First, a brief overview of how we see the bussperson position. Bussers are the key to a restaurant’s cleanliness.  They are relatively inexpensive to have on the floor during busy times.  However, they can really hamper good guest service.  Restaurants tend to use bussers to help the servers serve guests by doing things such as offering beverages and pre-bussing.  The problem is that guests cannot tell the difference between a server and a busser.  It does not matter if their uniforms are different.  When an employee approaches a guest’s table and offers a beverage, the guest expects that person is going to serve them.  Unfortunately, they do not always speak English and are not trained to properly serve the guest.  Many guest’s questions are answered with a blank stare or with, “I’ll get the server”.  Servers should serve.  They should be the first to greet the guest when they are seated.  They should take the drink orders and deliver them.  They should pre-buss and should deliver the checks.  A busser should never go to a guest’s table while there is a guest present.  If a busser is doing any of these tasks out of necessity, your server probably is unable to handle the number of tables he/she has been assigned.  You should reduce his/her table count until his/her service improves.

What should a busser do? A busser should be bussing tables, cleaning tables, and resetting them.  They should be focused entirely on the cleanliness of the restaurant and not on guest service.  Unless you specifically train your bussers to serve guests at certain moments of their meals, as most high end fancy restaurants do, make sure the busser’s job description clear.

So, when do you need a busser on duty? Only during high volume times, when the restaurant is at least 75 percent full.  We think bussers are a necessity during breakfast hours if you have a buffet, because of the fast paced environment.  This is the same for lunch, if you do a lot of lunch business and have a buffet.  The busser has extra duties during a buffet service like stocking the buffet and cleaning the buffet area that wiill continue to keep him/her busy.  Bussers are usually not needed during a hotel restaurant’s dinner service.  Dinner is much slower paced and it shoudl be easier for the servers to keep up.  You may need to schedule a few additional hours to do some of the deep cleaning of the restaurant each day.

If you are a small or medium sized hotel, you may only need one busser for a few hours each morning.  Try borrowing someone from another department instead of having a dedicated busser.  For deep cleaning, work together with housekeeping to keep the restaurant looking perfect in between meal periods.  Cutting costs effectively means using each of your departments efficiently.

While you are making the changes, schedule an extra server or two and shrink each server’s section.  It will take the servers some time to adjust to their new responsibilities.  The good thing about extra servers is that they always want to go home early if there are not enough guests and tips to be made, unlike bussers who stay for the full 8 hours and usually get paid more than servers.  Just make sure everybody is completing their checklists and sidework prior to going home.

If you are really brave, have the F&B Manager be the busser for a day or two.  Have them track what times the busser is needed and schedule an employee to perform the duties for those times.  Do not forget to merge your busser’s daily checklist with your server’s daily checklist to make sure that no tasks are missed.

Nowadays, there are not many service oriented managers that do not know that the last impression a hotel makes on a guest, usually at breakfast, can heavily affect guest service scores.  Most people also probably know that customers would prefer no service to bad service (thus the invention of ATM machines).  Why then, would a hotel allow this type of service to go out to their guests in hopes of saving some money?  If you have a subpar breakfast buffet service, make sure that you have the following items in place to change that service for the better.

Standards – Ensure that your staff is familiar with the standards of your hotel brand and follows them.  If you do not have a brand, make some standards and follow them.

Host - Have a host.  This may seem like a useless cost, but having a host seat guests will make the restaurant seem more like a restaurant and not like a cafeteria.

Beverages - Do not put your breakfast beverages on the buffet line.  Many buffets have their juices as a self serve item on the buffet line.  Do not take away more service opportunities from the servers unnecessarily.

Menus – Unless you have a buffet only, make sure your servers are offering a menu and suggesting items from it.  Just assuming guests are having the buffet does not help the view that the restaurant is just a cafeteria.

Attention - Your servers must be attentive to the guests.  Many servers will disappear from the guest’s view after a buffet is ordered and beverages are poured.  Keep your servers attentive by making sure they ask about the guest’s food, provide the proper condiments, refill beverages, and remove dishware as necessary.  To give the illusion of service, they should always be visible on the dining room floor unless they are retrieving food from the kitchen.

Quickness – An essential component of breakfast is that it is a quick meal.  Ensure that the servers are allowing guests to leave quickly if they need to.  This means delivering the check while the guest is still eating and handling the payment promptly.

Personalization – Do not miss the opportunity to really personalize breakfast for your guests or leave a lasting impression on them.  Have a guest ledger available for the servers for reference every morning.  If a guest pays with a room charge, which they normally do, you (the server) should come and find the guest’s name on the ledger and find out when they are checking out.  Come back to the table quickly and thank the guest by name and tell them that you will be here for the rest of their stay and look forward to serving them.  If they request something specific during their breakfast, remember it and provide it the next day again.  Imagine the surprise of the guest the rest of the week!  If the guest is checking out, note that you saw this and wish them a safe and happy trip.

Remember, time-wise, your breakfast servers spend, on average, the most time with your guest’s than any other associate in the hotel.  This is assuming most guests eat breakfast every morning, eat room service dinners, and do not spend time in the bar.  The 20 minutes a day that they have with the guest needs to be maximized in terms of the service potential.

Offering a buffet is totally fine and definitely a convenience, but allowing the bad service to rise because of laziness should not be tolerated.  Remember, you are paying your servers to provide excellent service, they should also be doing so to raise their tips as well.

Links:

Click HERE to download our sample scoring form to train and test your restaurant team.