9 restaurant management tips all managers need

Skip the article and turn takeaways into action by scheduling a call with our team.

Let’s not mince words here: No one in their right mind has ever described restaurant management as an easy job. A restaurant manager understands that the restaurant industry is complex and the way each restaurant runs is unique.

A high-quality restaurant manager is worth their weight in gold. They handle everything from day-to-day restaurant operations to the more nitty-gritty bits like inventory management, marketing strategies, and optimizing customer experiences.

That said, many restaurant owners double as managers since, as small business owners, they wear many hats. Either way, being a restaurant manager is one of the toughest jobs in the restaurant business.

There are many ways that a good manager can drive success at your restaurant. This article will explain the essential restaurant management tasks you should have in place and cover how to equip your management team with the support and tools they need.

Restaurant management 101

The key to good restaurant management is knowing the restaurant’s business plan backward and forward, managing the staff with excellence, and being a customer service expert.

A restaurant manager’s key responsibilities include:

• Smart staffing. Managers need to plan schedules around busy times and staff availability to avoid the chaos of too few hands or the cost of too many.
• Creating memorable experiences. Focus on the customer experience is vital. Talented managers keep the restaurant’s soul and vibe going while making sure customers leave happy (and come back).
• Leading with care. Restaurant managers manage humans, and solid leadership comes from the nexus of competence and empathy. A manager that can inspire their team, assign tasks with confidence, and handle customer feedback with grace is one that will win.
• Keeping the numbers in check. Managers track inventory, labor costs, profits, and a number of other vital stats to keep business humming.

Managers who blend these skills with passion create a place where guests and staff alike feel right at home.

Types of restaurant manager

To better understand what really goes into managing a restaurant, it’s a good idea to look at what the different types of restaurant managers do. There are five restaurant management roles:

• A general manager
• A front-of-house (FOH) manager
• A back-of-house (BOH) manager
• An assistant manager
• A restaurant owner/restaurateur who handles it all

Which type of manager a restaurant needs depends on its seating capacity since larger restaurants need more managers. A small restaurant will often be operated by an owner/operator, hence the name. Medium-sized restaurants will need a general manager and potentially an assistant manager, while large restaurants will need all of the above.

General managers manage all decision-making aspects of the restaurant. FOH managers handle all customer-facing aspects of the restaurant, from point of sale (POS) operations, food service, and overseeing the dining experience to restaurant marketing, including social media marketing.

BOH managers will handle all aspects of menu items and inventory management, including managing the kitchen, ensuring food costs are correct, and forecasting future inventory needs.

9 restaurant management tips

Restaurateurs have to prepare and adapt to manage operations in today’s shifting landscape. And with so many tasks and so much to cover, being a manager of a modern restaurant is a lot.

These nine tips for effective restaurant management can help run things right. As you build your team and shape your management tasks into SOPs, keep these strategies in mind.

1. Lead from experience

Nothing beats previous experience in the industry. If you’re brand new to the industry and, perhaps, fresh from hospitality management school, that’s great. But a few years under your belt in and around the dining room will give you hands-on exposure to the ins and outs of restaurant operations and how people in the industry work, as well as what works best for your particular cuisine, audience, and area.

So if you’re new, find a mentor, and then hire a manager with years of know-how built in by witnessing operations in real time. Both mentors and seasoned managers will have picked up on the successes and failures of their own previous managers and will help you optimize your restaurant management tasks and processes.

2. Polish your people skills

No restaurant manager is effective without solid people skills since they’ll be managing, well, people. That includes both their personnel and customers. Busy restaurants can be hectic, heated places (literally and figuratively), so being able to keep a cool head and keep staff motivated are irreplaceable skills.

Often, team members need emotional support and understanding. Knowing when to offer a kind word on a difficult day can boost team morale. After all, the restaurant industry is a team sport, and nothing gets accomplished alone.

3. Keep food costs down

Keeping a lid on food costs is one of the most direct ways to ensure a restaurant’s continued profitability. Fortunately, there are many ways to exercise wise cost control to prevent food prices from getting out of hand. To start, a restaurant manager can consider the following:

• Shop around with multiple vendors to get the best price on bulk regular purchases
• Swap out ingredients for seasonal, fresh ingredients as seasons change
• 86 dishes that don’t sell well or have lousy profit margins
• Keep an eye on portion control—if customers are regularly walking away with leftovers, consider reducing portion size
• Implement a first-in, first-out method for your inventory to reduce waste
• Upgrade your inventory management software

Check out our complete guide on how to control food costs in a restaurant for more details.

4. Stay on top of trends

Staying in touch with current trends is a must for a manager—it’s wise to know what your customers want before they ask for it. Follow social media trends in your area for food, see what restaurants are popping, and check your sales data to see what food and what beverages are selling the best.

For example, get to know the Yelp food trends for 2025 and add winning ideas to your menu where applicable. If your wine menu is deep, adding wine flights is a piece of cake, and makes for great marketing buzz too.

5. Get sustainable

Restaurant sustainability is one of the key overarching trends in the restaurant industry over the last several years, and it’s not going away. As an example, millennials are 1.5x more likely to purchase a sustainable product than a non-sustainable one, so make it a priority and market it.

What can that look like for a restaurant? Some examples of sustainable practices include:

• Switching to sustainable food packaging (e.g., reusable or biodegradable takeout containers)
• Switching to seasonal produce to reduce the carbon footprint of vegetables flown across the world
• Asking customers if they need utensils with takeout
• Swapping to metal straws
• Reducing food waste
• Upgrading kitchen equipment to be efficient

Making an effort to improve sustainability can save a restaurant money in the long run and boost its public image. Talk about a win-win scenario!

6. Focus on staff retention

Restaurant staffing is one of the most difficult parts of the food service industry, since high employee turnover is the norm and finding good staff can be a challenge. So, retaining talent is a never-ending project for restaurant managers. In order to keep the best staff on your team, consider implementing the following:

• Pay close attention to restaurant employees’ hours and shifts. Are they getting enough shifts, or are they being overworked? Consider offering flexible schedules when possible as well as adequate time off.
• Don’t just pay minimum wage for entry-level positions (if you can afford it). Paying slightly above the industry standard can be a significant net bonus since it attracts the best employees.
• Keep your work environment pleasant and drama-free as much as possible. Avoid pairing employees on the same shift if they don’t get along, or try to work out interpersonal solutions.
• Recognize and reward your top employees. Showing appreciation and adding bonuses or perks can go a long way towards keeping employees loyal and happy.
• Offer career advancement. If there’s a way up the ladder, it offers employees a goal to work towards. Dead-end jobs are often demoralizing.
• Track your labor costs closely. If your labor costs rise above 30% of total sales, reconsider your staffing needs. If they’re significantly under 30%, consider hiring additional staff if necessary to improve service.
• Conduct exit interviews. When employees quit, find out the reason why and see if any patterns emerge.

Talented and motivated restaurant staff make all the difference in a restaurant’s success. When a team is capable and energized, the sky’s the limit.

7. Market wisely

Getting the word out there is a team effort when it comes to restaurant marketing. Taking short-form videos of food being prepared, highlight behind-the-scenes look into restaurant operations or your staff work—anything that helps to humanize the business and highlight the positives is a great opportunity for social media posts.

Democratizing social media opportunities can help get staff involved and create a friendly face for customers and staff alike. That means giving employees the green light to suggest their own posts or their own videos to post on socials. No one can be everywhere all at once, and the spontaneous, organic type of posts often do well.

8. Make health and food safety a top priority

Food safety across the board is a must, especially in an era where allergies and food restrictions are ever more common. Keeping on top of food health is also a must, since one bad review or bout of food poisoning can be awful for business. Some good ways to demonstrate to customers you’re on top of health and safety:

• Note potential allergens on menus (peanuts, shellfish, etc.).
• Train servers to ask customers if they have any food allergies or restrictions.
• Keep your FOH and BOH ruthlessly clean at all times—customers notice details.
• Share videos of your kitchen at work on socials (customers will notice it’s clean).
• Place your (good) health inspection ratings outside your restaurant.
• Replace old and worn out furniture.
• Run a daily health checklist in all restaurant sections.

Making cleanliness non-negotiable is a baseline that restaurant managers should start from and relentlessly stay on top of.

9. Share the load with technology

Running a restaurant while keeping up with all industry trends is more than just a full-time job and is too much to ask of any individual manager. There’s no way to navigate the modern world of restaurants without knowing your way around modern restaurant technology.

The best software solutions, like Yelp Guest Manager, can help streamline and maximize restaurant management tasks. This FOH platform integrates with inventory management applications, POS systems, and newer innovations like Yelp Kiosk. Plus, with options like credit card holds, online reservations and waitlists, guest data, and more, technology is essentially like a virtual assistant manager—an ace up the sleeve for your management team.

Managers can use the tech available from Guest Manager to make wise decisions down to the nitty gritty. Want to see what your regulars are buying at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday? Or what dishes sold best on Saturdays during the last month? All that is available to peruse and plan with.

Manage things right

Whether you’re managing things yourself or hiring a manager, you’ll need a generalist capable of handling the people side of things and the numbers side of things. That’s a lot to take on, but done well, it makes a manager invaluable to an organization. If you’re an independent entrepreneur, that might just be you alone—so be prepared to put in the hours.

One way to cut down on hours spent analyzing operations is to have the best available software, like Yelp Guest Manager, on hand. This solution integrates with several different POS systems and third-party apps. Whether you’re looking to optimize your restaurant seating or streamline BOH operations, Guest Manager is the tool for you.

Want to see how it works? Reach out to us for a free demo, and we’ll be thrilled to show you around. We know how hard managing a restaurant can be, and we want to be there to support our clients as much as we can.