Starting, Owning and Marketing A Restaurant Blog|Starting and Owning a Restaurant - Construction, Planning, Marketing, Opening and Managing a New Restaurant

One of the most difficult tasks as a restaurant owner is to keep managers and senior staff focused on problems and potential problems. Many supervisory personnel tend to treat the reporting of inadequate service, inconsistent food or other problems like a shooting gallery at the state fair. As the problem balloon is raised, shoot it down by looking at the source of the report (the balloon), rather than the message inside.

It’s common to hear a server and manager having discussions that go like this;

Example One

Server to Manager: “Mrs. Smith at table 22 says the soup is too salty.”

Manager to Server: “She complains about everything. I had to comp a tuna sandwich last week.”

Two things happen here. Mrs. Smith gets ignored. The complaint is disregarded and the server is discouraged from reporting future complaints from regular guests. The only issue really - is the soup too salty or not? Mrs. Smith may be a frequent customer who knows when the soup is properly prepared. She may be a habitual complainer, who still visits everyday, but she cannot be treated like a fairy tale creation who cried wolf too often.

Example Two

Owner/General Manager to Supervisor/Manager: “There is a note in the operations log that Joe was late again. It also says that Joe clocked in and immediately ordered his shift meal before checking with his supervisor.”

Manager Response to Owner: “That note was written by Nancy. Nancy was having problems keeping up with her own tables to be worried about someone else. Conflicts like Joe and Nancy keep creating issues.”

The conversation turns to Nancy when the real problem is a matter of fact. It is a simple matter to determine if Joe did clock in late and if he went on to eat a shift meal during a busy service time before taking tables.

If Nancy is a problem, then deal with that as a separate issue, but reporting a lag in customer service is part of her responsibility if she cares about the restaurant and guests. No one really likes to hear a complaint, but it’s part of the business. How quick you respond and reinforcing the necessity to keep communication lines open between guests and management and management and servers is imperative to improving the dining experience at your restaurant.

A “shoot the messenger” management style can extend beyond the customer service arena. A manager who doesn’t listen to kitchen staff may be in for some costly future maintenance problems. A troublesome complainer in the kitchen cannot be ignored when reporting an issue with a piece of equipment. Employees who complain about workloads at various times of the day can’t be ignored if there is a real scheduling problem that affects service.

Managers have many responsibilities, but none are more important than solving problems. The solution can’t be taking aim on the person who points out the problem.