The following is a list of areas you can keep an eye on in running your café. Why not make it a team player game and somehow get your team involved? This could mean awards or bonuses for the staff who outperform themselves in a said month.

Below is an example of a scoring system you can use for your staff. It is important to get your management involvement, share the vision repeatedly and give them the ownership of the tasks. Then maybe offer monthly incentives to your management should certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) be met within a quarter.

Key to Score;

1 – Poor – Unsatisfactory and needs some serious attention
2 – Fair – Okay but is in need of improvement to meet high industry standards
3 – Average – Just passing an acceptable level but improvements are needed to stand out
4 – Good – At a proficient level but there is still room for some minor improvements to go to the next level
5 – A high standard is being achieved and there is little room for more improvement, at the top of their game.

Why not consider the scope of your business model and service offerings as a café and break them into different areas? The following is nine examples of areas of focus. It is important not to focus on everything at once. Pick your strengths and note your weaknesses of service too. Each month you can work on one of the areas. You can choose to work on more than one area however if you decide to do this we recommend working on 2 strengths and 1 weakness. You don’t want to just improve on your weaknesses as a service business and your strengths become average, you really want your strengths to continue to be your strengths. That is why we recommend the ratio 2 strengths: 1 weakness. We really want to consider the needs of our customer.

There it is – some ideas to help your café staff improve their service game. If you have had a go at this and feel you need further assistance, we offer our services through our consultancy side of our business ‘Insight Hospitality’ – www.insighthospitality.com.au