Front of the house
By Lorri Mealey, About.com Guide to Restauranting
The Front of the House is any place in a restaurant where customers might be. This includes the dining room, bar, even the rest rooms. Strong management of the front of the house includes customer service, training staff, the design of the dining room and bar as well as various restaurant promotions. Understanding how the front of the house operates is important to overall success of any restaurant.
- Designing the Restaurant Dining Room
- Stocking the Front of the House
- Front of the House Customer Service
- Front of the House Promotions
Designing the Restaurant Dining Room
The front of the house of any restaurant should be carefully planned out, to balance ambiance with function. Restaurant seating, wait stations and waiting areas are just a few of the areas to think about when planning a restaurant dining room.
- Basics of Restaurant Design
- How to Choose Restaurant Seating
- Restaurant Video- How to Plan Dining Spaces
Stocking the Front of the House
The front of the house is the only area that customers see. It should reflect the theme or concept of your restaurant. It also needs to be designed efficiently, balancing ambience with all important seating capacity. Certain pieces of front of the house equipment are also important in running an efficient restaurant.
- Front of the House Equipment Catalogue
- Getting the Most out of Your POS System
- How to Set up a Restaurant Bar
- Restaurant Booths
Front of the House Customer Service
Without great customer service a restaurant doesn’t have a hope of succeeding. Train your front of the house staff to excel at customer service. When the inevitable complaint happens, be sure that your staff knows how to handle it.
- How to Keep Customers Happy
- How to Deal With Customer Complaints
- Turn Servers Into Salespeople
- Kids are Customers Too
Front of the House Promotions
There are many types of promotions and marketing you can do to bring in customers and keep your front of the house busy all year long.
