Experienced Staff and Tailoring Food Service Available to Purchase

Customer service training for food service staff is typically structured around simple procedures (often based on acronyms) and is restricted to induction training. Two potential limitations stem from these practices: current training may fail to address the subtle general changes in approach which come with experience in food service: current approaches may not highlight the differences in service situations which could benefit from changes in specific behaviour, i.e. situations to which customer service can be tailored. Describes a study identifying the sophistication of food service skills and highlights many general behavioural differences between novice and experienced staff. Reveals a framework of different customer/ situation contexts to which service behaviours can be tailored. Discusses the implications of the study for staff training.