I'm a restaurant guy.
When I go to restaurants I am a constant observer. My eyes flow from baseboards to ceiling. I observe people and attitudes. I am probably a little critical of my server. I love good food and usually try something new to me. I definitely look for a manager. A ship is defined by her captain. I also enjoy the phenomenon of Restaurant TV.
When I was younger these were not available. I would have watched them the way I watched Saturday Morning Cartoons. My personal Favorite is Kitchen Nightmares by Gordan Ramsey. If you have not watched any yet I suggest you go to Hulu.com and waste an afternoon on completely engrossing television.
The thing about Gordan is that there are only about 4 things you have to be good at to run a successful restaurant and Gordan is a master of them all.
People- Restaurants are defined by the people who operate them. The attitudes and emotions of every employee or manager can effect any shift on any day. As Leaders, we must quickly identify cancers in our collective bodies and eradicate or change them quickly. It does not take a lot to re-ignite the passion of the people who will ultimately help your business. Fit is incredibly important in a restaurant. You cannot fit square pegs in round holes no matter what you do. With 100% turnover we rarely have the time to complete an attitude change on a square peg. First infuse Passion into the workplace. Make the calls quickly and move on. You will save yourself a lot of trouble.
Facilities- Daily inspect every inch of your business. From front door to bathroom to chef line. When you find something wrong make a plan to get it fixed. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Several customers never return due to the cleanliness of you restrooms or table tops. Keep equipment working and replace broken equipment. Putting your employees in positions where they must work around a POS computer or even cook all the food in one fryer is contradictory to what the job of Restaurant Operator is. We should strive to be a resource provider to our team. If they need more bar glasses buy them, if the walk-in is down fix it. If you can deliver for them they will deliver for you. Set them up for success and make it easy to be busy.
Food- Great food is imperative. We are a restaurant, therefore we offer food. They offer Service at Best Buy but do not call themselves a restaurant. If you cannot deliver a quality food product you will not be in business very long. Continue to evaluate your menu and make sure it is relevant to your community. Food Safety is the highest priority we have. You cannot disrespect food temperature guidelines and cleanliness standards of food storage areas and be successful. An outbreak would kill your establishment. In the computer era most of your health department inspection reports can be accessed with the click of a mouse. Restaurant means we have to be known for Food.
Marketing- Defining what your restaurant is about and being able to sell it to the community is highly important. Customers must pass other Restaurants to get to yours. So, You have to have a plan to reach people. Whether you are part of a big company with a large TV marketing budget or have no potential to even be on any media, you have to reach your surrounding community and get them to come to your door.Once you have them there, you must Wow them with your internal marketers of hosts, servers, busboy, and managers. Aggressive 4-wall marketing can increase your traffic through word of mouth. Grass Roots efforts involving local schools and chambers can result in good exposure. I would caution that you should be confident in your 4-wall marketing plan before you get too aggressive in community advertising. Bottom Line is that if you and your customers are not selling your business than it will ultimately fail.
You probably noted that I said "about" 4 things that you must be good at. that is because there is more and each of the four I presented are multi-faceted. You must continually take the pulse of the business and be sure you are moving ahead into a future. Quality, Service and Cleanliness never die. Please make sure you serve great food in your restaurant today.
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