You're the assistant manager of the diner. In this stituation what would you do?

Question

You're the assistant manager of the diner. For the hostesses, who are shift supervisors. They are responsible for training the staff-wait staff and bus staff.

Three customers complained to me this week that nobady met them at the door during lunch and dinner rushes. I scheduled two hostesses during both shifts, so that should not have been a problem. Also, waitresses are not refilling drinks for all tables-even they are not theirs. The bus staff isn't refilling water and coffee at all, and these employees should do so when the tables are clear. On Saturday, we ran out of Chicken soup at 2 but the kitchen was still getting orders for it at 8. This past week we had 12 more waitresses give out complimentary fries than the previous week, and six were on Saturday, which may be related to soup problem.

Thanks for helping if you can.

Answer 1

You should have one hostess stationed at the door at all times (during a rush)  If you see her out of her "box" write her up.  Same goes for anyone not doing their job.  Instead of the servers only taking care of their tables have them work as a team.  When one person teas/waters their table have them do the entire side as well.  This includes prebussing, taking orders out etc.  If you ever see anyone just "hanging around" find them something to do.  When you have time to lean you have time to clean.  Also are you doing table visits?  Making sure everyone is taken care of.  Just stop by introduce yourself and ask if everything is perfect.  If it's not, personally fix it yourself.  A restaurant should never have to 86 anything. (unless you are completely out of that item)  As for the soup when it gets half way low, there should be a fresh batch cooking.  How are the waitresses giving out fries?  If there isn't a ticket (order) then they shouldn't be getting it.  Definitely set up an FOH meeting with your staff and set the standards as to what needs to be done.  After the meeting if things don't improve set up another meeting and keep having meetings until they get the idea.  Trust me staff hates meetings.  Hope this all helps!

Answer 2

It sounds to me like there is a lack of communication somewhere...maybe a meeting is needed.

Answer 3

I would definitly have a meeting and remind everyboby what their job responsibilities are.  If they do not do their job to the best of their ability, GIVE THEM THE BOOT.  You can always find people who need jobs in this day and age when things are so expensive.  Also if most of your employees are younger people,  they really do not care if they work or not.  After all they do not have any responsibilities to worry about.  Try going for a person that is maybe a little more mature in that field.  They seem to have more pride in their work.  Good Luck

Answer 4

training a few staff meetings and maybe firing a few loafer

Answer 5

The first thing you should do is identify the problem , are the shift supervisors doing their job and the employees are ignoring them, or are the shift supervisors not doing their job at all?   Second, have meeting with everyone to clarify responsibilities such as seating, cleaning, filling drinks, etc... You could also say that you have received many complaints and this meeting would serve as a final warning since it already happened a couple of times.  You have to make it clear to everyone that you are the manager and you expect them to do their job accordingly.  Good luck.

Answer 6

The communication at your restaurant is terrible. Do you have a board that you keep the 86'd item on? One person should always be at the door. Why were the 3 hostesses on but no one at the door. Why are'nt the servers refilling drinks? Are they 2 busy? That is part of their job, HUGE part. Maybe you need more servers during peak hours.

Answer 7

Here's what we do at my restaurant (as far as the host stand goes) and we almost never have problems.  3 hostesses: one greets people at the door, another one runs the floorplan, and a third one seats people.  This is just for the rush, send one home when the rush is over so labor doesn't spiral out of control.

Make servers accountable for their own tables.  If drinks aren't being refilled at certain tables, then you know who the problem servers are.  Talk to them and have them work on it more.  If they can't hack it, fire them.  That will make everyone else work harder so they don't get fired too.

Seriously, fire the bussers or hire more.  It's either that the bussers are lazy or overwhelmed.  You have to determine which one it is and act on it accordingly.

As far as the soup goes, do you have a kitchen manager or chef? If so, he probably does the food and produce ordering.  Starting now, he needs to keep track of how much of each item is ordered each day.  If you keep a record of that, then you can determine how much of any given item you will need for a certain day of the week for the following week.  And when you do that for a year, you can look at last year and see what the sales of each item were for a particular day and prepare yourself for that.  I would use Microsoft Excel or something similar for that.  Also, have you tried putting up a dry-erase board to list the items that you are out of (an "86 board") so that everyone knows you are out of soup (or whatever you happen to be out of?)  And a word of advice, just because you are out of something doesn't mean you give things away (like fries), that's just silly and you lose money.  Just suggest something else.  Or, you could try having several different kinds of soup so if you are out of chicken you can suggest vegetable or something.

Hope this helps! Good Luck!