By Noah Rue, Contributor
Running a restaurant is often a labor of love. Anyone in the hospitality industry will tell you how many hours, how much manpower, and how strong a commitment is needed to make for a restaurant into a successful enterprise.
Of course, you only get out of a project what you put in, and restaurant owners know this better than anyone. No matter where you are in your restaurant management journey, there’s always room for improvement. Here are some management tips to help you create the optimum restaurant ambiance and functionality.
Master the Basics
The pillars of your restaurant are its food, its service, and its atmosphere. The way you manage these three components can make or break your restaurant, and none of them work in isolation.
Think of your favorite restaurant (that you don’t run) and what makes it special. Is it the food? Is it the great service that takes it up a notch on your list? Or maybe the ambiance of the space that keeps you coming back? You may conclude that it’s actually a combination of all three. Each component complements the other, and even if one falls short, a customer could leave your restaurant dissatisfied. So how do you make sure these three components are always at their peak?
Consistent Service & Quality
No one likes playing roulette when going out for a meal. If a customer has heard of your stellar pasta and another remembers how good your service was the last time they dined with you, they’re probably expecting that every time they come in.
Consistency on all fronts makes your restaurant a cohesive brand. This means standardizing recipes, equipment, service techniques, food presentation, and menus. Consistency helps hungry diners come back to a restaurant because they trust they are getting the same quality and experience every time.
Regular Gear Maintenance
Restaurants run on regular maintenance. This can’t be stressed enough. As stated by Tom Buiocchi in Modern Restaurant Management, “Effective maintenance and management guarantee your restaurant is in peak condition at all times, which in turn improves customers’ perception of your brand.” The article goes on to emphasize the importance of your cooking facilities, equipment, and furniture to ensure that they all meet regulatory standards at all times.
Pre-planning maintenance and regularly replacing and updating equipment can save you the cost of full replacements in the event of an unexpected malfunction. Get an asset management system to help you keep track of warranties or maintenance check-ups.
You can learn more about restaurant equipment maintenance in our previous post.
Restaurant Employee Management
Without employees who are invested in your restaurant, you can’t expect it to succeed, but you need to invest in them first. Your employees are the ones who interact with your customers and are the true ambassadors of your brand. If they aren’t happy working for you, it shows. Customers can easily recognize disgruntled employees, and this could hamper your image and sales. Keep your staff happy by using the following tips:
Provide Fair Wages
Everyone wants a fair wage for the work they do – including your restaurant’s staff. Like every enterprise, restaurants have staff hierarchies: the general manager, kitchen staff, service staff, and support staff who all earn differently for their job roles.
The problem arises when lower-paid employees feel resentment against the “unequal” wages of others. It’s important to manage wages, bonuses, and increments from a just, objective, and performance-based perspective. Large base salaries, bonuses set in stone, and stock options given to executives can contribute to the wage gap.
Take a look at your wages across your business and speak to your staff. Is your team truly being fairly compensated for their time? Are your wages on-par or better than your competitors? What sort of benefits are you offering that help with the overall quality of life your staff live and help build employee loyalty?
Avoid Employee Burnout
Long shifts, short breaks, and no work-life balance can lead some employees to burn-out. Employee burn-out could manifest itself in exhaustion, physical and mental stress, consumption abuse, and the inability to fulfill responsibilities.
How do you prevent this? Measures include increasing your belief in employees’ abilities and supporting them, hiring a human resources manager to identify struggling employees, and instituting employee-friendly policies. Successful restaurants will see their team as family they want to look after and take care of and not “human capital” that can be tossed away and replaced.
Restaurant Guest Satisfaction
The final piece of the puzzle are your customers. Starting a restaurant usually stems from a passion to serve food to others, so you know that customer experience is critical to a restaurant's success.
In reality, guests don’t just come to your establishment for a meal; they come for the whole experience. The US National Restaurant Association’s 2020 State of the Restaurant Industry Report found that 63% of customers would rather spend money on an experience rather than purchase an item. So how do you take a good meal and turn it into a great experience? It’s an end-to-end process.
Improved Table Management Systems
No one wants to wait in winding lines for a table, so having a table management system can do wonders. It helps you efficiently manage customer reservations and seat turnovers, and that means you can increase customer satisfaction without costly capacity expansion.
Heightened Cleanliness
Guests can be put off by the smallest smidgeon on their tablecloth, so imagine if they discover the same place serving their food has a restroom that looks like a warzone. Bathroom cleanliness is crucial. In fact, 81% of Americans are deterred from visiting a restaurant if it has bad online reviews in terms of their bathroom conditions. From running water to a clogged toilet, you’ve got to make sure you have someone in charge of restroom hygiene at all times.
Your restaurants cleanliness and hygiene is even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, so don’t spare any expense!
Go the Extra Mile
Restaurant guests love when you put in a personal touch and go out of your way to make their experience better. Simple things like thoughtful and friendly staff, using database information to offer them discounts on special occasions, and providing personalized meals (i.e., food allergies or dietary restrictions) go a long way in a customer's perception of your brand.
Customer experience is at the heart of every successful business, but it’s only beating if the other vital organs are working too; that means your employees, your business plan and of course, your actual offering. All these factors need to thrive for your enterprise to be a true success. It’s a balancing act and can be extremely challenging at times. With this in mind, these management tips should provide a good starting point for your journey to success as a restauranteur.
