3. Train for customer service to boost in-person engagement
When Richmond’s consultant joined the project, he met with students and asked if they knew any of the foodservice staff members by name. “They couldn’t name any staff members, but the staffers could name all the students,” Schlein says. “So that was a huge disconnect.”
Through customer service training, managers were taught to walk around to tables and ask students how they enjoyed their meals, and received laminated cards with prompts for greeting students in the morning. “You’re watching them develop relationships right before your eyes,” Schlein says. To make it easy for students to learn names, each staff member now wears a name badge that includes his or her hometown.
But customer service development didn’t end with just one training; Schlein says it’s a focus of monthly manager meetings, which include handouts and role-play scenarios. “A lot of our folks are new, and don’t necessarily come to us with foodservice experience,” she says. “You can’t expect them to succeed without the tools.”