Banquet Department (October 21st)

We entered our 3rd week at the Albany Marriott. Again, we were in the banquet department. This week we learned a little more. We walked into a meeting of 140 people that the staff was setting up for. The class split up with different mentors and got to help out. I was with Mark (the server,) Jenn and Sam. We watched how they set up the buffet and learned how they keep the guests happy while they get there food. There is a lot of communication between the banquet department and the kitchen. Throughout observing what Mark and the rest of the staff do, i learned that there is a lot of running back and forth from the banquet room to the kitchen to keep enough food on the buffet. After about 20minutes into the guests eating, we got to go around and help out the staff with cleaning up the plates. We learned that you serve the food from your left hand and clear the food from the tables with your right hand. Today their GSS (guest satisfaction score) was 98% in the banquet department and for the whole hotel it was 96%. We found out that this was a good score for them because over the past couple months the GSS was in the 40s which isn't that high. The reason for this was because of the economy and guests weren't traveling for one day to come to a meeting. But they did get great surveys back and now they are right on track. Today's spirit to serve was I use Telephone Etiquette. The problem for today was that they only had chicken cooking but there was also suppose to be steak. Even though that happened, the staff didn't let that stop them for doing there work and getting everything else situated. I feel that they don't really need any improving. This staff has everything pretty much figured out. They all work together and help each other out, which is a big deal. They communicate and have teamwork which makes there job and day go by so much easier. I learned today that the staff has a lot of responsibilities. For example, they have to set up the banquet rooms depending on the number of people attending. They have to keep the rooms spotless and refresh the rooms in a timed manner after the guests eat. It takes a lot more work then i thought. The staff always has a smile on there face and they put their guests first, which makes a difference throughout the whole hotel.