Restaurant management involves overseeing day-to-day operations within a restaurant. Still, it also has a significant strategic component because managers are ultimately tasked with guiding a business to long-term success. Here, we provide all the information you need on restaurant management, its definition, why it is so important, and the qualities and qualifications required to work in such a role.

Table of Contents:

What is the Restaurant Industry?

Before getting into restaurant management, it is worth establishing precisely what the restaurant industry refers to. Essentially, any business that allows customers to order food and eat the food on-site can be considered operating within the restaurant industry, including restaurants, bars, and similar businesses.

Restaurants can be independent or connected to a wider business, as with restaurants within hotels. The restaurant industry forms part of the wider hospitality industry. It is also primarily separated from the food service industry by the definition that restaurants allow customers to eat on the premises.

With that being said, many restaurants also offer takeaway and food delivery services.

What is Restaurant Management

Restaurant management refers to the day-to-day management of businesses within the restaurant industry. This includes overseeing the business’s daily operations, managing the workforce and finances, planning company strategies, ensuring marketing efforts achieve objectives, and managing the business’s reputation.

Restaurant managers need to have an in-depth understanding of their business and how it is running, which means performance tracking is another crucial part of the job. Furthermore, restaurant managers must pay attention to customer service and the level of customer experience being provided to optimize outcomes.

Why is Restaurant Management Important?

As a discipline, restaurant management is important because restaurant managers must oversee various aspects of their business’ day-to-day operations. In many ways, restaurant managers are the glue that holds successful restaurants together, and a good restaurant manager can benefit the company.

Video: Importance of a Restaurant Manager

 

In the sections below, you can find out much more about the importance of restaurant managers by learning about some of the qualities they provide and the responsibilities they have to take on.

Providing an Excellent Customer Experience

When it comes to excelling in restaurant management, top performers will take responsibility for providing their customers with the best possible experience. To achieve this, they will optimize their menu, keep up with the latest restaurant technology, provide a pleasant environment, and manage their pricing.

Delivering a positive customer experience requires managers to listen to customers, understand what they want, and live up to or exceed those expectations. Excellent communication skills are critical, as managers need to oversee the response to complaints or criticism, rectify any problems, and learn lessons for the future.

Defining Roles and Setting Expectations

Businesses in the restaurant industry can be very busy, and employees can have vastly different responsibilities. For instance, chefs are tasked with coming up with menu ideas and preparing the food while waiting, or customer service staff are responsible for taking orders from customers and providing them with their food once it is ready.

On top of this, restaurants may have finance staff, marketing staff, HR staff, and more. Those working in restaurant management must contend with this by clearly defining roles and responsibilities, setting expectations, overseeing operations, managing shifts in approach, and ensuring everyone is always pulling in the same direction.

Marketing and Making a Restaurant Appealing

Finally, restaurant managers are also responsible for promoting their restaurant, establishing its unique selling proposition, and adopting the right marketing strategies to attract customers. This means those in restaurant management roles must coordinate with their marketing department.

Beyond this, the best restaurant managers will also take the necessary steps to make the restaurant as appealing as possible. Investing in upkeep, ensuring the restaurant has everything customers expect, and ensuring the decorations and overall aesthetic are pleasant and representative of what the business offers are all critical.

5 Qualities You Need to Be a Restaurant Manager

To succeed as a restaurant manager, there are several skills, attributes, and qualities that you will need to possess. Some of the most important restaurant management qualities are explained below:

1. A Passion for Service

Restaurants and almost all other businesses in the hospitality industry are intended to provide a service to customers, and a passion for delivering high-quality service is one of the most important qualities anybody looking to move into a restaurant management position can possess.

The best managers care deeply about their customers and want to create a profitable and successful business that positively contributes to the local community. This means taking the necessary steps to improve, learning lessons, and exceeding to deliver positive experiences.

2. Excellent Communication

One of the most desirable qualities is communicating clearly and effectively. After all, you must be able to get your point across to staff and explain things so that they can be understood fully. At the same time, you need to be able to motivate staff and resolve problems.

Aside from communicating with employees, however, restaurant managers also need to be able to communicate effectively with customers, to respond to complaints, overcome issues, and explain business practices. Written communication skills are also a must, as report writing and the writing of emails are likely to be core parts of the role.

3. Organization Skills

To work in restaurant management, you need to be organized, which has many layers. For instance, you will need to possess good time management skills, and you will need to be able to balance the different responsibilities that come with the role without neglecting any of the key aspects.

Yet, aside from organizing your own affairs, you will also need to be able to organize on behalf of others. This could mean overseeing important decisions related to how many staff are required at any given time or what work they need to do, and it can also mean the effective delegation of tasks so that everything gets done.

4. An Ability to Coach Others

It is important to understand that restaurant management employees are business leaders. To be a good manager, you need to be able to coach others so that they achieve the required level of competency. Achieving such an objective means managers need to have patience, understanding, and the skills to teach.

Nonetheless, coaching goes beyond simply ensuring that employees can fulfill their roles. Instead, coaching duties and activities need to be intended to bring the best out of staff and assist them with personal growth and professional development. You will also need to help people to overcome any difficulties they encounter.

5. Strategic Thinking

Another quality you will need to possess to succeed as a restaurant manager is the ability to think strategically and make difficult decisions based on the evidence available to you. These decisions need to be made carefully but decisively, and time pressure will often be involved.

A fundamental part of restaurant management involves devising strategies that separate your restaurant from other restaurants. This means a deep understanding of how the restaurant industry works and the various techniques related to pricing, marketing, accounting, inventory management, and employee management.

Education Requirements for Restaurant Management Jobs

Although there is no strict requirement to possess a degree in a relevant field, restaurant management positions are increasingly being filled by people who have studied a relevant subject at a degree level or those who have participated in a specialist training program. Relevant fields include restaurant management, hospitality management, food service management, and business management, although other management courses can be advantageous too.

For some restaurants, a degree will be necessary in order to demonstrate a level of competence, organization, and personal commitment. Moreover, a course in restaurant management or a similar field will provide an excellent foundation by teaching important skills, concepts, strategies, and techniques.

Nevertheless, experience in the industry is also important. With this and some hard work, working your way up from one of the entry-level positions to a restaurant management role may also be possible.

The Role of Restaurant Manager

While some restaurants will live and die by the quality of the food on offer, the reality is that most businesses either succeed or fail based on a wide range of factors, which managers are responsible for controlling. A good way to understand this is that restaurant management ensures a business runs optimally.

This includes providing the best possible customer experience, managing reputation, optimizing public relations and marketing strategies, and adopting the right business practices and strategies. Moreover, restaurant managers must invest wisely in restaurant POS systems, CRM technology, and other restaurant management software.

Restaurant Management and the Restaurant Industry

To work in restaurant management, you will need to either possess or acquire an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the restaurant industry. This includes everything from understanding how the industry is defined, to understanding the different types of restaurants that exist and what makes them unique.

You can provide yourself with some important foundational knowledge and improve your understanding of various aspects of the industry by reading the article “Restaurant Industry: The Complete Guide”.

Hospitality and Restaurant Management: The Essentials

When working in restaurant management, or any other hospitality management position for that matter, there are some essentials that you need to grasp fully. These include the core responsibilities, restaurant and hospitality management operations, the latest hospitality trends, and the marketing strategies to adopt.

You can find all of this information, and discover the best channels to seek out management roles, by reading the “Hospitality Management: The Essentials About Hospitality” article.

Restaurant Management Systems: The Features and Key Aspects

Restaurant management systems are some of the biggest tools in the restaurant management arsenal, as these systems can help to improve efficiency, increase accuracy, and provide options for automation. However, to get the most from these systems, you should learn about how they work and where your focus should be.

To discover just about all you need to know about restaurant management systems, including what they are, how they work, and why they are so beneficial, read “Restaurant Management Systems: Overview, Key Aspects, and Features”.

Restaurant Management: Understanding the Latest Technology Trends

Finally, those involved with restaurant management must always keep their finger on the pulse regarding new technology. After all, technology solutions can help to improve the customer experience, provide a competitive advantage, make life easier for employees, and help restaurants to achieve their strategic objectives.

You can learn about the technology being used within the restaurant industry, how it functions, and why it is useful by reading the “Latest Restaurant Technology Trends You Need to Know About” post.

Restaurant management positions are highly sought after, and those working in managerial roles must juggle many responsibilities. Ultimately, restaurant managers are the glue holding everything together, so the decisions you make and your qualities will go a long way to determining your restaurant’s success.

Want to Learn More About Management in Related Industries?

All hospitality, travel, and tourism-related industries have commonalities; however, specific unique factors influence management in each industry. You can learn more about management within related industries in the following articles.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.