Restaurant Operations: Implementation Takes More Than Agreement

Last week, I spent three days at the California Restaurant Show in Anaheim. I went to sessions on restaurant trends, marketing, leadership and restaurant operations. I listened to speakers talk about everything from catering and loyalty programs to manager development and social media.

I noticed something interesting: Every once in a while, a presenter would say something that felt pretty basic to me, and everyone around me would start writing it down.

Not checking their phones. Not half listening. Writing it down. It happened enough times that I started noticing what people reacted to. At one point, I even wrote in my own notes: Many people responded to basic ideas.

I didn't mean that critically. The more I thought about it, the more I realized something about my own experience in this industry. Of course some of this feels basic to me. Someone taught me.

What Successful Restaurant Operations Taught Me

I didn't go to school for restaurant management. I grew up professionally inside successful restaurant companies. For more than 20 years, restaurants taught me how restaurants work.

They taught me about systems. They taught me leadership. They taught me how to read a P&L, manage labor, improve speed of service, develop managers, build schedules, hold people accountable and create consistent guest experiences.

I had to want to learn those things. I had to pay attention when something worked and care enough to understand why. But I also had access to the education.

I was thinking about one of the earliest examples of that while I was sitting at the Restaurant Show. When I first started at Corner Bakery Cafe, one of the things I was taught to do was stand near the entrance with menus when we were busy.

Corner Bakery had a five-minute service-time goal, and the lunch line could sometimes look intimidating when you first walked through the door.

So they taught me to watch the guests coming in. If someone walked through the door, looked at the line and seemed like they were reconsidering their decision, I was supposed to tell them: "It'll only take about five minutes."

That's it. It's such a small thing. I had never thought of doing it. I didn't know that the guest standing at the door and I had completely different information.

I knew the line moved quickly. They didn't. They just saw 15 people standing between them and lunch. Giving them that little piece of information made people stay.

It also did something to me. If I was going to stand at the door and promise someone we'd get them through that line in about five minutes, suddenly that five-minute service goal mattered a whole lot more.

It wasn't just a number somebody at corporate decided we should hit. I had just promised it to the guest. I started paying attention to whether we were actually delivering it.

Today, a lot of that feels like common sense to me:

• Manage the guest's perception of the wait

• Set a measurable service standard

• Explain why the standard matters

• Give employees a role in achieving it

But there was a point in my career when I didn't know any of that. Someone had to teach me. Simple doesn't mean obvious.

Why Restaurant Training Can't Rely on Assumptions

Independent restaurant owners come into this business from all kinds of backgrounds. Some grew up in restaurants. Some are incredible chefs who eventually opened their own place. Some inherited a family business. Some had an idea they believed in and figured things out as they went.

That means we can't make assumptions about what people have been taught. That applies inside our restaurants too. Something can feel incredibly obvious to you because you've done it 10,000 times.

That doesn't mean it's obvious to the 19-year-old employee working their first restaurant job. Or to the shift lead you promoted three months ago. Or the first-time GM you're trying to develop.

And saying something once doesn't mean you've taught it. That's the other thing I kept thinking about at the Restaurant Show.

There were a lot of good ideas in those rooms:

• Catering

• Welcome-back offers

• Menu engineering

• Leadership

• Employee engagement

Restaurant owners could have walked out of there with notebooks containing 50 things they wanted to change. At one point I wrote another question in my notes: What's the path from this to getting it done?

Because knowing something is only the beginning. You can attend a conference and write it down or hear about it on a podcast. You can talk about it in a manager meeting. You can even get your entire team to agree that it's a great idea.

None of those things mean it's going to become part of your restaurant. Implementation takes more than agreement.

How to Turn a Restaurant Goal Into Action

When you decide something needs to change in your restaurant, define the hell out of it. This is where something as familiar as a SMART goal can be incredibly useful. Don't say: "We need to improve ticket times."

• How much do you want to improve them?

• By when?

• How are you measuring them?

• What does the team need to do differently to get there?

• Who owns each part?

A SMART goal forces you to turn a good intention into something specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

But that's only the beginning. A well-defined goal still doesn't implement itself.

Once everyone understands the goal and the plan, it needs to become part of the conversation.

• How did we do today?

• Where did it fall apart?

• What worked?

• What do we need to adjust?

• How can we be a little better tomorrow?

Then do it again, and again. You refine and reinforce until eventually you don't need to talk about the "new thing" anymore. It's just what you do.

Then you can work on the next thing without allowing the first thing to disappear. That's how restaurants get better over time. Not through one giant transformation. Through a lot of improvements that eventually become normal.

Use SMART Goals to Improve Restaurant Operations

This week's Restaurant Rhythm: Pick one thing you've been talking about improving and define the hell out of it. Maybe you've been saying you need to improve ticket times. Great. Turn it into a SMART goal:

• S — Specific: Define exactly what you want to improve.

• M — Measurable: Decide how you'll measure it.

• A — Achievable: Make sure the goal is realistic.

• R — Relevant: Know why the goal matters to the restaurant.

• T — Time-bound: Decide when you want to achieve it.

Then figure out what needs to happen differently for you to get there.

• What does each person need to do?

• Who owns the follow-up?

• When are you going to check your progress?

Pick one improvement and answer those questions with your team this week. Then don't let the conversation end there.

At your next shift, meeting or check-in, ask:

• How'd we do?

• Where did it fail?

• What should we adjust?

• How can we be a little better tomorrow?

Keep asking. Keep refining. Eventually, the thing you're trying to improve won't be something you're working on anymore. It'll simply be the way your restaurant operates.

Then pick the next thing.

Rooting for you,

-Colby

Frequently Asked Questions:

How can I improve restaurant operations?

Start with one specific problem instead of trying to improve everything at once. Define what success looks like, decide how you'll measure it, assign clear ownership and regularly review what's working and what needs to change. Once the improvement becomes part of your normal operation, move on to the next priority.

How can SMART goals be used in a restaurant?

SMART goals turn broad restaurant goals into specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound objectives. Instead of saying, "We need faster ticket times," define the ticket-time goal, how you'll measure it, what needs to change and when you expect to achieve it.

How do you make operational changes stick in a restaurant?

Keep the change part of the team's regular conversation. Review progress during shifts and meetings, identify where the process is breaking down and make small adjustments. Continue reinforcing the new behavior until it becomes part of how the restaurant normally operates.

About the Author:

Colby Behrends is the founder of Noble Restaurant Success and a restaurant leadership coach with more than 20 years of industry experience. He helps independent restaurant owners turn good ideas into consistent systems, stronger teams and better day-to-day operations.

Learn more at NobleRestaurantSuccess.com