Page 1 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 The Customer Flow model realistically depicts how customers flow through the restaurant
Page 2 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 The Dining Room Customer Flow Model simulates the complete dining experience
Page 3 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 The Restaurant Employee Flow Model simulates staff arriving, working, and departing When waiters are on a break in the Lounge, for instance, they can’t be serving customers
Page 4 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Ingredients are ordered, stored, and combined to produce meals
Page 5 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Employee performance is effected by experience, training, and morale
Page 6 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Two hypothetical initiatives are considered to increase wine sales Intensive Training Program for Servers, Bar Tenders, and Seaters In restaurant Before opening Two two-hour sessions Wine tasting Instruction and role-playing Includes some info on how to sell high-margin food products as well Increase number of waiters on duty from 15 to 19 Waiter attentiveness will rise Focus on wine sales should rise Fewer missed sales due to just being too busy
Page 7 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Waiter workload is reduced by increasing server staffing from fifteen to nineteen
Page 8 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Waiter attentiveness during peak hours is improved by increasing the number of servers
Page 9 21-October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Any combination of the two initiatives can be analyzed
Page October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 Staffing increase without training appears to have little effect on wine sales
Page October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 The training program seems to increase weekly wine revenue by about 40%
Page October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 After training, servers sell more premium wine, so weekly wine gross margin increases by about 60%
Page October-2003© David W. Low & Assoc., Ltd., All Rights Reserved 2001 A couple of conclusions could be drawn from this hypothetical analysis Institute the training program immediately Emphasize wine selling techniques to … Seaters -- before guest meets server Servers -- while guest is … –Waiting for the order –Eating the meal Bar Tenders -- while guests are waiting to be seated in dining room Teach about wine list General characteristics Complementarities with different foods Increase server staffing only during evening peak hours When workload is low, there is little benefit When workload is high, attentiveness can increase