Radios in Restaurants
Restaurants often use walkie-talkies or two-way radios for various reasons to improve communication and overall efficiency in their operations. The importance of communication is imperative for the smooth running of any business, especially in restaurants where their reputation is on the line at that immediate point in time due to working with patrons in the premise.
While walkie-talkies can be beneficial in a restaurant setting, it’s essential to use them judiciously to avoid disturbing guests with unnecessary radio chatter. Proper training and etiquette regarding their use are important to maintain a professional atmosphere in the restaurant.
Great communication will help to improve the dining experience of your guests, decreasing wait times, solving problems faster and sharing information across the board quicker than word of mouth, all of which will benefit the growth of your restaurants.
Emergencies
For all restaurant managers, the safety of their staff and guests is of utmost importance. That’s why during an emergency, the ability to quickly communicate a problem or danger is priceless.
Whether this be a spill in front of that bar that needs mopping before someone slips, or a medical incident in the kitchen, being able to talk to your team, or for your team to contact you, will assist in solving the problem quickly and keep everyone safe.
For large restaurants where staff can often be out of sight, two-way radios will help keep everyone safe during an unfortunate event of a fire. Fires are common in the restaurant industry; the cooking line, deep fat fryers and grease traps all provide risks that sometimes are unavoidable. Safety situations like these require quick and easy communication across large sites. Being able to talk to you team can allow you to confirm which staff members or customers may still need help, and avoid people putting themselves in danger where it is not necessary.
Security
There are a variety of security measures that any business should implement for the comfort and trust of their employees, and in a restaurant or bar setting, their customers as well.
Many in the service industry choose to employ door-staff nowadays to help maintain a safe environment for all. Two-way radios are ideal for the door-staff to communicate with others in the restaurant and vice versa, for the restaurants staff to request additional help from the security team immediately no matter their location. No need to waste time travelling between the incident and where the help may be. Door staff can communicate with each other if there are out-of-site areas that require regular checks such as carparks or dark side paths. They can also be aware of who is entering the property and ensure known trouble makers don’t come in.
The service industry is also a great introduction for the young adults into the working world, but this does mean there needs to be the added support for situations such as dealing with disgruntled patrons, or customers who may have had a bit too much to drink and are causing a disturbance. Keeping a radio accessible to all front of house, customer facing staff, will allow them to call for assistance when they feel as though they are in a tricky position.
It is well know that staff that feel protected and supported by their company are more likely to produce their best efforts and feel happy remaining in the job, so it is in the restaurants best interest.
Order Communications
There’s one reason we all go to restaurants: to have some good food.
Every restaurant server knows that all their guests are looking for efficient service and waiters that know the menu options as well as what may have run out that day. A quick and easy way for the kitchen staff to notify all the servers of an item that is no longer available is through walkie-talkies. There is no longer the need to wait until the staff have come back to the kitchen or for a customer to order that item to let them know of the situation. Communicate efficiently to all the servers, all at once.
Some larger restaurants have a bit of a distance between the kitchen and the tables so just popping back to the kitchen to ask a question isn’t always as easy as the customers may think. Guests ask for alteration or special requests all the time – and usually, your staff will know the answer – but occasionally that question is needed. Your servers can save time by just popping to a quiet corner to ask over the radio and get back to the table quicker with an answer than making the journey to the kitchen which can entail being stopped three times by other people for something.
Clearing & Cleaning
Busy dinner and lunch shifts in restaurants are stressful enough, without needing to worry about tables sitting dirty
Staff responsible or clearing away old crockery and cleaning down tables before the next guests arrive can stay up to date through their two-way radios. Often restaurants have tucked away tables or sections that can’t always be seen from the main seating area. By providing servers and bussers with radios, all the teams can communicate when something is ready to be done as soon as it is ready. This will allow for the next guests to be sat quicker as tables can be prepared faster, helping to keep those hungry diners happy.
People are also quick to judge in restaurants, without considering perhaps just how busy the staff may be. A sea of dirty tables isn’t the best impression to people so two-way radios will allow your staff to clean tables as they are emptied and help maintain the smart and clean front of house area that everyone looks for.
A guest has told you the toilets need more soap but your six tickets deep at the bar? No worries! Just grab your radio, let everyone know and someone that is free can sort the issue immediately!
Happy and impressed guests is the way forward for your restaurant.
Managing Wait-Lists
Wait lists for a table at busy restaurants on a Saturday night are no new invention, but everyone of course wishes there were as short as possible. Two-way radios can help you manage the wait list with communication between the servers and the hosts.
Servers can update the host on the progress of their guests, whether this is to let them know they are finishing up desert so the table will be free soon, or if it is to warn the host that a table has decided to hang about longer. Being able to provide more accurate wait times to customers will help to keep their spirits high, and avoid bad reviews about wait times and the sort.
Our Recommendations
Our customer’s feedback over the years has allowed us to direct restaurants to two-way radios that have been tried and tested in the service industry. They are light-weight and coinvent to either be carried, or attached at the hip via a belt clip. Easy access volume dials for the staff to adjust the speaker out-put to their needs, perfect for the varied environments in restaurants.
The Pronto P-4200
The Pronto P-9500Dv2
The Adesso WT-9446D
