Dave & Buster’s restaurants prepare and serve food and beverages in a fun, game-oriented atmosphere. Over the past 25 years, Dave & Buster’s, Inc., has opened over four dozen restaurants across the U.S., each employing approximately 300 people per store. The chain’s success is based, in part, on the value Dave & Buster’s places on their employees, including the training designed to unleash their employees' potential.
Before working with Learning & Performance Solutions (LPS) Group, Dave & Buster’s restaurant training was typically delivered by in-house training specialists in one-on-one or small group sessions using PowerPoint® presentations and paper-based tests. These methods were inefficient because of the difficulty of coordinating new employees' schedules and because trainees progressed through the training at different rates.
Dave & Buster’s concluded that they needed a self-paced e-Learning course that would allow trainees to complete the training at their own pace, when they needed it. The course had to include tests employees were required to pass before they could progress to the next phase of their training.
Dave & Buster’s Food and Beverage Training
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The target audience for the training was 19- to 25–year-old, newly hired hostesses, cocktail staff, bartenders, and servers. The primary goal was to help trainees learn the names of all menu and beverage items, along with details such as portion size, side dishes, garnishes, and allowable substitutions and modifications.
Learning & Performance Solutions (LPS) Group designed an intuitive, colorful user interface that displayed photos of food and beverage items, and used fun and engaging techniques for remembering each item’s key features.
LPS developed games to reinforce key concepts and information, in addition to Memory Checks throughout the course. In the Answer-it Game, for example, a fictional Dave & Buster’s food server delivers an audio description of an item’s key features as a response to a customer’s question about the item. The game reinforces the information and also demonstrates upselling and customer service techniques. In the Match It (concentration) game, trainees match photos of food or beverage items with key features about the items they are required to remember.
Finally, LPS developed a testing assessment engine to record employees' quiz and final exam scores.
The online training was implemented in all stores throughout the U.S. and was met with great success. Dave & Buster’s owns and maintains all programs and program assets.
