Beat Yesterday!

Beat Yesterday: Your Managers Should Know the Score

Why Sharing the Right Numbers Creates Better Restaurant Managers

By Jamie Galler | Restaurant Advisor

When I took over my first restaurant—a Beefsteak Charlie’s in Whitestone, Queens—the outgoing manager handed me a ledger book.

This was before PCs became part of restaurant management. Embossed in gold on the cover were two words:

BEAT YESTERDAY

Inside were three years of daily operating data: sales, covers, average check and labor.

There were no dashboards. No real-time POS reports. No scheduling software. No automated alerts. Just a ledger.

But that ledger communicated something remarkably powerful: here’s how we performed, here’s what you’re responsible for, and here’s what you’re trying to beat.

The technology has changed dramatically since then. The management principle hasn’t.

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Know

Ask a restaurant manager at the end of a busy Saturday night how the restaurant performed and you’ll probably get an answer: “We got crushed.” “Great night.” “We were slammed from 7:00 to 9:00.”

Those observations matter. Managers need to understand what happened operationally. But they should also be able to tell you what happened financially.

What were sales? How many covers did we serve? What was our average check? How did labor perform? What were comps and discounts? How did those numbers compare with our targets?

In other words: Did we beat yesterday?

Sometimes the Manager Isn’t the Problem

It’s easy for an owner to say, “My managers don’t understand the numbers.” But there’s another question worth asking: Have you given them the numbers?

Too often, restaurant owners keep important operating and financial information to themselves. Sometimes they don’t have an effective reporting system or dashboard. They may have plenty of data spread across their POS, scheduling system, accounting software and invoices, but no simple way to turn it into useful information.

Other owners have the information but are reluctant to share it. They may worry about confidentiality, compensation discussions, employees misinterpreting the numbers, or information reaching competitors.

Those concerns are understandable. But I believe the rewards of sharing the right information with the right people outweigh the risks.

Your management team doesn’t need to see everything. They do need to see the numbers they’re responsible for influencing.

Give Managers a Scoreboard

Imagine asking a coach to win a game without letting the coach see the scoreboard. Yet restaurant owners often do essentially that with their managers.

They tell them to control labor—but don’t give them a labor target. They want higher sales—but don’t show sales trends. They want servers to sell more—but don’t track average check. They complain about excessive comps—but don’t regularly share comp results. And they often don’t give them the proper tools for these purposes!

A manager cannot consistently improve a number they cannot see.

Start with a small, understandable scoreboard. Depending on the restaurant, that might include:

·       Sales versus target

·       Covers

·       Average check

·       Labor dollars and/or labor percentage

·       Sales per labor hour

·       Comps and discounts

·       Selected food-cost or waste measures

The specific metrics will vary by concept. What matters is that managers understand what the number is, what the target is, why it matters and what they can do to influence it.

Information Alone Isn’t Enough

Simply emailing managers a report every morning won’t change much. The numbers need to become part of the management rhythm.

Set targets for each shift. Review performance afterward. When you miss, ask why. When you beat the target, understand why. And when someone produces a particularly strong result, recognize it.

Information creates awareness. Awareness creates accountability. Accountability changes behavior.

A manager who knows yesterday’s average check was $42.75 and today’s target is $44.00 is likely to think differently about server sales performance. A manager who knows exactly where labor stands at 8:00 p.m. can make a better staffing decision than one who simply thinks the floor “looks slow.”

Teach Managers to Run the Business

There is an important distinction between running a shift and running a restaurant. A good shift manager gets everyone into position, handles guest problems, keeps the kitchen moving, manages breaks and gets the doors closed properly.

Those skills matter. But stronger restaurant leaders also understand the economics behind the operation: how average check, labor productivity, comps, waste, portion control and purchasing decisions eventually affect the P&L.

You don’t develop that kind of manager by hiding the numbers. You develop them by sharing the score and teaching them how to influence it.

We Have More Data Than Ever. Are We Using It Better?

That old Beefsteak Charlie’s ledger contained only a handful of numbers. Today, a restaurant can generate hundreds—probably thousands—of data points every day. That isn’t necessarily progress.

We have infinitely more data than we had when I ran that Beefsteak Charlie’s. I’m not sure we always have more information.

The goal isn’t to overwhelm managers with reports. It’s to identify the handful of numbers that matter, make them visible, establish clear targets and use them to make better decisions.

That’s what that ledger did: three years of history, a few important metrics, and two words on the cover that told every manager exactly what was expected: BEAT YESTERDAY.

The Operator Challenge

Tomorrow morning, ask your manager: “How did we perform yesterday?”

Then listen carefully. Do they tell you how the shift felt—or can they tell you how the business performed?

If they don’t know the score, don’t immediately blame the manager. Start by giving them the score.

Not sure whether your managers have the information they need to improve performance?
The Practical Creative helps restaurant owners identify the right operating metrics, create clear accountability and turn information into measurable results. Schedule a complimentary discovery meeting at thepracticalcreative.com.