first realize that very often our cu
5 Qualities to Look For in Your Next Hire
Updated: 10/02/2018 People matter. At RCS, we believe they are your biggest asset. No one knows this more intimately than managers in the hospitality industry. Everything we do is about people: people providing an experience to other people. People serving people. Our industry wouldn’t exist without our members to sustain it, and that’s usually what most club management revolves around—how to attract, retain, and delight your members. What we're talking about today is the oth
