When restaurant managers want to track information about their business to minimize losses and maximize profitability, a manager's daily logbook may prove to be the key. However, the information should be divided up into blocks that are more useful to the manager. To make the most of a daily logbook, information should be divided up into the five Ws; who, what, where, when, why.
Who: Keeping track of employee performance and incidents can aid in weeding out problem employees and evaluating the better ones highly enough to recognize their accomplishments. Managers can also look at different shifts and make changes to get people who work well together on the same crews.
What: Inventory control is a major responsibility of restaurant managers. It is important to avoid having too much food on hand that will age before being served. It is equally important to avoid running out of anything when customers are waiting for it in the dining room. Limiting waste is critical to reducing losses.
Where: Which part of the business is affected? Problems with the kitchen are separate from problems in the dining room in most cases. Different personnel are involved. Different types of problems can arise, so it is important to identify where a situation is located in the restaurant.
When: When an event occurs can be a major feature in what caused it. Different types of problems can arise on different shifts. Sometimes the number of patrons in the dining room can create the problem. Other times, the time of day or night may affect business in a positive or negative manner.
Why: Whenever possible, it helps to know why an event occurred. Recording this information in the daily logbook can help a manager determine the best way to handle a situation so that negative impacts are reduced and the business becomes more profitable.
The folks at www.reservationbooks.com has come up with a manager's communucation module that does all this. All is one book to organize your daily restaurant activity.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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