Restaurant Consulting NYC | We’re Having a Heat Wave, A Tropical Heat Wave… | 4Q Consulting, LLC

We’re Having a Heat Wave, A Tropical Heat Wave…

Just as Irving Berlin wrote, “The temperature’s rising/ It isn’t surprising”.

This week’s heat wave has been forecasted and we tend to have one or two every summer.  Restaurant owners should be prepared to take some proactive steps to keep both their guests and employees safe when the mercury rises.

Here are 4 areas to keep in mind to keep guests and employees safe in a heat wave:

Keeping People Safe – 

• Keep guests and workers cool, comfortable and hydrated – make sure everyone is drinking plenty of water
• Either provide both shade and air circulation or close outside seating during the hottest part of the day – to ensure the safety of both your guests and employees.
• Provide water and food for your staff – hydration is vital, but so is maintaining blood sugar levels.
• Monitor staff and guests for signs of distress or heat stroke.
• Lighten the uniforms of the dining room staff – think about a summer weight uniform, with light colors clothing and short sleeves.  
• Monitor patron’s alcohol consumption as over consumption in extreme heat can be accurately dangerous.

Maintaining Your Equipment –

• Service all refrigeration and AC units prior to summer so they don’t breakdown in a heat wave.
• Instruct your staff to keep the AC at a consistent level.  Turning the AC or refrigeration units down too far will overload and freeze up your cooling system, rendering them useless.
• Ensure kitchens are properly ventilated and have fans
• If your ice machine is air cooled and struggling to keep up, consider purchasing cubed ice for drinking; similarly, if your refrigerators and walk-ins are struggling, consider purchasing dry ice.

Monitoring Food Safety –

• Monitor refrigerator and product temperatures closely and take corrective action immediately. Remember all foods must be stored at or below 40°F.  If your walk-in is above 40°F, your food is not properly stored and can be a health hazard.
• To keep cold food cold – 
• Keep walk in and fridge doors closed as much as possible.
• Do not overload refrigerators – if the fan unit in the fridge is blocked, this will cause poor air flow and will inhibit the unit’s cooling ability.
• Do not block refrigerator’s external condensing unit with debris and storage items; which would inhibit the units cooling ability.
• Prepare food in small batches to reduce the amount of time food is out of refrigeration and in a very hot kitchen.
• Use proper thawing and cooling techniques: do not leave food out on counters to thaw; thaw all food under running cool water (water should be below 70°F).

Modifying Menu Offerings – 

• Offer lighter menu items for the summer – heavy sauces, stews and roasts are can be unappealing when the mercury rises.  These could include cold options such as salads, sandwiches and cold soups.
• Add more small plate and appetizer options as people not only eat lighter food, but they tend to eat smaller portions when it is very hot outside.
• Add frozen non-alcoholic drinks, chillers and fruit flavored waters to menus.

As Cole Porter said in song: “It’s too Darn Hot!”  A few proactive easy fixes can help you get through these periodic heat waves while keeping your guests and employees safe. Also, keep in mind for next year’s planning.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have the proper written procedures and operational guidelines in place to help you be as successful as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs. Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013.

Restaurant Consulting NYC | 4 Warning Signs That Your Operational Procedures are Impacting Your Bottom Line | 4Q Consulting, LLC

4 Warning Signs That Your Operational Procedures are
Impacting Your Bottom Line –
Mid-Year Review

As we enter the second half of 2013, now is the time to take stock of your business’ operational inefficiencies. Whether you are restauranteur, caterer or food service provider, examine which procedures are currently working and get rid of those that are not.

Here are 4 warning signs that indicate that you have a problem with some of your operating procedures that may impact your bottom line:

High Employee Turnover - This is an indication of a larger human resource issue.  Exit interviews can uncover a pattern of something amiss in your organization. For example, are your managers adhering to the guidelines of your employee handbook?  Our Blog,  4 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs an Employee Handbook,  takes a look at this.  High employee turnover becomes expensive due to the cost of recruiting, hiring and training new staff.  High turnover can also make it hard to maintain your desired level of product and service quality, as it pulls management away from running the business to train new staff and by always having novice front-line staff.

Theft - If you think you don’t have any, you are wrong; and if you are aware of some theft, the problem is larger than you think it is. Re-examine the obvious places where theft occurs to ensure your controls are in place and being used.  But also look at the less obvious places.  In our previous blog we discussed, how theft is a major drain on your bottom line. Our Blog entitled: How Much of your Profits are Being Eaten by Employee Theft? Four Basic Ways to Prevent Employee Theft in your Establishment, examines this more in depth.  Holding your staff accountable with strict controls, checks and guidelines can help you to maintain your bottom line profits.

Safety and Sanitation – Poor safety and sanitation can lead to waste, unnecessary health department fines, and a PR nightmare. Now is the time to review your food safety and sanitation training program.  As discussed in our blog entitled  4 Reasons why it is Vital that All Employees are Trained in Food Safety,  having dirty bathrooms, employee accidents, fruit flies at the bar, or violations from the health department can hurt your quality, effect employee morale and lead to a loss of business.

Quality –There are many components to quality.  They all lead back to proper training and execution of operating procedures by your staff.  Seeing an increase in improper order taking, plates being returned to the kitchen and general complaints about service and cleanliness are often red flags, as are negative on-line reviews. A positive customer experience is the ultimate goal. Turning poor customer experiences into positive ones can be a valuable training tool and learning experience, and can lead to customer loyalty.  Our blog Bad Experiences Can Make Loyal Customers explores this.

The issues above can erode your profit margin quickly and lead to your business’ demise. If procedures are not working now, they won’t work in the future and need to be changed. Improving upon your guidelines and procedures can ensure that 2013 is your most profitable year yet.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have the proper written procedures and operational guidelines in place so you can be as profitable as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs.  Call or email us today for a free business consultation!

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013.

Restaurant Consulting NYC | Happy July 4th! | 4Q Consulting, LLC

Happy July 4th!

Restaurant Consulting NYC | Risks and Responsibility of Owning and/or Operating a Restaurant Series: Accident Prevention | 4Q Consulting, LLC

Risks and Responsibility of Owning and/or Operating a Restaurant Series:  

Accident Prevention

When you decide to own or operate a restaurant there are inherent risks and responsibilities that you are undertaking.  It is important that you take every measure to minimize these to protect yourself and your employees from possible injury, harm, litigation and financial loss.

As a restaurant owner, it is your responsibility to keep both your guests and employees safe, while they are in your establishment.  Restaurants are full of hazards and can be dangerous places, if safety is not top of mind.  Injuries from accidents in your restaurant of either a guest or employee create a no-win situation for everyone involved.  The injured party experiences pain, suffering and incapacitation while the company suffers from the loss of the injured person's contributions, possible litigation and financial loss.

Here are four basic steps to help prevent accidents in your restaurant:

Cleanliness & Maintenance – Slips, trips and falls are the most common types of accidents in restaurants and these are most often caused by wet, greasy or unclean floors; uneven, improperly secured and/or frayed flooring or carpeting can also be the culprits.  Spills and wet floors should be cleaned up as soon as they occur, and trip hazards should be fixed as soon as they become apparent. Additionally, handrails should be properly secured, outside walkways should be well lit and all stairways should be kept clear.  Another common cause of injury is poorly maintained or broken equipment: This could be as small as chipped glasses in the dining room or as large as frayed electrical wires on the Robot Coupe. Ensure that all equipment is routinely inspected, serviced or replaced for the safety of your employees and guests. 

Safety Tools for the Job – Proper clothing on your employees can be one of the most valuable safety tools in your restaurant.  Starting from the bottom up, all employees should wear sturdy leather, anti-slip shoes specifically designed for hospitality workers.  Moving upwards, legs, arms and heads should be covered in kitchens to prevent cuts and burns; in the dining rooms, uniforms should fit properly to avoid trips on pant legs and sleeves getting caught on service items or in machinery.  Additional types of supplies for safety include, but are not limited to: “caution when wet” signs, knife guards and gloves, proper eye protection, and guards on slicers.

Safety Protocols – Written guidelines for safety procedures must be developed, communicated to all employees and adhered to.  These procedures should become part of the routine, with managers and supervisors integrating them into their daily activities: training, pre-service uniform line ups, and regular facilities inspections. Job-specific protocols should be included in position-specific written manuals, and general safety protocols should distributed to all employees in writing.  Never assume that your employees know even the most basic safety protocols, and always put them in writing.

Train, Train and Train Again – Safety training should be a major focus when on-boarding new employees, however training should not stop there. Accidents often happen when employees become complacent; incorporate safety procedures into employees’ daily job responsibilities and reinforce these protocols with refresher training.  Pre-service staff meetings are a convenient time to discuss safety issues and keep them top-of-mind. It is also helpful to have reminders of safety protocols throughout the work areas: For example, in the delivery receiving area posters reminding proper lifting technique, or signs near large kitchen equipment reminding proper use of safety guards.

The points above are employee training issues at their core.  Properly educating your staff in all manner of restaurant safety is crucial in preventing accidental injury of employees and guests and protecting your business from potential litigation.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have the proper procedures and operational guidelines in place to help you be as profitable as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs.  Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.    

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013. 

Restaurant Consulting NYC | Risks and Responsibility of Owning and/or Operating a Restaurant Series: Responsibly Selling Alcohol | 4Q Consulting, LLC

Risks and Responsibility of Owning and/or Operating a Restaurant Series:  

Responsibly Selling Alcohol

When you decide to own or operate a restaurant there are inherent risks and responsibilities that you are undertaking.  It is important that you take every measure to minimize these to protect yourself and your employees from possible injury, harm, litigation and financial loss
.
One of the first decisions you make in planning a restaurant is if you want to apply for a liquor license. The sale of liquor is controlled differently in each state in the US, and often at the local level, under laws referred to as “Dram Shop” law. The process of obtaining a liquor license, and the types of licenses available, differ as well. Your local and state law may influence your decision on the type of liquor service you will have in your restaurant – beer and wine only, full bar, bottle service, or “bring your own”.  It is imperative that you know the laws regarding your legal responsibility in each of these situations.

Your bartenders, and anyone else on your staff that handles and serves alcohol, must be properly trained in how to limit your liability. In some states even, individual servers need to obtain permits to be able to serve alcohol.  

Here are four basic ways to ensure the responsible sale of alcohol:

Check Identification – The first step in serving alcohol responsibly is to eliminate underage drinking; to do so, you must verify age by checking Identification.  It is essential to train your staff on how to check, and what are acceptable forms of ID.

Do Not Over Serve – It is never a good idea to continue to serve inebriated patrons.  It is your right to refuse service to guests who are drunk, whether they arrive drunk or become so at your restaurant.  It seems simple enough to figure out when someone has had one too many, however, some people can hold their liquor very well. If your staff is not properly trained, they may not realize the patron is drunk until it is too late.

Offer Options – Cutting a customer off is never any easy task.  When having to say “no” to alcohol, offering other options such as food and non-alcoholic beverages softens the blow.  This allows the customer to still be served in your restaurant.  Be aware that food and coffee will not sober someone up; the only proven method is time, and keeping the customer in your restaurant allows time to pass. 

Ensure Safe Transit – Do not allow the guest to leave your restaurant drunk if they are driving.  Either be certain another member of their party is able to drive, or offer to call a cab or another ride home for them.  In many instances, by permitting an inebriated customer to leave your establishment, you, your bartenders and servers could be held liable should that individual cause harm in an accident.

A restaurant’s liability in serving alcohol is a very complex matter and these points are only the beginning. Two of the top nationally recognized training programs in this area in the US are TIPS® (Training for Intervention ProcedureS) and ServSafe Alcohol®. Having members of your staff properly trained in this area can prevent situations where you might have potentially significant liability. Additionally you may be able to receive credit on your insurance premiums by having members of your staff certified in these programs. 

The points above, though crucial in protecting your business from potential litigation, are customer service issues at their core. Properly training all of your staff in how to handle difficult situations so that they are not embarrassing for the customers involved has tremendous value in customer loyalty.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have the proper procedures and operational guidelines in place to help you be as profitable as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs.  Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.


All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013.

Restaurant Consulting NYC | A Well Trained Staff is Your Secret Weapon | 4Q Consulting, LLC

A Well Trained Staff is Your Secret Weapon

Restaurant owners are often frustrated by not achieving their goals in relation to quality, customer satisfaction and financial benchmarks, yet many times they have not given themselves the appropriate tools to do so. Tools for your restaurant such as the newest, most integrated POS system, the most expensive kitchen and bar equipment, and even the best operating systems and procedures do not mean anything without a well-trained staff. 

People run your business and your business is only as good as your people.  An effective training program is an owner’s key tool to ensure consistency in product and customer service, which is a basic tenent of running a restaurant.  

Here are four key elements of such a program:

Proper Training Materials – Codifying operating procedures so they make sense to you is easy, however organizing and presenting the materials in a way that your staff will understand them may not be. Your staff probably comprises a diverse combination of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures with varying levels of education; additionally, research shows that people learn in three very distinct ways: visually, auditorily or tactilely. A training program that takes all of these factors into consideration should include: job specific written manuals (perhaps in more than one language), demonstrations and/or illustrated step-by-step procedure instructions, and hands-on or role-playing exercises.

Validate & Reinforce Your Training – To validate the efficacy of your training you must quiz, test and confirm that the information has been learned and absorbed. It is also important for managers to reward and reinforce the “good behaviors” done on the job - those that follow operating procedures as trained, as we discussed in our blog Keeping Employees Happy at Work – Happy Employees Part 2. Through reinforcement, you will discover who needs more training, how effective your training is, and perhaps what changes need to be made to your program.

Train your Trainers – Many restaurants often make the mistake of assigning their best employees the task of training new staff without taking the time to instruct them on proper training techniques and methods. Just because an employee is good at what he or she does, does not mean that he or she can teach someone else how to do it. Your trainers must be fully inoculated with company culture including policies, procedures and daily work tasks, as well as customer service values; they must have a complete understanding of the written manual for the job they are training; and they must be taught how to impart information in the way you want, so that training is consistent.

ABT – Always Be Training! – Training should be ongoing, not limited to the initial on-boarding process, and incorporated into the daily routine of your operations. As we wrote in our blog Are Your Pre-Service Meetings a Waste of Time?, there is an opportunity every day to share new information and keep your staff’s knowledge up-to-date. Work closely with your managers on what needs to be retrained, as they should be most aware of how policies and procedures are being followed by their direct reports.

A well-run restaurant can survive without the newest technology or the latest equipment. However, it cannot succeed without people trained to execute your vision, product and service ideals.  If you do not invest the time and energy to have a full training program, hitting your business targets becomes increasingly difficult.  As an owner or operator, a well-trained staff – from your Executive Chef to your Bussers – is your primary and most valuable tool.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have operational guidelines in place so you can be as profitable as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs. 
Email us today for a free business consultation!

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013.

Restaurant Consulting NYC | Bench Strength = Success | 4Q Consulting, LLC

Bench Strength = Success 

All companies, large and small, must develop the next generation of leaders in order to thrive, let alone survive.  Using a sports analogy, the best teams have incredible talent, but they also have depth of talent, so they can readily adapt to change and adversity; this is called “bench strength.” The teams with the deepest bench strength often win championships because they can overcome injury, fatigue and unknowns where other teams fold under these types of challenges.
  
Successful restaurants build depth in their teams, at all levels, to help them through unexpected challenges such as market shifts, turnover in key positions and/or employees falling ill. It is essential that restaurants have people who can take the reins in any situation to ensure continuity and effectiveness. Additionally, having bench strength keeps you ready and poised for growth and expansion.

Here are 4 ways to help develop your bench strength in your restaurant:

Find Great Employees – Invest first in people, not ideas.  People are the most important asset to the success of any business, and hiring the right team makes everything else much easier.  Finding great employees can be challenging and takes time.  Make sure to give yourself enough time to find the right people so you don’t end up hiring someone just because you need a body.  Hiring the wrong employees is very expensive because it creates disruptive turnover and impacts the morale of the remaining employees.   There are only so many seats on your bench, don’t fill it with sub-par players!

Ensure A Cultural Fit – As we touched upon in, How to Hire for Attitude as Well as Skill, “great employees are those who have both the technical skills required for the job as well as personal attributes that gel with your company culture and core values”.  You can always train, and even re-train, for skills depending on needs, but it is impossible to train someone to be hard-working, thoughtful, and honest.  Restaurants that are successful have a continual focus on their company culture at all levels and in all areas of the business.  They are quick to recognize when they made a wrong hire and remove poor cultural fits early on.

Share Knowledge – Cross functional training pays off when a key employee, manager or chef is out unexpectedly, and offers flexibility during periods of high volume.  It allows individuals an opportunity to develop and expand their skill sets, showing that you value their career development.  Sharing knowledge openly with your staff also pays off when a position opens up or your restaurant is ready to expand - you then have employees on your bench ready to go into these new roles.  Spending the time to cross-train can also provide employees with fresh perspectives, encourage service improvements and effective problem solving.

Empower Decision Making – Unfortunately, many managers feel that by empowering employees to make decisions, they lose the ability to lead and control their team.  This is a management myth.  When employees are part of the decision making process, they are highly motivated because they feel that they have control over their job roles.  The only way empowerment works is if there is effective two-way communication and trust between management and staff.  The more information employees have, the better they are going to be at making smart decisions for your business.

Furthermore, if employees are used to making their own decisions, they will be more prepared to make difficult ones as they move up the ladder. They will also have more ownership over a task because they made the decision instead of having it forced upon them. 

Putting the right people in the right seats on your bench is crucial to your survival.   A fully trained, empowered and invested team will allow you to be successful in your current business and future growth.

Don’t know where to begin?  Ask yourself, do you have the proper procedures and operational guidelines in place to help you be as profitable as possible?  4Q Consulting can develop customized operational guidelines and training programs to meet your needs.  Email us today for a free business consultation at www.4qconsult.com.

All original content copyright Noelle E. Ifshin, 2012-2013.