Restaurant City and Your Management Style

I have been playing Restaurant City for maybe four nights now. My sales is doing good. I have already reached the 10K bracket (but I bought a lot of fixtures so now, it's down to 8k). What I like about this game in Facebook is it's not time consuming. You open your restaurant, ensure that it is well-manned - you have your business running while you do other productive things.

Restaurant City can be a gauge of how good a leader and a manager one is in terms of the following aspects:

Customer Service
1. Do you provide your customers the basic needs like a clean wash room?
2. Are you able to divide the layout properly? How many square meters do you provide for the dining area and the wash room? How many tables and chairs do you provide to accommodate your customers without sacrificing their comfort?
3. Do you have the proper size of manpower versus the needs of your restaurant - its size and customer base.
4. Are you able to position your people properly such that they are able to attend to your customers promptly?
5. Do you excite your customers with the different menus that you offer?

People Management
1. Are you a hands-on manager? Do you give your people a free hand to manage their tasks once you have oriented them?
2. Are you well-manned? Do you encourage multi-tasking or each person has a specific role during their shift?
3. Do you schedule breaks or do you let your people reach their breaking point before you let them rest?
4. Do you let them eat properly or do you ration food?
5. Do you sack an employee on first offense? What policies have you laid about employee infractions?

Sales Building
1. Satisfaction rating translate to sales generally. Do you monitor the satisfaction rating and implement measures to arrest the decline? Do you implement strategies to continuously make it higher?
2. Again, do you have the right number of people to serve the number of customers that go into your store? Are they in the right position? Do you take note the number of walk-outs because of inefficient service (slow attending time, no available seats)?
3. Do you go around your neighboring restaurants to check what they are offering in their menu? Do you try to trade ingredients you need so you can offer something new to your customers?

Profit
1. How much of your sales go to manpower expense or renovation/face-lift expense?
2. Is your layout efficient to maximize your seating capacity versus your manpower? Does it complement the size of your restaurant?
2. How do you see renovation and buying additional fixtures and equipment, an expense or an investment?

I base my decisions in running my restaurant with the above questions. That is the reason why I get so excited with this game. I implemented the following as soon as I reached level 11, 10x10 floor area.

1. 1:4, 1 cook for every 4 tables.
2. 3 cooks all the time and 2 waiters.
3. An assigned cleaner if it's peak time.
4. Provided a waiting area with 2 seats. The customers actually wait for vacant seats.


EQ is very much needed too as there are times you have to work with your neighboring restaurants for ingredients you want to trade. If you're nice and you have what they need also, you just might get what you need.

A well-managed store (or department) makes the owner more productive as he or she can focus on other business opportunities that can make the company grow.

Remember though, for every computer game, there is a cheat sheet. Let's make it sound better, there are hints and guides you can find. But for all it's worth, challenge yourself first and make strategies on your own.

Restaurant City is like running your own business. See how it will grow. It will give you a sense of satisfaction knowing that this is also what you are doing managing your department or your unit in your line of work or even in your household.

Yes, the name of my restaurant is Serendipity. Obviously it was inspired by one of the most romantic movies I like, Serendipity, with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.


It's fun!