Even the best restaurant has ‘off’ days. But if you are more ‘off’ than ‘on’, business will suffer.
I believe that consistency is one ingredient to getting customers to come back. When a customer’s expectations are met again and again, they become loyal – and loyal customers are the core of any restaurant’s sales plans.
To gain some consistency in your restaurant operation why not consider the following:
Documentation.
The lack of consistency can often be traced to not writing things down. If you don’t have standard procedures, you cannot expect staff to deliver the same experience to customers each time:
* Job descriptions
* The restaurant org chart
* An operations manual
* A staff manual
* Shift set-up procedures
* Daily checklists
* Station set-up lists
* Lists of side work activities
Training.
You can’t have consistency with untrained staff so you need to develop a comprehensive training plan for the company. By creating a training manual, you can go a long way toward improving the consistency of service.
Recipes and Plating.
Two places where restaurants fall apart are inconsistent food, and inconsistent plating. All restaurants need written recipes, with exact procedures and exact quantities. There needs to be quality control in the kitchen, so when food begins to veer from the written recipe, it is pulled back to the original recipe. And if staff believe the recipe needs to change, that change needs to be put in writing.
Just as important is the plating of your food. Plating of food should be consistent. The chef should be checking every plate before it goes out and rejecting any substandard dish.
Feedback.
If you are getting negative reactions to a dish or dishes that were once popular, something in the system is wrong. Either the recipe needs to be retested and rewritten, or the staff better trained on execution.
