To train your front of house team on a new booking system, show everyone the five things they’ll do every shift (find a booking, seat a guest, seat a walk-in, take a phone booking and change or cancel one), let them practise on a quiet afternoon, and run the first live service with the person who knows the system best on the host stand. Most teams are comfortable within a shift or two if the training focuses on the daily tasks.
Start with the daily tasks
Skip the settings menus. Front of house needs to be confident with:
- Finding tonight’s bookings and seeing who’s next.
- Seating a booked guest and marking them as arrived.
- Seating a walk-in on a free table.
- Taking a phone booking while the guest is on the line.
- Changing or cancelling a booking without creating a duplicate.
If someone can do those five, they can run a service.
Practise before it matters
Book a quiet afternoon before the switch:
- set up your real tables and opening hours;
- have staff take turns playing guest and host;
- make test bookings for different party sizes;
- practise the awkward cases: a late party, a no-show, a party that grows from four to six.
Agree a few house rules
Write them down and pin them by the host stand:
- every phone booking goes straight into the system, never on paper first;
- walk-ins are seated in the system as they sit down;
- changes are made to the existing booking;
- a no-show is marked after the grace period, for example 15 minutes.
The first live service
- Choose a quieter night for day one if you can.
- Put the most confident person on the host stand.
- Keep a short list of questions that come up and answer them the next day.
Bring in the rest of the team
Managers need more: reports, opening hours, no-show fees. Kitchen and bar staff may only need to know how to see tonight’s covers. Train each group on what they’ll use.
Keep new starters in mind
Write a one-page guide with screenshots of the five daily tasks. It makes training a new host much quicker.
How ForStars fits
ForStars is built so a host can learn it in a shift: one live floor plan with website bookings, phone bookings and walk-ins, on the kiosk, a tablet or a phone. See features or start a free trial from pricing.
Questions owners ask
How long does training take?
For the daily tasks, an hour of practice and one or two services. Managers need a little longer for settings and reports.
Should we run the old and new systems side by side?
Only for a day or two, if at all. Two systems at once is the quickest way to a double booking.