When was the last time you stopped to ask WHY?  Why am I doing this, why am it doing it that way?  This is the BEST question you can ask about everything in your restaurant, business or life!

We are creatures of habit (watch the video below) and unless we are conscience to ask why, we just do things because that is how we have always done it, or that is how somebody showed us.  But did they ask WHY before they showed you?

I remember when I took over a Sbarro Pizza location that FAILED in 2009.  We hired the old General Manager to stay on with us.   Before we started developing the new concept, he and I audited every system, procedure and  recipe.  I would constantly ask why and he would never be able to answer with anything other than, “that is how corporate wants it.”

I can’t blame him for never stopping to ask why, but nobody in the company had stopped to ask why.  We did, and we doubled sales instantly after we opened with a very similar menu and concept.  We could have just done what they were doing, but we would have had the same results they had – FAILURE!

This is a great video that visualizes a very famous experiment about habits and why we do certain things the way we do.

Ask yourself, ask your chef, ask your manager, ask your customers, WHY?

Here are some questions to get the creative juices flowing:

• Why are we ordering it that way?
• Why did you eat here today instead of somewhere else?
• Who is benefiting from this coupon?  
• Is that who we want as a customer?
• Why do you cook it that way?
• Is our most popular menu item profitable?
• Does it sell because it is reasonably priced or because people LOVE IT?
• If they love it, why don’t we charge more?
• Is there a better way?
• Is he/she the right person for our vision?

Please SMASH the like button below and then tell me one thing you are going to change!

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