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Simple Teamwork Exercise
Tell your dishwasher to take the day off.
There you are, end of post.It could be, but I should probably elaborate. Pick a closing shift that is traditionally your slowest, and have your dishwasher take the day off. If the shift is a busy one, this could quickly turn into a trainwreck. It's now everyone's job to get the dishes done, yourself included. There are two jobs that a manager should be willing to do, wash dishes and bus tables.When everyone pulls together to accomplish the job, show them that you are proud of them working together. After the dishes are done and everyone is ready to go home, explain to them this was an exercise and thank them for taking part in it. They'll probably think you're crazy, but they understand.Maybe buy your dishwasher lunch for taking the day off!more -
The Three Methods To Build Sales
Sales heal all wounds.Yeah, I said it. You can send dozens of pounds of food to the garbage, or have ten too many people on the floor if you have phenomenal sales. While this certainly isn't an excuse to run crappy food and labor, you can get away with it, for a little while...Your boss is happy when you make your sales goals, and you'll probably bonus. If you work for a chain restaurant you get to brag to all of the other location's managers about how much you beat them by. Sales are a very good thing (and they pay the bills).There are only three ways to build sales, but there are millions of ways to apply these three things. The key then, is to ask yourself which method your actions fall into. Once you have a clearer understanding of which direction you're heading in, you can fine tune your tactics. These three methods are get new customers, increase customer frequency, and increase ticket average. Sounds simple, right? It is.Get New Customers
Let's look at this point first since it's the most difficult. Every restaurant has its own marketing plan which may or may not involve you at your current level. Always keep in mind that every person that you see is a potential customer, and first impressions last a lifetime. Follow your marketing department's directive or read this page's sister site Restaurant Marketing 101 for more.Increase Customer Frequency
This is where your role as a restaurant manager comes in. Give your guests a reason to come back. Add value to their visit. Talk to them. Run great operations. If your customers have a great visit, they will come back. Their great visit is your responsibility. If your restaurant is executing like it has the potential to, people will return. See to it that happens.Increase Ticket Average
This is the role of the entire management staff and the FOH staff. Secondary sales add up fast. Do you think McDonalds lost money when you Supersized your #2? You're damn right they didn't! They made billions on your 39 cents. Do the quick math - Increase ticket average by 50 cents, while averaging 500 transactions a day for a year. What did you get? $91250. That's a lot of cash, and all you had to do was teach your cashiers to sell a large soda instead of a small.It's really easy to overlook the things that you can do inside the store to boost sales when doing field work seems so exciting. Your ROI will be insanely higher though when you focus on the customers that you already have.more -
Planning Your Shift
An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan any day!
Every shift brings new challenges for restaurant managers. People call in sick, equipment breaks down, customers complain, what can you do to make sure your shift runs smoothly? Have a plan.This practice is great for beginning managers, and a great training tool.Walk around your restaurant and ask yourself questions such as these-- What do I do if my lead cook calls in sick?
- Who do I call if the walk-in goes down?
- How do I keep the food safe if the walk in goes down?
- What do I do if there is a fire/earthquake/tornado?
- What do I do if my produce order doesn't show up?
- If the power went out right now, how do I keep the store open?
- What happens in the event of a burglary?
- What do I do if a tour bus unloads on us?
The most success I've had with this exercise is to devote an entire day to my trainee and spend half my time walking the restaurant asking him/her questions like these and the other half sitting in the dining room going through hypothetical situations. Follow up with pre-shift meetings that quiz the trainee about what they're going to do if situations arise.The more you plan and prepare for situations like these, the less phone calls you're going to get on your days off!more -
5 Ways to Improve Food Cost
Managing food cost is a pillar of any successful restaurant. Food cost usually takes up a third of a restaurants expenses, and narrowing it by a tenth of a percentage point is great savings over the long term. Let's take a look at some ways to manage it on the front end, so you don't have to worry about it on the back end.
more- Train the entire staff one menu item at a time. Show your staff exactly how you want an item prepared and discuss the portions on the plate. Don't have an Assistant do this, teach them yourself to increase the impact. Teach your FOH staff too. More sets of trained eyes on the food will increase accountability for the BOH staff.
- Organize the walk-in. When your walk-in looks like a grocery store it makes it much easier to stay on top of "first in-first-out" practices to reduce spoilage. Inventory becomes more accurate and less of a chore when things are easy to find.
- Order less stuff. I know this seems obvious, but take a look around your restaurant. How much stuff has been there for the past two deliveries? Look at the extra food on the shelves as money lying around. Would that money be better invested somewhere else?
- Shop around. Contact other vendors to see what prices they can offer you for the staples that you order now. You don't necessarily have to jump ship, but if you find a better price use it as ammunition to get your current vendor to lower the current price.
- Make a big deal about unnecessary waste. If you are walking by a trash can and see an exorbitant amount of food in it, ask you staff to come look. Don't be a jerk, figure out what happened and explain how to prevent it to everyone around.
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Do You Need A Restaurant Management Degree?
Short answer: It doesn't hurt!
I'm sure that you knew that already, right? Here's the long answer.Restaurant management cannot be taught in the classroom. You can learn how to calculate food cost, usage per $1000, pars, labor laws and most of the other "brainy" things that go into managing restaurants. Restaurant management is learned every day on the floor in your store. Experience teaches managers in the food industry. Every situation that you deal with is one more thing you know how to anticipate and deal with next time.So what do you gain with a degree? A head start.Having a degree gets learning the "brainy" things out of the way so you can focus on managing the operations of your restaurant with the comfort that you know these things. Knowing how to calculate food cost and creating order forms will prevent you from making some of the rookie mistakes that many managers make.What else do you get with a degree? A better gig!If I'm interviewing two people with the same level of experience for a management position, and one of them has a degree and the other doesn't, the one with the degree will get the job. It also looks great on a resume, and increases your chances of landing interviews.A restaurant management degree isn't necessarily required to land a great manager job. You must weigh the pros and cons of the time spent in college. If you feel that the experience you can gain during that time period will be greater than a degree, that might be your path. If you can figure out how to manage both career and college, you're on the fast track to success!more -
Dealing With Angry Customers
Angry customers are a fact of life in the restaurant business. Don't take it personally, it happens to the best of us. Many times it's not your fault, sometimes it is, but it always has to be dealt with. Following the HEAT method will get you out of most situations, and turn angry customers into regular customers. HEAT is an acronym for-- Hear them out.
- Empathize.
- Action.
- Take care of them.
During a very busy lunch service at a quick-casual restaurant I was managing, a lady brought her food to the cashier and demanded her money back. The cashier did the right thing and went to grab me. I greeted the lady and asked her what was going on, this is where H comes in. I listened to her (actually listened, this is key) explain to me that there was a ant crawling on her table and got near her food. This same thing happened at another location of the same restaurant and she felt that this was a sign of what the kitchens were like. I moved to E and apologized (actually apologized) for what had happened and assured her that our kitchens were extraordinarily clean. To back up my E and move to A, I opened up our kitchen and gave her a tour. She was impressed at the level of cleanliness in the back, and I explained to her that the ant probably came in from the front (it was a nice day and the doors were open). For T, I refunded her money and gave her a coupon for next time.This may be too much for the average angry customer, but she ended up becoming a super-regular and hosting her own birthday party at my location.Angry customers are an unavoidable part of the restaurant business, but following this simple acronym will help you turn it into a great sales building opportunity.more -
Performance Reviews
Here's a quick thought on performance reviews.
Instead of filling in the boxes with all of the things that the employee has done wrong since their last review, what if you outlined everything they need to know to advance to the next level? Iron out their shortcomings by helping them understand the "bigger picture" of how the restaurant operates.For example, in the review section for customer service you could write-In order to advance to the (fill in next position) level, you must receive 90% or better positive feedback from our guests while maintaining your transaction time. Mentor two new employees to train them everything that you have learned. Take the time to learn (fill in customer service related duty of next position) without sacrificing any time with guests.
Focus these things in the areas that the employee needs to work on. Rather than beating them down for mistakes they've made in the past, they'll be fine tuning themselves for the future.Obviously, not all of your employees are going to be managers. This will help you decide who will have the potential to grow in the future, and whether or not it's worth your time!Performance reviews are normally a drag, but sitting down with an employee and helping them see their potential will make it a more fulfilling experience.more
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