First thing first, what is front of house staff? It’s a few people from your team who will face the customer first hand – host/hostess, floor manager, bartender and servers. All those reviews about your restaurant is mostly based on the customer’s experience via your front of house staff. Many a time, the absence of someone at the door to welcome a customer can be off-putting. If the seating host or hostess aren’t on top of the game, it may lead to the beginning of an unpleasant experience. All things said and done, a good team at the front of house will ensure a customer has a great dining experience.

This team is the face of your restaurant and that’s also why you’ll need to hire a good set of people to do the job. A server who isn’t entirely sure about what’s on the menu or what isn’t available, a bartender doing a shoddy job of mixing a cocktail, a manager who isn’t solution-driven and such similar problems lead to disastrous service time. To add insult to injury, even bad reviews. You don’t want any of that and that’s why it’s important to have a good front of house team.

Host/hostess

At most establishments, you will find someone at the reception area to help you get a table or take a reservation. They are also responsible for all the reservations done for the day and the upcoming days. The host can set the tone for a customer’s dining experience and you want it to begin on a positive note. What you need in a host is for someone who is friendly, efficient, a multi-tasker and able to handle crowds if needed. While hiring them, put them various hypothetical situations that checks all the skills mentioned. A more realistic approach should get them the job.

Bartender

Bartenders are underrated in our country. Their job is to not just to mix drinks. They can be entertainers and keep a crowd engaged. When the dining room is full and no tables are free, people head to the bar. And how amazing when the bartender makes their evening memorable with the show he can put on. There are many popular mixologists today like Guru Prashant from High Ultra Lounge (Bangalore) and Vijay Singh Rawat from The White Owl (Mumbai) who not only mix drinks but have grown in their careers to be successful. What you want in your bartender is the skills of making the perfect classic cocktails, innovative drinks, a little flare, being able to engage with a patron while keeping a key eye on everything that’s going on at the bar.

Server

Unless yours is a self-service kind of an establishment, servers are essential to good customer experience. Their contact with the customer is the most and the customer also relies on them with regard to pretty much all there is during their dining time. You want your servers to be courteous, attentive, not pushy, with good communication skills and of course, patience. Despite the footfall, servers have offer great service to customers and that comes with consistency. This can be achieved with training from time to time and giving them the confidence handle customers of any kind to help them do their job better.

More than anyone else in the front of house, the host, bartender and the server are the three most important positions you need to fill wisely. Invest in them and you’ll see returns in the form of happy customers.