Being a restaurant manager is far from a simple task. When we say simple, most people tend to think of things being easy as opposed to difficult. But looking at the root of what simplicity actually means, it refers to something being singular, not compound or complex. So yes, being a restaurant manager is difficult, but one of the main reasons for this is because you have to wear a wide range of hats to do your job. Managing a dining room staff, a kitchen staff, sourcing ingredients, payroll, financial decisions, marketing, and a host of other significant aspects doesn’t sound like simplicity to us.

It actually sounds rather overwhelming, which is why we are tipping our hats to all our restaurateur readers out there. In posts of the past, we’ve taken the opportunity to shine the proverbial spotlight on a wide variety of topics, with all of them attempting to convey how we can help make the life of restaurant managers easier while helping them make money in the process.

That sounds pretty good, right?

Whether we are discussing our online ordering software or the right way to go about online marketing for a restaurant, we want to provide value here at Online Orders Now. So before we touch on what makes a successful restaurant manager successful, we’d like to *briefly* highlight what makes our mobile ordering solutions for restaurants so darn unique. Because, they are, quite unique. We say more below.

Online Orders Now From A High Level

For over a decade, we’ve been providing restaurant owners with the opportunity to improve the efficiencies of their operations with the ability to dramatically increase their bottom line. Adding a robust online ordering system, along with a modern, custom-designed website and specialized mobile app, can change the way customers view and think about your brand.

From an internal perspective, we’ve done our due-diligence to make things integrative and intuitive. Basically, things are easy to implement and easy to change, should you need to. For example, if you need to change your menu up in a variety of ways? We make it easy. Plus, if you can’t figure it out or just don’t have the time, you can email our customer support team and we’ll make the changes for you or walk you through the process! What’s more, our online food ordering system can fully integrate with the POS system you already use (in almost every case). Online Orders Now puts the order into your POS, prints out the ticket while the customer is still online, and keeps track of every order! This means improved order accuracy without the stress of needing to train yourself (and your entire staff) on using a new system. That’s gold.

Be sure you check out our full range of features and benefits when you get the chance. For now, we have a promised blog topic to get to, and by gosh we are going to talk about what makes successful managers successful if it’s the last thing we do!

Characteristics And Habits Of Successful Restaurant Managers

In our previous two posts, we’ve discussed how restaurant managers should best relate to their staff in order to have a healthy, happy, and productive team of employees. We aren’t restaurant managers ourselves, or at least, most of us aren’t, but we have worked with a vast number of restaurants in our experience as providers of online ordering software for restaurants. That being said, we believe we have something to contribute to the conversation. But please, don’t mistake our words of advice for us thinking that we think it’s an easy task to implement successfully — far from it. So, with that ample grain of salt laid out for all to read, let’s provide some good old-fashioned value for our restaurant-owner readership!

Take Responsibility

You will succeed. But you will also fail. You might be failing right now, who knows? You will likely fail many more times than you succeed, at least if you consider success to be true success when it’s big-time win. But whether you are doing well or not so well, having a good day or a bad day, a truly great manager will know that they must take responsibility for what they have done. Likewise, a great manager will know that one success or one failure does not define them — strikes and gutterballs, as they say.

Rather than pointing fingers, a successful manager will hold themselves accountable first and foremost. When a staff knows that you will own up for what you need to, they’ll likely be much more at ease when you give them constructive feedback. And that is a good thing.

Be Intentional With Your Training

No bad habits. We can’t think of a more important time for a new staff person than their first month on the job. While they are learning the particulars of various tasks around your restaurant, they are also picking up on social dynamics and other less straightforward elements of your establishment that might not be on your radar.

Whether we are talking about your BOH or FOH staff, it’s a vital time to instill them with best practices. If they start cutting corners early on, the quality of service drops initially, but later on, other new hires will take note of said corner cutting and follow suit. So make sure that your cooks are precise with their cooking and hygiene. Make sure that your servers know how to use your POS system appropriately and that your hosts know exactly how you want them to represent your brand. It will take more work in the short-term for you, the restaurant owner, but ultimately it will lead to your restaurant being more of a well-oiled machine that can function well even if you aren’t there to run things!

Routinely Re-Evaluate

Well, the fact that you have made your way to this blog post would recommend that you already are in the process of re-evaluating, so cheers for that! Re-evaluate in these areas, among others:

• Food Cost – Managing your food costs can make or break your restaurant in terms of its profitability. Profitability, you know, is kind of important. You might have the best food in the world, but if you aren’t constantly trying to identify where you can save costs without compromising too much in terms of quality, things probably won’t go in your favor down the road.
• Staffing Cost – This is an area that requires a wealth of attention as well. An experienced manager knows how to anticipate staffing needs better than most. This means being cognizant of external factors that will affect your overall traffic for a given day. What’s the weather going to be like? Are there community events that will impact consumer behavior? There’s so much more to it than staffing your weekdays one way and your weekdays another!
• Food Waste – How much food is being wasted on a regular basis? Are BOH staff members getting sloppy or are the servers entering orders incorrectly? Perhaps both, and perhaps neither. Whatever the problem is, you need to get to the root of it in order to solve the issue. Track it, analyze it, and ask your staff their opinion if the solution isn’t obvious. Your staff just might like feeling like their opinion is valued, who knows?

Learn More About How We Can Help Your Restaurant

With unlimited transactions irrespective of your total online orders per month, seamless POS integration, custom restaurant websites, and a host of other practical benefits, there’s a lot to like about choosing Online Orders Now as your online food ordering system provider. We work diligently to capture your unique brand while positioning your restaurant so that your delivery service will thrive. Learn more about what we can do for you and your restaurant today!