Are your managers involved with your customers and staff? Not everyone is, you know. Make sure yours are. Just because someone has the title does not mean that they know how to be a manager and all that's involved.
Managers should provide direction and assistance to the staff to keep the operation flowing. They are the coaches. Whether the team is doing a great job (or not), they still need to have direction. A football coach doesn't stop talking and managing plays just because the team is winning. They're likely winning because the coach is coaching.
During a recent dining experience at a restaurant that had been open for a few months, we witnessed one such manager who appeared to neither coach nor direct his staff. It was truly pitiful. He was visible but only stood (looking at what we couldn't be sure) and walking around doing virtually nothing. We witnessed very little interaction and communication with the staff and no involvement at all with customers. Even when some patrons who had been sitting for a lengthy time with no food approached him for assistance, they still hadn't received their order 40 minutes later when we were leaving. There appeared no sense of urgency to help them and we never saw him walk into the kitchen to find out what was going on with their meals and then communicate with them about it.
In our case, we had almost no contact with our server. Like the manager, she too was visible but she rarely graced us with her presence. There was no promotion of the (new) restaurant, the menu or happy hour and little service was actually provided. When we were done eating, we sat for at least 15 minutes. Our server was apparently preoccupied with other more important things. The manager could have used that as a way to engage us, introduce himself, inquire how we were enjoying the food, drinks and service, and remove our plates but he never did. He didn't even look at our table despite being just a few feet away. It became quite evident that he had no idea what a manager is supposed to do.
Needless to say, the staff was doing a terrible job without any direction or guidance and customers were sitting having a mostly terrible time.
I personally believe the restaurant's already on a downward spiral and if things don't change soon, it's just a matter of time before they run out of customers and close their doors.
If you have any managers who don't know how to manage people and operations and inspire the staff you're counting on to take care of your customers, they don't belong being in charge. Don't you agree?
Managers should provide direction and assistance to the staff to keep the operation flowing. They are the coaches. Whether the team is doing a great job (or not), they still need to have direction. A football coach doesn't stop talking and managing plays just because the team is winning. They're likely winning because the coach is coaching.
During a recent dining experience at a restaurant that had been open for a few months, we witnessed one such manager who appeared to neither coach nor direct his staff. It was truly pitiful. He was visible but only stood (looking at what we couldn't be sure) and walking around doing virtually nothing. We witnessed very little interaction and communication with the staff and no involvement at all with customers. Even when some patrons who had been sitting for a lengthy time with no food approached him for assistance, they still hadn't received their order 40 minutes later when we were leaving. There appeared no sense of urgency to help them and we never saw him walk into the kitchen to find out what was going on with their meals and then communicate with them about it.
In our case, we had almost no contact with our server. Like the manager, she too was visible but she rarely graced us with her presence. There was no promotion of the (new) restaurant, the menu or happy hour and little service was actually provided. When we were done eating, we sat for at least 15 minutes. Our server was apparently preoccupied with other more important things. The manager could have used that as a way to engage us, introduce himself, inquire how we were enjoying the food, drinks and service, and remove our plates but he never did. He didn't even look at our table despite being just a few feet away. It became quite evident that he had no idea what a manager is supposed to do.
Needless to say, the staff was doing a terrible job without any direction or guidance and customers were sitting having a mostly terrible time.
I personally believe the restaurant's already on a downward spiral and if things don't change soon, it's just a matter of time before they run out of customers and close their doors.
If you have any managers who don't know how to manage people and operations and inspire the staff you're counting on to take care of your customers, they don't belong being in charge. Don't you agree?
