New to restaurant management or looking to refresh your management approach?
Knowing where to begin can be a daunting challenge for even the most experienced leader. Restaurant managers need to tap into a variety of skills to be successful, from handling community outreach, mediating staff conflicts, inventory numbers, meeting customer expectations, and more, all while making sure both the front and back of the house run smoothly.
Improve your managerial skills with these helpful restaurant management tips
1) Stay consistent.
How you consistently deal with various issues or situations is as important as what you do daily. The worst thing a manager can do is take an inconsistent approach to how he responds and resolves issues. As it leads to confusion and makes your employees unsure of how they should approach a situation.
Key areas to focus on:
- How you communicate.
- How you maintain rules.
- What your expectations are.
When you are consistent, you are leading by example. So when there’s a dinner rush or a small circus in the kitchen, your employees know that you are going to be consistent, making it possible for them to handle the high-stress loads without cracking.
2) Be proactive.
It’s not enough to focus only on what is happening right now; as a manager, you need to keep an eye on the future too. In this industry, things happen quickly. You need to be proactive and stay ahead of the curve. This means that you look and work in the future, not in the current moment, for managing decisions such as:
What to look out for:
- Staffing needs
- Menu changes and updates
- Marketing campaigns
- Inventory
- Consumer trends
- Innovative technology
3) Prioritise staff retention.
One of the most challenging aspects all restaurant managers and owners face is hiring, training, and then retaining staff. Staffing is a very time-consuming process, and you want to invest that time and energy wisely by making staff retention a priority. Constantly replacing staff is a huge expense in an industry that already has tight profit margins. Customers in restaurants come for the experience, and part of that experience is dealing with the staff they interact with.
4) Focus on customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction is the end goal for every decision you make in your restaurant. Managing customer expectations can be challenging. You’re dealing with everything from food preferences, dietary issues, traffic flow in the restaurant, irate customers, last-minute reservations etc. How you go about getting that satisfaction may vary, but the result should always be the same. Always endeavour to achieve customer satisfaction without sacrificing your staff. Protect your staff from your more discerning customer. You want to keep your customer happy without losing your key staff members.