Posted by George on May 15, 1997 at 10:50:02:
In Reply to: Can't Get Enough of That Customer-From-Hell-Venting posted by Karen Upright on May 14, 1997 at 17:57:05:
: Then at lunch some women were in with the Beastly Baby. It was a happy baby, but it shrieked and crawled all over the floor and mashed a cranberry muffin all over the floor and put buttered noodles and strawberries in his mother's ice tea glass. He shrieked from the moment he arrived until the moment he left. This sort of thing happens relatively frequently. I'm thinking of banning children from the dining room. Any suggestions? What other child-related policies are in place out there? HELP!
It really depends on the amount of business you get from families with children, and the type of restaurant you're in. If even a small percentage of your business (10-20%) comes from families with children I don't think you could take the hit from the bad feelings, disallowing children entirely, would make.
Possible fixes-
A separate room for families with children, we did this at a CC I ran and it worked OK, (put the servers you like least in there however ;<) )
Children's dining hours, pick a time period before you prime time and offer incentives (free dessert, beverage etc) for families that arrive in a certain time frame.
If you don't have more than 1 room get sound absorbing room dividers and partition off part of the room.
If parents allow children to leave the table, the manager (NOT THE SERVER) should tell them that their children are disturbing other guests, and request that they supervise their children. Do it as nicely as possible, but do it.
Hope this helps.
George