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Innovate or Die. It's not just a bumper sticker for big business. Restaurants across the country are fighting to stay relevant and profitable by any means necessary. After spending thousands in consultants' fees, countless failed concepts, themes, gimmicks, and promotions, many in the restaurant industry are discovering what the corporate world has known: innovation, to be effective, must start from deep within.
Innovating from the Inside Out
Increased employee engagement, improved continuity, and accelerated learning are just a few of the advantages of modern learning. But these aren't the only reasons the restaurant industry is abandoning traditional training for tech-forward e-learning. Customer service best practices and food safety regulations are always changing. This means that training is an ongoing process, affecting every member of your team. Through e-learning, restaurants are able to provide training materials in a highly-engaging and interactive format which is easily accessible across multiple devices. And unlike traditional training methods, certain modern learning technologies have the ability to strengthen your brand, and drive innovation.
Continuity + Training = Consistency
Today's mobile workforce learning platforms not only ease the workload of HR, IT, and management, they also improve the continuity of training which is especially important for restaurants with multiple locations. Whether in the front of the house or the back, inconsistency is a recipe for disaster. Restaurants become community favorites when they offer a reliable and quality experience. When the food, service, or even the atmosphere vary from week-to-week or day-to-day, you can bet there is a lack of continuity in training. Modern learning offers the ability to train each team member according to the same goals, policies, procedures, and performance expectations which is needed to ensure consistent quality.
Reinforce Your Brand Message
Your brand is everything. It reflects your company's style, personality, value proposition, and message. When done well, a brand can evoke powerful emotions and sentiment. But even the most iconic brands fail when employee's values do not align with company's values.
Branding statistics to remember:
• 94% of consumers are loyal to brands that value transparency
• 65% of people feel emotionally connected to a brand
Did you know that core brand values can be reinforced through training? Not to be confused with "branded training," where the learning materials are simply adorned with your company's logo, brand-led training allows your company's values to influence every aspect of learning: from design aesthetics, and tone of voice, to the assessment styles.
Further, take the opportunity to introduce the brand message through colorful anecdotes, stories, and real-life scenarios. Create learning materials that carry your on-brand voice, jargon, as well as any visual cues you wish to associate with your restaurant's brand.
Enable a Culture of Learning
Distinct from your brand is your company's culture. While "brand" is how your customers see you, culture is how your employees see you. A company with a healthy culture understands that by showing their employees how much they're valued, they'll in turn influence how employees value one another. Having a positive company culture is associated with employee satisfaction and lower turnover. By leveraging modern learning experiences and technology, restaurant owners can create a culture of learning wherein team members understand the importance of training and feel empowered to acquire new skills and develop new competencies.
Career Development Increases Happiness and Decreases Turnover
Restaurants are known to have a high turnover rate. Some employees leave for a few months and later return, some move from one location to another, others leave the company altogether. Restaurant turnover is due to what the National Restaurant Association says is a "natural churn in the workforce." There are things that can be done to decrease the churn, however.
One study found a correlation between employees feeling empowered to pursue professional growth opportunities and their overall at-work happiness. The more opportunities for career advancement there are, the happier your employers are likely to be —the more loyal they are; the longer they will stay.
By investing in modern learning geared toward employee development you are going to eliminate boredom, stagnation, and complacency. Make sure to provide your staff clear opportunities to advance their careers within the restaurant. One way to do this is through employee cross-training.
Make Customer Service Everyone's Job
If a patron has a negative experience, you can expect that bad reviews will follow. A positive experience, however, may increase their loyalty and garner heartfelt recommendations. This is why it's crucial that every team member, no matter their job, understands the principles of good customer service.
According to a BrightLocal report:
• 97% of patrons look for local reviews
• 85% trust reviews equal to a personal recommendation
• 73% of consumers trust a local business more if it has mostly positive reviews
• 49% consumers require a four-star rating before they'll try out a new restaurant or business
Customer service can be stressful though. There are new statistics every year that prove how damaging excess stress is, causing physical illnesses –like headaches, high blood pressure, stomach and chest pain. Stress can also trigger other problems like anxiety or depression.
The fact is unhappy, and downright difficult customers are hard to manage, even for the most experienced "fixer." Through structured training exercises, including simulations, that involve problem-solving real-life scenarios you can help your employees learn the soft-skills they need like empathy and active listening while teaching the latest best practices, not to mention, the coping mechanisms needed to stay calm and in control.
Reduce Training Expenses with Accelerate Learning
By incorporating accelerated learning techniques in your training programs, you'll make it easier for your employees to learn what they need to know in the least amount of time. Here are a few tips to consider when designing your e-learning program:
• A dedicated learning environment accelerates learning
• Dividing complex topics into "bite-sized" lessons is helpful
• Set high but realistic expectations
• Provide learners with "big picture" concepts
• When possible use "see one, do one, teach one" activities
• Encourage questions
• Provide daily feedback to learners
• Use reward-based recognition to motivate performance
Out-of-pocket expenses are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to traditional training costs. Hidden costs that make traditional learning programs more expensive include:
• Ineffective or archaic training practices
• Failure to teach work efficiency leads to poor performance
• Failure to teach problem-solving techniques lead to costly mistakes
• Protracted training periods lead to learner burnout when outdated training is used
• Poor customer service skills lead to loss of business, reputation, and loyalty
Fortunately, modern learning programs that emphasize self-directed learning will reduce many of these hidden costs.
Choosing the Right e-Learning Partner
When it comes to designing your learning management system (LMS), you'll find there are a wide-ranging list of features from which to choose. In fact, it can be difficult to narrow down your wishlist of features. Start by creating a short-list of e-learning solutions that will give you the creative control you desire but the greatest functionality for your audience.
While you want your training to be quick and efficient, you don't want it to be boring. Choose e-learning training products that are interesting and fun. A great e-learning partner will merge the training and development activities that will reduce time and cost with techniques that make learning more interesting:
• Develop instructional video to boost engagement.
• Incorporate video and graphics that highlight major concepts and practices.
• Blend training with daily operations. Get our free guide.
• For greater portability and wider adoption consider creating a mobile application.
• Choose colorful slides and infographics to explain dense data.
• Create comprehensive learning materials that are easy to read and understand.
• Consider generational learning styles and preferences.
• When possible, customize training to learning style.
• Assess comprehension frequently.
• Consider assigning a "learning partner" or mentor to reinforce training.
• Hold group sessions to encourage teamwork.
• Observing others demonstrate learning of the proper techniques.
• Demonstrate to others, the proper techniques.
• Perform job duties with guided supervision followed by observation.
If you have multiple locations or you hope to scale your business in the future, it's important to choose cloud-based e-learning software that is platform and device agnostic. Cloud-based software ensures that all employees are receiving the same training no matter where they are located, across multiple devices, browsers, and operating systems.
If you're designing learning for on-the-go managers or planning training for multiple locations, a mobile application may be at the top of your list. On the other hand, if you feel that your learners may benefit from games or simulated real-life scenarios, it may be necessary to go with a more interactive strategy, focusing on gamification features.
Make a list of the things you like and dislike about your current training system, identify current tech limitations. Also, consider any user limitations. How much growth are you forecasting in both the near and distant future? Do you anticipate a scenario when users would need to access training materials from home?
Finally, ask your e-learning partner for a demo or trial so that you can get a clearer sense of how well the e-learning system will adapt to your precise needs. During the live demo, make a list of any questions so that you can ask the vendor before you make this important purchase. Be sure to factor in the flexibility, customization, and usability which are all important to driving innovation through modern learning.
