How to Run a Restaurant Successfully: 5 Management Tips

Did you know that 9 out of 10 restaurant managers started their careers in entry-level positions? This includes servers, dishwashers, and kitchen help.

Yet, managers are still struggling to learn how to run a restaurant successfully. Knowing how to work each position in a restaurant is helpful but if you want to have a good restaurant business plan, you need more information.

If you want some helpful restaurant business tips, here are five tips:

1. How to Run a Restaurant Successfully by Being Consistent

Every day in a restaurant is different. It’s a fast-paced industry and situations can change quickly. However, each situation must be dealt with consistently.

Rules should not change depending on who you are interacting with. Your expectations should stay the same. When there is an emergency or a busload of tourists at your door, your staff needs to know what to expect from you.

Staff feels more confident when they know their manager can handle any situation without the need to escape to the cooler to calm down. Practice being consistent in your manner at all times. Staff and customers will learn they can count on you.

2. Restaurant Marketing Tips

Keep your customers satisfied first. Learn a bit about psychology to understand what your customers want.

It’s not just about the food (although that is a huge part of it). Customers want to feel valued and heard. They want an experience.

That experience can cover a wide variety of factors from decor to comfortable seats to the availability of restaurant wifi. Take into account the cleanliness of the location (bathrooms especially!), wait times, and staff.

One of the top restaurant management tips is to remember that customer experience is everything. Why? Word of mouth.

Customer word of mouth spreads faster than any other kind of marketing. Social media and traditional advertising are great restaurant marketing tools. People will always trust their friends over what they see in an advertisement though.

3. Be Proactive

Always think ahead. Manage decisions like staffing, inventory, menu changes, and other important tasks before they need to be completed.

Use tools like scheduling apps to help you plan for time off requests. This makes it easier for you and your staff.

4. Get Involved

Don’t be afraid to jump in on days when you’re less busy and do some work yourself. If it is a quiet day and someone calls in sick, do some dishes, take a section, or help with prep work. It is a great reminder for you about how hard your staff works.

Staff will also see that you can do their jobs and understand how much effort they put in.

5. Make Keeping Staff a Priority

You don’t need to train staff that sticks around. Each new staff member that you need to hire takes time to train and adjust to company culture.

Regular staff connects better with customers. This adds to the customer experience.

It’s easier to work with staff that understand how the schedules work. You learn each other’s communication styles and have to spend less time explaining things.

When you make staff retention a priority, you have less work and can count on them to do the job you trained them for.

Experience and Time are Your Friends

When you want to learn how to manage a restaurant, remember that experience and time will always help. Learn from mistakes. Celebrate successes.

If you enjoyed this article on how to run a restaurant successfully, check out our Business section for more management tips.