Understanding SOP Restaurant(s) For Optimal Business Efficiency

What Is a SOP Restaurant For Food Businesses?

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a well-defined and easily-repeatable set of guidelines outlining how a restaurant performs specific tasks.

Restaurants typically have hundreds of SOPs, which are followed by you and your employees on a daily basis. The same logic applies to any other robust restaurant management company that likes to get things done fast, and in a centralized manner.

For instance, your team follows a scripted greeting each time they seat a table, reflecting your unique hospitality style and ensuring every guest feels welcomed. Similarly, culinary staff assemble burgers in a consistent manner: bread, patties, cheese, lettuce, tomato, three pickles, and aioli atop the bun.

The key to achieving the desired taste and presentation of your burger lies in the secret ingredient utilized by your restaurant.

SOPs rely on four pillars: documentation, communication, training, and execution. Many eateries lack documented SOPs, relying instead on verbal instructions, allowing employees to deviate and teach others their preferred methods.

Strengthening your training program with well-documented SOPs can be beneficial, particularly in addressing personnel concerns and turnover.

Why Restaurant Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) Are Crucial

Review ratings of restaurants are significant. 

Harvard Business School found that restaurants might see a 9% boost in revenue for every one star improvement on Yelp. The importance of managing one's online reputation to one's business is well-known to most new restaurant owners. 

That's why businesses go to such lengths to create visually appealing backgrounds, employ friendly wait staff, and come up with tantalizing ingredient combinations—all in an attempt to attract Instagram followers. These thoughtful features, however, will not amount to much without effective O&M management such as:

Routines Help Keep Things Running Smoothly

New employees can learn the ropes fast without dragging their more seasoned coworkers into the process when there are established protocols in place.

If you were to use a robust restaurant BOH operation management software, such as Xenia, you'd ideally setup recurring work orders to basically move everything on auto pilot mode.

Once any recurring task or work order is setup, manual intervention should be the least of your worries, as you can focus on other restaurant management company activities altogether.

Consistency for Customer Retention

Not only does good cuisine keep customers coming back, but so does a consistent dining experience. It is critical that all members of the front-of-the-house personnel consistently provide outstanding service, and that every food served from the kitchen maintains a consistent level of appearance and flavor.

Maintenance of Hygiene Standards

It is also critical to keep hygiene standards consistent, which means that everyone on the kitchen crew should wash their hands often, keep sanitizing stations clean, wear clean uniforms while working, etc.

Employee Performance Evaluation

When you and your team have agreed upon a common set of guidelines, it will be much easier to monitor their performance and pinpoint their strengths and areas for growth. This makes annual performance reviews and bonus payments more easier.

Expanding Successfully

If you want to grow your business, you need to be sure you can keep doing well at each new location. For each new site to satisfy (and beyond) consumer expectations, it is necessary to maintain high levels of quality control.

What Does a Sop Restaurant Look Like?

Standard Operating processes (SOPs) can be useful in many contexts in a restaurant, including staff handbooks, training modules, and tangible listings of processes. Likewise, for restaurants, whether in paper or digital form, SOPs are a great way to make sure that everyone on staff is aware of how things are supposed to function.

When making these procedures, it’s important to follow these five essential guidelines:

• Write for the User: Consider the people who will be making frequent use of these materials.‍
• Format Clearly: Consider several approaches to clearly describing the procedures and processes involved.‍
• Be Mindful of Scope: Make sure you clarify the goals of the systems you've developed.‍
• Specialize for Different Roles: When developing standard operating procedures (SOPs), bear in mind that not all jobs have identical responsibilities.‍
• Authorization and Approval: The SOPs should be signed off on by senior management and anybody else who stands to benefit or lose from them. This will show that everyone is on the same page about the procedure and its implications for the team and the company.

Types of Sops For Restaurants

Food Preparation And Handling

One of the most important parts of any restaurant is the kitchen, which includes all the tasks involved in preparing and serving meals.

Your restaurant's efficiency is directly related to how efficiently the kitchen runs. Learn how to do the same thing with the help of a standard operating procedure (SOP) for your restaurant.

i) Standard Recipes And Food Preparation Methods

In this part of your restaurant's standard operating procedure (SOP), you should lay out the fundamental rules and procedures that will protect your customers from food poisoning and other illnesses caused by spoiled food.

You can uncover the specific guidelines for each dish in the preparation process. As an example, consider soup. 

Before serving, soup at certain restaurants must be cooled to a temperature of around 135 degrees Fahrenheit. A restaurant's standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the head chef will differ from those for the bartender. 

ii) Food Presentation

The level of service expected in a fancy dining establishment, a pub or bar, and a more casual eatery would vary greatly.

For optimal efficiency, a restaurant must be capable of defining these requirements. All the whys and hows for the front-line employees of the restaurant should be in the standard operating procedure (SOP).

iii) Food Storage

Proper inventory management and food storage are essential for every business.

In order to keep waste to a minimum, it is imperative that your personnel get proper training. If you want to know how to keep food properly, a comprehensive set of instructions would be very helpful. You could also provide specifics on the amount and quality of the food you preserve.

Customer Service Standards

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for customer service in restaurants are crucial for establishing clear guidelines for how customers should be serviced. In addition, there is a certain technique to deal with clients that can help you keep them and, in turn, boost revenue.

i) Greeting And Seating

Every restaurant should have a designated period when customers are promptly seated and welcomed as soon as they step foot in the establishment. 

ii) Order Taking, Serving, And Delivery Standards

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) should include guidelines for the restaurant's order delivery service.

The guidelines outline the expected average time for customers to receive their orders and the necessary procedures that the delivery guy must complete after delivering the meal.

iii) Billing And Final Settlement

The need for restaurants to establish specific guidelines on the use of point-of-sale systems is determined by the extent to which a business relies on such systems to handle sales, invoicing, and other operational tasks.

iv) Customer Complaint Management

An important need for expanding your customer base is a sincere farewell. To make your clients feel particularly valued when they leave, you can practice certain gestures. The best approach to build a stellar reputation for your company is to welcome new customers, listen to their feedback, and make sure they have a smooth departure.

Equipment Handling 

One specific section of the restaurant's standard operating procedure (SOP) should address the proper usage of kitchen appliances. Every piece of kitchen equipment, such an oven, microwave, and so on, might have its own set of instructions.

Health & Hygiene Regulations 

Keeping the staff's uniforms clean at all times while on the job is another critical detail to attend to. Staff uniforms are an investment in your brand's image and should be treated as such. 

Safety

In your restaurant's standard operating procedure (SOP), the most crucial section is the section addressing the necessary precautions to be taken during food preparation and delivery. According to statistics, 15% of restaurant accidents are the result of carelessness or poor management. Cooks are required to use oven gloves and be well-versed in fire and hazard prevention measures.

How To Create Restaurant SOPs 

In general, various types of eateries need to center their operations on distinct fundamental processes. Before you can outline the procedures, you must determine what these fundamental operations are for your restaurant type. 

Online ordering is the lifeblood of a cloud kitchen, which we will discuss now. Food aggregators and their delivery modules should be your primary priority as a cloud kitchen owner. 

However, keeping customers coming back is a top priority if you're in charge of a high-end restaurant. Customers are more likely to return when the quality of the first line of personnel is strong. 

No matter how good your meal is, people will still choose to eat somewhere else if it makes them feel better. Let's take a look at a few key standard operating procedures that are common to most restaurant SOPs. 

1. Define The Core Processes

You should start by making a list of the most important things that are occurring at your restaurant.

These fundamental steps could change based on the kind of restaurant you're considering. The next step, after defining your restaurant's procedures precisely, is to map them into the handbook. 

Something like the steps used to prepare a distinctive dish may be representative of the procedures that set your business apart. 

Regular cleaning and maintaining basic sanitary practices are essential for any restaurant. Like the unique dish, this operation is crucial. Also, you should compile all of the essential procedures into a guidebook when you've figured out the rest. 

2. Map Out Operational Procedures 

After the operation manual is prepared, you must specify the steps for carrying out each of these tasks. That is to say, make a mental note of everything that needs doing to finish the job. 

That way, nothing will be overlooked and the result will be unaffected. 

Your handbook must also provide a map of the marketing strategy for a certain restaurant as it pertains to customer interaction. Your goods and services will only be successful if you can pinpoint the people who are most likely to purchase them. 

To guarantee that all the minor phases are met, this one essential procedure needs to be documented step-by-step. 

3. Create Checklists and Forms for Audit

Step two in creating a SOP for your company is to create a checklist to verify that workers are following the right protocols. 

Identify the primary processes and their associated parameters in the SOP's first section. The sop restaurant checklist should include the steps to complete a certain task. 

Taking into consideration that the provision of a certain cuisine is vital to your business operations. It is essential that the prior method of presenting be maintained. Maintaining a steady standard of freshness, taste, and quality is crucial. Giving as much detail as possible for each step is essential for this.

4. Create a Full SOP Manual

A standard operating procedure (SOP) manual is a structured record of all the processes and activities. Although there is a common method, several eateries choose to write theirs in their own unique style. The proper way that employees should interact with and serve clients is a good place to start. 

Verify within the first five minutes of each employee's arrival if they were welcomed and attended to promptly using the checklist you've designed. 

Operations go from providing services to serving and ensuring the quality of meals after that. No matter the time of day, the food provided must always be freshly prepared. Your food preparation technique is another operational aspect you might consider.

The Bottom Line

Creating and adhering to standard operating procedures is crucial for any restaurant's success. The objectives of standard operating procedures (SOPs) include maintaining consistency, satisfying customers, and enhancing staff productivity.

To ensure that your staff always operate according to the latest rules and procedures, Xenia provides an AI-powered SOP generator for instant creation. By following the guidelines outlined in this article and utilizing Waybook to develop robust standard operating procedures, your restaurant can operate more smoothly and efficiently.