Get tips on how to frame questions in a restaurant performance audit
If you own or operate a restaurant, you probably already realize that routine performance audits are essential for maintaining quality and brand standards. But are you getting the most from the auditing process? Here are some suggestions that will help you create the best restaurant performance audit, whether you are comparing performance between locations or at a single location over time.
Cover the Top 4 Categories
When compiling the list of standards you want to evaluate during a performance audit, it will be helpful to focus on these four important categories:
- Service—the tasks that must be completed
- Engagement—the behaviors you want from your staff
- Facility/cleanliness—the quality of everything guests see, touch, or hear
- Food—metrics related to both food and drink
Create Binary Standards
Binary standards that require a yes/no response will yield more useful data than standards that ask the auditor for a rating on a scale or for a completely original answer. Just be sure each yes/no question only includes one element to review. Yes/no answers will identify hits and misses very clearly, with no room for ambiguity or confusion. You can then go back in a separate analytics effort and address any misses with more detailed questions if you wish.
Eliminate Subjectivity
Being specific with your standards is an excellent way to remove subjectivity from the auditing process. For example, instead of asking “Did the host seat the customer promptly?” you might ask “Did the host seat the customer within 3 minutes?” The more specific question eliminates the issue of different auditors having different opinions of what constitutes “promptly.” Plus, it includes the standard you wish to achieve right in the metric, giving you a clear indicator of whether the restaurant is succeeding or failing in compliance with your brand standard.
Keep Your Audit List Compact
You may have a very long list of standards you want to report on. If you are only interested in comparing performance on each specific standard separately, this may not be a problem. But if you want to compare overall performance, having too many standards can actually dilute the score with metrics that aren’t really relevant to the guest experience. You end up with a narrow scoring range, making it difficult to differentiate between a good guest experience and a poor one.
Update Your Metrics Often
Getting a perfect—or nearly perfect—score on repeated audits may feel very satisfying, but the fact of the matter is that perfect scores are no longer teaching you anything about how your operations can improve. Consider making some of the standards harder (but not impossible). This will help keep your employees motivated to excel.
MyFieldAudits is the Perfect Partner for Restaurant Audits
Taking your restaurant auditing process electronic will save you time and money and make it easier to draw conclusions from the data you have collected. MyFieldAudits is the perfect tool for electronic auditing. This cloud-based tool features a user-friendly interface with a simple thumbs up/thumbs down system for rating standards. The results of audits are available in real time to management and other interested parties, which allows organizations to interpret and act on the results of auditing activities ASAP.
To learn more about using MyFieldAudits at your foodservice business, contact us at info@MyFieldAudits.com and request a free demo.