How to Manage Restaurant Staff: Bye No-Shows, Hi Growth

It’s a given that you expect your team to do a great job every day. You lay out the day’s plans, open the doors…and everything seems to go wrong. Some of your employees are no-shows, orders are going out with errors, and customers are complaining of bad service. Why can’t things go the way you expect?

Restaurant staff management is hard work. There’s a good reason for it: humans are complicated.

Unfortunately, complicated is bad for business.

The more you can simplify your processes, the more you can kick stress to the side of the road—and the more money you can make. Management doesn’t have to feel as if you’re scooping water endlessly from a leaky boat. You can improve by adopting key tactics and outsourcing your most overwhelming staffing tasks.

If everyone carries less weight, your restaurant has a better chance of success. Find out how to manage restaurant staff to keep your team happy, increase sales, and grow your small business in the long run.

The importance of strong staff management in restaurants

Do you remember learning to cook when you were growing up? That first day—you can laugh about it now.

You watched someone much more experienced, maybe a grandparent, chop garlic cloves in seconds. When you tried it, the garlic slipped away from your knife. Immediately, you realized two things:

1. It’s going to be frustrating until you figure it out.
2. It’s going to take a lot longer to get the job done.

In many ways, restaurant employee management feels the same way. There’s a lot of trial and error, and sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to. It affects everything, from the way your business runs to the day you take in a new employee.

It’s not a good first impression for a trainee to show up for her first shift and observe a chaotic kitchen. She sees employees rushing back and forth to answer a constantly ringing phone and customers waiting impatiently, shoes tapping in the line extending to the door. To prevent this scenario, restaurant managers can organize operations so employees are set up from the start to do the best job possible.

Often, that means outsourcing tasks like phone orders and delivery. This lets employees focus on the customer and serve high-quality food without worrying about these other tasks. When you use a dedicated outsourced service like Tarro to handle phone and delivery orders, orders come in through a streamlined process. This takes a load off your team so they can put more focus on your customers instead. As an owner, you don’t have to manage big teams when you have fewer front desk staff, drivers, and employees.

Improvement follows when you create a positive work environment. Because your employees are happier, the atmosphere in your restaurant improves. The food is up to your high standards, and customer satisfaction increases.

Key strategies for managing restaurant staff

You can start improving your restaurant business by tackling the highest-impact tactics:

1. Communicating clearly

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Communication is one of the most difficult things to improve because many people don’t notice the problem.

A manager says something and expects everyone to understand it the first time.

Unfortunately, that’s not always how things turn out.

Many factors come into play: a word choice or subtle body language can influence perception, or maybe the person understood what you said but missed context or didn’t know it was a priority.

When in doubt, overcommunicate.

The best way to improve communication is to develop a clear message. If you write down your protocols, memos, or announcements on paper, there’s a clear record of your changes.

Then, set high and clear expectations and lead by example during restaurant operations.

Ask yourself, “What does it take to be the model of a successful restaurant?” For example, “How do I want my restaurant to handle incoming orders or customer concerns?” In his best-selling book The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard says, “Take a minute: look at your goals, look at your performance, see if your behavior matches your goals.”

Along with written and clear communication, start regular training sessions and development to invest in your team and their performance. Find ways to boost morale, like easing workloads, streamlining processes, and instilling a positive work culture.

2. Leveraging technology to simplify staff management

If you’re looking for ways to increase sales while creating a better employee environment, there’s no better way than to adopt new technologies. Modern artificial intelligence (AI) can reduce workload, improve efficiency, and remove the need for extensive staffing because of high turnover rates. While 100% AI voice ordering is attractive, real people using AI tech is the best way to increase efficiency while keeping a personal touch.

Here’s how:

Solutions like Tarro automate your phone ordering. Many people can call your restaurant simultaneously, and Tarro technology helps real representatives answer each of those calls in three seconds or less—providing human interaction.

The representative provides excellent customer service and takes the order. With 99.5% order accuracy, they send the order right to your printer. Your team creates the meal, then hands it to the customer. What if a customer wants delivery? No problem. Restaurant answering services like Tarro streamline delivery so you don’t have to rely on multiple third-party apps—and you get higher profit margins.

You can also adopt tools that simplify employee scheduling, payroll, and task management.  By leveraging the latest AI, restaurant management becomes much more effective and less time-consuming, which are all factors to improving your bottom line.

3. Balancing automation with human leadership

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If restaurant team management is all about relationships, can you depend solely on technology? If you think no, then you’re absolutely right. Tech needs humans for effective restaurant leadership.

The human touch helps management navigate nuances and complexities, develop empathy, and incorporate decades of restaurant industry experience. You can get the best of both worlds by integrating AI technology with human intelligence and interactions in your restaurant.

One example is hiring.

Mr. Jiang, owner of Mandarin House in Staten Island, New York, wanted to provide the best service and food possible. He needed to find the right front desk employees, but it was hard to find someone who could combine customer service skills with order multitasking abilities and high English proficiency.

Mr. Jiang saw an opportunity to fix that challenge through technology.

Hiring and retaining front-of-house staff would be much easier if he and his wife could find a solution that handled core responsibilities. The restaurant’s previous owner told Mr. Jiang that Tarro could provide the tech and services to make his dream restaurant a reality.

Restaurant staff management got a lot easier.

Mr. Jiang said, “I wouldn’t be able to run the restaurant without Tarro during this past year. It would be too much work for me.” With Tarro, his business was able to receive simultaneous orders, and he didn't have to worry about missed calls. Mr. Jiang's business grew with more sales, and he was able to keep his team members happy. He said, “Owning a house and running a mom and pop shop with my wife is a slow and steady happiness.”

When technology and humans work together, restaurants can provide improved customer service and high-quality food—all with the intimate feel and home-cooked taste their community loves.

Employee retention strategies: Keeping your best workers

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Mr. Jiang’s story reminds us of how important it is to set up your employees for success. But it’s also a good example of how to avoid burnout. If employees feel overwhelmed, they won’t last long in your restaurant, no matter how talented they are at their jobs.

That's a harsh feeling.

No restaurant owner should have to deal with complex team management and high employee turnovers when they pour their heart and soul into their restaurant business.

Thankfully, there are ways to change the narrative. You can create a team culture that nurtures high customer satisfaction and also a healthy work environment. You can start by implementing the following strategies:

• Recognizing and rewarding top performers: Everyone wants to feel appreciated. Rewarding high-performing employees is a great way to say thank you and increase morale. Give monthly awards and incentives for different goals. Find ways to provide memorable yearly gifts for the top employee, like first pick for time off on the work schedule next year or a prize like a tablet.
• Creating pathways for career growth within your restaurant: There’s no better way to reward high performers than to give them a growth track. Make it clear how employees can move up in your restaurant and what it takes to get there. Communicate often so employees know where they stand and how they can improve.
• Invest in outsourcing solutions that can take the load off your team: If they don’t have to worry about ringing phones constantly interrupting them while serving in-person customers, they can do their job much better without the pressure. You can streamline phone orders and deliveries so that your team can focus on what’s in front of them: serving up great food while taking care of the customers standing at the counter.

Managing restaurant staff for long-term success

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Ultimately, if there were a secret to managing restaurant staff, it would be empathy. Can you connect with your team, care for them, and set them up for success?

If you understand and fulfill your employees’ needs, it will be much easier to hire, retain, and manage them. Those improvements will increase sales, create happier customers, and build long-term growth.

That’s where Tarro fits in.

Tarro handles all your phone orders, deliveries, and even marketing. You can customize your plan to best suit your needs. That cuts out a considerable part of the daily pressure, energy, and time you and your team spend. Once Tarro answers your takeout orders and even handles delivery, you can focus on managing your team, creating great food, and making customers happy.

The best part about using Tarro is that it relieves pressure and prevents employee burnout, which means less turnover and more cash in your pocket.

Tarro’s phone ordering service can take multiple calls simultaneously, 24/7, every day of the year, in real time. That means no missed calls during the roller coaster of peak hours and unpredictable busy spurts. Plus, you can open new revenue streams with delivery and increase your sales (all without having to hire new staff or drivers). Restaurant owners make 10% to 20% more revenue using Tarro, and only pay when the service processes an order.

Tarro’s representatives are more than just order-takers; they also know your menu well. They can walk callers through dishes, menu items, and ingredients. Since the reps can answer questions about your menu, they can help callers customize their orders, meaning customers get a pleasant, helpful experience that builds customer loyalty.

Make effective restaurant management easier, improve your team culture, increase sales, eliminate stress, and best of all, improve work-life balance. Book a meeting today to grow your business with Tarro.

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