What keeps a restaurant consistently busy when the competition struggles to fill the dining room? Tracking profits and losses is essential to doing well, but many of the most important aspects of running a successful restaurant are intangible and can't be categorized as a line item on a spreadsheet.
In this article, we will cover the main aspects that every restaurateur must take into account when running their business, including:
Your staff
Customer experience
Create excitement<
Highlight your unique qualities
Branding
Accounting
Social networks
Consistency
Your menu<
Location
Recognizing the importance of your staff
If you want to run a successful restaurant, your staff will be the number one factor in keeping customers coming back. The kitchen staff are the backbone of a restaurant, while the front of house team are the face and taiwan contact number personality to the public. While the customer experience is paramount in the hospitality industry, it cannot exist without happy, motivated and dedicated staff.
In order to hire and retain the best possible staff for your restaurant, you must:
Create a recruiting approach that aligns with your personal values and hire your staff based on these key characteristics.
Show your staff that you appreciate them by offering appropriate pay raises, outings, thank yous, etc.
Identify stressors in the workplace and work to eliminate them.
Measure seniority and offer a growth path within the company.
Conduct periodic check-ins or send out staff surveys to determine staff satisfaction.
Delivering a seamless customer experience
The customer experience should be seamless and immersive from start to finish. Parking, seating, service, food and beverage quality, payment process, checkout, and every interaction with staff and management should be perfect. The goal is to exceed expectations at every step. When a restaurant falls short of expectations, even in one category, it can potentially ruin a customer’s entire experience and earn a negative review .
And because no night of service is flawless, it’s not always about what happens, but how we handle it. If a mistake is made, it needs to be acknowledged and fixed. Our job is to make sure there’s a happy ending to every story, even if that means the customer felt like management heard their complaint and responded appropriately.
Javier Meneses, Waterfront Bar and Grill , San Diego’s oldest tavern that has been dubbed “San Diego’s friendliest bar,” says they earned that title by “touching tables, having the staff say ‘hello’ to everyone who walks in the door, saying ‘goodbye’ when they leave, and inviting customers to come back. Learning their names and using them. Making customers feel truly welcome and not like a transaction.”
Create buzz online and in restaurants
Let’s face it, a full restaurant attracts a lot more customers than a half-empty one. As a restaurant manager, it’s your job to keep that fire burning. Position your restaurant so that it always appears full by opening your visible sections to passersby first during off-peak times, and seating customers outside when the weather permits. Encourage your customers to take photos and post them on their social media channels by making sure they tag your restaurant in their posts.