Inspect what you expect from your operation
By Jeff Hookham

“My first job out of college was for an insurance company in Des Moines, Iowa. I worked in the training department under the leadership of Mr. Crane, the vice president of sales. A good man, he taught me several valuable lessons that I’ve used throughout my career.

One of the first lessons he taught me is the one I want to talk about in this article. It’s very applicable to the foodservice industry and it’s a lesson of which every owner and manager should be keenly aware: Inspect what you expect.

As owners and managers, each of you have certain expectations of what a guest is going to experience when they dine at your establishment. You have expectations about the food they will enjoy, the atmosphere, the physical environment, and you certainly have expectations about the service that will be provided.

For example, each of you has an expectation around what happens immediately after a guest is seated at a table. You expect the guest to be greeted by a server in a timely manner. The national average for this timely interaction is two minutes. But how many of you think your establishments are average?

We have clients that expect the guests to be greeted within 30 seconds and the drink order to be delivered within the first two minutes of being seated. Now that’s remarkable service!

But just because you expect something to happen does not mean that it is going to happen. I expect my little toddler to put her shoes on while getting dressed in the morning. But upon inspection, well, life is full of little disappointments.

So, after you define your expectations and you communicate that message to your staff via your training and pre-shift meetings, you have to inspect what you expect. This can be done in several different ways.


Walk the floor

A great way to inspect if your service standards are being met is to walk the floor during peak revenue periods. Touch the tables, and by that I mean talk to your guests, to make sure their expectations are being met. (Quick point: Your expectations mean very little if they don’t align with your guests expectations.)

While you’re walking the floor, look for things that are not meeting your expectations and also look for things that are being done properly. When you are coaching an employee, it’s best to offer praise along with your corrections.

Now I can already hear your collective thoughts: “The staff does great when I’m around, it’s when I’m not there that everything goes to pieces.” There is a solution for that.


Secret Shoppers

A lot can be said about secret shoppers but for this article, let’s keep it short and just say that if you want to be absolutely sure your expectations are being met, this is a great way to inspect what you expect.

How would you like to see the intensity level of your wait staff go up? Start posting secret shopper scores for everybody to see.

A secret shopper program works because, when done correctly, you can compare your service scores on a month-by-month basis. You can’t improve what you don’t measure and this is a great way to measure your expectations.


Summary

Inspect what you expect. It’s a simple concept that will bring a great deal of success to those that follow this life lesson.