5 Ways to Deliver Great Guest Experiences with Reduced Staff

Guest Blog | Porter

Staff shortages are leaving many of us with no choice but to shortchange the guest experience. Here are 5 ways that you can create positive guest experiences with a reduced staff. 

1. Train + Retain
   It may seem counterintuitive to invest more time in your onboarding program, but helping your team quickly become confident experts in their roles will reduce friction down the road. This will lead to fewer mistakes, questions, and underperformance. The quicker that new hires are able to positively contribute to the guest experience, the more quickly they will grow in confidence — an attribute that leads to better performance and greater retention. The Disney Institute has found that when a staff member has confidence in their leaders, they are more likely to make a positive contribution through their work. So by investing in training, you are investing in better customer experiences and greater retention — both big wins when having to deal with reduced staff.
   
   
2. Stay Positive
   It is very natural for the stress of running a business + the pressures of reduced staff to add strain, complications, and weight to our disposition. That weight we carry trickles down into the interactions we have with staff, which adds weight to their already heavy load as well. As that weight mounts on everyone, performance will drop and retention rates will suffer. By maintaining a positive and supportive culture, staff will become more productive during their working hours, more engaging with customers, leading to better experiences, and better staff retention. Headspace found that 79% of workers feel underappreciated, and while there are a variety of reasons for that statistic, the one clear takeaway is that cultivating a positive and supportive working culture will lead to better results for customers, staff, and your bottom line. 
   
   
3. Reduce + Focus
   Every situation is unique, but most operations can become more focused and still offer a great experience. If you are forced to make tough decisions in light of staffing difficulties, use this opportunity to evaluate what you do best and focus on delivering that very best offering for this experience-driven economy. Maybe that means closing down one day a week so you can deliver a great experience the other six. Maybe it means cutting delivery options and focusing on the on-site experience. Only you know your context, but focusing on making it the very best can allow you to keep the value of your business intact while making the best of the situation with reduced staff. 
   
   
4. Move to Digital F&B Ordering
   Whether you are a restaurant, brewery, or any other venue offering food and beverage, move to digital ordering. Some platforms are clunky and will actually slow down your staff, so choose a platform carefully. Porter is one platform that has been able to reduce staff time by 50 seconds per order. That adds up to 58 hours of reduced labor per month at a small food hall! They also have found orders to increase by 20% in ticket size and tips are up 15%, so you save labor and generate revenue. Win-win!
   
   
5. Go Deep with FAQs 
   If you are answering the same questions on a regular basis, invest some time in a deep and engaging FAQ section to your website. This will save your staff time and offer customers a better experience. Even if you don’t have good news, providing quick answers to common customer questions are appreciated and will improve a customer’s perception of your brand. As you build out your FAQ, be sure to cover all of the common questions, but you can also branch out to add personality to the experience by answering less obvious questions, and you can make it more engaging with playful copy, video explanations, and demonstrations. And to help customers find this section of your site, here are Google’s tips for increasing your FAQ’s searchability. By investing in an engaging FAQ, you will improve the guest experience, increase traffic to your website, and reduce staff time in the process. | Bryan Taylor, Co-founder at Porter

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This guest blog was submitted by Porter. For more information on guest blog opportunities, contact Marla McColly, Business Development Director, Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association.