Although it is not usually the task of the Hostess to take care of the deal with suppliers, many times we have to receive them, and we may even have to make some payment.
The important thing is to take into account the reception times of goods and be familiar with the entrance for the different suppliers. Food suppliers usually must deliver the order in the kitchen or warehouse area without entering through the main door of the restaurant, this varies according to the premises, many do not have a second entrance and must go through the main door, so it is essential to make sure that the delivery time is at times where the movement of customers is less. Beverage suppliers should also enter through the service door if any.
In any case we must know how to receive them and guide them with agility where to go and, if necessary, control the delivery and make sure we have received what is described on the ballot and make the payment. It may happen that a supplier arrives in an emergency or because of a delay in delivery, in a moment of great movement of customers: we must be mentally prepared for these situations, since we will have people entering the premises and waiting to be placed at the tables, people consulting for the wait, people waiting and people leaving the place. If the place has a service door, we must give ourselves the pause to indicate the way and then the time to receive the ticket (if applicable). If, on the other hand, such a supplier must pass through the front door and go through the hall with the goods, we must put into practice our capacity for organization and judgment. Let’s take into account the number of people to sit and if they already have the assigned place, in this case we can ask the supplier to wait and sit immediately those who already have a table, then pause at the reception, kindly ask the waiting people to wait a minute and guide the suppliers to the destination making sure to have the free way to avoid setbacks and be able to expedite the delivery as much as possible. It is also useful to have the phone numbers of the suppliers for any emergency and, above all, to inform yourself before starting the service, if there will be deliveries that day, the type of delivery and schedules; this is predictability, it allows us to anticipate and better organize our work.