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Casual Dining
Assisted Living
Full Service
An Interview With Cathy Bumbaugh - August, 2006
by
Yvonne Pfoutz - Quad-State Business Journal
Reprinted by permission, Quad-State Business Journal“You can have excellent food, but if the service is terrible, people won’t come back,” says Barbara Persun, owner with her husband John of 1912 Hoover House, an upscale restaurant in Waynesboro, Pa.
The Persuns were new to the hospitality industry and busy readying the restaurant to open in September 2005, so they hired another Waynesboro businesswoman, Cathy Bumbaugh, owner of Triple-E Waitstaff Training, to teach their servers.
Michelle Dietrich, owner of Michelle’s Restaurant in downtown Hagerstown, has years of hospitality experience, but she also hired Bumbaugh. “My servers had varying degrees of experience—from fine dining to diner-style restaurants—so I wanted them to hear the same information and learn to do things in the same way, to give the restaurant consistency among all the servers.”
“Even managers don’t always see everything we need to do,” says Kendra Smith, manager of the Fireside Restaurant and Lounge in the Plaza Hotel near Hagerstown’s Valley Mall. “It’s easy for staff to fall into bad routines. We hired Cathy to bring everyone up a scale, to get to the level we wanted things to be.”
Restaurants most commonly train their own staff, but Bumbaugh says, “Colleague training can often get watered down. Bringing in an independent trainer gets the staff’s attention and ensures consistency. Even restaurants with in-house trainers can beef up their program with a course from an outside trainer.”
Bumbaugh’s training is tailored to each restaurant’s needs, with lessons on topics such as order taking and serving techniques, beverage service, etiquette, grooming, safety, sanitation and banquet teamwork.
“Everyone needs a good foundation of the basics,” says Bumbaugh. “Then, the training needs to fit the establishment. For example, a family restaurant needs a faster [table] turnaround; a fine dining restaurant usually has wine and more steps in the service.
“Servers in any restaurant need to learn how to read a table, to know how to respond to different clientele, whether it’s an older gentleman who likes to talk or a group of business people who do not want to be disturbed. They also have to be alert and on top of things, for example, able to clean up quickly if a customer spills something.”
Among the areas Dietrich wanted covered for Michelle’s servers were “proper wine service and approaching a table: what to say and what not to say.”
“I asked Cathy to cover everything, to polish them,” says Catalin Bonciu, owner with his wife Judy of the James Buchanan Pub and Restaurant in Mercersburg, Pa. “How to address people, knowledge of food, how to pour wine and the proper glasses. Since the training, I’ve had an excellent report on our service from customers.”
“One topic was the proper way to take an order,” says Smith. “Now with the orders done properly, someone else can serve the food if necessary. I also wanted improvements in the overall look of the room, how the table should be set. Before, things looked as they were thrown on the table. I saw big changes very quickly in the look of the dining room with tables set uniformly, and the staff is still doing it.”
“Cathy looked at what type of restaurant we had,” says Persun. “She talked with us about exactly what type of ambiance we wanted. She also customized the training to fit our restaurant, which has several smaller dining rooms. She walked the staff through common sense ways to get around people and wait on the tables. Since we were getting close to opening, she juggled her schedule around to fit ours.”
“I prefer to work with no more than six to eight people in a group,” says Bumbaugh. “If someone is green, he or she will be nervous and take more time than a server with some experience.
“Since each course is designed for a particular establishment, it can vary from a one-day seminar or multiple classes spread out over several months. I’ll train during the weekday, on weekends or evenings, whatever suits the restaurant. At the Plaza, for example, we usually chose an off-night like Monday for training, two classes a month for six months. I like to spread out training, if possible, so people can digest the information better.”
Dietrich scheduled one day of training and follow-up visits to evaluate and refine the process. Bonciu asked Bumbaugh to come for more frequent, but shorter, classes spread over several weeks.
“I do use some videos for reinforcement of ideas,” says Bumbaugh, “But people really need the hands on training to get the feel of the job.”
Bumbaugh says the cost of her services varies, depending on the number of people and the frequency of training, but can start as low as $175.
“I don’t understand,” says Bumbaugh, “how some employers can invest money in a restaurant’s decor, kitchen, menu, music, even the plates, but not invest anything in training the front of the house people, who make the restaurant’s first impression with customers. The wait staff needs to have extensive training to be sure the foundation is strong, with regular follow-up reviews to bring issues to their attention.”
“The U. S. has a lousy system of hospitality training,” says Bonciu. “Europeans go to school in the culinary arts and serving takes education. Here there’s little respect for serving. One of my goals for Cathy’s training was for my staff to take pride in what they do.”
“All my training sessions start with ‘This is a profession, not just a job’,” says Bumbaugh. “Europeans train for years to reach a high level in their professions and it shows.
“I love foodservice and I’ve always trained, wherever I’ve been.”
Bumbaugh started in the foodservice business as a teen, waitressing at the John Wallace Kitchen in Waynesboro, which was then owned by her parents, Frank and Helen Arendt.
“My mother taught me first, so I had a good foundation because she had been trained by a professional wait staff trainer.”
Bumbaugh later worked at an area nursing home and at Howard Johnson’s; trained staff and managed a cafeteria at the Hagerstown branch of Citicorp; and most recently was an in-house trainer at the Schmankerl Stube Bavarian restaurant in Hagerstown. She has also taken classes at the School of Culinary Arts in York, Pa., and experienced cuisine and service as a customer at a wide range of restaurants in the U.S., Europe and South America.
Four years ago, she started Triple-E Waitstaff Training—the triple E’s in the name stand for experience, efficiency and elegance—because she noticed “there was no other business around here that trains wait staff. So far, I’ve been training locally, in Hagerstown, Waynesboro and Mercersburg, but I’m willing to go anywhere.
“Restaurants need to make the dining experience something customers won’t forget. If it’s memorable, they will come back.”
