Restaurant Forms and Checklists

Why do we need restaurant forms and checklists.

Restaurant forms and checklist help us to get organized and prepared prior to any peak period. Some managers do not believe in using restaurant forms and checklist, these managers are old school.

The old school method may have worked in restaurants years ago because employees back then did what they were instructed to do and they were well behaved.

Back then restaurant forms and checklist were not used like they are used in today’s society.

In today’s society, people think and do things differently. These employees need guidance and follow up pertaining to completing their assigned task. Restaurant forms and checklist help prepare the employees to do the right thing for the right reasons.

Checks and balances and restaurant forms and checklist:

The manager periodically throughout the day conducts his or her walk through and figure eights throughout the restaurant.

While the manager conducts their walk through of the restaurant they are using forms and checklist to tighten up the gap between a chaotic shift and a well-run shift.

How do they tighten up the gap?

Checks and Balances: consistently using restaurant forms and checklist.

Corporate restaurants use restaurant forms and checklist. These restaurant are highly successful in maintaining a health bottom line.

The use of restaurant forms and checklist are vital in restaurant operations and play a great role maintaining repeat business.

There are two very important checklists: 1) Front of the house Shift Readiness Checklist 2) Back of the House Shift Readiness Checklist.

Both front and back of the house shift readiness checklist prepares the shift on WOW customer service. These form’s focus on getting through the entire meal period without any complaints.

Front and back of the house shift readiness checklists focuses on:

• Manager’s walk-through – jumping into the customer’s shoes and seeing through the guest’s eyes, areas that need attention. This is referred as the customer’s eye. See what they see and eliminate all eye sores.
• No cigarette butts or trash in the parking lot and surrounding.
• The front door of the restaurant print free.
• Greeter area clean and organized.
• Clean menus at the greeter station.
• Bathrooms are spotless: clean mirrors, basins, urinals, toilets, ceiling vents and ceiling, partition walls, floors and baby changing stations. No overflowing trash cans. Stocking on paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap, hand sanitizer, female sanitation napkins, and baby wipes.
• Dining room: clean tables or booths and chairs, condiments and the condiment holders, napkin dispensers, table bases, floors and decor. The customer will be looking and listening to everything that occurs with-in their surroundings. They will also look for cleanliness, is the ceiling and the vents clean?
• Employees are in proper / clean uniforms in view of all customers.
• Employee behavior is another factor that the customer will be seeing and listening to. Is the staff professional and polite to their customers? Are the customers receiving Wow customer service?
• Scheduled staff: Are there enough staff scheduled to accommodate the customers in your restaurant. Under staffing will create an inferior customer service. Over staffing will create a very high labor percent and will affect the bottom line.

How do we schedule the right amount of employees?

• Sales projections
• Labor projections: Schedule all the employees and assign a rate of pay to each staff member. Add up the total hours for the week and do the math. Multiply the employees’ hours by the rate of pay for each employee. Divide the total labor cost by the total projected sales.
• Example: The weekly total projected labor dollar’s is $1120. The projected sales for that particular week are $5000. Divide the projected labor dollars $1120 by the projected sales $5000 ($1120 / $5000 X 100 = 22.4%.

The national average labor percent is between 25 to 35%. And that depending upon the style of the restaurant and the mix of sales.

Management average labor percent should be around 10%. Some restaurants separate hourly and the management, labor percentages. Other restaurants combine the labor percentages.

Use the projected labor percent as a guide in scheduling your employee’s. If you overload the schedule because of events or because you are not quite sure on how many employees you need to schedule, then management needs to be proactive per shift. Managers need to manage labor by knowing when to send employees home after the end of a meal period. Cut the employee early enough so that employee can complete the end of the shift break down or clean up. It is all about timing. In order to make a profit you need to control labor and food cost and not to mention great customer service.

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Management also needs to be on the floor where the money is. Touching the customers’ tables is a great way to know if the customer is receiving great customer service. If the guest is not satisfied for whatever reason than it is an opportunity to fix the problem before they leave your restaurant.

Have you ever heard of WORD OF MOUTH?

Word of mouth is the number one source of advertisement. Word of mouth will either make or break your restaurant’s reputation. Focus on one customer at a time. Adopt the following slogan: “Yes is the answer, what is the question” do what you have to do to fix the problem.

What is guest recovery?

GLAD 1) Go to the guest 2) Listen to the guest 3) Apologize to the guest 4) Do what you have to do to fix the problem.

Food temperatures and Plate presentation:

All foods that are hot needs to be heated to 165°F for 15 seconds. Then store the food in a steam table and maintain the temperature of 140°F or higher. Once the temperature drops below 140°F you must reheat the food until it reaches the internal temperature of 165°F for 15 seconds. If you do not see steam coming off the customers’ food do not serve it to the guest, kick the entree back to the cooks and get the temperature back to 165°F. Proper plate presentation and proper garnishes are very important, it adds flare to the dishes.

Restaurant forms and checklist play a huge role in maintaining high standards. Successful restaurants use forms and checklist.

Today’s Summery

Using restaurant forms and checklist are important in maintaining:

• High standards
• WOW customer service
• Positive word of mouth
• Great tasting food and service
• Hot food hot, Cold food cold