9.1 The Areas Where Excellence is Required
As a restaurant manager, it is important that you create a sense of a desire for everybody to work to the best of their ability no matter what their job may be in the actual restaurant.
This is where your skills really come to the fore. It is up to you to make sure that you run a tight ship so that every department is working to its full capacity. For example, you want the front-of-house staff to operate in a professional manner at all times, to be polite and respectful, and to do this you must have a good people person welcoming them to the restaurant.
Think of it this way: A head chef is in that position as they are the best individual for that job, so you have to identify the correct staff members to deal with certain roles with the front-of-house so that they can make full use of their abilities and improve the experience that is had by the guests. It is your job to keep on top of all areas and ensure that things are working smoothly; as that is one of the main roles of the manager. A failure to do this, or to act quickly enough when there is an issue, reflects badly on not just the restaurant but you and your ability to run the establishment.
In a restaurant, the food must be excellent. The service must be excellent. The way that the restaurant is cleaned in preparation for the next guests must be excellent. The bar must operate like clockwork. Basically, every single part of the restaurant must be excellent and the correct people must be in place to make sure that this is the case, for the restaurant to function.
Having a weak area, which is why you must always play to your strengths, can effectively pull down the rest of the restaurant and put other areas under stress. If you know that there is an issue in one area, it is in your best interest to try to come up with a solution or you will not only affect the experience that the customers have had, but you will also make your own life a lot harder.
We are saying the following:
See every part of the restaurant as being an area where you should excel.
Identify various strengths in people in order to then take advantage of them.
Weak areas can pull down the rest of the business unless they are addressed.
Create solutions to deal with those weak areas as quickly as possible.
9.2 Taking Guests into Consideration
You must remember that without guests, there is no restaurant and no job will exist for you.
A restaurant is based on more than just delivering food as it has to take guests and what they expect
and are looking for into consideration as well.
In order to do this, there are several things that you can do, which involves listening to what can sometimes be rather soul destroying negative comments.
Working as the manager means you have to wear several hats at the one time, but often you are working too close to the situation to see that there is a problem.
Asking for feedback, even though it could be negative, allows you to work out the areas where excellence is expected, but is not being achieved.
The only problem here is that people will have a tendency to post their feedback online in the form of reviews, so even though it is difficult to see those negative points appearing in a public forum, you still need to read it to see if they are justified and what you can do to change it.
You must also put yourself in the role of a guest. What things about your restaurant would you not be happy with if you were on the other side? Do you have the servers in the correct location? Do you have enough staff? Are they being trained correctly to then provide the best service possible? Are people being welcomed in the correct way and then being attended to? Is the food getting to them quickly enough? Is the entire restaurant clean enough?
So, in linking excellence with the experience that your guests will have, you must consider the following:
Make full use of getting feedback even if it is negative.
Think about the position of the guest at all times.
Step back from the situation to get the true picture.
Venture online to read reviews and take things on board.
9.3 Dealing with Feedback
Feedback is important, but there is no point in listening to it if you do not then take action. When studying feedback, you must always look to see if there are any recurring themes to be aware of because if there is, then you have a problem. While you must pay attention to every negative, it is also important to look at where that negativity is coming from, which is why you must see if there are those recurring points being made.
For example, if feedback states that the speed of service was rather slow on a number of occasions, then you have to take that into account and look at the number of staff or how they are spread out throughout the restaurant.
If people state that they waited too long for their food, then you must look at implementing changes that perhaps involves the customers being told rough preparation times, to stop them from being annoyed.
The main thing that you must do is to never see negative feedback as being negative for the business. Instead, it is your opportunity as the restaurant manager to see areas where things are not as good as they should be and then make changes in order to improve them. Feedback is the way in which guests are effectively giving you a second chance, but it is how you then take advantage of making those changes that is important.
With feedback, you should remember the following:
This is your opportunity to turn a negative into a future positive.
Criticisms can be good for the future of the business.
Read as much feedback as possible to get a balanced view.
Dealing with feedback can turn customers into loyal customers.
FACT
Online reviews and customer feedback are important - 8/10 diners do additional research after receiving a recommendation for a restaurant
Source: netwaiter.net
9.4 How to Take Advantage of Making Those Changes
One area that should be explored by the restaurant is the way in which it is announced that they have made relevant changes to the business.
Customers appreciate it when they realise that their feedback has been taken into account and a business has sought to change its ways in order to improve the quality of the product they offer, so making it clear that this has happened is a real boost to the business.
Forget the idea that having to make changes to improve the business is regarded as showing an admittance of failure. Instead, it shows a willingness to listen and learn and that is something that is attractive to customers.
There is a reason why some major supermarket chains have a notice board showing the improvements made and they link it to comments produced by customers as their way of showing that they accept that they do not know everything and are willing to constantly develop. The same applies to those companies that create their own products and put on it that it is new and improved. They are showing that they have accepted that the earlier versions were not as good as they should have been and have made the changes that were required If it is good enough for them, then it is good enough for you as a restaurant.
Look at it from this perspective:
You are aiming for excellence in everything that you do within the restaurant, but excellence is something that is fluid and constantly changing. By making it clear via your marketing that you have made various changes in light of feedback that has been received, it lets customers know that you are a restaurant that listens. It shows that you do not see yourself as knowing everything and being perfect. It also shows that you pay attention to customer service because a huge part of good
customer service is being able to deal with complaints or issues that have arisen. Just ignoring comments will only make the restaurant come across as not listening.
It has been shown that customers have a poor opinion of any business that they perceive as being closed off to comments. It comes across as a business that does not actually care about the customer and just sees them as a way of making money. Now, clearly making money from people is a fair point, but it is essential that you take their comments and feelings on board at all times.
So, when it comes to taking advantage of making those changes:
Make it known that you have taken feedback on board.
Show the difference that has been made as a result.
Never see making changes as admitting failure.
Show that you care as it will draw more customers to the restaurant.
Ignoring comments is not an option.
Admitting you are not perfect is a positive quality.
9.5 Excellence and the Impact on the Business
So, why is all of this important? To understand it we need to look at the link between excellence and the restaurant business.
Playing to your strong points means that the service you provide to the customers will be better than anything they have ever experienced. Think of it this way, a restaurant will focus on certain types of food because that is what the chef is good at, so why would they then go and make other dishes that the chef is not so competent with?
That would be professional suicide for the restaurant, which is why the head chef has to sit with you as the restaurant manager and work out the best menu that fits in with their ability and preferences for cooking. By doing this, the customer will get the best meal possible rather than running the risk of getting something that is sub-standard. Remember, a sub-standard meal will ruin the restaurant in next to no time.
Excellence leads to a better experience by the guests and, as a direct result, they will then be more likely to become repeat customers and that is something that every restaurant has to build towards. If you can build a base of loyal customers it means that turnover will increase as a direct result. It then puts less stress on your marketing efforts as you will not be building from zero on a constant basis.
You will also discover that people that have had a positive experience will then be more likely to become individual sales agents for the business, as they will then be open to recommending you to other people and will mention how the experience that they had there was excellent.
This is worth its weight in gold for any restaurant and trying to achieve this should be your main aim as the restaurant manager. After all, having a number of people speaking positively about the business can only work in your favour.
However, remember that the weight of influence that is had by a negative experience is heavier than positive experiences. A negative experience can undo a lot of your hard work in providing the best experience possible, which is why you must pay attention to negative feedback to then work at turning it into a positive. Simply ignoring it is not an option as it will reflect badly on the restaurant as a whole.
In other words, providing excellence is going to achieve the following in a restaurant:
Improve the experience for the customer.
Prevent negativity from happening which is damaging to the business.
Turn customers into loyal customers.
Encourage customers to tell others about the wonderful service.
Boost turnover for the restaurant.
It will give you confidence in your own abilities as a manager.
9.6 Using your Strengths to Full Effect
Finally, we should look at how exactly you not only use your strengths to full effect, but also how to then turn it into a more profitable business.
The menu is often based around the head chef and what they specialise in with their cooking because by doing this they can pretty much, guarantee that the end result will be spectacular.
However, with the rest of the restaurant it is up to you to make sure that the different strengths are
indeed put to good use.
This involves you having a good understanding of the different people that are working in the restaurant to then make sure that they are in the correct positions. You have to look at each individual to ascertain what their own individual strengths are to then take advantage of them as it will help to create a better overall package with the restaurant and the experience that the guests
then have.
As the manager, it is your job to spend time getting to know the staff including the experience that they have perhaps had within this industry. This is where your interviewing and hiring skills come to the fore, so you can then match up the best possible people with the best areas of the restaurant.
Your ideal outcome is that customers have a positive experience at the restaurant and think how amazing the food was, how amazing the service was, how warm a welcome they received, how clean the restaurant was, and basically every single aspect of their time there.
This can only be achieved when you have studied each individual area and looked at ways in which the service can perhaps even just be tweaked to provide a better all-round experience. In your position, you must be prepared to tweak things whenever they are required to improve the all-round experience for your guests as they are the single most important entity for a restaurant.
So, to use the strengths of the restaurant to full effect you must consider the following:
Understand the staff and their capabilities.
Match up the staff with positions to play to their strengths.
Consider every aspect of the restaurant and how they can be improved.
Be prepared to tweak areas to improve the experience.
Make sure that customers leave the restaurant excited at their time there.
Working to strengths leads to increased profit margins.
Summary of Module
Throughout this module, we have looked at the importance of playing to your strengths in order to provide the best experience possible for your guests. By doing so, you will make it easier for you to then build a loyal customer base that will then become regular customers.
Identify the strong points, make it clear that you have improved the service, and then see the rewards when the customers prefer the food or experience that they then have in your restaurant.
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