RESTAURANT OPERATIONS
Service Systems
Restaurants can be chic, quirky, and fun. They can provide
a meal to the hungy, a satellite work venue, a place to meet and
mingle, or a place to celebrate. They allow guests to
identify with others of their kind or meet others of another kind.
But in the end, the restaurant owner is in it for the money.
Service represents the conduit through which money is moved from
your Guest's pocket into your pocket. If the food is bad, the
server or the cashier will hear about it and be expected to balance
the equation. If you don't know how to develop a service
system to suit your business, from white-linen service to "fast
casual" to "quick serve" to "pay-first", then you should seriously
consider hiring someone who has. Your sequence of service has
a great deal to do with your profit model and a smart restaurant
consultant knows how to make it work for your concept. From
Bar Profitability to
Front Desk Management to Service Sequence, a
good restaurant consultant can tune your concept for maximum
satisfaction...yours and your guest's.
Kitchen Systems
"Computerization", "Systematization" and "Simplifiaction" are
supposed to be synonyms but they're often at odds with each other.
Knowing when to buy and learn a software solution and when to use a
clipboard and No.2 pencil are critical to any restaurant. A
good restaurant advisory knows the fundamental systems needed to
operate a profitable, flowing production facility. Creative
and fluid Kitchen Design and Menu Development are the
foundations. Theoretical Food Cost Analysis, while a strong
foundational tool, should come after establishing a secure back
door, sound ordering systems and your food tastes great.
Automatic re-ordering systems using Purchase Orders are helpful but
only if your staff is following recipes and your line is set up for
success each and every shift. A good restaurant consultant
should focus on tailoring the right systems for maximum benefit
then build on that foundation. The restaurant consultant
should know the difference between a "want" and a "need" and can
sort through the sales pitches of software developers bent on
"systematizing" your restaurant. The focus of
good restaurant consulting should
drive an "execution" culture, measuring success through
results. Any system that doesn't do these things is likely a
waste of your time and money. Experimenting will cost you
much more in wasted management time and system purchases than the
actual consultant...and the system the consultant implements will
be permanent structural change that lays golden eggs for years to
come.
