Pages:
What Gets Measured Gets Done
Marketing Audit Sample
Facilities & Sanitation Audit Sample

Related Trade Secrets:
The Culinary Underbelly
The Devil is inthe Details

For more of Bill Main's great Trade Secrets and tools, take a look in the Archives!

© Bill Main & Associates

A teacher of mine used to say that "God is in the details." And years in foodservice have convinced me that profits are in the details, too. My challenge has always been to find ways to stay on top of the endless systems, procedures and responsibilities that keep an operation running smoothly and profitably.

Audits provide a systematic and objective report card on how well you're handling the details in your operation. There are two types of audits. The first addresses a specific area like marketing or sanitation in great detail. The second kind of audit covers a wide variety of areas to give an overall picture of performance. For Trade Secrets Members, we've provided some sample items from two of our audits, the Marketing Audit and the Facilities & Sanitation Audit, to give you an idea of the detail and types of items you can look at.

A thorough audit requires a block of uninterrupted time to complete. With audit in hand, take a tour of your operation. Keep it simple. Score items with 0 or 1 points, pass or fail. This is a great time to take detailed notes of any related observations.

Once the audit is complete, tally the score and calculate a final grade. (See sample)
 

 
Next, take action. Review audit items that didn't get a passing grade and develop an action plan. Outline the steps you need to take to correct the problems, as well as who does what and by what date.

Next, schedule another audit so you can measure improvement. Depending on the needs of your operation, you might schedule an audit every four weeks, or only once a quarter. Review past scores and comments, and specifically look for progress made from one audit to the next.

You'll be surprised at how quickly scores will improve. What gets measured, gets done.