Everybody in the restaurant business wants to master the art of increasing guest count.
Here’s how to do it.
In today’s market, the difference between a flatlined guest count and a guest count (as well as revenue and profit) that’s significantly higher is the domino effect of a ton of little pieces.
With guests more knowledgeable and demanding than ever about the quality of experiences at restaurants, you must have a much tighter grasp on the details if you want to be one of the top performing groups.
Awareness, Education, Accountability
My recommendation to you? Stretch your capability to educate your team and hold them accountable.
When you do, guests will feel the difference – even if they can’t put their finger on why.
My clients who do this experience the top performance in the industry, with annual revenue increases in the 6-8% range.
They improve results either through their existing resources, or – as one six-unit group I work with just did – simply by adding a full-time in-store trainer to their multi-unit management team.
The Behavior You Correct
Over a couple of delicious meals in already extremely successful client restaurants, I still see a lot of opportunity. I know about the type of behavior we look to correct in order to take our place among the best in the market. Have you seen any of these in your dining rooms?
- The hostess who hands out a buzzer and tells guests to return to the hostess stand when it goes off to get their table, but never tells them about the anticipated wait time.
- The server who takes an order for a menu item similar to another menu item, but does not ask which one – and then brings the one the guest does not want.
- The manager stays busy running food and drinks and seating people but never stops to have a conversation with a guest.
- The manager plants himself in the to-go window talking to employees with his back to the adjacent host stand and can’t see the host remaining so busy seating people that no one thanks guests as they leave.
- The staff that remains on task, hustling to make the shift happen, but they look universally stone-faced and never smile.
- The server who has their speech so rehearsed that it comes out in rapid fire as insincere and uncaring. Their guests can barely get a word in the conversation.
Some of these things – or their local equivalents – happen in your restaurants. Correcting these behaviors increase your sales and profits (and your Google ratings). Start working on these to take your place at the top of the industry.
