Since its inception in the 1950s, the restaurant industry has emerged as one of the fastest growing industries and amongst the highest revenue churners. Over the past few years a trend was noticed. 90% of the restaurants were individual, whereas 80% were stand-alone owing to tight working schedules, the shift from housewives to workingwomen in turn increasing a family's disposable incomes. The NRA’s (National Restaurant Association) total estimated sales for the Country’s 1.5 million restaurants are anticipated to grow by 20-25%from Rs. 43,000 crores, by the year 2015, which has a ratio of ownership being 70:30, individual and chains, respectively.

However, in the recent years, the Restaurant Industry has faced numerous market challenges such as rise in consumer health concerns, high employee turnover and an aggressive competitive environment. The restaurant industry is in the midst of a revolution which day by day witnesses an increase in  the risks and challenges we face, thus stressing on the dire importance for a solution to counter all these obstacles.  This article highlights the hidden risks and underlying dimensions that Restaurant owners face while operating a restaurant and it also provides for safeguarding measures to mitigate such risks. 

Challenges for restaurants

Running a Restaurant is a risk prone business. Proper assessment of risks and applying safeguarding measures are requisites to generate growth from this business. Some of the key risks faced by the restaurant business and the related safeguard measures are enumerated in the table below:

Do’s and Don’ts for successfully running a Restaurant

As Bill Gates rightly put it  “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Keeping in tandem with the saying I have listed a few Do’s and Don’ts for our members as well as Managers and employees that work at restaurants. There are always a few ‘old school’ employees or owners who will not pay heed or abide to the do's and don’ts as they would feel that it would standardize them and they believe that the restaurant industry is known to treat each customer as a different individual.

Don’ts

• Do not let any guest enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.
• Do not walk up to the table and interrupt a conversation between the guests.
• Do not touch cutlery or glassware with bare hands. Always use a serviette.
• Do not ignore a table if it doesn’t fall under your section.
• Do not stop customers from taking pictures of their food. Blogging is a great way to promote your restaurant.
• Do not have very few menus for guests and avoid ‘grabbing’ menus from one table and placing it on another.

Do’s

• If a guest is waiting for a table, do offer a free snack or a glass of water.
• Do make sure the server is trained to always announce his/her name at the table.
• Do interact with guests and ask them how was their meal and if they have any suggestions, make a note and follow it up.
• Do alert your customer about any taxes before they place their order.
• Do memorize your menu and give suggestions when asked.
• Do make sure the Restaurant and its surroundings are always clean and free of pests.

The Bottom Line

As stressed in this article time an again the importance of An effective Risk Management strategy and its symbiotic relationship in business sustenance is of great importance  for the hotel industry. The success of a Restaurant business is dependent on how well its operational risks are identified and the effectiveness of the strategies to mitigate or reduce the impact of such risks. This article is a representation to help facilitate an understanding of the relationship between the current competitive restaurant environment and the risks associated along with providing practical solutions.