How you want to be treated in all segments of your restaurant

We know the golden rule: treat others as you want to be treated. It’s basic, and we all heard it in grade school. It can have massive value for your restaurant if you can lean into that concept. I don’t mean this on a superficial level; I mean, you must live it. How would you ideally want to be treated in all segments of your restaurant?

As the owner, I find it easy to see my restaurant strictly from a birds-eye view. Putting yourself in another’s shoes is a great way to see areas for improvement.

Let’s start at the customer level. You’re the customer taking your first steps into the restaurant. How do you feel? Do you have a welcoming ambiance and a kind and personable host? How long does it take to get seated, and are you ignored when you walk in the door? Does this place look like the place you want to sit for 20 min, 1 hour, all day? Would someone want to be there for a while because the ambiance stands on its own? BTW I do not want campers as much as you, but the real question is: does the space make you want to stay?

After you’ve examined your restaurant’s vibe and layout, think about the food and service. If there’s a dish you wouldn’t eat or a server you know is boring and bordering on rude, are you owning that? If that is the current experience and you wouldn’t thoroughly enjoy this experience yourself, what makes you think a random stranger would?

The golden rule is also helpful with social media, in more ways than one. Once again, it’s easy to get wrapped up in posting to post because “it’s just a dumb app for kids, right?” But at the end of the day, it’s not your experience that will make a profit; it’s your followers.

Comb through your online presence from a customer’s perspective. Are you personable and fun to follow, or cold, boring, and detached? When you’re running a business profile, it’s easy to assume a professional approach is best, but if you wouldn’t follow and interact with your content, odds are no one else would either.

This holds true for your website. I’ve seen many confusing and nondescript websites with bush league photos; what about this page says, “we have our act together”, because if all it says is “we figured we’d make a website because that’s what you do and here’s ours” it’s not enough, it’s actually hurting you. A customer may go to your website ready to order your food but end up ordering somewhere else after failing to decipher how to get half pepperoni and half sausage on their pizza, or just bounce because the site conveys you don’t have a plan.

Your relationship with your staff is just as important as your relationship with your customers, so put yourself in their shoes too. Would you want to work for you? Do you give a hoot about them, provide flexibility with hours, and treat your staff with kindness? If your staff makes a mistake, how do you deal with the issue, and if you were to be on the receiving end would it be fixed? If the answer is no you need to reevaluate your approach as a boss.

And finally, you’re not the only one who needs to be exercising the golden rule in your restaurant. Your staff does, too. If your staff ever serves food that they wouldn’t eat themselves, i.e. burnt, soggy or old, they fail themselves and fail to represent you. If your staff consistently strives to provide the experience they demand for themselves, those high standards lead to mutual respect and more revenue.

Mike Bausch is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Instagram: @mikeybausch