Knowing how to manage a restaurant is essential to win customers' hearts and secure your place in the market. That foundation is what drives innovation, growth, and ultimately, profitability.
And to help your business along the way, we've put together seven tips that ensure solid restaurant management. Check out how to run the main areas of your establishment!
Here's what you'll find in this post:
Optimize operations and production
Manage your people well
Use technology to your advantage
Study your competitors
Evaluate your suppliers
Deliver exceptional service
Know how (and where) to promote your restaurant
7 tips on how to manage a restaurant
Restaurant management can be a huge challenge. Handling so many areas, routines, activities, and processes – while still delivering great customer service – is no easy task.
Another factor that adds to the difficulty is how specific each restaurant is.
Depending on the business model, target audience, types of dishes served, and even location, there can be a wide range of related activities and considerations.
That's why here you'll find general tips that can help the vast majority of establishments.
They cover restaurant management on the financial and administrative side, as well as team management, operational efficiency, customer service, and more. Take a look!
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1) Optimize operations and production
It's important to pay attention even to what seems basic and obvious. In other words: always keep your operation as efficient and agile as possible. Assim você evita desperdícios, melhora o atendimento e maximiza os lucros.
To do that, run constant training sessions with the whole team. Isso permite que as pessoas tirem dúvidas, pratiquem cenários e assimilem as práticas, processos e ferramentas usadas no dia a dia.
The same should happen whenever a new person joins the team, or when a new tool/solution is introduced into the operation.
Another golden tip for perfecting your restaurant's operation is using the right tools. Further on you'll see how technology can help production end to end, but a few essentials are: PDV, ERP e KDS.
2) Manage your people well
But an efficient operation counts for nothing if the people behind it aren't happy. In fact, if your team is unhappy, keeping the operation and service at good quality levels will be nearly impossible.
That's why it's essential to look after the people who are in your restaurant day in and day out. This involves a range of practices and strategies that address both the professional and the personal side. Algumas boas práticas incluem:
- Have a defined career path for each role, showing how a person can progress during their time at the establishment;
- Provide recurring training to keep upskilling the team;
- Offer benefits that support people's well-being, such as health insurance, meal/food allowance, dental coverage, and pay in line with the market.
3) Use technology to your advantage
It's worth repeating: technology is your friend. Com ela o seu estabelecimento ganha agilidade, eficiência, economia e lucratividade. E o melhor, sem aumentar muito o trabalho da sua equipe – pelo contrário, pode até reduzi-lo.
Think of it this way: to prepare a dish, a chef needs the best ingredients, utensils, appliances, and kitchen team, right? The same logic has to apply to every other area of the restaurant.
So don't be afraid to bet on technology. Phone ordering, online menus, digital menus, tools for managing orders, inventory, and even the establishment's entire financial life are some of the most useful solutions on the market.
And to make sure everything works well, connected and practical, it's essential to have a restaurant system. Com essa solução você pode gerenciar e automatizar diversas tarefas e processos com apenas um software.
4) Study your competitors
Keeping an eye on your own restaurant isn't enough — you also need to know what's happening at your competitors'. That way you know how your establishment stacks up against the others, and you can also discover new practices, ideas, and market trends.
Aim to get an overview of the competitive landscape in your area as a whole and, better still, an analysis of your direct competitors too.
If you run a pizzeria, for example, take a close look at the promotions, advertising, prices, and even the flavors offered by other pizzerias in the area.
Finally, remember to keep this monitoring going on a regular basis.
5) Evaluate your suppliers
Another restaurant management tip that needs to be done periodically is evaluating your suppliers.
After all, even when your restaurant reaches a flawless operation, it will all be for nothing if the raw materials used in the recipes don't match that quality. The same goes for suppliers of services and solutions/tools.
With constant, in-depth analysis of your suppliers, you guarantee the quality of your supplies and you also stay up to date on prices and practices.
On top of that, keeping a close relationship with them speeds up spotting opportunities for improvement and even resolving any problems that come up.
6) Deliver exceptional service
A satisfied customer always comes back. Mais do que isso, ele divulga o seu restaurante para familiares, amigos e colegas. Ou seja, prestar um bom atendimento garante lucratividade e ainda expande a presença do seu estabelecimento no mercado.
To put this restaurant management tip into practice, combine all the previous tips: use the best tools, count on the best supplies, and optimize and streamline your operation as much as possible.
And of course: check out our complete customer service training guide to make sure your team is ready to welcome your customers.
7) Know how (and where) to promote your restaurant
Finally, remember that well-known saying: advertising is the soul of business. Isso quer dizer que de nada adianta você possuir um restaurante impecável, totalmente preparado para atender bem seus clientes, se os clientes nem sabem que o restaurante existe.
To keep that from happening, study your target audience and then promote your establishment in the spaces/places they visit/frequent.
For example, if your audience is younger and more connected, promote the restaurant on social media. For an establishment focused on more refined customers, it may make more sense to advertise in specialized magazines and traditional media, such as TV and radio.
What matters is knowing who you want to talk to, and how and through which channels that communication will happen.
There you go — now you know how to manage a restaurant successfully by following these tips! And to make sure your supply management is always flawless, download our free inventory control spreadsheet!
