H & C News’ recent interview with Janine Swales, GM for BaxterStorey out at Tottenham FC’s world class training facility in Enfield, provoked us to take a closer look at the Front of House Training provided by BaxterStorey. Their Chef Academy is rightly well known and praised: so what about FoH?
The Art of Service Programme
It turns out that BaxterStorey is putting considerable resource and effort into this area of its many operations. Recognising ‘the power of good service’, it’s set up its own Art of Service Programme, with a particular focus on getting Service right – from the start.
Not only that, but to bring front of house to front of mind, BaxterStorey has teamed up with Fred Sirieix, general manager at Galvin at Windows on London’s Park Lane and star of Michel Roux’s Service TV show. If you’ve seen Fred Sirieix in action, you’ll know why he’s involved: he not only brings passion and commitment to the cause of service, he knows exactly what is needed in terms of training and continuous application.
As a result, BaxterStorey is coaching its front of house teams in the very best service for customers, with the intention of bringing Michelin-star quality to dining and hospitality.
Training begins with Induction
It’s never too early to introduce good practices and strive for ‘extraordinary’ standards, so to help reach those standards, BaxterStorey has created “Service with Style” – its own, bespoke customer service training programme that every team member and all teams should complete.
The local manager or trainer’s role in this is crucial to the success of team members: it’s to facilitate this training and to pass on the positive messages to all their team members, both front and back of house.
“Service with Style” is based on individual workbooks, covering different aspects of customer service. After leading a short introduction session, the manager/trainer issues these workbooks to each team member. There are currently four workbook topics:
- Attitude
- Appearance
- Communication
- Ownership
Service with Style
Delivering the Service with Style training
The Service with Style training workbooks are issued to every team member at site, and there is a trainer’s guide to assist the delivery of training at site level which includes full instruction on delivery of the training.
The Site Manager delivers Service with Style training over a 4 month period, engaging their team with Service with Style at every opportunity during pre-service briefings, post-service briefings, and meetings.
As a minimum, it is recommended that training is given in one topic per month, completing over a four month period. The trainer’s guide supports the delivery of the four topics, which are followed with teams once they have completed their own workbooks.
Post-induction
As you’d expect, Induction is only the start, and BaxterStorey utilises the skills of both trainers and managers to develop and use customer service training modules for specific purposes and on specific sites, based on trainers researching both sites and customers to identify what is needed. Role play is one of the techniques extensively used to considerable effect.
Fred Sirieix
Over 25 trainers have now been developed within BaxterStorey by Fred Sirieix: these are managers who have proven their aptitude and commitment to training team members, and often also have mentoring skills that can be applied at any site and as necessary.
Fred Sirieix’s Art of Service board game is also used within BaxterStorey to intrigue, involve and challenge team members into adopting the best practices: there are over 35 of them in current use with teams.
In summary
In recent times, it’s Chefs who have been in the media spotlight, whilst the Front of House team who deliver a great and crucial part of the ‘guest experience’ has slipped into the background.
However, it’s clear that BaxterStorey recognises the importance of ALL members of its teams, and seeks excellence in all aspects of their performance.
The activities outlined above demonstrate that a great deal of time and resource is being invested to ensure that customer service is of the highest standard across all sites – it would be good to see such training and standards applied in foodservice operations everywhere.
For more information click here
For the H&C News interview with Janine Swales of BaxterStorey click here