The RCS Hospitality Group Blog for Private Club Consulting

How to Turn Technology from a Productivity Barrier into a Productivity Booster

In case you missed our BIG announcement this morning, just in time for the holidays, we are giving away an iPad to one RSCU subscriber; either a new subscriber, or a subscriber who renews for the 2020 year by December 15th. How you choose to use this iPad is completely up to you, but one of the reasons we have decided to give away an iPad is because we see technology as an excellent way to boost productivity, and as busy managers we all can use some extra productivity in our

Training your Staff for the Big Game

It’s finally fall, and football season is in full swing. Whether the team you root for plays on Saturday, Sunday, or at the local high school, there is no denying how much hard work the players put in day in and day out to help achieve their goal of victory each week. A very successful college football team’s mantra (and subject of a pretty motivating hype video--if you are into that sort of thing) on their drive to a history-making season was: “They don’t put championship ri

Bored at Work? Shift your Mindset

“Our brains are not wired for routine and repetition at work. Disengagement isn’t a motivation problem; it’s a biological one.” -Daniel M Cable, Author Do you find yourself dreading going to work? Is it because you truly dislike what it is you are doing, or is it because you are simply just bored? Fast Company’s Secrets of the Most Productive People offers a lesson in brain-training when it comes to combatting boredom at work, and shifting your mindset is easier than you may

Turning Setbacks into Comebacks

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. - B. F. Skinner Earlier this week, Inc Magazine posted an article lauding Google’s process of learning from failure; calling it brilliant and we can’t help but agree. Here’s how we think you can make learning from failures apply to hospitality in a club setting: Identify the most important problems Failures or mistakes provide valuable learning

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 2

Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series authored by RCS owner & president Whitney Reid Pennell for 2018, intended to help club managers and hospitality professionals understand the current obstacles in employee retention and training. Part One can be read here. Part One of this series on trends in employee retention and training discussed what obstacles are currently being faced by hospitality professionals and why they have occurred. Let's continue. What is bein

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 1

No Time to Train? Here’s What to Focus On

If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, by now you know how important we at RCS think training is. We believe that training is a process of continuous learning and development—not just a week at orientation, or a day every quarter. However as many of us are also former club managers, we also know that managers these days are often being asked to do more with less, which sometimes may result in less time to dedicate to training your staff. If you ever find yourself short

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Three)

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Two)

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part One)

Provisions: Cultivating Opportunities with a Wine by the Glass Program

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: Are Your Ducks In a Row?

The Practice of Mise en Place “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”, attributed to Benjamin Franklin, is an admonition keenly appropriate to foodservice operations. Lacking preparation in mindset and method in the kitchen and in the dining room can create a chaos that is painful to experience and uncomfortable to witness. The old military training adage--Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance--also has tremendous relevance in food and beverage, and failing t

Engaging with Adult Learners

As a manager, training is an inescapable part of your responsibilities, and unlike teaching wherein your audience is usually children chances are you will be working with adult learners. Engaging with adult learners has its own unique set of challenges. When you train adults, there is a greater need for mutual respect and for the learners to find the trainer credible with enough character authority to teach them something new. Once the trainer has established their skills an

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

10 Training Tips To Deliver the Results You Want

This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2015 as "What is The Point...of Training?" What is the point of training? Does everyone on your team really understand the point of training and how best to make your training effective? We train for a variety of reasons, but they are all centered on producing change and to keep our service culture strong. We train to affect change in skills (how to do something), knowledge (critical thinking or decision making) or att

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

The Real Competitive Advantage: Delivering Experiences

In a competitive marketplace, private clubs that do not have a unique value proposition find themselves trying to compete on price, resulting in cost cutting measures. This practice affects product and service quality and the club’s brand perception, unless the club’s business model is designed to be price differentiated. Yes, value is important, but it doesn’t make up for the experiences at a club. It is the combination of goods, services, products, amenities, and the experi

Whitney Reid Pennell

Founder & President

Whitney Reid Pennell is the founder and president of the award-winning RCS Hospitality Group. She is a published author and widely praised seminar leader, with over 20 years of club operations management and consulting experience.

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RCS Hospitality Group : preparing you for the next generation

How to Turn Technology from a Productivity Barrier into a Productivity Booster

Training your Staff for the Big Game

Bored at Work? Shift your Mindset

Turning Setbacks into Comebacks

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 2

Employee Training & Retention Trend Report: Part 1

No Time to Train? Here’s What to Focus On

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Three)

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part Two)

Ready When You Are: The Power of Online Training (Part One)

Provisions: Cultivating Opportunities with a Wine by the Glass Program

Provisions: How to Handle Special Orders

Five Steps to Reaping Rewards of a Strong Service Culture

Provisions: Are Your Ducks In a Row?

Engaging with Adult Learners

Provisions: Let's Talk About The Importance of Pre-Shift Meetings

10 Training Tips To Deliver the Results You Want

Cultivating Your Service Culture

The Real Competitive Advantage: Delivering Experiences

Whitney Reid Pennell

Founder & President

Hospitality Training Online

AFFORDABLE.

CONVENIENT.

INTERACTIVE.

CONSISTENT.

"In this age of virtual worlds, RCSU is ahead of the game."

Michael Fay, CCM, CCE

FREE MONTHLY WEBINARS

quick

informative

valuable

no strings attached

no product pushing

“The RCSU webinars are exceptional sources for actionable and helpful information! I refer to them as “power hours” because they are jam-packed with great content and full of energy and passion for the industry."

Jackie Carpenter, CCM

Private Club Advisor

Whitney Reid Pennell

Founder & President

​

​

​

Hospitality Training Online

​

AFFORDABLE.

CONVENIENT.

INTERACTIVE.

CONSISTENT.

​

​

"In this age of virtual worlds, RCSU is ahead of the game."

Michael Fay, CCM, CCE

FREE MONTHLY WEBINARS

​

​

quick

informative

valuable

no strings attached

no product pushing

​

​

“The RCSU webinars are exceptional sources for actionable and helpful information! I refer to them as “power hours” because they are jam-packed with great content and full of energy and passion for the industry."

Jackie Carpenter, CCM

Private Club Advisor