Tacos and Management Development with Chris D'Agostino

This weekend, while eating tacos in Miami with Chris D’Agostio, our meal quickly became a case study in the impact a management team can have on operations.

The tacos were great. But from the moment we sat down, Chris D’Agostino was watching. For those of you who have experienced Chris in FOODIFY mode, you know exactly what I am talking about. He is always watching. Lurking. Quiet. Contemplative. And paying attention to every move the staff is making. Putting it all together into a complete picture of the organization and the areas for improvement.

The funny thing is the employees usually have NO IDEA what he is really doing. To them he is just another customer eating a taco. But sure enough it only took a few minutes for Chis to have a full assessment of what was really going on behind the scenes on a Sunday afternoon in this establishment.

Witnessing this first-hand reminded me of how lost this element is in a technology driven world. Sadly the technique of watching is an element too often overlooked in our post-covid world of zoom calls and software. With AI at our disposal, far too often we under-value the impact of a trained eye to pin-point the exact cause of the REAL issue in our restaurant.

For this meal, the root-cause was a rookie manager who was clearly not trained in customer service. The restaurant was clearly short staffed. And even though only 25% of the seats were filled, the manager was putting people on a wait.

Predictably, the customers started to leave rather than wait.

This small decision to turn away guests with 75% of the tables open because they were short-staffed probably cost the restaurant $500-$1000 in sales just in the time it took us to eat our tacos.

Such a minor decision.

And yet, taking it one step further as an accountant, I was fascinated to realize that this decision and the impact it had on the daily sales would NEVER be found directly in the financials.

The bookkeeper would go on to do their job. In fact, the P&L for the week might be PERFECT. But this mistake wouldn’t be a direct part of the analysis because the customer never spent their money in the business.

Instead, the owner would assume the food costs were too high. The chef over-ordered and probably over-scheduled anticipating sales to be higher for the weekend day.

And yet, the real culprit wasn’t in the back-of house. The real culprit was a rookie manager who hasn’t been trained.

From watching just a few minutes, our FOODIFY team had the solution. Instead of turning people away, the manager could have pointed them to the open bar (probably 15 seats empty), or encouraged the bartender to pick up a few tables until the server was in a better place.

Are you watching? How often are you judging your restaurant’s performance on the financials alone. Building out KPI’s and analytics on numbers without taking the time to watch the full story unfold. How many times in recent years have you been told to focus on the software, assuming the software generate a better result.

But even with the best technology, aren’t we still at our core a HOSPITALITY industry? Isn’t our goal to deliver a great experience for our guests?

For this restaurant. The tacos were great. Their margins and profitability probably sound. But there will never be an expense line for MANAGER MISTAKE. So unless the owner or management team took five minutes to WATCH the story unfold, this small piece of the puzzle overlooked by software could be costing them 5-10% WEEKLY.

So are you ready to say enough is enough? Are you ready to return to the part of the industry you LOVE? To return to a time when providing a great experience equaled better profits?

Our FOODIFY method delivers real results in less than 30 days.

Let's go!