Running a restaurant is a challenge. The following are practices I've observed.

Generally the goal of these practices is to enhance the customer experience while reducing cost.

These tips are aimed towards restaurants and cafes, however many can be applied to other settings.

Self Serve Water

Allow customers to serve themselves water. This allows staff to spend time on other tasks.

  • Place a refillable bottle of water and glasses on the table and allow people to serve themselves water.

    • The staff still has to change out the bottle at the table.

  • Place cups and a refillable water cooler or tap so customers can refill their cups.

    • This requires customers to get up and move around the restaurant to refill their glasses.
    • This can create a bottleneck at the cooler if the restaurant is busy and the tap does not fill a glass quickly.
    • Water coolers can run out, and can take a while to refill. A tap never runs out, but requires more effort to install.

  • Place bottles of water and glasses at a station. Allow customers to pick up glasses and bottles for their table.

    • Customers move around less than with a water cooler.
    • There is no bottleneck at the water station since multiple customers can easily pick up bottles.
    • Staff needs to refill bottles at the station.

Self Serve Bussing

Allow customers to clear their dishes from the table. This minimizes time the staff spends bussing tables and clearing dishes.

  • Customers need to clear their own dishes.
  • This requires customers to move around with dirty dishes.
  • This concentrates dirty dishes at one location so waiters only have to take in one bin.
  • Dish bins needs to be emptied before they get too full.
  • Trash or compost need to be emptied regularly.

Self Serve Silverware

Provide silverware as needed. Minimize time spent providing silverware.

  • Provide silverware with the dish.

    • Requires the staff provide the silverware.

  • Provide a silverware station for customers to retrieve any silverware they need.

    • Minimizes asking for silverware.
    • Requires refilling the station
    • Silverware should be sorted in the kitchen to avoid clashing metal sounds near customers.

Bathrooms

  • Clearly mark the bathroom location. Use large lettering or common symbols to mark the bathroom.
    • Reduce the time staff spend explaining where the bathroom is.
  • Consider if a bathroom really needs a lock with an external key.
    • External keys cause friction as customers ask for keys or codes. Generally, an internal latch on the door is sufficient.
      • If an external key is required clearly signal the keys location so staff do not need to be asked.
    • Make sure the bathroom has an easy way to tell if it's occupied. This lets customers know if they should wait or ask the staff for help opening the door.
  • Have hooks on the inside door for customers to hang their coat.
  • Clean smell.
    • Ensure there is adequate ventilation.
      • Improves safety for staff when using chemicals to clean the bathroom.
      • Improves the smell of the bathroom between uses.
    • Be cautious with scents in the bathroom
      • Some people are allergic to certain scents. Fragrance Oil
      • Not everyone finds strong scents appealing.
  • Skip gendered bathrooms when there are individual stalls. This reduces customers wait time.
  • Separate employee only bathroom. This reduces time your staff need to wait to use the bathroom, and makes the experience nicer to staff. Reserving a bathroom for staff takes one away from customers. When staff use the same bathroom as customers it helps them better empathize with the customer experience.
  • Consider providing feminine hygiene products in the bathroom - your customers will appreciate it since it shows attention to detail.
    • Your employees may also appreciate this detail.
  • Providing baby changing stalls in all restrooms.
    • Do not only confine baby changing stalls exclusively to a single gendered restroom.
  • Decorate the bathroom
    • Make using the bathroom a relaxing experience.

Wifi

  • Display the wifi name and password visibly on a card near where customers order.
    • This lets customers know wifi is available and how to access it.
  • Name the wifi the same as the restaurant for easy discovery.
    • This helps customers remember the restaurant name.
  • Use a password that consists of common easily remembered words.
    • A signature dish or drink is a nice touch for a password.
    • Do not use numbers or random letter combinations, this is hard for customers to remember.
    • Do not use all capitol letters, this is hard to remember and distinguish.
  • Hide any networks customers cannot connect to from discovery.
    • This reduces the chance customers accidentally connect to the wrong wifi and ask staff for help.

Steady Pace

  • Employees should work at a steady pace. Employees should not feel rushed, during peak times or during slow times.
  • Customers should be visibly served at a steady pace. Customers should have an accurate picture about how long they need to wait.

Employee Safety

  • Read and follow all OSHA standards and guidelines. Keeping employees safe and helping them avoid injuries is important for your business to do well.
  • Provide rubber mats underneath employee workstations where they are requires to stand for extended durations and provide seats where employees may sit to take a break.
  • Provide an extra positive experience to local officials responsible for your employees and customers safety. It's never a bad thing to have them close by

Employee Efficiency

  • A place for everything and everything in it's place. Provide clear places for every item in the establishment. This helps employees find items quickly and helps you keep track of what you are missing or low on at a glance.
  • Provide a secure place for employees personal items (Water bottle, coats, bags, lunch, etc..).
  • Mirrors placed well allow your employees to indirectly keep an eye on customers.

Noise Reduction

  • When making a latte by hand after foaming the milk, the vessel is tapped to settle bubbles. Tapping the metal vessel directly against the counter creates noise. One way to reduce this noise is to provide a cork pad on which to tap the vessel.

Look and Feel

  • Cups, Plates, and Mugs are a key piece of the restaurant experience. They communicate the places feel.
  • A glass water cup gives a more upscale feeling than plastic. A wide base on a glass cup helps keep the glass from being accidentally knocked over.
  • Keep service counters clear of clutter
    • Provide clear convenient places for items that are frequently accessed.
  • Customers look at the ceiling. Many modern restaurants show the bare concrete ceiling with exposed wiring, ducts, and pipes. Consider if this is the feel you are going for or a drop down sub ceiling would be helpful. Sub ceilings can also help reduce noise by reducing the echo off hard surfaces.

Service

  • Accommodate customer requests when not overly burdensome. For example if customers want a specific mug and it's easy to do - make the accommodation.
  • Provide a convenient way for employees and customers to check ingredients of all products.
    • Some customers are allergic to specific ingredients or have other specific dietary restrictions.
    • For example: display the specific coffee brand, milk, and chocolate used. If you are uncomfortable displaying the product to your customers, then you probably shouldn't use it in your establishment.

Observations and Musings

  • In one coffee shop I saw different steaming vessels in use for different types of milk. Is this useful? This increases the complexity of the operation and training cost, but is a potential poke-yoke to ensure the right milk ise used for the right drink.