The Restaurant U-turn: Reverse a restaurant’s bad reputation with a plan of action that works.

Have you ever used a GPS and passed your destination? Does the voice tell you to make a “legal U-turn ASAP?” Or does he tell you to go around the next block? I know this has happened to me. Sometimes you just go the wrong way. It doesn’t mean you can’t turn around and get back on track to where you need to be. It is the same in the restaurant industry. Maybe you made some wrong turns or missed some opportunities, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up. You can get back on track. It takes a lot of work and determination, but you can handle it.

A restaurant that has a bad reputation has a unique opportunity to redeem itself in its community. Just because your restaurant has a negative standing in the community doesn’t mean you can’t make things better.

How do I recognize if my restaurant is performing poorly?

• Do you lose sales daily?
• Is your bottom line in the RED?
• Do you get a lot of customer complaints?
• Is your dining room half full during peak hours?
• Do you get negative comment cards?
• Do you find it difficult to retain staff?
• Do you receive negative ratings from the health department?

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be at serious risk. Most people can tell you to close your doors and start over from the beginning. Realistically, you are already losing money and closing your doors could result in a total loss. It’s best to stay open and sit down with your management staff and supervisors and create a working action plan on how to fix your issues. Make a plan for each problem and set a time frame for how long you have to fix that problem. Remember, every day you wait, you are losing more money.

This is what you should do:

1. Bring together owners, managers, supervisors, and key staff members to discuss the issues that are holding your restaurant back from success.
   • Use their comments to prepare a list of what needs to be fixed in your restaurant.
   • Prioritize the most important problems to the least important ones to solve.
   • Have these people take some time to brainstorm how to fix the problems.
2. Establish an action plan.
   • Start with the biggest problem and have the owners, directors, managers and supervisors brainstorm how to fix that problem.
   • Make sure your action plan is realistic, has clear actions that complement each other; Actions must be measurable and have a time frame for completion.
   • Assign and divide action items among owners, directors, managers, supervisors, and key employees.
   • Giving yourself and your managers a deadline is important to progress.
3. Implement the action plan.
   • Assign specific responsibilities to each person to solve this problem.
   • If the first action plan doesn’t make progress, don’t give up. Just modify the current approach, try a different approach, or move on to another problem that might make it difficult to solve this problem.
   • If someone isn’t doing their part, discuss why it isn’t working and determine what will help that person participate fully. This can also be the opportunity to see if one or more of the managers or employees are actually causing some of the problems.
4. If you find that a manager or employee is causing one or more of the problems, you have several options.
   • Verbally discuss your concerns with that person and ask how they would like to improve. Offer suggestions if they are not ready to come up with their own ideas. Discuss the time frame for correcting problems and holding them accountable.
     • Ideas could be: additional training, a different job title, adjusting your schedule to a less busy time to work on changes, attitude adjustments, or whatever fits the situation.
     • Getting their input should help them move forward to change their behavior.
   • If the behavior does not change within the specified time period, you may need an employee report with a written action plan to correct the problem. Have the person sign the action plan and agree to comply with it within the specified time.
   • If the behavior continues with the written plan, you can do a second draft or even consider firing the employee. Be sure to keep a written paper record to protect yourself and hold them accountable. If you do nothing, you’re condoning their behavior and causing a negative ripple effect that could lead to even bigger problems and more employees not following the policies you’ve set.

As a part of a cake section, indicate what you would like to arrange first. Arrange one cake slice before moving on to the second cake slice. If you take too many cuts at once, you will become overwhelmed and frustrated. This will result in failure. It took some time to get to this level, so take the time you need to fix it.

If you’re going the wrong way, maybe it’s time to make a U-turn! Brainstorm to discover your problems. Create an action plan. Implement your action plan. Put your restaurant on the right track!