Outside Oversights

The Restaurant Coach otside oversights

Restaurant Basics – Outside Oversights

Your building and your outward appearance present a clearer image than your advertising. Your point total starts changing as soon as your guests start traveling toward your restaurant. Do you get a head start on a great score or start at a disadvantage? In a business where creating and exceeding people’s expectations is essential, does your exterior make potential guests excited or apprehensive? Does it make them feel good about their decision to dine with you or make them question their judgement? Does it honestly reflect the care and attention they can expect inside?

The difficulty with outward appearances is that the focus of the management and staff is typically inside the restaurant. the staff often enters and leaves through a back door and seldom sees the operation from the perspective of their guests. Compared to the dynamic environment inside, it is easy to think of the exterior of the restaurant as relatively unchanging. Although some aspects of the outside do not need daily attention, many do. assign responsibility for monitoring the outside outside appearance of the property in the same way as any other job.

Design Deficiencies

There are problems created the physical design of the building and grounds around the restaurant. You cannot correct all design deficiencies, but you can work around many of them.

  • Poorly lit parking areas.

  • Difficulty or inconvenient access to the property.

  • Inadequate or inconvenient parking.

  • Improper parking lot drainage and visual potholes.

  • Faded exterior paint.

  • Handrails that become a hazard.

  • Old, dirty, or stained menu in the window.

  • Water dripping off the roof or awning onto guests.

  • No or inaccurate hours posted.

  • Large cluster of decals on the front door.

  • Missing lights, faded or broken sign.

Daily Maintenance Duties

To stay on top of potential problems, there are actions you must take every day.

  • Look for trash in the landscaping and the parking lot.

  • Missing lights, faded, or broken sign.

  • Doors that are difficult to open and dirty.

  • Cluttered entrance.

  • Reader board missing letters or without incomplete messages.