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Teaching the staff your product benefits everyone.

You put a good amount of thought into your operation, menu and hiring. These foundational elements are critical, and you know that. But the quality of your food and service are the nuts and bolts of your operation. Without them, your foundation doesn't matter much.

"First of all, (train) the kitchen staff," says Mary Ann Rouse, owner of Bill's Pizza and Pub in Mundelein, Illinois. "The kitchen is the heart of every restaurant business. It is of the utmost importance that the kitchen staff be trained correctly so you have a uniform product. I think it is very important to teach your product to your entire staff."

The kitchen staffers aren't the only ones that need to know the ins and outs of the food, however. Educating servers on your products provides enormous benefits.

"In terms of good customer service, it's number one," says Izzy Kharasch, foodservice consultant and president of Hospitality Works Inc., in Deerfield, Illinois. "It's important to the restaurant in terms of good customer service, by having servers know what is in the product and understand how it's made."

Louis DeAngelo, Jr., owner of DeAngelo's Pizzeria Company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, agrees.

"It has evolved into the largest part of our service staff training," he says. "We provide (servers) with workbooks on product knowledge and specific menu tests. All of our staff has to pass a detailed menu test before being able to service our guests."

Kharasch also uses stringent testing policies when it comes to training servers on the menu.

"We consider it so important, we put all of our servers through at least 40 hours of training," says Kharasch. "They have to know the menu. In order to get tables on the floor, they have to pass a menu test and score 90 or above.

"On the second day of training we start to focus on the menu. Everybody gets a copy of the menu. Everybody gets a copy of what we call `menu descriptions.' We sit down and interview the chef, go through each and every item, and get him to describe it in ways that aren't so recipe oriented, so servers can talk about something other than what it says on the menu."

At Lillian's Pizza in Perdido Key, Florida, all resources are exhausted in the process of product training.

"It is important because they need to know what they are selling to our customers," says owner Lillian Walsh. "Our staff is taught the product by going over the menu first, then being trained by an experienced server or manager, in some cases. The computer system we have is also a great help to learning the product. It is a touch system with pictures of everything we serve. It tells of all ingredients when you are ordering."

Of course, one of the easiest ways to make sure your staff knows the product is to let them have the product.

"We generate enthusiasm by allowing the staff to sample new menu items," says Rouse. "Of course, we feed them every shift also."

Something for Everyone
Once the knowledge has been impressed upon the staff, it will be easy to see the rewards.

"If the staff is happy and knowledgeable, it will increase sales and decrease customer complaints," says Rouse.

And, happy staffers and happy customers can make for higher check averages.

"Knowing the product is the best way to upsell," says Walsh. "We like our staff to pin-point an item, especially our specialty pizzas, and explain exactly what is on it. This gives the customer an idea of what they might want. If they can picture what it looks like, it helps a lot in knowing if that's really what they want, or for that matter, what they like. Customers like it when you give them descriptions of the product they are about to order."

Of course, raising sales for the operation is only half the benefit, according to Kharasch.

"A lot of times, if we are (feeding the servers) before a restaurant opening, we find out that we might have to change an item based on server response," he says. "We put out the free food, and if they don't like the chicken wings, and we have a bunch of chicken wings left, then we look at that and think we've done something wrong. We have to go back and redo this recipe. Because, even the servers who we're giving this to for free don't want to eat it.

"It's not only the knowledge that we give them for the floor. It's actually the knowledge that they bring to us in terms of likes and dislikes. In essence, they are the customer."

On the Flip Side
It is important to remember that thoroughly teaching servers the product will benefit everyone involved. But, in contrast, not teaching the product can have an equally adverse effect.

"It is a tremendous reflection on our company as a whole," says DeAngelo, "in terms of the organizational aspect of how we do things, to the type of people we hire to join our team and preserve our core.

"In today's climate, guests are more educated than ever before in the history and knowledge of food and accepted standards of service. It would be an awful statement of embarrassment if a server was not able to answer a legitimate question about our products or preparation."

Kharasch agrees: "Every time a (server) has to leave the table, it diminishes the service. It diminishes the amount of money they will make. So, if someone asks them two questions that they don't know the answers to, that takes maybe ten minutes out of the service time at the table."

When it is so easy to avoid this problem, why would anyone choose not to?

"Give them that extra service that people might expect at restaurants with much higher check averages," advises Kharasch. "That is an opportunity to get long term customers. It's easy, just by exceeding their expectations."