3 Ways to Take the Fear Out of the Restaurant Audit Process

Restaurant auditing. Those two words might have just sent a chill down your spine. But why? We all know that restaurant auditing is essential for the well-being of everyone. But that doesn’t make it any less scary or intimidating.

Every restaurant strives to follow health and safety guidelines, so why is a QSC inspection so unnerving?

It’s probably because someone is walking around, judging every aspect of your restaurant.  From food, to cleanliness, to customer service. A lot of these things aren’t even in your direct control. Yet, if something isn’t meeting their expectations, you could receive a fine—or even worse—your whole business. 

But, don’t worry. There’s a lot you can do to ease the fear of restaurant auditing. Here are three things you can do to ensure your next QSC inspection goes according to plan.

Keep Your Employees Engaged and Invested

Most restaurants just show their employees how to do their jobs and that’s it. This is how a lot of boxes go unmarked on the QSC checklist.

They clock in, slave away for a few hours, then get out as fast as they can. If someone has a bad day, then they’re not going to clean the grill as thoroughly as they’re supposed to.

How are you supposed to combat this? By keeping your employees engaged and invested. There are a lot of ways you can do this:

• Implement a new training program that’ll teach them to do more engaging activities at work. This means showing them exactly how to clean the grill or wash food. No instructional videos from the 80’s, either. You’ll get the best results from constantly switching up the training program.
• Walk employees through a QSC checklist to give them a heads up on what’s expected of them. Clearly hearing expectations will make employees work towards that specific goal instead of just doing things on a surface level.
• Provide career growth opportunities to incentivize them to work harder. If you promise a raise to anyone that deserves it, then your employees are going to work hard for it. This is going to ensure that they don’t skip any steps at work.

Just how important is employee engagement? One Dale Carnegie survey revealed that “companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%.” Now, that’s a statistic you want to be on the right side of.

Using Inspection Software to Own the Restaurant Auditing Process

It’s no secret that many companies still rely on spreadsheets and checklists for their inspection process. But this approach falls short in one critical area: corrective action visibility.

Now, imagine using your own audit software—a solution that shows you everything going on in your restaurant, what improvements have been made, and even more data-driven insights?. 

Auditing software lets you be organized. It helps you focus your efforts on whatever you need to. All your time could go to actually improving your restaurant rather than following up on past corrective actions. It gives your business the agility and visibility to make meaningful progress over time.

And with monitorQA, you can transform your restaurant audits into a collaborative process. Your managers and inspectors can walk around and record what’s going on in your restaurant using customized templates that fit your needs. And when corrective actions are assigned, you can track progress collaboratively with built-in commenting for each action. That means you get to fix problems before they become a QSC control issue.

Efficiently using auditing software is a miracle worker and can make your fear of the audit process completely go away. You can finally feel like every box on the QSC checklist is going to be marked, even if you’re not there.

Implement Good Habits in Your Staff

Having good health, food prep, and service habits really goes a long way. It may seem easier said than done, but implementing good habits into your staff isn’t that difficult.

Here’s some ways to make sure that your staff is always on their A-game:

• Keep everyone accountable for their responsibilities and the execution. How can you do that? By having the manager do a quick check at random times to make sure everything is up to par. You can think of it like a practice QSC inspection.
• Have a QSC checklist role to make sure someone is always keeping everything up to standards. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a full-time role. The goal is to ensure your QSC checklist fits the needs of your business.

Good habits are essential to any restaurant. Even better habits are what sets restaurants apart from others (especially to the QSC control).

Now You’re Ready for Your Next Restaurant Audit

It’s no secret that the majority of restaurant owners fear the restaurant audit process. But that doesn’t have to be the case when you have the right processes and technology in place. With full visibility into your inspection processes, an easier way to track progress, and a collaborative approach, there’s nothing to fear.

Are you interested in learning more about how restaurant inspection software like monitorQA can help you transform and enhance your restaurant auditing process? Book a discovery call today to see why other restaurants love using monitorQA.