All great restaurants share similar characteristics. It does not matter if it is a mom and pop lunch place or a five star fine dining establishment. The secrets of success are the same; Great food and great service in a comfortable setting. Offering a consistently good product with exceptional service will keep people coming back time and time again.

Forbes Magazine says that Starbucks should be the model for anyone considering entering the restaurant business. The company provides a consistently good product and takes excellent care of employees who are the face of the business. This in turn creates happier employees who provide excellent service to the customers. Starbucks is one of the few companies in the industry to offer employees health care benefits if they work 20 hours a week and have been with the company for 90 days. This may seem like an expensive benefit to offer part time employees but in reality it saves money. It greatly improves employee retention and creates happy employees. A happy employee is much more likely to give great service then an unhappy one. Great service then creates repeat customers and reoccurring revenue.

The lesson learned from Starbucks is to never compromise your product. Each meal you serve should be treated like your future depends on it because it does. One bad dinner or inadequate service and you may have lost that customer forever. What’s more dangerous is you won’t just lose that customer but potential customers as well. A happy customer may tell one person, an unhappy customer will tell ten! Many of the new start up restaurants will fail and the reason is because there wasn’t as much attention paid to detail on day 365 as there was on day 1. In the restaurant business, there is an old saying “you are only as good as the last meal you served.” This means that no matter how many wonderful meals you make or excellent service you give, one bad meal or service mistake is what will be remembered.

For restaurant operators this means treating every day like it is opening day. As a manager you must scrutinize every aspect of operations and make it clear to your staff that excellence is expected. From food preparation to presentation you need to be checking to make sure that everything that is being done is up to your standards. You must supervise to be sure that tables are being properly cleaned and turned over quickly to cut down wait times. There is no task that is too small, down to making sure that the bathroom is well stocked with towels and toilet tissue.

The number one ingredient for a successful restaurant is an active diligent manager who has a handle on all aspects of the operation. This means checking the food and supplies coming in the back door as well as making sure the customers who come in the front door leave satisfied. The more involved the manager, the more successful the restaurant.

Author Bio: Kelly Boudreau represents Restaurant Solutions, Inc., a restaurant accounting firm.

Category: Business Management
Keywords: restaurant, operations, software, accounting, payroll, management