Article

Restaurant Assessment to Create Your Plan for 2023

Success in business in never an accident and it begins with intelligent, objective assessment and planning. Independent restaurants whose leaders are proactive about evaluating their current position and create a strategy for improvement will be in a much better position to succeed in the new year.

We encourage you to look through this assessment / checklist of key restaurant activities below. Take an objective look at where you're at and where you should be to navigate the challenges and opportunities in the months ahead.

#1. Leadership & Culture

What are you doing to ensure your restaurant retains your top performers (and not constantly understaffed) by creating a working environment that is positive, engaging and rewarding for your team.

• We have and regularly communicate a mission and/or core values that everyone knows and understands.
• We communicate to our staff regularly about what's going on in the restaurant and that they are valued and appreciated.
• We have created a high-performance culture marked by mutual trust and respect, positive accountability and maintaining high standards for everyone.
• Management provides timely feedback to team members in a respectful, constructive manner.
• Management is quick to recognize and praise team members for improvement, consistency and going above and beyond what is expected.

#2. Marketing

What you do to attract new guests and achieve greater frequency.

• We know what makes our restaurant different and better and clearly communicate this in our marketing messages.
• We focus on providing high perceived value, not the lowest prices.
• We are active and regularly communicate with our followers on social media.
• We have a growing customer database/loyalty program and use it drive frequency and promote special activities.
• We are practicing takeout and curbside best practices to attract and retain to-go customers.

#3. Food & Beverage

What you do to create consistent, high-quality food and beverages your guests want.

• Our menu is streamlined to offer what our customers what most and allows our kitchen to focus on efficiency, speed and high-quality.
• We use opening, shift change and closing checklists for each position including all products.
• We use a standard prep and build-to list, which is reviewed and adjusted daily based on POS sales mix reports and anticipated levels of business.
• Our storerooms, walk-ins and shelves are clean, orderly and labeled, products are date labeled and rotated.
• Our staff is held accountable to a photo-based menu and recipe manual.

#4. Customer Service & Hospitality

What you do to serve and take care of your guests.

• Our menu, ordering, seating, curbside, delivery and to-go procedures are clearly understood by all our staff.
• Our service steps and timing for each phase of the guest experience in each sales channel (takeout, curbside, delivery) is clearly defined.
• Our staff understands how service and hospitality differ and are trained to deliver both to every guest.
• Our staff knows that good service creates satisfaction but genuine hospitality creates delight, which is the key to guest loyalty.

#5. Financial & Business Management

What you do to control costs, manage cash and measure results.

• We calculate prime cost weekly, investigate variances and if necessary, promptly make corrections.
• We use a 4-week accounting cycle not a monthly one.
• Our P&L is based on the restaurant industry standard chart of accounts.
• We use a 12-week cash flow projection to stay on top of our cash balance and expected inflows and outflows.
• Our weekly labor schedules are prepared off anticipated sales volume and actual labor is compared to budgeted labor daily.
• We have analyzed every expense category on our P&L and have reduced or eliminated all costs that are not essential and do not negatively affect the guest experience.

#6. Guest Experience

What you do to consistently exceed expectations and delight your guests on a consistent basis.

• We recognize that more than anything our guests must feel SAFE. So we follow strict adherence to Standard Health Protocols for Restaurants adopted by our state and local government.
• We prominently highlight the COVID steps we are taking in our restaurant, on social media and on our website.
• Everyone on our service staff is trained to deliver competent service and genuine hospital at every touchpoint in each guest journey (dine-in, take-out, delivery, curbside).
• Everyone on our service staff is trained to respond to mistakes and complaints immediately, resolve the problem in favor of the guests and have authority to comp/discount/refund to bring them back.
• Everyone in our restaurant understands that our success is directly tied to the quality and consistency of our guest experience and our ability to create positive emotional responses in every interaction with our guest.
• Our service staff understands the power of a smile (even wearing a mask) and how to make a positive first impression.
• We follow the 10-4 rule so that our guests are continually recognized and feel special whenever they encounter a member of our staff.

#7. Employee Experience

What you do to consistently make every team member feel competent and an important part of your team.

• We believe that one of the greatest job benefits we provide our people is the opportunity to work with other friendly, supportive, hardworking co-workers so we coach problem employees and make tough decisions quickly.
• We have an organized, effective onboarding process to make new hires feel competent, productive and part of the team quickly.
• We have written job descriptions (tableservice/QSR) and training manuals (tableservice/QSR) for every position.
• We have an up-to-date team member/employee handbook that spells out our employment and personnel policies.
• Management has been trained to clearly communicate expectations on all tasks and job assignments so everyone knows what success on their job looks like.

#8. Strategy / Business Model

What you've done to reposition and realign your restaurant to survive and then prosper in the current and post pandemic operating environment.

• We have evaluated, added and/or enhanced our takeout, curbside, delivery and virtual kitchen sales channels.
• We have added or are evaluating affordable, effective technology to help us create more of a contactless, frictionless experience for our guests in every sales channel.