Has Your Food Establishment Become Your Prison?

Expressing our appreciation is a natural reaction to any service rendered. We thank people all day long. We thank the person who holds open our door, we thank the person who rings up our newspaper, we even thank the person who pumps our gas. But I observe restaurant managers all day, every day who do not take time to thank the guests in their dining room who’ve spent their hard earned money buying lunch or an expensive dinner. Is this a failure of the manager? Yes, but only because they are “locked up.”

They were locked up because they were enabling their staff – allowing THEM not to perform up to par by filling in here and there. This isn’t the time to go into WHY they fill those gaps, it’s just the time to acknowledge this and to talk about what the manager SHOULD be doing instead.

Here’s the perfect example: A general manager recently came to me to announce that the restaurant was SO busy that she was “consolidating” for six hours! (In this specific case, she was expediting lunch orders.) She was so proud – but I, as her District Manager, was sorely disappointed. That particular café has an average of 850 transactions per day, and she missed at least 500 opportunities to thank guests and interact with them.

Success is the total of many small things done right every day. How many items do you think she missed by NOT overseeing the big picture, and instead choosing to play the role that even a well trained associate could have filled? She missed many opportunities to speak with guests waiting to be seated, or waiting to order. She missed performing “table visits” and ensuring that the guests were 100% satisfied. She missed the opportunity to check with the kitchen staff and prep staff ensuring quality. She missed out on the chance to review the servers on applying all of the items discussed at the pre-meal meeting. She missed the speed-of-service and accuracy checks. Quite simply, she missed the MOST important goal: building relationships.

In these tough times, the way to hold your top line – or even increase it – is to build relationships. To build trust. Building that good, old-fashioned warm feeling of invitation and welcome. How can you do that when you are locked up in a position? How can you possibly do that when your job for the day was cashier, or line cook, or even consolidator.

So I say, open up the prisons – unlock yourself – and build relationships. Your MOST vital role as a manager is Master of Ceremonies. Be one. How do you do this? It begins way back at the hiring process. You MUST always have the correct hire for every position. Be selective. The next step is the intense, documented and personal training from an experienced training crew – with periodic progress reviews. You MUST let your new hire clearly know what your expectations are – both as a company and as a manager. Finally, once you’ve got your staff fully functioning and up to par, you must release. Continue coaching and stop enabling.

Step out of the 3-ring circus that a busy food establishment can look like. Let all of your staff play their role so that you can step back and be the master of ceremonies and master those all-important relationships at every turn.

If you do this, your guests will surely come back again and again.

Thomas Antonopoulos
Restaurant and Food Industry Strategist