Creating an Ecosystem to enable consistent restaurant experiences!

Here are 5 things that have worked for me in creating an environment in the restaurant business that enables the delivery of a consistent, winning, guest experience!

1. Start with an Actionable Guest Insight

Identify the 'Leak' and establish exactly why your guests may be defecting from your brand. Equally important, is knowing what parts of the guest experience make your brand 'Magnetic' by attracting consumers towards your brand. In order to do this, leverage consumer research, guest feedback and any available third party brand experience trackers. Granularity is key - for instance its not enough to know that Speed of Service is an issue, knowing that the speed of Entree is upsetting guests is what makes the insight truly actionable

2. Scrub the Brand Standards

Once you have actionable insights, revisit your Brand Standards. Validate that issues causing guest 'Leaks' and that what makes your brand 'Magnetic' are dialed up in the standards. Strip off stuff from your standards that does not matter as much, keeping things simple. The front line really knowing and remembering what truly matters is mission critical!

3. Revisit Team Member Orientation & Training

Invest in making sure all training materials are current and consistent with the new insights. If you discover you have the '10 Steps of Anything' in training materials, you can be rest assured that such laundry lists will be tough to remember and likely not stick! Simplify, simplify, simplify!! Leverage an e-Learning System, use videos and plentiful visual aids and keep any long, boring manuals to the very bare minimum

4. Create Laser Sharp Measurement

What gets measured gets managed and what gets managed, gets done! Take a close look at your guest experience measurement and see if you are asking the right questions, the least possible questions and are generating tonnes of responses? Evaluate your operational audit and coaching system to ensure your actionable guest insights are consistent with what is being measured and managed in your business. A key part of piecing together this puzzle is setting up a Balanced Score Card that keeps your organization focused on a few obsession metrics. This Balanced Score Card must strike the balance between Employee Experience, Guest Experience and Shareholder Experience, all three need to thrive!

5. Align Reward & Recognition

Whilst what gets measured gets managed, lets not forget that what gets rewarded gets repeated! Meaningful recognition is the fuel of performance and a winning culture. Have loads of structured and spontaneous recognition set up to celebrate your winners - leverage tools like league tables, video blogs, pins, trophies and big incentives to make sure every one on your team is motivated to drive that what is truly important in your business, your 'actionable insights'. Trying to drive guest experience whilst only ever recognizing cost of labor performance may not cut it!