Here's how you can navigate failure in food and beverage operations without making common mistakes.

For sure during F&B service errors and mistakes do come up and important part is always first empathy, solving the issue immediately without team blame game and later when atmosphere is calm, then analyse deeper modalities to fix the problem once and for all. Be it introduction of training or even amendments of operational procedure.

Customer feedback is your paycheck. Without out it you will either stay stagnant and maintain and wonder why business is just good not great. Your customers pay the bills and keep the doors open. The other aspect of listening to feedback is from your staff. If you take care of your staff they will take care of the customers. Your number one asset is the staff. A happy staff leads to low turnover and high morale. That means customers want to be around them. Customers will want to frequent your establishment more often. Maybe I’m wrong but I’ve never seen positive reviews with customers not wanting to return to an establishment.

Proper analysis of customer feedback are extremely vital in any organisation, cause it's your performance score card. It always gives in depth insight into how you portray on the other side against your thoughts and areas for improvement if feedback are collected in time.

In my experience, feedback from both customers and employees is your bread and butter. I know they say the customer is always right, and we feel pressure to cave to every whim, but we have to be careful in doing so because we can lose more than a few dollars here and there. My approach is to follow BLAST. Believe what the customer (or employee) is saying Listen carefully to the grievances Actionable steps to Solve the problem Thank the customer for giving you the opportunity to fix the problem And you always invite them back to experience your service again and show them you are capable of performing without them having to experience that hiccup.

The only constant in the food and beverage industry is continual change. Whether the neighborhood changes forcing a clientele change or a new trend is catching on (or starting) in your market. The easiest way to maintain success is to always be ready and willing to adapt to change. If you’ve identified problems in your business that will allow for better customer experience, being able to rapidly make those adjustments will ensure their eager return. If you continue to study the market and are able to keep up with what the guests want/like and can find unique ways to implement these things in your business, you will maintain if not surpass your current success.

Giving your staff a sense of “ownership” leads to the staff feeling a sense of pride, belonging and responsibility. If something fails they take it to heart. They want to be the best. That’s ok. Failure is ok. It’s how you handle the problems. Letting the staff know even the boss makes mistakes can lead to a sense of humility. Staff members will own their mistakes instead of making excuses. As a team everyone can find a solution. You’re only as strong as your weakest link. Instead of one person being singled out the team will step up and say if they failed then we all failed. We let our team member down by not recognizing or responding when we could have. This can turn a bad situation into a positive outcome.

Manpower teams are most integral engine of any organisation and have to be accorded due consideration time to time. No matter how huge investment looks like but with a forgotten staff welfare it's always a trip bound for nowhere. Team morale can be boosted through multiple recognition schemes, excellence certification, bonus, promotion e.t.c At times even Team superior just saying a word of mouth " Thanks that was a great job well done " keeps the team on high spirits that there efforts are appreciated, not necessarily financial motivation.

It’s been my experience that having a mindset of leading a team with more of a collaborative approach than a dictatorial one will yield better results. While the team understands that decisions are ultimately made by you, giving them a sense of ownership in the business does wonders for morale. When they are invested in the success of the business, they will do whatever is necessary to maintain it. Empower your team by asking for feedback on what you can do to help them be successful. When they see that you care about them as people first and not a commodity affecting the bottom line, they will be more inclined to stay with you or follow you if you move on to another place and help you continue to thrive.

You don’t want to get caught up in following every trend that comes into your market. The first thing you lose is your identity and that is the first step towards failure. However, if you take what you do really well and use it put your own spin on something that is popular in your market, you will have created an experience tailored for your clientele. Ultimately, that’s your goal. If they feel that they cannot get the experience you provide anywhere else, your clientele will continue to eagerly return and help expand your business as they will tell their peers that they too have to come experience what it is you have to offer.

All of the above and in that order: YOU HAVE TO analyze the mistakes to then embrace the feedback. You HAVE to adjust quickly while managing the finance side of the business to see what exactly you can change and at what cost. You HAVE to build team morale because they are the ones who will lead the change to the customers … not many choices