Building Restaurant Sales

Building Restaurant Sales

Building Restaurant Sales by Consistency

Are you interested in Building Restaurant Sales? Did you know that 90% of start-up restaurants fail in the first year? In the USA, an average of 42,000 potential owners submit restaurant permit applications each year. Unfortunately, only 10% of those restaurants actually make it past the first year. Consequently, restaurant owners and managers must use every available resource to make it into the top ten percent.

First off, successful restaurants use working systems to maintain their standards. These same standards apply to any restaurant. The restaurants that maintain consistent standards have a high success rate.

Independent or Chain Restaurants

Do you know of worldwide restaurant chains? Of course you do. Most of those restaurants started with one restaurant. They set-up a working system continuously and consistently maintain that system. No doubt, they had some trial and error. Maybe you wonder how corporate restaurants impact building restaurant sales in your privately-owned restaurant. However, consistent policies and procedures are important in every restaurant!

Do you want to build a successful restaurant?

First, learn the same standards that made these restaurants grow to be large corporations. The first location of almost every corporate restaurant chain started as an independent restaurant. The restaurant provided exactly what their customers wanted, then found a way to build on it. Next, they built success by being consistent, providing the food and beverages their customers wanted, with a focus on customer service. In addition, forms, checklists, and spreadsheets work to maintain consistency.

Furthermore, the standards that the corporation set up for their restaurant must be consistently followed by each restaurant in the company. Most of these corporate restaurants have a process of auditing the success of each restaurant to maintain their set standards. So each local chain restaurant follows corporate mandates.

The local chain knows the corporate policy through the use of specific training techniques, policies, procedures and systems. Then, they keep a paper trail of checklists and spreadsheets or other corporate systems, whether electronic or on paper. The restaurant keeps tabs on every chain restaurant.

How to continue to Build Restaurant Sales?

How would a corporation know if a restaurant isn’t following those standards? The corporation monitors numbers and information generated by their systems. The local restaurant communicates through their systems. Conversely, customer complaints also alert corporations of issues to fix. 

Sometimes corporations use mystery shoppers. There are some great mystery shopper forms on our site. Of course, declining sales send a red flag to the corporation. No matter what happens, if they want their corporation to succeed, they make sure that each local restaurant follows their standards.

When a restaurant struggles

When the corporation sees a restaurant isn’t following their standards, they generally send someone in to pinpoint and fix the problem. This could be higher levels of management or an internal inspection process. The corporation holds the managers at that local chain restaurant responsible to follow their standards.

However, if the local managers don’t follow through, they may be disciplined or given additional means of corrective action. These managers know that they must follow the standards or risk job loss. Also, perform management reviews and assessments to help them see how their managers follow policy. Unfortunately, if the problem is not resolved, that local restaurant may shut down or a new set of managers assigned.

Do they fail?

Of course, even corporate restaurants may contribute to the overall restaurant closing rates. Some corporate chain restaurants may be part of the 90% failure rate of restaurants closing. The loss of one restaurant to the corporation would be small compared to the chance of the whole chain being lost by the one that didn’t do what it should. When you are independently owned, it is just as important to maintain high standards and use resources, such as forms, checklists and spreadsheets to build your business.

Restaurant forms, checklists and spreadsheets are excellent tools to organize every area within your restaurant. Most often, excellent customer service and great tasting food are signs of a well-managed and well-organized restaurant. 

What causes failure?

Common reasons that customers never return to a restaurant:

  • Inadequate customer service
  • Quality of food is below average
  • No organization
  • Dirty restaurant
  • Inconsistency of employees and management
  • Poor employee training

Therefore, resolving those issues equals building restaurant sales. Of course, some great ways to find out how you are doing is to use Customer Satisfaction Surveys or Mystery Shoppers to determine what your restaurant is doing well and if you have areas of improvement. Keeping customers happy is your key to profits.

What is the importance of Consistency?

Hmm… How can forms help your restaurant achieve excellent customer service and great tasting food consistently? First, the use of checklists, employee reference charts, sales tracking, and inventory control all contribute to the owners and managers knowing where they stand and what is being done on a daily basis. Next, this maintains stability and consistency between managers and staff. In addition, everyone knows the expectations of their work.  Finally, customers who visit your restaurant see the difference. The customers may not see the checklists, but they will see the consistency you maintain through the use of the forms.

Some managers say they remember everything

Without these tools, you are trying to keep all that information in your memory and straining yourself. Instead, take a more organized approach and help your restaurant be a success. Forms help prepare each shift and establish consistency and organization when used every day. 

Some helpful forms

Use various checklists prior to any meal period. Managers visually check food amounts, proper use of ladles, scoops, storage containers, date dots, and monitor the time, temperature, and quality of food. Also, prepare and stock just enough products to get through any meal period.

Managers also check the service area. Fully stock all silverware, dinnerware and glassware for each shift, to avoid running out. In addition, schedule enough employees to prepare for the peak sales periods.

However, when used properly and consistently, these forms and checklists are great for building restaurant sales, with great customer service and great tasting food.

How can we help?

Finally, the Workplace Wizards Restaurant Consultants help you get organized and find more strategies to building restaurant sales for your business.

In addition, we provide more opportunities for your restaurant  through Assessments or Undercover Assessments. Call now to discuss your needs with a restaurant consultant, who  listens and guide you in the right direction. Check out our restaurant training or set up your own training with our training manuals.

Call today for your free consultation! Of course, all services or resources can be customized to fit your restaurant’s needs.

For additional great ideas in building restaurant sales, check out this article with Restaurant Management Tips.

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