My uncle runs a nice restaurant in Chicago. The restaurant has been expanded for twice in two years. Now the restaurant can contain more than more than 300 hundred people and still people are waiting in front of the restaurant waiting for the tables. I can not help wondering how a restaurant grows up so fast in such a competitive industry. After a long chat with my uncle, I find out managemt play the most important role in a restaurant.
I used to think that restraurants are just opening their doors waiting for customers. But in fact, if you want to make a restaurant popular, you have to be very serious about quality management. The reason people go out to eat are food and dining enviornment. The refer to the quality of food and quality of services and decoration. Since restaurants build their reputation on words of mouths, they have to keep customers’ satisfaction on both espects. To ensure the quality of food, a restaurant keep their eyes on the cooking materials, the skills of chefs, and the cleaness of the kitchen.In addition, the taste of dishes have to adjust based on customers’ needs. On the other hand, the quality of decoration and services can distiguish a restaurant from other competitors. With this idea in my uncle’s mind, he decided to employ designer to decorate his restaurant in traditional Chinese style. What’s more, he hired people to give his waiters and waitresses professional trainning because he thinks that every experience for customers is crucial and his employees should try their best to make the experience wonderful.
Another very important technique used in restaurant management is forcasting. Atucally, restaurant business is a very time sensitive industry. For example, in a day, 11 a.m to 2:p.m., 6p.m.-9 p.m. is a big rush time. In a weekend, Friday and Saturday would be very busy while Tuesday and Wednesday would be a little quite for restaurants. In a year, June to September would be the big time for people eating outside. Since food material is very time sensitive inventory, restaurant has to adjust supply orders according to forcast of demand and schedule for HR. Good forcasting can dramtically lower the cost of a restaurant and enhance its profitability.
I am sure there are more management skills that can be used in restaurant management, is there coming up to your mind?
My parents own a restaurant as well and I can agree with what your saying. One aspect that you are forgetting is marketing the restaurant. Advertising your restaurant also give it a huge advantage in the Chicagoland area. Management skills is by far the most important though. Having good service and quality employees is a huge aspect in keeping loyal customers. My opnion is that every restaurant should create an environment to draw customer to come back and that is why managing the store from staff, decorating, and time is very important.
I think marketing in a major city like chicago is difficult based upon where your advertisement is located. It’s not like a small business or restaurant can afford a billboard on I-90 heading into the city. The thing point the author made which is very true is the fact that, word of mouth is HUGE especially in the restaurant industry. I eat out at a lot of different restaurants and outside of the quality of the food, SERVICE is the most important aspect of a restaurant and any business. If you cannot satisfy the customer with your service you will go out of business. I think the decor is a key part of the dining experience. If you do not create the right atmosphere for the particular food your going to serve then you won’t survive either.
As for management skills, i think making sure your making money in the bar and not over pouring is huge. In a lot of restaurants bartenders tend to “hook” their friends up with discounts or no bill at all, and that is a cause of lost profits.
As a Hospitality Leadership major with a concentration in Food and Beverage, I found your post to be very interesting. I have worked in several different restaurants throughout high school and college and have often by astounded by the ways that a restaurant can quickly succeed or flounder in such a competitive market. I too believe that much of it has to do with quality control and management. Customers expect consistency above anything else. Currently, I work in Food and Beverage Sales. We do many different events, both corporate and social, where the importance of quality management has been reinforced. As one of the best steakhouses in Chicago, our clientele expect that the food and service they receive in the main dining room is of the same caliber that they receive in a private dining room during an event. This can only be accomplished through constant quality management of both food and service.
I have never had experience with working with the food industry (restaurants). However, my family and I go out to eat at a variety of places in Chicago so I find that your post is very interesting. From a customer’s perspective, I do agree with you as I rate restaurant (whether I should come back and refer it to my friends or not) depending on the quality of food and service. I would come back mainly for the food (tasty and clean) and recommend it to my friends. However, the service is the thing that makes a big difference from willingness to tip more versus criticizing the service to my friends. For me I weight more on the food but if a service is bad, it really discourage me from returning and telling my friends. For a restaurant, I do agree with the post and comments above that “Words of Mouth” is the most important marketing tool. If you are reading comments on websites like Yelp, you are basically seeking marketing material from previous customers. I even know that some restaurants monitor the comments on these websites to keep their customers happy and attract new customers.
I find your remarks about forecasting very interest. When I sit down to eat in a restaurant I don’t normally think forecasting would be an issues. However, then I think of the times where I have placed and order and the server comes back to inform me that they are out of the product or food I had just ordered. As restaurants fall under both the service and product industry I could now see how forecasting could become an issue. Restaurants, especially owners and managers, want to provide the best service they possibly can – this is what will bring people back (along with great food that is). Keeping your restaurant fully equipped with the necessary ingredients and products plays a large part in this. The restaurant then seems more reliable to the patron and loyalty might begin to be established.
“pmazurek”: I disagree with your statement as I remember Brazzaz Steakhouse running radio campaigns and even seeing a small billboard ad in the city. Furthermore, Taste of Chicago is a form of marketing.
However, I do agree with your statement that “SERVICE is the most important aspect of a restaurant.” I work in the food service industry and my coworkers and I are instructed to be friendly and complete our orders as fast as possible. In fact, if a customer doesn’t like his/her order, we are compelled to redo their order. This is one reason why I see the same faces all the time (unfortunately I’m not too good with remembering names but I do treat my customers in a friendly manner).
“lhuang”: I obviously agree with restaurants ensuring quality of food, exquisite customer service, and forecasting. The funny thing about forecasting is my hours are starting to decrease since our September-February months are slow. What you didn’t mention, yet I have is, is that my hours as an employee depend on consumer demand.
Effective management is crucial in all types of business including restaurant. In order to run a successful restaurant, I agree with you that a good dining environment, quality of food, and quality of service are key components. The food has to be properly prepared, clean, and taste good. Good service also increases customer satisfaction. As a result, a restaurant will be able to bring in customers and generate it business form repeat customers. Moreover, marketing and accounting are also crucial in the business. A restaurant might have to create its own website, offer today’s specials, use flyer, and frequently update its menu. For accounting and finance, this function has to oversee cost control and budgeting. I think your point about forecasting directly affect the cost control because it gives ideas to the restaurant of how it should plan to store its inventory.
It’s very interesting to hear your comments on my post.One very interesting part is about marketing. Actually marketing is not a part of operational management and that’s why I didn’t mention too much in my original post. But it’s a crucial factors of restaurant business. Marketing through events, I-90 heading, flyers can boost your names in certain area for a while. Soon after your marketing, the number of customers will increase dramatically. But what’s more important, you have to keep them as your repeating customers. If you can not keep them for a long term, their first visit to your restaurant is just a “one time event”. That’s why “mouth of words” is more important for a restaurant. But still, marketing give restaurant a chance to have new customers.
I completely agree with your post about how important quality management is. I worked at a restaurant that was so disorganized that I was honestly surprised how they were still in business. They didn’t keep track of anything and were constantly running out of supplies and inventory. I tried to suggest to the owners that we should track inventory because it was embarrassing how often I had to tell people we didn’t have something that was in the menu. Unfortunately they didn’t really pay attention. I don’t work there anymore but I’ve gone back to see how they are doing and they are still just hanging on. I feel the restaurant could be a huge success if they just had very management.