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start my stopwatch and see how long it takes for a host or hostess.
And I might be just sitting on the side acting like I’m working on
something, so they don’t even know I’m watching. But I’m timing
everything and I’m watching everything and I’m writing down
little notes. Then, I go back and I fill the form out and I debrief the
team about it. “Hey listen, tonight I did a service audit. We had a
customer walk in the door at 8:00 o’clock. Nicky didn’t go over and
say “Hi” to them or even come back to the host stand until 8:04.
That’s not our standard.” Then we talk about things.
Nick:
That makes sense. The last question I have for you, Donald, is what is
the one main piece of advice you could give any restaurant owner, or
even a bar owner, to be successful in this business? There are a lot of
things, but what are the most important words of wisdom you could
doing that. But how have you used surveys in the restaurant business, give to a restaurant or bar owner that would make them successful in
and what do you do with that data you collect? this business?
Donald: Surveys are great, like you said, if you can get them to Donald:
fill them out. There’s a huge gap there. I’m a huge believer in just You’ve got to know your numbers. You’ve got to know them inside
communication, just talking to people and getting that information and out. They’ve got to be like on the back of your hand… They’re
and just basically learning about what’s important. That’s where the pricing drinks, and I ask them, “How did you come up with that
post-shift come in handy. “Hey, we had this… in tonight, and they’re price?” “Well, that’s what the place down the street charges.” Well,
actually from the town next to us, and they were talking about the how do you know they’re making money? And sometimes you could
things they like and stuff like that and what they liked about the be leaving money on the table if the market – if you’re trying to
place or the issues they had.” And that’s how you fine tune it, is by compete with the place down the street, you might be charging the
getting the service right. same thing as they are, but maybe they’re not making money. But
maybe you actually could get a dollar or so more for a drink because
Nick: you have a better perception of your place. Your place is a little bit
OK. There’s one last question I have for you. If there’s anything else more upscale or this and that. So you’ve got to take into account
that I might have missed that you could think of to provide a great what it costs, but also what the market will bear for your market.
experience, is there anything else you want to add? You’ve got to do a market analysis.
Donald: Nick:
The biggest thing is constantly, constantly working with your team. I Awesome. Well, I appreciate all the advice, and we’ll talk here shortly.
would say inspect what you expect, and then how do you maintain Donald, where can people get information about you and your
the standards? Every once in a while you do an audit. So I do service services and maybe hiring you as a restaurant coach?
audits. Every once in a while, maybe I’ll give one of my friends a
$100-dollar gift certificate to come in, and I want them to shop my Donald:
restaurant. So I want them to come in and give me their opinion of They can go to my website. It’s DonaldBurns.net. Or, my restaurant
what went well and what we need to work on. coaching program is 10xrestaurant.com.
Mystery shopping services are some of the best things in the world, Nick:
but you’ve got to do some research on those, because you’ve got Awesome, I appreciate it. Thank you, Donald.
to make sure you use a mystery shopping service that actually has
experience in restaurants. There are a lot of different dynamics in
restaurants that are different than retail, so they can get askew a INTERVIEW WITH:
little bit. And I always try to make sure that I’m using a firm that Donald Burns
understands restaurants, or I do it myself. And I have a form I do. www.donaldburns.net
It’s a service audit. So I just randomly work the floor and I’d be The Restaurant Coach™
timing everything. I’d watch a table come in the front door, and I
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