How My Restaurant is Beating Covid (Part 2)
By: Bk
Tags: Restaurant Business, Employee Engagement, Profitability, Restaurant, Business Strategy

After I took care of my personal needs the next step was to focus on the store’s culture and employees. Employees are not just your workers, they are the representatives of your product. If they feel invested in you, in the product, in the culture, they will not only show up, but excel. You won’t need influencer marketing, or discounted sales all the time. Your employees will sell the product because they love it, and they love working for you. They will understand that you are in war-time mode and will go to battle with you. My employees have gone above and beyond during this time, even correcting me on operational mistakes because they care about the restaurant so much.

Here is how this culture was built:

Hire and Train Carefully. When the government issued PPP loans, around 75% of PPP needed to go towards payroll. So instead of stretching it out to cover existing staff’s payroll, we redirected the funds towards hiring more people that will align better with the store’s goals. Some of our previous staff was not just a right fit and it showed during Covid. They had other priorities in life, and it was very difficult to get them on the same page. You need to have people ready to go into battle with you. Some are for peace-time, and they’ve served their purpose. Here are some ways to hire for success: Be thorough when doing reference checks, interviews, and assessments. When you are already overwhelmed with the restaurant’s needs, it’s easy to overlook this part. When calling their reference, make sure to call the establishment and not the phone number they give you. When doing interviews, be sure to ask specific critical thinking questions related to your business. Don’t focus on their answers only, but observe their body language. Do a mock customer employee interaction to see what type of energy they are giving out. If they end up getting hired, make sure to have them sign off on a 30/60/90 day probationary period in case it doesn’t work out. You need the best potential right now on your side. Spend more time training on customer service. In the first few weeks, spend everyday focused on getting new staff to understand how important it is to take care of customers, especially in light of Covid. Customers are the reason why the restaurant can exist, why staff can get paid. Write out a few scripts they can memorize. Do hundreds of mock interactions. Provide them with a paper and on-the-job quiz after a month. Have friends pretend to be mystery shoppers and give feedback. Whatever it takes to get team members sped up to knowing how to behave and service customers is key. Create systems for easy communication. Staff often feel stressed when there is miscommunication. You must do whatever it takes to reduce this friction. In our store, there are white boards that give staff updates. We have an iphone as the store phone and several What’s App channels that allow communication to flow easily. When each team member comes in, they immediately read the boards, and then the channels. They initial and write “read” on the channels, then get to store duties. Here are the channels and their purposes: Store Chat: Allows for store-related real time communication. Example would be when we run out of product, reporting on a strange customer interaction, etc. Daily Logs: We have an Opening and Closing Checklist that was made to ensure accountability. Photos of these are sent after they are done with the checklist. Other companies (franchises) use a digital checklist system and that’s fine to use as well instead of a What’s App Channel.Course Correction: Whenever there is a minor issue at the store, the staff is recording the issue here. They take pictures of a bad close, items left unwashed, etc. More serious conversations should not be on the channel and better via phone call. Praise/Course correct immediately: The more staff know you are there to acknowledge their strengths, as well as support them in improvement, the more they will take your establishment seriously. When you relax on this, don’t expect staff to understand what you consider a priority. Create a culture of transparency. In our shop, we have established that providing critical feedback does not devalue the worth of one another. We all have blind spots that need to be addressed. We have regular meetings where I ask the staff to go around and share what you appreciate about a team member, and what area they may need help in. In the past, team members have shared that I, as the owner, need to be more clear in my directions instead of assuming they would understand. Because of this feedback, everyone felt relieved to know that even though I am their boss, I am now accountable to get help to grow in this area. I had responded to the team to meet me halfway, by asking when they need more clarity so I can adjust. They agreed that the would be a good approach. This is one of dozens of instances where the team felt safe and empowered simply because they knew we were all stronger together if we could trust one another. Actually care about the Staff. Often there is a fine professional and personal line when it comes to showing care to employees. Care doesn’t mean that you bend over backwards to please them. Care means that you show up as a leader knowing when to show the way, when to teach them, and when to refrain. When I first interview staff, I make it clear that I eventually want them out of my shop into an advancing career. I tell them that making money is not the sole driver for my life, and I hope it is the same for them. I encourage them to take this job as a learning experience to grow in resilience, sales, overcoming self-doubt, integrity, interpersonal skills, and more. I also make it clear that after they “graduate” from this store, and if they have shown growth in these areas, I will do whatever it takes to help them advance in their next career trajectory. Because they know I care about them, more than just what they can offer me, it’s a mutually beneficial exchange. Get Your Values in Order. I cannot stress this enough. The brand’s Values or Principles is the guiding light that helps you and your staff make decisions. It will help you from micromanaging every little detail. It will create autonomy and create a fun atmosphere. Our team members know that creating a sense of community is a priority for our shop. Creating community is a very vague idea, however, it allows team members to be creative in how they can communicate that to guests. An instance of this at play was when we had a donation of new backpacks for us to donate to schools. A non-english speaking customer walked in to order but saw the backpacks and struggled to ask if they were for sale. One of the team members immediately responded with a “no they are for schools” in a matter of fact fashion. This response didn’t align with the goal of creating a sense of community in the store. Another team member walked over to the guest and asked him why he asked. The guest responded that his son was in need of one and loved the color teal. Immediately the team member grabbed the backpack and gave it to him. “This is our gift to your son.” The man was stunned. He and his friends are now regular customers.

When your team knows the values of the store, and you have given them the tools and guidelines, there is no need to micromanage.

When you, and your team are ready, now it’s time to focus on the community.

In Part 3, I will go into detail on how we were able to involve the community especially in light of Covid’s impact.

If you find this article helpful, please share it with someone you know in the industry that may find it helpful. There are many experts out there, and I’m just an owner of a single store, but I have been in the trenches and have turned this ship around.

Feel free to get in touch: contact@introtofranchise.com

Let me know, how are you taking a step towards take care of your employees?

B

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Disclaimer: I am aware that what I suggested doesn’t apply to all type of restaurants; there are too many variables that can bring about success. However, I do know that these principles in general can be incredibly helpful to many.