Success Story

Boudreau & Thibodeau's Doubles Bottom Line with a Focus on Training and Better Cost Controls

For the Blanchards, it's about consistency.

Last year, Debra and her husband Michael focused more on gaining consistency - teaching staffers the importance of having the same product served in the same portion size the same way every single time. "We explained more about the why; not only why under-portioning creates a negative experience, but also why it could create a negative experience for a customer if they came in today and got a little extra because there was some left over in the pot, then came in tomorrow and got less and would be disappointed."

One of the touchpoints the couple decided to work on after attending a Restaurant Owner workshop was service/order taking. "We have begun to focus more on the genuine relationship our front-of-house staff develops with our customers. We have a lot of regular customers who love our staff and come back daily and request particular servers."

Staffers sometimes, however, fall into what she calls "that robotic 'welcome' and 'thank you' because we've drilled the importance of welcoming guests and thanking them without emphasizing the importance of building true relationships with direct eye contact and personal interaction."

Training manuals are being updated, and trainers are being certified "who understand the importance of their positions and having regular one-on-one meetings with all staff members," she says. "This has helped to create better relationships. When implementing changes, we are explaining more of the why and getting a more positive response and attitude from them toward any changes."

An important addition the Blanchards are busy with is the role-play suggestion they also got from the workshop. "We didn't realize what might be an easy up-sell offering of a dessert or appetizer from some servers is not so easy to others." Using the role-play exercise during pre-shift meetings allows different staff members to hear "more comfortable ways to up-sell items without feeling pushy or uncomfortable in the process. The practice is a great experience for all."

Another focus throughout 2018 will be utilizing checklists more frequently. In the past, Blanchard says, "We have put many things in place and begun checklists only to get comfortable with not filling them out on a regular basis. The workshop reminded us that those things we do not do regularly can fall by the wayside and get forgotten about. Thank you for the webinar. It motivated us all to do better."

Overall, she adds, "RestaurantOwner.com has given wonderful guidance over the years on how to do better in all areas of the restaurant. Making smarter decisions about ways to control food costs and paying attention to what's going out of the kitchen was only part of the added value. We also began tracking waste and comps weekly and discussing them with management in order to make improvements quickly."

These cost controls improved their profit immediately. "Over the last few years, our profit has increased from 7% to roughly 16%, and we do give a lot of credit to RestaurantOwner.com for the wonderful resources that it has provided for us."

The pair are looking for "a better 2018 because we are going to try to make smarter adjustments quicker. A goal is to take each touchpoint from the workshop and work on making improvements on each one slowly."

They are intent on updating their menu once or twice a year based on prices and on making additions and reductions based on sales and customer input. "We are also hoping to go back through RestaurantOwner.com resources we haven't visited in a while to get help with the library on things like management training."