Restaurant Business Owners – Don’t Make These Fatal Mistakes!
Running a restaurant is a dream for many. Yet too few realise just how challenging it can be to make it successful and profitable. Indeed, many restaurant owners make the same mistakes when it comes to their businesses. The good news is you can find out what they are, and how to avoid them by reading the post below.
Not training your staff
Every restaurant manager wants people who can hit the ground running. However, training is crucial not only for safety but to ensure high productivity and minimise waste. With that in mind, you must take the time to properly train every member of staff that comes through your door.
Another great reason to offer good training to staff is that when they know what they are meant to be doing, they are much less likely to leave in the beginning stages of their role. This can help you save a great deal of money as a manager both in cover and in pursuing further recruitment.
Ignoring customer feedback
Getting a bad review online can feel devastating as a restaurant manager and the temptation to ignore it can be strong. However, bad reviews can sometimes be just as helpful to your business as good ones. Indeed, a bad review provides you with accurate information on where your business is weakest, and often how you can improve it.
Yes, other potential customers may see bad reviews, but if you correctly respond to them, any damage from this can be limited. Just be sure to reply to negative reviews in a calm way stating the changes you will make to improve.
Not taking proper care of your equipment
Next, another major mistake that restaurant business owners tend to make is to not take proper care of their often expensive and critical equipment. After all, you can’t run a restaurant if your oven breaks down!
The good news is that by working with a provider that offers commercial kitchen equipment maintenance you can enjoy your restaurant kitchen being well-maintained at all times. This means it’s not only safe, but reliable too, and won’t end up eating into your profits because of equipment failure.
Offering too many choices on the menu
A long menu is rarely ever a good idea when running a restaurant. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that if you provide too many choices for your customers, they will take longer to decide what to eat, take longer at their table, and negatively impact your turnover. Too much choice can also give your customers the impression that whatever they pick is wrong, and so negatively affect their experience.
Secondly, a long menu suggests that both the cooking and ingredients involved in making the dishes are of low quality. After all, it’s hard to stock a wide range of high-quality fresh ingredients just as it’s hard to cook many different dishes skilfully.
With that in mind, a small menu of specialised dishes is always a better idea. For change just be sure to rotate in one or two specials a week.
