Restaurant Operations

How to Define Your Restaurant Value Statements

Originally Posted on FoodableTV – By Doug Radkey 12/22/2016

The most influential decisions you will make for your restaurant will happen during the start-up phases. Before opening your restaurant startup, you need to determine your value, vision, mission, and culture. (Or if you’re a restaurant veteran, consider this if you need to amp up your already-existing value statements.)

Understanding your goals and being able to state them clearly is the first step toward making them happen.

The definition of value is “the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.” For your restaurant or bar, it is a statement that informs not only your customers, but also your staff, about the business’ goals and what its core beliefs are.

Values and company culture coincide with determining your brand identity. Creating a value statement and building the foundation for culture within your concept will create consistency, accountability, and room for growth.

It’s a four-step process. To survive this cut-throat industry, each statement should be clear, powerful, and broad enough to guide your decision-making and help explain your restaurant’s intentions to consumers.

Writing Your Value Statement

Most restaurants and businesses jump right to writing a vision and mission statement. What should come first, however, is a value statement. It will help you determine the rest of the statements and create a sense of consistency throughout.

Start by listing out the following:

• List 10 key items that will make your concept competitive. Example: The customized decor and vibrant and energetic atmosphere.

• List five key items you know your guests will talk about. Example: Knowledgeable and attentive staff with effective attention to detail.

• List 10 key items that you dislike when you’re a guest at another restaurant. Example: Dirty dishware, floors, tables, menus, and washrooms. Make sure to turn these into positives for your restaurant or bar.

• List five key ways you can recover from a poor customer service scenario. Example: Taking the corrective and fast action to resolve the situation.

• List 3 key ways (for each) that your team can increase awareness, revenue per customer, and repeat business. Example: Being active within community, using suggestive selling techniques by understanding menu, and by creating consistency.

Now summarize your findings and create a top five list using short, powerful words on how you’re going to drive importance, worth, and usefulness. This should be used as your value statement. This is a great exercise to complete with your team or new hires to not only see their answers, but ensure there is cohesiveness between your values and theirs.

The Vision Statement

Now that you know your values, you can create a vision. What future do you want to create for your restaurant? What potential do you have? Why are you doing what you’re doing? Why are you building the concept you’re developing?  Write these answers out and choose positive, carefully crafted words to create a short — 20 words or less — summary that will also not hinder your future growth by being too specific.

The Mission Statement

Using your value and vision statement, you can develop a paragraph that will then build focus, service levels, experiences, and accountability. To assist, look at reviewing your strengths and weaknesses, your target customers, and your suppliers. How will you turn your vision into a promise? Keep it simple but actionable, and under 50 words.

The Culture Statement

Now that there is purpose and focus, who is going to deliver your vision and mission? What values and characteristics must they bring to your concept? How will they be compensated? How will they be rewarded? What kind of work environment are you going to build and sustain? Summarize your findings and create a top five list using short, powerful words, similar to your value statement.

Remember, you want to see the business through the eyes of both the customer and your staff. Creating these four statements should assist you in defining your restaurant’s positioning and should be reflective in all of your future hiring processes, day-to-day operations, marketing, and customer service sequences.

These four statements are only going to be successful if your entire team not only knows them, but also understands them and believes in them, and that rests on you as an owner, operator, manager, chef, and/or shift leader.

9 Ways to Build Your Restaurants Opening Day Team

Originally Posted on FoodableTV – By Doug Radkey 09/06/2016

Your restaurant is only as strong as the team that operates it. It’s no secret — people are everything. They must get the vision and feel the passion for your concept to consistently execute on a day-to-day basis.

It’s best practice to begin interviewing and onboarding your opening day team 5-6 weeks prior to your restaurant’s official opening day so that you ensure having adequate time for administrative duties, orientation, training, and your soft opening.

Before you interview and hire your team, it’s ideal to have a strategy plan in place, along with a staff budget completed not only for training, but also for at least the first 6-12 months of operations.

This strategy plan will also help establish a positive reputation from the start.

Complete Your Value Statement

Walt Disney once said, “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier!” This couldn’t be more true during the onboarding process. What qualities and characteristics are you looking for in your team that speak to both your personal and business values? Define these values and look for them during the interviewing process to ensure you’re building a team that matches your vision.

Complete Your Culture Statement

Create a balance of education and experience within your team. Create an environment that fosters learning and being innovative. Create a system that involves your staff, rewards your staff, and creates loyalty among your staff. Define how you will recognize your team on a consistent basis and how you plan to be involved within your local community.

Design Your Staff Start-Up Kit

Save confusion, while consistently communicating the same message to all new staff, with an effective operations manual. Create expectations by outlining your training schedule, day-to-day standards, service expectations, and the restaurant’s disciplinary code.

Ensure they initial or sign each page to hold accountability in the future.

Within this kit, also include their staff performance review schedule, a copy of their application, tax forms, banking information, and a copy of any certificates, plus a signed uniform policy, social media policy, cellphone policy, and whatever else you deem necessary.

Know Your Staffing Requirements

Once you know your concept and menu, you need to outline your culinary, service, and mixology team. What positions do you need? What experience must each position hold? Does anyone in your team outline need specific education or training to execute certain product?

How many of each position will you need to deliver a consistent product throughout the week? How will you install a system for growth, innovation, and education? What will happen if someone is sick or on holidays?

Define these questions to build a fundamentally strong kitchen and front-of-house team.

Know Your Traffic Flow

Once you’ve outlined your values, understood your target market, and have defined your concept, you can begin determining your traffic needs. You need to analyze your seating capacity, take-out out-put, average transaction, and average length of stay or delivery time.

Each restaurant will be different, but analyzing your Revenue Per Available Transaction will allow you to determine how many servers, hosts, bartenders, counter staff, and/or other service staff you will need to deliver quick, friendly, consistent, and effective service.

(Note: This also applies to your kitchen team)

Complete Your Wage Structure

Now that you have identified the above, you need to determine wages for each position that correlates with your concept, menu, service style, and budget. Define what their starting wage is and their schedule for wage increments based on performance reviews. How does it correlate with your budget – do any adjustments need to be made to ensure you’re staying below industry benchmarks for staff costs.

Complete a Mock Schedule

Put together a schedule for an average week to determine how many team members you will need to hire to deliver on your service promise. Put each position’s wage into the schedule to calculate approximate staff costs.

Compare these numbers to your projected sales to determine if the percentage fits within the industry’s key performance indicators for staff.

Write Winning Ads

Making your ads stand out in a crowd of others will assist you in receiving the most qualified leads for employment. Tell a short story about the concept and the culture you’re building.

Outline the benefits of working with you and your concept. Be descriptive in the needs and requirements for specific positions. Write out an ad template for each specific position to use as a guideline now and for the future.

Bulletproof Questions

Now that you’re ready to interview, ensure you curate a list of bulletproof questions. Ask questions with meaningful answers. Don’t ask questions that the applicant is prepared for. For best results, conduct your interviews in a relaxed chat platform and look for position specifics in addition to your listed values. Take notes after each interview to cross reference, compare, and rate each applicant to build the strongest opening day team possible.

Completing this strategy plan will allow your restaurant to develop a winning culture and save on staff turnover, administrative costs, and financial hardship, all while protecting your brand from potentially negative reviews from customers.