3 essential skills that make your front of house staff the best around

Working in a pub is about more than just serving people food and drinks; it’s about providing an inviting and inclusive experience and making your customers feel like they’re in a home away from home.

But how do you achieve this?

By having a great front of house team!

It is essential to hire excellent people from the beginning and to provide comprehensive induction training that gives employees the essential skills they need to become the best at what they do. Preferably, you’ll be able to do both.

There are 3 key areas in which your team should be skilled:

1. Customer service
2. Premises maintenance and hygiene
3. Applying the Alcohol Licensing Law

The front of house team are the first people customers see and interact with when they come to your pub. They leave a lasting impression on guests. And that impression could be positive, negative, or simply uninspiring, depending on whether they possess these skills. And this will influence whether or not the customer comes back again.

Customer Service

The difference between a pub that gets an average number of customers and does ok, to that of a pub that is thriving with regulars every week and returning a good profit is directly attributable to the customer service skills of the team.

Examples of customer service skills that make your team stand out include:

• Excellent communication skills. Being well-spoken and confident gives an air of professionalism to customers; they’ll trust and feel friendly towards you, which enhances their enjoyment and patronage. Plus, good communication enables the team to coordinate and run the business smoothly.
• Knowledge of the menu and recommendations. Customers lose confidence in a business when a team member lacks knowledge of what they sell and of what’s popular. It suggests that they don’t care, which in turn gives the impression that food and drink is prepared poorly and that customers are a burden. Customers won’t have a good time, and they won’t come back.
• Ability to work under pressure. On busy nights or when customers create conflict, your team need to know how to respond suitably and professionally. They are the face of the business, so if they don’t keep their cool during a rush of orders or a customer complaint, the business’ reputation may be damaged.
• Go above and beyond. The phrase ‘the customer is always right’ doesn’t mean they have all the answers; it means that their wants and needs come first. They are spending money at your pub, so they should feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. You must go the extra mile: answer all their questions, resolve issues swiftly, and offer a gesture of apology, e.g. a few free drinks. The value of making them happy and wanting to return is far greater than a couple of lost drinks.

Premises Maintenance and Hygiene

Ongoing maintenance and good hygiene practices ensure that your pub continually remains an inviting, safe place to eat and drink.

Some of the ways to uphold maintenance and hygiene include:

• Ensuring equipment is cleaned properly. Your team should be trained in proper cleaning procedures and maintenance of equipment. Without proper care, equipment degenerates quicker than it should. Any loss in functionality slows down service and poses a contamination risk.
• Taking faulty equipment out of service and reporting faults. The health and safety of staff and customers is at risk when equipment breaks down. The team should know to immediately stop using equipment that seems faulty and report it to a senior member of the team, who can arrange for its repair or replacement.
• Control cross contamination risks. The type of training food handlers need depends on their involvement in food preparation, but whatever the case is they need to understand how to control the four contamination hazards: microbiological, allergenic, physical, and chemical.

Applying the Alcohol Licensing Law

As a publican, your ultimate aim is to provide people with an enjoyable time spent in your pub. But there are laws on alcohol for a reason; to keep people safe. So, this must always be your priority. Team members who are knowledgeable about mandatory legal duties are invaluable for the ongoing compliance and success of the business.

Under the Licensing Act 2003:

• Your team must have permission to sell alcohol. They need to hold a premises licence or obtain permission in writing from the premises’ licence holder to serve alcohol in their absence.
• They must not irresponsibly promote alcohol. For example, if you offer two free shots with every cocktail, this encourages excessive drinking and goes against the Licensing Act.
• Each team member must be able to carry out age verification. They must request identification if they suspect a customer is under 18 and must know how to spot a fake ID. A valid passport, photo driving licence, or a PASS card are acceptable forms of ID – student cards and birth certificates are not.
• Everyone must receive suitable and sufficient training. Your team must be kept up-to-date on licensing requirements (by taking Licensing Law Awareness training), alcohol limits and restrictions, and health and safety procedures. 

The Greene King L&D team are there to support you with this; they can come into your pub and re-emphasis the importance of applying the law, and this would then form part of your staff training record.

Overall, front of house staff should deliver a positive experience to customers; encouraging them to return and put in a good word for your business, either to friends or via a review such as on TripAdvisor.

And don’t forget: word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertisement, and your team will directly influence the words that define your pub!