26 Degrees in the Shade . . .

Summer Days Too Tiring for Me

Quirt Period Between Lunch and Evening Trade – Bar Restaurant

Summer Trade

Unless you Bar Restaurant is located right near a busy beach you probably will have a quite period between the end of lunch and the start of the evening trade. This means that you could be very tired come the evening shift.

What are your options?

Well you could close from say 4:30 – 7 pm and then when you re-open you’ll feel refreshed and ready for the busy evening shift.

Are there any problems involved in doing that?

Well! when you return the local will be very hot inside and you will have lost some trade whilst you were closed, but it’s an option that many bar restaurant owners go for nevertheless.

You could leave a staff member in charge to sell drinks and simple snacks.

This is quite a good system, but you’ll need to have certain security checks in place to ensure that everything is going through the till. The best idea is to train staff that each time they serve something, it MUST be written on the customers bill. The reason for this, is that some staff will invite their friends and family when they know that you’re not going to be in the restaurant. If you pop in and out at unexpected times, you can look at the customer’s bills and see easily weather you are being cheated or not.

Take regular “X” readings

This also helps you to know if your losing money, as staff who steal usually put money in the till without ringing it up and then remove the excess cash later,when they get a chance.

You will need to keep on you toes if you don’t want to get ripped-off.

I hope that I have been helpful.

You Get What You Give

You Must Give Energy and Time to Get Back

Running a bar well is no different to doing anything well. Simply stated it boils down to:  What you put in is what you get back and usually in good measure too.

My advice is to give as much of yourself as you can to your customers. Be prepared to give help if someone has lost their bag or locked him or herself out. It’s very helpful if you can keep all the useful phone numbers handy, so that when a client of yours has a problem you can call a locksmith for them or anybody else they might need.

By being helpful you are demonstrating that you are a nice person and you will attract regular customers to your bar in that way, because people will like you.

Be a good listener: If you listen to people’s stories and problems, they will really appreciate it and will repay you by coming to spend money in your bar regularly.

However, it’s not a good idea to sit down at a customer’s table, as you will get stuck there and will have to neglect your other customers, so just listen to a sentence or two and then say “Excuse me! I must do this or that.” By doing this you create the illusion that you are listening even if you are only picking up half the story.

The point here is that your customer will feel happy that they’ve been given a chance to share their story with you and they will go home happy.