Start the New Year off Right
It’s January and the outlook can be cold and bleak… and for many, we’re not just talking about the weather. Don’t worry, you can change the forecast for your restaurant. Look at the typically slower months of January and February as opportunities to start the new year off right. Find another market, introduce a new item, or try out a unique concept. The crowds are more manageable and you’ll have more opportunities to experiment and seek feedback.
- Add new menu items. This is perfect time to have your chefs explore new items. Be sure that you’re creating dishes that your customers want. In these times of “I can’t believe I gained seven pounds this season,” you may want to introduce a new healthy line and market it accordingly.
- Spruce up the menu. You already know the menu is prime real estate, but consider seasonal menus. Different items appeal at different times of the year and by rotating menus, you’ll be able to feature seasonal, locally grown, and sustainable items and you’ll have the opportunity to position your more profitable—and marketable—items more carefully.
- Promote somebody. If you’ve been meaning to give someone a new opportunity, consider a “partial” promotion. Schedule one or two slower shifts for new positions (managers, servers, etc.) and allow team members to ease their way into new positions.
- Try a new concept. When your private room stays vacant night after weekday night, consider marketing to a new crowd. Try out “8-minute dates” (a way for singles to meet), a Monday night Book Club, a post-basketball game banquet. By searching out local clubs and organizations—or creating your own—you can turn your operation into a weekly favorite.
When you have less traffic, it’s even more important that you maximize sales. Use your slower months to jump-start your training program and re-focus managers on service and sales. We can help you get your entire staff up to speed in the new year with one of these great packages: Save $167 on the Service That Sells! Full Service Package or $108 on the Service That Sells Family Dining Package. Click the links to learn more!
What Are You Thankful For? And How Does that Compare to Other Restaurant Leaders?
You might be thankful that, for once, nobody called in sick on Saturday night. You might appreciate the supplier who was actually on time with the right order. You might even be thankful the new entrée was a hit, the bar had a record night and nobody complained about the service, the food or even the weather.
But this holiday season, why don’t you look a little bit deeper? Consider what top restaurant leaders in this industry (and others) are most grateful for and compare it to your own list of appreciations:
- Their employees. Successful restaurant managers are backed with a great team of restaurant employees. Why? Because true leaders are more than just competent on the job. They’re passionate about the operation, the work, the team, the customers, the suppliers… the whole process that makes this crazy business worthwhile and rewarding. And this passion shows… and, better yet, it’s contagious. It motivates the entire team, attracts fresh talent and encourages everyone to perform even better.
- Their boss. It is impossible to have a truly great leader without the full support of a corporation’s CEOs, owners and other big deals. Only when a person is entrusted with responsibility and given the tools and the space needed to perform can a manager become a leader.
- Their customers. Leaders get the big picture. While it’s tempting to get bogged down on the details of an operation, leaders know that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how they feel: it only matters how the customers feel. Every decision, every bit of training, every shift meeting keeps this focus and encourages everyone else to do the same.
- Their personal time. The leaders who are most successful (personally and professionally) are those who take time for themselves. They re-energize away from work and seek opportunities that help them grow mentally, spiritually and physically. In short, they have a life… and they’re thankful for it.
This holiday season when life gets so busy you forget where you parked your car, take a moment to remember what you’re thankful for. Then, make a list of what you hope to be thankful for next year… and create a plan that leads you to creating that type of year and becoming that type of leader. After all, New Years and all its resolutions will be here before you know it.
Have more leadership challenges? Click here for ideas to help you solve them.
De-Stress Your Life by Establishing a Set Routine
As a restaurant manager, you may think the restaurant business is anything but routine, that you spend your days putting out fires every 10 minutes. But along with all the unexpected events and challenges, there is a list of critical tasks that must take place like clockwork. Dealing with the unexpected, however, may cause you to forget the expected. To keep your daily systems on track, create a critical task list that matches up with your detailed manager job description.
As you’re making your list, note the approximate times at which the tasks should be performed. Organize them into a logical sequence, maximizing efficiency and freeing up time to do the things that will move your business ahead: planning, spending time with guests, teaching and coaching employees, and, ultimately, leaving work before you’ve hit the 50 hours per week mark. (Yes, it can be done!)
Keep in mind that it’s not only disorganization and failure to perform critical tasks that trap you in the building, but also your co-managers, especially the new ones, who have yet to fit their routines to your operation. Consequently, you end up trailing close behind them, picking up pieces of their shift responsibilities. As you train your co-managers, allowing them to do their jobs without stepping in when it’s not necessary, you’ll find yourself sweeping up the pieces less often.
Excerpted from Get A Life: Running Your Restaurant Without Running Out Of Time. Check it out!
Restaurant Training to Improve Teamwork and Sales
Everything is fine. Customers are happy, employees are content… things are going well. So what’s missing? Maybe it’s that spark – that passion – that turns a job into a way of life.
Your job as an operator is to build and feed that passion in your team members through effective restaurant training. But sometimes motivation feels forced and servers go through the motions without getting excited. When people aren’t inspired, everyone can feel it, especially the customers… and they leave feeling just as uninspired about your operation.
Here’s how to create more passion in your servers and watch your sales soar:
- Give your employees a scoreboard. You’ll motivate your team members when they know they’re being assessed, especially if you make the competition friendly, fun and interesting. Start tracking sales of each server and bartender. Measure not only their check averages (at both lunch and dinner), but also the number of appetizers, sides, desserts, wine, soup, etc. they sell during each shift. Post the scoreboard and award weekly prizes. If you like, you can even form teams and conduct an ongoing competition that’s sure to get the entire operation excited.
- Schedule “sales” meetings. At least six times a year, you should formally meet with your entire service staff and train on service and sales-oriented topics. Use these meetings to not only improve skills, but to gain awareness of your team’s challenges and brainstorm solutions.
- Hold daily pre-shift meetings. If you use this time to go over the specials and the fact that Sally is late again, you’re not making the most of this valuable time. Instead, turn the time into a sales meeting and give every server and bartender specific sales and service goals for that shift.
- Follow up during the floor shift. Instead of waiting to tally up sales at the end of the evening, take a look at individual performance while the shift is still happening. If a server isn’t performing well, ask how you can help. The server may need a boost in confidence or a clarification of your expectations and waiting until the end of the shift will mean a lost opportunity for everyone.
Click here for more ideas to improve restaurant training and teamwork in your operations.
Why Train Servers on Service and Sales?
Why do restaurants, bars or hotels fail and close their doors? Despite the popular notion to the contrary, “bad food” or “poor service” never caused a restaurant or store to shutter its doors. The bottom line is that businesses fail every day not because they couldn’t “serve” their guests but because they couldn’t cover their costs. “Service” may create word-of-mouth traffic in your restaurant or bar but it’s making sales that keeps the restaurant or business open and the staff employed. “Service” alone won’t sustain any company, even a “not-for-profit” one.
Service and sales (combined with effective cost control) are what make and keep a restaurant successful, your staff employed and your business in operation. Service is the handle. Sales is the pump. When’s the last time you or your restaurant made too much money? If your answer is “the Twelfth of Never,” read on. And hey, don’t get us wrong; we’re not suggesting that you ignore the importance of service in your operation. Service is the most important thing you “sell.” Service is your invisible product, good service adds value to the purchase, and service is what ultimately brings your customers back.
Nobody makes a “bad” anything, so service is the one thing you can always do better than your competitors, no matter how big their advertising budget is. Selling is an integral part of the service process. No business provides Service without aiming for a pocketbook somewhere along the line. Our friend John “Doc” Gardner has another way of putting it: “Business is what, if you don’t have, you go out of!” Amen
Want to learn more from the best-selling book in foodservice history? Check out Service That Sells! The Art of Profitable Hospitality.Attention Restaurant Managers: Let Your Players Play
As a restaurant manager, nothing about this line of work takes you by surprise. Nothing, that is, except the fact that even now, as the manager running the show, you still put in 65- to 70-hour workweeks. You can blame the demands of “hands-on” restaurant management, but when the endless time you put in barely keeps the operation on track, and you’ve lost any semblance of life beyond the restaurant’s walls, it’s time for a change. A change to, say, a 45-hour workweek.
Don’t scoff at the idea. You don’t need to spend all hours, day and night, to keep the restaurant running and traffic growing. After all, you’ve already paid your dues to get where you are. Now you should be doing enough managing to eliminate as many as 25 hours from your hectic schedule.
Start by seeing yourself as the true coach of your team. Up until now, you may have been in the roles of both the coach and player. While it’s important to understand the how’s and why’s, beware of taking on a job just because “it’s easier to do it myself.” Not letting your players play eats time out of your schedule, time you should be using to do what you’ve been hired to do: manage.
To get a life, you must coach employees to do daily tasks themselves. Any talk of empowerment is just that — talk — unless you’re able to fine-tune the skills they need to handle those tasks using the following tools:
- Training
- Practice
- Expectations
- Observation
- Analysis
- Feedback and Motivation
Turn People Issues into Restaurant Leadership Opportunities
As a restaurant manager, you’ve undoubtedly faced people issues. How you handled them – and continue to handle them – will have a profound impact on your entire waitstaff, not just the servers you’ve counseled.
The last thing you want to do is promote turnover in your restaurant, which will serve only to intensify your operational challenges. Show support for servers and other employees. Let them know you’re not around just to hammer new rules into effect. Be a great coach.
When planned and executed with a win-win approach, employee coaching can be a rewarding management experience. Put it into action immediately. Any failure to develop and refine your coaching ability will hinder your leadership success.
When coaching, be consistent. If you sit down with Sally because she was late for her shift, be prepared to sit down with every employee, even a key employee or star performer — who is late in the future. The effectiveness of your coaching will be reduced if you apply rules inconsistently.
Take One for the Team: How Everyone Impacts Service and Sales
It’s not my section. My customer. My job. My problem. It’s not, it’s not, it’s not… As managers, we often hear more about a person’s lack of responsibilities than we hear about their actual duties or abilities. And, if that happens more than once with an employee, the problem isn’t your team, it’s you.
Everything is your job. Say that again: Everything is your job, your responsibility, your problem. But you already know that, that’s why you’re the manager. You get it, but does your team? Every member of your organization should believe that serving the guests – doing everything it takes, every time, no matter what it is – is their only real job description. That’s the goal and it’s also the only way to truly deliver exceptional service and generate exceptional sales.
But how do you get the host to remove the plates when the bussers are busy? How do you get a server to help out another table (you can already hear what they’re not saying, “Who gets the tip?”). The trick to demanding more is giving more. If your team watches you do whatever it takes – from washing silverware to taking out the trash – they’ll learn by your example.
Here are some other ways you can improve service and sales with teamwork.
- Spell it out. Often the best way to motivate team members is to tell them how the world works. If service improves, sales will improve. If sales improve, salaries improve. Offer bonuses and profit sharing, and show team members where you’re at and where you want to be. Chart progress and pinpoint areas that can be improved.
- Reward it. When you see team members going above and beyond their responsibilities, publicly note and reward it at the next team meeting. Keep a log and post it, being as specific as possible. When others see how teamwork is supposed to look – and understand its rewards and recognitions – they’ll be motivated to do the same.
- Train it. Incorporate cross-training into your orientation and ongoing training and be as specific as possible. Walk employees through the restaurant and go over every customer touch point.
- Demand it. If an employee won’t do it, find one that will.
Steps You Can Take to Prevent Harassment in Your Restaurant
What’s harassment… and what’s humorous? What’s threatening… and what’s flattering? It depends who you ask… and who’s complaining. As a restaurant manager, your job is to err on the side of what an employee could be feeling. Don’t try to read what your employee is thinking, ask. And act.
Sexual harassment is, unfortunately, a common type of harassment or discrimination seen in the hospitality business. However, discrimination based on race, religion, disability or sexual orientation can be equally damaging to a person’s well-being as well as a restaurant’s bottom line.
When any form of harassment is reported in your operation, you have to react quickly, appropriately and definitively. Follow your company guidelines – or check out the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for legal procedures – as soon as the first complaint is made. In the meantime – before problems occur – implement these steps to prevent harassment in your workplace:
- Study, post and train employees on your harassment policies. Communicate to your team that you are taking a “zero tolerance” approach toward discrimination and harassment and ask them to sign the policy, acknowledging that they have read and understood its contents. (If you have employees whose primary language is not English, have the policy translated.)
- Train, train, train. There are countless harassment training options out there. Some are even specifically focused on the hospitality industry. Find the program that works best for your operation and make sure all employees participate.
- Make it easy for employees to complain. Provide a few people (team leaders, managers, etc.) who an employee can confide in. Give the option for a male or a female and make sure all employees know who they can talk to if they’re being harassed in any way.
- Conduct a survey. Ask employees to anonymously complete a questionnaire that asks if they’ve been harassed in your operation. Often this simple tool will let you know that there’s a problem, even if nobody’s talking about it.
Restaurant Management Tip: How to Work the Room
Demonstrating management presence to your guests is a critical “Customer Contact Point.” You can’t manage a restaurant from a perch on a barstool or from an office in the back. Don’t “manage the floor,” work the room. Try to greet every guest in your dining room or bar. Watch your guests’ faces as they receive their food. Make eye contact. Smile. Introduce yourself and learn your guests’ names. (You may want to start a journal of guests’ names to help you remember them the next time they come in.)
When you work the room, it sets an example for the rest of the staff. Find out where your customers work, how business is, where they’re from and what their hobbies are. Make suggestions to the guests yourself: “Our pie tonight is the homemade blueberry. Make sure you save some room for it!” Exchange business cards when appropriate.
