Why Restaurant Systems Won't Fix Your Business

In 2021, my business partners asked me to take over the last remaining Freshii in San Diego. COVID had closed two of our locations. We had barely any staff left, and it was clear we needed new leadership.

When I stepped in, we had three employees left.

We kept our hours limited while we intentionally rebuilt the team, and I was incredibly honest with every person I interviewed:

This is where we are. It’s going to be a little disorganized at first, but we’re going to make this place great. There’s a lot of opportunity in that.

I raised our starting wage and guaranteed another raise after 90 days. But rebuilding the team wasn’t just about hiring.

We needed something everyone could understand and get behind. My message was simple:

Bring our guests back.

If someone visited us once a month, we wanted to give them a reason to come twice a month. If they visited twice a month, we wanted them to come every week.

Then we connected almost everything we did back to that goal.

Restaurant Systems Work Better When Employees Understand the Goal

Why does prep need to be completed? Because if we can’t make someone’s favorite thing, we’ve given them one less reason to come back.

Why does the dining room need to be clean? Because a dirty restaurant gives them one less reason to come back.

Why does the music need to be on? Because the restaurant should feel like somewhere people want to be.

Why do we care about getting food out in less than five minutes? Because that’s part of the experience we’ve promised.

Why do we learn people’s names, talk to them and suggest something new they might enjoy? Because we want them to come back.

And when we got something wrong, we owned it. Everyone on the team was empowered to take care of an unhappy guest. They didn’t need to find me to ask whether they could remake a meal or make something right.

Take care of the guest. Then document what happened on our recovery log so we could learn from it.

We had systems. We had checklists. We had standards. But those weren’t the message.

The message was: give them a reason to come back.

About four months after taking over, I went home to Utah to visit my family. I casually checked our sales and realized we were having our busiest week since reopening.

I wasn’t there. And they were fine.

The team knew what mattered. They knew what we were trying to accomplish. And when something happened that wasn’t explicitly written on a checklist, they understood enough to figure out what came next.

Why Restaurant Checklists and SOPs Aren’t Enough

Think about what your team hears from you every day.

• Finish the prep.

• Clean the tables.

• Check the bathrooms.

• Get the ticket times down.

• Complete the checklist.

None of those instructions are wrong. But if that’s all you’re communicating, you’re teaching people to complete tasks. You’re not necessarily teaching them to understand the business.

Restaurants are built from hundreds of tiny details that can feel completely unrelated to the person performing them.

• Running out of someone’s favorite ingredient.

• A sticky table.

• An empty toilet-paper dispenser.

• A silent dining room.

• A twelve-minute ticket.

• A cashier who remembers someone’s name.

• A perfectly made order.

• A team member who notices someone isn’t happy and fixes it before they leave.

Individually, most of those moments aren’t going to make or break your business. Together, they’re the experience. And that experience determines whether someone comes back.

Restaurant Leadership Means Teaching People How to Think

Systems are incredibly useful for creating consistency around those details. But a system can only tell someone what you’ve already decided should happen.

Eventually, your employees will encounter something you didn’t anticipate. There won’t be a checkbox. There won’t be an SOP. There won’t be a manager standing next to them.

Then what?

If you’ve spent all your time communicating what to do, they’ll probably need another instruction. If you’ve consistently communicated what we’re trying to accomplish, they have something to make the decision against.

That’s how people begin developing judgment.

And that’s eventually how leaders get some freedom back. My team at Freshii didn’t need to know how to do everything I could do. They needed to understand the goal well enough to keep moving toward it when I wasn’t there.

Better Restaurant Systems Start With Clarity

Systems won’t fix your business. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have them.

• Build the checklist.

• Write the SOP.

• Set the standard.

• Create the training program.

But ask yourself what message your employees hear more often:

Complete the checklist or give the guest a reason to come back.

One tells people what to do. The other helps them understand why they’re doing it. The strongest teams need both.

Your systems create consistency. Your clarity gives those systems meaning. And when your employees understand what you’re actually trying to accomplish, they can start connecting the dots themselves.

The prep matters because we want them back.

The bathroom matters because we want them back.

The ticket time matters because we want them back.

The recovery matters because we want them back.

Eventually, you don’t have to explain every decision. They know where you’re going.

This Week’s Rhythm: Does Your Restaurant Team Understand Why?

Take five minutes and answer this question: What are we actually trying to accomplish for our guests?

Don’t use your mission statement. Explain it like you’re talking to a new employee on their first day. Keep it simple enough that someone can actually remember it.

Next, pick five everyday tasks or standards in your restaurant. For each one, finish: This matters because...

Can you connect the task to the larger goal?

Now test it with your team. Ask three people separately: “What are we trying to accomplish for our guests?”

Then choose an everyday task and ask: “Why does this matter?”

Don’t coach them toward your answer. You’re not testing whether they memorized your words. You’re testing whether they understand the connection.

If their answers all point toward the same destination, you’re probably communicating more than tasks.

And if they don’t?

Well, now you know what to work on this week.

Rooting for you,

-Colby

Frequently Asked Questions:

What systems should every restaurant have?

Every restaurant is different, but most benefit from clear systems for opening and closing, food preparation, cleaning, training, scheduling, guest recovery and other recurring parts of the operation. The goal isn't to create a procedure for every possible situation. It's to create enough consistency that employees understand the standards while still knowing how to make good decisions when something unexpected happens.

Why aren't restaurant SOPs and checklists enough?

SOPs and checklists are great at explaining what should happen in situations you've already anticipated. They can't account for every guest, employee or operational challenge your team will encounter. Employees also need to understand what the restaurant is trying to accomplish so they can use good judgment when the answer isn't written down.

How do I get restaurant employees to take more ownership?

Start by connecting everyday tasks to the larger goal of the restaurant. Don't only tell someone to clean a table, finish the prep or improve ticket times. Explain how those things affect the experience you're trying to create for guests. Then give employees appropriate authority to make decisions that support that goal. Over time, they can begin solving problems instead of waiting for instructions.

About the Author:

Colby Behrends is the founder of Noble Restaurant Success and a restaurant leadership coach with more than 20 years of experience. He helps restaurant owners build stronger teams, clearer systems, and businesses that don’t depend on them to make every decision.

Learn more at NobleRestaurantSuccess.com