You surely already know that impeccable service is essential to win over customers. After all, customers don't come back when the service at a bar or restaurant is bad.
That's why you need to know how to create a customer service manual – and we're here to help you with that mission!
Learn more: 11 tips to achieve service excellence
What it takes to provide good customer service
But what does good service actually mean, and how do you serve customers well? Generally speaking, it comes down to a few key points and considerations:
- Making the restaurant/bar environment inviting and comfortable;
- Paying attention to the temperature of the space (not too cold, not too hot);
- Personalizing and clearly signposting every area of the venue, such as the bar, checkout, tables, restrooms and so on;
- Having a well-prepared team, large enough to handle demand, and adjusting headcount as needed.
With these in place, you already have a great first step toward delighting your customers and making sure they keep coming back. But of course, you can go further and deliver even more to your audience. Check it out below!
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self-service systems
For example, one trend that keeps gaining ground is self-service systems, whether with kiosks or through customers' smartphones.
The reason is simple: customers gain autonomy and speed when ordering, and the venue can optimize its service team and cut costs in that area.
Menu
Another point that can go unnoticed but helps service a lot is having an optimized menu.
A good menu helps avoid confusing orders and makes it easier for customers to quickly find what they want.
It also lets you highlight the most profitable items for your restaurant or bar. To learn how to build a good menu, see our post on engenharia de cardápio.
feedback
Finally, learn to listen to – and act on – customer feedback.
Whether through forms and emails or even the classic suggestion box, what matters is creating ways for your customers to tell you what's great and what's missing at your venue.
Learn more: How EPOC helps optimize service at your restaurant
The importance of a customer service manual
As you can see, the motto “serve well to serve always” isn't a cliché for nothing. Good service is essential to the success of your restaurant/bar. And knowing how to create a service manual makes sure you won't let that slide.
See below the main benefits of having this kind of strategy, which can start with something as simple as a Customer service flowchart.
Optimize the operation
Without a doubt, the main and broadest benefit of a service manual is ensuring an efficient, satisfying operation.
A manual answers questions, clarifies processes and shows what needs to be done. Assim, toda a equipe sabe como treinar bem para deixar seus clientes felizes.
Avoid waste
An optimized operation also cuts costs, since it avoids waste and mistakes when recording and preparing orders.
That happens because the process of sending and preparing orders becomes better tuned, preventing them from being mixed up, lost or made incorrectly.
Increase sales
And of course, one consequence of all this operational efficiency is that your restaurant or bar becomes more profitable.
After all, when service runs smoothly, customers spend more and come back more often – and they also recommend the venue to family and friends.
Win your customers' hearts
With all of this working out and your service impeccable, there's only one result: success.
More than that, your venue becomes a benchmark in the industry and builds an identity of its own. Você fica conhecido como o local em que todo cliente é VIP. Não é um trabalho fácil e requer muito esforço – mas o resultado vale a pena.
Tips on how to create a customer service manual
But in practice, how do you create a customer service manual that is efficient, complete and, above all, genuinely useful?
The bad news is that there's no one-size-fits-all recipe; each manual will reflect the particularities of each venue.
And the good news is that there are indeed some tips and guidelines that help you build the manual and give you a solid base to work from and keep improving. Check out the main ones below!
The manual needs to be accessible
There's no point in having a beautiful, complete, rich document if you never know where it is – or how to view it. So, first of all, figure out which type of documentation will be the easiest for your staff to use day to day and, on top of that, the easiest to update in the future.
You can have, for instance, a text document, a spreadsheet, a presentation or even a video or a series of explainer videos. What matters is watching two things: the content needs to be useful and it needs to be easy to consume.
For that last point, it's essential to listen to your team when making the decision and, if possible, to offer more than one format.
Document the soft skills required
Great, now you know what format your customer service manual will take. Next, you just have to “start”, right? That first step is usually very hard – few things are as intimidating as a blank page.
But rest easy – a perfect start is to list those behavioral skills that everyone on the team needs to have.
Known as soft skills, these abilities will guide customer service, the relationships among team members and the team's culture in the operation.
For restaurants and bars, there are a few soft skills that are nearly universal and therefore belong in your manual. They are:
- Cordiality;
- Clear, empathetic communication;
- Patience and tolerance;
- Proactivity;
- Attentiveness and care.
Document the hard skills required
Next it's time to document the specifics of your restaurant or bar.
The reasoning is simple: once your staff know the behaviors they should cultivate, they need to know the technical skills and activities that will be part of the venue's day-to-day operation. These are the so-called hard skills.
In other words, in this part of the manual you need to break down the details of every area of your business and, on top of that, the various activities and processes in the main routines of those areas.
You've probably already pictured how much work this part will take – but trust the process, because in the end it will be worth it.
Among the hard skills most common in a restaurant or bar are:
- Knowing the menu items;
- Mastering the service tools, such as the POS, tabs, card terminals and other software and hardware;
- Understanding internal management processes, such as cash register closeout, cleaning the space, restocking inventory, among others.
This is the part where you need to dig deep into the reality of your venue and document everything that will make a positive difference in the day-to-day operation and that your staff need to know.
Put the manual into practice with training
Finally, a tip that may seem obvious but is often overlooked: use your service manual! Imagine going to all that work to build the manual only to leave it sitting in a drawer.
Besides wasting time, energy and money, that has another negative effect: you'll miss out on efficiency and profitability.
After all, the manual exists precisely to help your whole team produce more in less time, cut waste and serve better – and therefore sell more.
So, organize training sessions on a regular basis to spread everything that's in the manual and make sure everyone masters its content.
This training can even take place whenever a new employee joins your team, so everyone is on the same page.
Also, update the manual regularly. Sempre que você adicionar uma nova solução, uma ferramenta ou mesmo um processo à sua operação, inclua essa novidade no manual. Ele é um organismo vivo que está sempre mudando e se renovando.
And to learn how to run this training in practice with foolproof tips, it's very easy: just download our complete customer service training guide FREE!
