The Restaurant Biz Blog

Motivating Your Employees

The best employee-driven operators ask themselves, "What do we want to be famous for with our employees?" Is it favoritism, mercurial moods, daily doubles, endless closing-opening shifts? Or do you offer moral leadership, fairness, energy, equity, balance, challenge and fun? The best operators know that they're not just selling food and beverages, they're selling the server's smile, energy, knowledge, attitude and empathy. The care and maintenance of both your internal and external customers is the key to both guest and employee retention.

Understand that you cannot "motivate" anyone. You can, however, create an environment in which your employees are self-motivated. To do what? Improve performance, profits and productivity. Effective incentives are a key factor to help create a self-motivated wait staff and kitchen crew.

Here are a few ideas you might find helpful to motivate your employees.

• The wall of fame - Showcase an employee of the week, the month, and an employee of the year. Have weekly, monthly and annual award ceremonies. It's important to have both management and employees make the selections. Remember, compensation is a right. Recognition is a gift.

• Employee meals - Employees who have the opportunity to enjoy items on your menu become excellent marketers for your food--a sincere, personal recommendation is the most effective up selling strategy. Make menu items complimentary or available at cost.

• Crew feedback cards - Asking for server feedback sends the message that their opinion and perspective is valuable. It also creates a team-oriented work environment and promotes professionalism. 

• Happy birthday cards - Here's a real easy one: Hand-written, personalized birthday cards signed by the owner and/or General Manager of your restaurant will generate tremendous good will. The employee will be surprised that you even knew it was their birthday let alone receive a card.

• Know your employees - Spend some time during each shift talking one-on-one with an employee about a hobby or interest-anything non-work related. The employee feels important and special, and employees who feel good about work, take better care of your guests. This will help you understand your employees what motivates them.

• One-on-one's - At a minimum you should have sit down one-on-ones with your employees every 6 months but on their hire date anniversary make it special, have lunch or dinner with them. Ask questions, listen to ideas, show appreciation, and let them know they are a valuable asset. You will be surprised how much you will benefit from this as well as the employee.

Today's labor force wants the same things you wanted, and your parents wanted from work: a pleasant environment, fair compensation, appreciation for a job well done, and training to develop skills for advancement.

Keep focused on the basics that have always attracted good employees. And don't forget to ask them what they want. You might be surprised at what you hear.

 

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What Makes a Restaurant Manager Great?

A great restaurant manager is a good communicator and a good supervisor. They have the ability to understand and anticipate the patron's wishes before they've been expressed. The manager will also have a good sense of smell and taste so that she may be able to tell if everything is right with the dishes coming out of the kitchens.

A manager has the overall responsibility of making sure the restaurant is operating as efficiently as possible and at a profit. All aspects of restaurant activities are the manager's responsibility. In most small restaurant settings, the manager is also the owner and handles the business end of the operation. The manager takes care of advertising, hiring staff, ordering food and supplies, and does the accounting. In other words, the restaurant manager is in charge of the smooth running of the restaurant. They may also greet guests, seat them, serve as cashier, and even cook when need be. While the chef or kitchen manager is responsible for food preparation and the back of the house, the restaurant manager directs and coordinates the efforts of the rest of the staff or the front of house. The restaurant manager must have a thorough knowledge of the food service inside and out. The Manager is also responsible for all the equipment used from lighting, to ventilation, to ovens, to cooking utensils. He needs to know the cost for installations, and maintenance of such equipment, all that besides accounting, banking methods, budgeting, and credit.

Tips for a good restaurant manager

1. Communications: Implement the use of a log book and restaurant communication book. It can be as inexpensive as a spiral notebook, or as elaborate as giant diary. This can be a valuable tool for communicating, and data collection to be reviewed at a later date.
   
   Managers may not work together due to days off, and scheduling. Log books create a means to stay on the same page, keep on track, review goals, and implementation steps to reach them.
   
   Do not use this book as a place to place blame and point fingers but as a tool to proactively resolve issues. Communication is key to building trust, and in team building. Make it a practice to build up you team with positive feedback, and clear expectations.
   
   
2. Be proactive! Before your shift begins, sit down and plan your day. What are the tasks of the day? What employees are on the schedule and what times are they expected to work? What food orders need to be placed? Are there any catering orders to plan for? What time is the plumber coming to repair the sink? You will be amazed at how many things you can accomplish. Make it a habit. This is a sure way to increase your productivity.
   
   
3. Lead by example: Conduct regular shift meetings with the staff. This is to review expectations and communicate upcoming changes that may be occurring. This is a daily opportunity to remind the staff of the standards, and arm them with the information to help them to perform better. Expect all the managers to do the same. They can be as brief as a 3 minute meeting. Review the daily specials, its an opportunity chance for the staff to understand your priorities and standards.
   
   Jack Welch was the master at leading by example. "He had great energy, sparked others, had incredible competitive spirit, and had a record of execution that was second to none. This is a key of the Welch phenomenon. Had he been lacking in any of these traits, he would not have commanded such acclaim." He was GE's number one cheerleader and called himself "the advertising manager of our company." He had the zeal and the optimism and a lexicon of a winning football coach: "exciting", "remarkable", "staggering", "incredible". These are the words Welch employed to describe one of the most powerful enterprises in the world.
   
   As W. James McNerney Jr., head of GE Aircraft Engines, noted: "The excitement comes from within him and is extremely contagious. He's a tremendous motivator. He's excited and he gets you excited and you're always moving forward. He keeps it simple. The differentiator between GE and many other companies is that there are more people moving in the same direction and with the same enthusiasm. Jack might like this on his tombstone. 'I wasn't smarter that anyone else, but I helped 270,000 people make me look smarter than most.' "
   
   While we cannot all be Jack Welch, we can learn from him and apply his teaching to any company and to any job. Remember, to spark others to perform, you must lead by example.

Sometimes the complexity of the operation can be daunting, and managers can lose themselves, get sidetracked easily, and be in a reactive mode in the managing their business. This lack of focus can cause chaos, which is very bad for the business.

Its always easy to find fault so make sure to positively reinforce good behaviors to build morale. Always look for what your staff is doing right! It is important to point out errors your staff is making, but the way you teach is by positive feedback, consist training, and policy enforcement. If you are proactive, communicate well, and continually train your staff to expectations, you will soon reap the rewards and enjoy a very efficient restaurant that you will take pride in!

 

 

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How to attract and retain the best employees

It is estimated that the average cost of recruitment in the hospitality industry is around $2300 per person. If you end up with over a hundred applicants for the same job it's easy to see how this figure can mount up. You have the management time to sift through all the applications, plus the advertising, interviewing, and training. That's without considering the potential lost opportunities for productivity, customer service, and increased sales due to lack of key staff. So retaining your existing team is the priority.

From time to time even your most loyal people will leave. With the number of applicants chasing each vacancy, start by defining what you're looking for and specify this in your advertising or to your agency if you use one. Recruit on attitude rather than on skills alone. Systems, procedures, and basic skills can be taught, whereas an enthusiasm for food and wine, and a passion for hospitality and service need to be minimum requirements.

Don't limit your recruitment search to people who respond to your ads. Use your network of business contacts, your existing team and even your customers to help you find the best candidates. A good place to look for prospective staff is at your competition. This will give you the opportunity to watch people in action. See first hand how they interact with customers, their peers, and managers. Start developing a candidate pool rather than waiting until you suddenly have a vacancy to fill.

Create an environment where the best employees will want to work, and build a reputation as a good employer so you can attract the best people. Most important is to look after your existing staff; they are far more likely to recommend you to others and spread the word that it's a great place to work. Monitor the reputation of your business; listen to what your staff say, especially those who leave have a candid exit interview with each and every employee who leaves. Build your repetition as a good employer.

Promote from within whenever possible. Always let your existing staff know when a position comes available. Even if this is not a step up, it may present a new challenge to keep someone motivated and to build new skills. If you do have internal applicant, treat them in the same way as your treat external ones - acknowledging receipt of their application and setup an interview. If internal candidates do not get the job ensure you give feedback to help with their development and to encourage them to apply for future positions.

If you're not involved with the recruitment process yourself. Do they also know what values and attitude you are looking for? Involve your existing team in the recruitment process to train your management team how to recruit. This will demonstrate your belief in them and strengthen their commitment to helping the new employee succeed.

At a potential cost of $2300 for every employee you hire, it's well worth giving recruitment the same respect and commitment you give to any other aspect of running your business.

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Happy Employees – Not Easy But The Payoff Is Worth It

We've all heard the statistics and you've probably done your own research regarding how much it costs to replace an employee. There's the cost to recruit a new employee and once hired, you have to train the new person, which will be even more expensive. Sometimes, the new person ends up quitting or isn't right for the job and we repeat the entire process. There are also the intangible costs associated with turnover, such as repeat customers who may miss their favorite servers, poor morale, and general loss of efficiency while the new employee gets up to speed.

While you're not going to keep all of your employees happy all of the time, there are steps you can take to attract and maintain a good staff.

Start Off on the Right Foot. Do you remember your first day of work? Of course you do -everyone does, good or bad. The first-day experience is a huge factor, one-third of the employees decide whether or not to remain with an employer that first day. During employee orientations, give them your full attention, and give them plenty of opportunities to ask questions. Make sure that if you're not able to spend the day with them they have something meaningful to do in your absence and assign a trusted employee to check in with them frequently. Try surveying your employees about their first day experience. You'll likely receive all the feedback you need regarding what made them feel welcome and what areas could be improved.

Train for Success & Longevity. It's important to select who's training your new employees. It shouldn't be whoever happens to be working that day, select someone who is enthusiastic and is a good to great communicator. Also, new employees can become frustrated by conflicting messages from trainers or feeling that they don't know how to meet expectations. I have seen this happen several times in my career. Take some time to develop a real training plan that covers the most important job functions and hold a train-the-trainer session for your selected group. For a relatively small investment of your time, this training template can be used over & over and will pay dividends through a consistent message.

Give Spot Awards for Great Performance! Don't wait until review time, when you've likely forgotten, to recognize an employee who provides excellent service or volunteers to come in when you're short-staffed. Thank them immediately with a simple "good job" note you can post for everyone to read. You might also consider small prizes for those who accumulate several pats on the back. What's important is that the recognition will provide motivation, and motivated employees tend to stay engaged with your company!

Stay competitive. Do a little research regarding what similar establishments are paying their staff, what the average tips are and what benefits are offered. You may not always be able to match the top dollar being paid, but you should at least be in the ballpark. Also, if you offer any unique benefits or your customers tip higher than average, don't be shy - publicize this to your staff!

Provide Incentives Based on Length of Service. Consider offering perks for your loyal employees and give the new ones something to look forward to. Some companies offer more time off, paid trips or gifts for long-term employees, and depending on your budget, these are good ideas. What's really important, however, is the recognition. For little to no cost, you can offer perks like better parking spaces, first choice of days to request off or a small celebration at a staff meeting to celebrate their anniversary.

Educate. Investing in employees beyond traditional financial means often successfully keeps employees long term. Training and development -- from food safety programs, to management trainee courses and classes that assist in their personal development -- give employees a stake in the success of the business and personal empowerment, engendering commitment to the restaurant.

With so many training courses now available online, offering training to employees is easier than ever. And classes that will improve an employee's lifestyle, not just their restaurant expertise, also prove valuable.

Many restaurateurs are meeting the needs of their employees by offering a variety of classes to help build English language skills, how to buy a first home and how to manage money. As reported recently in the Washington Post, The Capital Grille offered a class where employees heard from real estate professionals, lenders and government officials about how to get help buying a home.

Whatever you decide to implement, a little thought and effort will go along way to achieving every manager's dream -- building and keeping a well-trained and positive staff!

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Interested in learning about how we can help you manage your labor? Join us for a demo of our labor scheduling system.

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The Basics of Restaurant Labor Costs

Operating a restaurant involves many expenses, one of which is labor. Labor is an operational expense in just about any restaurant, predominantly including hourly wages for staff members. Many restaurants hope to run a labor percentage below approximately 20 percent. When the costs begin to climb, anxiety levels rise as well. Still, simply paying your employees less will not solve labor cost issues. The keys to controlling labor costs are improving workplace productivity and scheduling your employees wisely. Labor costs are typically understood as a percentage of sales. To figure your labor cost, use this equation:

Payroll / Total Sales = Labor Cost Percentage

The success of your restaurant hinges on one critical factor; the people who make it special, your employees. Yet, statistics show that half of all restaurant employees leave their jobs within the first 30 days. As the restaurant industry grows faster than the number of workers available, competition for key personnel will become more difficult.

Here are some things to consider when looking for ways to reduce your labor costs.

Cross-Train Your Staff
Cross-training is beneficial to both the employee and the business, since the worker will have a wider range of skills and be able to help in multiple areas of the restaurant. This allows the manager to schedule fewer workers while still being able to achieve the same production and service standards. Some suggestions for cross-training include:

• Train your prep cook to handle the grill
• Train your hostesses to work as back-up servers
• Train bussers to help run food to customers

Conduct Staff Audits and Reviews
Another great way to help improve productivity is to perform regular audits. Take the time to watch and assess your employees' performances. If you find that a large portion of your employees' workdays includes inordinately long breaks or downtime, it might be wise to revise your schedule. Conducting face-to-face reviews with each member of the staff will help communicate your thoughts and concerns.

Control Labor Costs With Precise Scheduling
Make sure you have constructed a budget to help keep track of your annual sales and expenses like labor. Through your budget, allow a percentage of your sales to cover labor expenses. Then, create a staffing schedule to reflect your budgeted allowance for labor expenses. The following tips elaborate these guidelines:

• Break down your annual budget. Break down your annual budget into monthly budgets to help divide the money into weekly sections. This will give you a weekly budget, from which you can determine labor costs and make an appropriate staffing schedule.
• Design a new weekly schedule for all employees. Relying on a fixed schedule week after week fails to acknowledge shifts in projected sales, changes in the weather or other factors that can affect your business. Adjust the number of staff scheduled each week to keep compliant with weekly budget constraints.
• Monitor clock in/clock out times. After every shift, make sure that all employees have punched in and punched out exactly according to the schedule. Managers can usually use tools within the Point of Sale (POS) system to monitor and alter this information when necessary.
• Discuss all schedule change requests in advance. Switching shifts can create problems when people start to work overtime, working more hours than the budget allows and potentially breaking a law, if the workers are youths. Be sure a manager is constantly aware of any proposed changes in the schedule.

Avoid Over-Staffing
It is often tempting to schedule more people than necessary in order to ensure that the business runs without any kinks. The reality is, however, that there will always be a few kinks in the restaurant business. Scheduling too many employees will increase your labor costs and reduce your profit, hurting your business overall. If you find that you have over-scheduled, you can send staff members home early but make sure you are cutting the team members who have been there the longest for the day. Train your people to work quickly, accurately and efficiently while also treating guests with respect and care. This allows you to operate at a high standard while still hitting your target labor percentage.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas or trigger other thoughts to help you reduce your overall labor costs.

Next week I will be talking about keeping employees happy.

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Interested in learning about how we can help you manage your labor costs? Join us for a demo of our labor scheduling system.

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Recipe Costing - Where Do I Begin?

Recipe costing is one of the most important areas a restaurant must address and it's a time consuming process to do it correctly. You need to do this so you can accurately set menu pricing, know when to increase prices and when to eliminate the items off your menu. Price it too high and you may lose customers if they feel the value is not there. If you price it too low, the difference between your actual price and what you should be charging comes right off your bottom line.

Restaurant owners should know what their actual gross profit margins are on each food item they are selling. In order to know this, you will need to standardize your recipes. This means there will be no more guesswork and no more surprise food cost fluctuations. Standardized recipes mean greater consistency, better food cost, and more satisfied customers.

Now you are probably asking, "where do I start?" Start with your entrees, as they are usually your higher cost items. Be very specific about how the center of the plate choices go from the cases of raw ingredients and onto the plate going out to your dining room. Some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you portion by cooked weight, pre-cooked weight, portion control item, ladle or piece?
• Is there a portion control system in place to ensure consistency for both the guest and the accounting staff?
  

You can't spend enough time in this area. This is where the major decisions are made in any recipe costing exercise.

The entrees usually have a cost of goods sold higher than your actual food cost percentage. If you have a 35% food cost percentage, you may see the entrees coming in at 40%. The reason the entrees run higher than the food cost percentage is the beverages typically have portion costs far below the overall percentage. Sales of beverages are made in higher volumes than the sale of entrees. These profitable items will help to lower the overall cost percentage.

Chefs and kitchen managers will get involved once they see you are factoring sides, bread and butter, garnishes, etc. into the total cost of these entrees. They should have been correctly trained to price entrees to cover all these costs. In addition, they may be able to point out entrees with a high food cost percentage that can produce high gross margins. As you gain the support of the kitchen staff in your exercise, have them proceed to cost any side, starch, bread, roll, garnish and condiment needed to serve each entree.

Maintain a focus on the production and service of center of the plate items. You will find a high percentage of purchase volume is devoted to the raw ingredients needed to produce these entree items.

Once you have completed your entrees, then move on to your other menu items keeping the momentum so you will have costing for all of your menu items. Once this is done don't forget to maintain this information as new items are added or as recipes change, this is an ongoing process. There are many tools available to help with this process, from Excel spreadsheets to inventory software solutions, you need to determine will one is right for you. No matter which one you select, they must be able to do the following:

• Maintain an accurate inventory of all food products, prices and period ending totals
• Find a simple and easy to use method of accurately costing their recipes 
• Calculate the food cost percentage and gross margin of each item on their menu as well as the averages for each menu category, and 
• Determine the "theoretical or ideal food cost" of their menu and menu categories based on how many of each item they sell.

 
Related Articles

• How Do You Control Food Costs?
• Inventory Forecasting: You Can't Manage If You Don't Measure?
• How Does Food Waste and Theft Happen In A Restaurant?
• Top 3 Areas For Reducing Food Costs
  

 

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Top 3 Areas for Reducing Food Costs

This is a follow-up to a series of articles I've been posting on controlling food costs in your restaurant.  The focus and time required to manage cost can seem daunting, so this week I just wanted to list a few key areas you can start with and can grow from there.  Next week we will be talking about recipe costing.    

The Kitchen:

• Reward staff when food costs are met
• Implement a meal plan, which allows your staff to eat at discounted prices to keep them from sneaking food here and there.
• Use spatulas to scrape every drop out of bowls and cans.
• Include portioning in your advanced prep instructions. Busy cooks may not have time to portion properly during a rush.
• Keep your knives sharp.
• Use the correct size of dish for each menu item to avoid the temptation to over-portion in order to make the plate look full.
• Inspect your garbage cans for food waste. If waste seems excessive, spend time training your staff to reduce the amount of food thrown away.

Planning Your Menu & Specials:

• Plan your specials to use ingredients you purchased on discount or items you would like to move out of your inventory.
• Use trim items from meal preparation to make soup or appetizers.
• When creating your plates, assign larger portions to items that have lower food cost and keep high-priced items to more manageable sizes.
• Use ingredients in several dishes so you can order in bulk. But beware of overstocking, as this may result in spoilage.
• Is your dishwasher throwing a lot of food away? If so, consider reducing your portions.

Ordering Food:

• When possible, buy fresh produce locally, direct from the grower.
• Stock enough supplies to avoid trips to the local discount or grocery store.
• Regularly schedule requests for quotes from both your current suppliers and new suppliers. Always get at least 3 quotes.

Related Articles

• How Do You Control Food Costs?
• Inventory Forecasting: You Can't Manage If You Don't Measure
• How Does Food Waste and Theft Happen in a Restaurant

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How Does Food Waste and Theft Happen In A Restaurant?

Whether you run a quick service or a fine-dining restaurant, the amount of money you make depends to a degree on how well you manage your inventory. Food cost is often a restaurant's largest single expense in the overall cost of running a restaurant.

It's common for restaurants to lose money through poor inventory management. Start-ups are particularly exposed to this cash drain, since they often do not have their financial control systems secured. But even the most well-managed, well-established restaurants have ongoing challenges with waste and theft.

Consider all the challenges of dealing with food. Your have a lot of inventory items and most of it is perishable with a limited shelf life. Failure to use a product within its shelf life results in throwing it into the trash and there go some of your hard-earned profits.

The more people involved in taking "raw" inventory and converting it to the delivered product, the more difficult it is to control loss, waste and misuse of inventory. The typical restaurant has dozens if not hundreds of raw and partially prepared food products in storage. You're stocking lots of desirable products to which many people have access. Depending on size, nature, volume and recipes in your business, there's a good chance that you'll have between 200 and 500 different raw food products in your storage rooms that are of value to everyone. The more products you have, the more challenging it is to control their use. The more of anything you have, the less likely one or two items will be immediately missed.

Manual counts, stock rotation, and portion control can help you control costs and ensure consistency. You will see the results in your profits at the end of the day. Whether you are using manual methods or examining your inventory in detail with software, when your employees see that you're keeping close watch on inventory, waste naturally decreases. Letting your staff know that you are tracking inventory carefully can have other benefits as well.

Adjusting for waste
Does your staff keep track when food is burned or spilled? To account for inventory properly, you will need to adjust stock levels whenever there is waste in the kitchen. You may want to have your staff report mishaps to the manager on duty and adjust for waste as it happens. Or you may prefer to use a waste worksheet in the kitchen and enter the adjustments into the software daily or weekly.

Stocking
Review your stocking procedures to avoid spoilage: organize your storage in such a way that products don't stay hidden in the back. Crowded, messy areas act like black holes for missing product and make it difficult to conduct counts. Make sure stored food is properly wrapped, covered, and labeled with a date so that it can be used before it spoils. Have a rotation policy in place for your stock. Food that comes first should be used first. Have your staff stock new items at the back of the fridge or freezer.

Counting
Regular physical stock counts are necessary for the smooth running of your inventory program. Physical counts are essential because they determine your actual usage. Conduct a daily inventory of 8 to 10 key food items. Spot inventory checks should be done in full view of employees as well, which keep the staff mindful that a theft would be hard to pull off. How often should you count? The recommended inventory period is one week, certain items you may want to count daily. This takes time but its time well spent especially if you suspect theft.

So ask yourself you if you are doing the following and if not it's a good place to start.

• Do you have consistent recipes for all your menu items?
• Are you portion-controlling your most costly items?
• Are you keeping no more than a week's stock on hand and systematically rotating perishable product to limit waste?
• Are you doing a physical inventory at least once a week?
• How much money do you have tied up in inventory? To limit waste and spoilage, industry consultants recommend keeping no more than a week's worth of stock on hand.

 
Related Articles

• How Do You Control Food Costs?
• Inventory Forecasting: You Can't Manage If You Don't Measure

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Inventory Forecasting: You Can't Manage If You Don't Measure

Last week I kicked off a series of articles on contolling food cost. I had the opportunity to work for one of the most respected CEO's in the restaurant industry who mastered the art of controlling costs. He was always saying, "You can't manage what you don't measure". It is an old management adage that is accurate today. Unless you measure something, you don't know if it is getting better or worse. You can't manage for improvement if you don't measure to see what is getting better and what isn't.

With inventory, you need to manage the uncertainties, the constraints, and complexities on a continuous basis. By doing this you will improve your inventory forecasting ability and accurately set inventory targets and pars.

The first thing to measure is your usage. Keep it simple and just look at a week and see how much you started with, add what was delivered, and then subtract what you have left. That's how much you use in a week. (Next week we'll talk about ways to dig a little deeper into what you should be using vs. what you are using.)

Now that we know how much we use, we can start to look at how much we need. One of the problems is the repetitive orders of the same products; you have undoubtedly asked yourself at what stock level you need to replenish your inventory. The goal is to reduce inventory levels without affecting you guests. The three main factors to consider when forecasting:

• The Lead Time - how long does it take for my delivery to come once it's ordered?
• Reorder Point - what's the level of inventory for each item, when I know I should order more?
• The Reorder Amount - how much should I get?

If you don't have a background in forecasting don't worry you can still learn to forecast. Keep track of the important factors, such as special events or the weather, holidays, advertising specials, etc. You need to track these by the day of week. Any special events in your surrounding area could impact business and should be noted.

The next step involves analyzing the variances. Highlight very low variances and very high variances. You want to improve the overall performance. Identify weaknesses and make adjustments in future forecasts. Try to imitate accurate forecasts. Find out what you did right on low variance predictions.

The key to building strong forecasts is a creating and keeping strong records, reviewing these records, which will enable you to improve your forecast. I never said this is going to be easy but don't stop, keep the process going and you will reap the rewards.

There are many tools available to help you forecast inventory, they can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or more sophisticated software solutions that master the art of inventory forecasting and ordering. You need to ask yourself which solution works best for you. But remember, the better tool will enable you to ensure you have enough product on hand at all times while reducing your inventory costs.

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A Restaurant Guest's New Year's Wishlist

Joel Cohen at www.restaurantmarketingblog.com listed 34 in total, but here are my 10 favorites.

1. A clean, well-decorated washroom/bathroom.
2. A server who holds my drink glass in the middle, not on the lips of the glass. -- this is the worst (see #1)
3. A server who has tasted the food and has some great personal recommendations -- nothing makes you feel better than the "I haven't eaten here" from their server
4. Never to hear the phrase, “Is everything okay?”
5. Order take-out that has leak-proof packaging.
6. Order take-out where the cold salad is NOT packed with the hot entree.
7. Receive an umbrella if it’s raining as I’m leaving the restaurant. -- now there's a great idea
8. Have the owner/manager of the restaurant greet and thank me for my business.
9. Receive my final bill/check within 60 to 90 seconds of requesting it. -- I'd even accept 2-3 minutes, but when you're ready to go, you're ready to go
   
10. A genuine smile ... because smiling is contagious. -- I have to agree. I've been seated by many bored hosts who obviously dislike their job, makes it a lot harder for the server to recover after a start like that.

In all honesty, I could probably think of hundreds of things I would like in a dining experience as a guest. But as an operator it's very simple, just make the guest your #1 priority, with that as your guide, you'll know what needs doing.