Sample result
Daily Service Checklist Builder for Restaurants
The owner asked this:"I have two servers per lunch shift and some tables sit twenty minutes without anyone looking at them. I want a service checklist that lifts the check without making the team sound like salespeople."
① The five phases and their clock
The clock does not start when the server is free: it starts when the guest walks through the door. The caps below are built for Tuesday-to-Friday lunch, which is when this house fills; on Sunday midday, with tables of six and eight, order taking moves to 6 minutes and it is written that way on the sheet.
| Phase | Starts at | Cap | Who answers | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcomed and seated | 30 seconds from the door | 45 seconds at the peak | The server nearest the door, his station or not | Table-open time on the point of sale |
| Menu in hand | 90 seconds from sitting down | 2 minutes | Station server | Hand mark on the station sheet |
| Order taken | 4 minutes from sitting down | 6 minutes | Station server | Time printed on the docket |
| Starter on the table | 8 minutes from the docket | 10 minutes | Kitchen pass | Docket against pass-out time |
| Main on the table | 15 minutes from the docket | 18 minutes | Kitchen pass | Same, with the exception written below |
| Control point | 3 minutes after the main | 5 minutes | Station server | One box ticked per table |
| Check printed | 3 minutes from being asked | 4 minutes | Station server | Time of the request written by hand |
| Farewell | Before the table reaches the door | — | Whoever is free | Shift leader's own observation |
The exception, and why it gets written down. Sancocho de tres carnes does not come out in 15 minutes and it never will: it is flagged as the order is taken, with its number -"it takes 22 minutes, does that work?"- and from that moment the cap for that table is 22 minutes. A long-cooking dish nobody flags is not a kitchen problem: it is a cap the dining room promised and did not say out loud. Illustrative figures, built from the data you gave.
② Suggested selling, with its arithmetic
Suggested selling is not friendliness: it is a box with a moment, a line and a price. Three offers per table, one per phase, and none of them repeats.
| Moment | What is offered | Price | They take it (assumed) | Contribution to the check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| As the order is taken | House starter to share, patacon con hogao | 12,000 COP | 1 in every 20 covers | +600 COP |
| At the first empty glass | Corozo lemonade refill | 7,000 COP | 1 in every 10 covers | +700 COP |
| Before the main is cleared | Dessert to share, dulce de natas | 14,000 COP | 1 in every 20 covers | +700 COP |
| Total per cover | +2,000 COP |
The lines, exactly as they are said. At the order: "While the bandeja comes out I'll bring you a patacon con hogao to pick at, all right?". At the empty glass: "Shall I bring you another corozo lemonade, or would you rather have water?". Before clearing: "Before I take these away: there is dulce de natas today and one serving feeds two".
What those 2,000 COP do. The average check moves from 48,000 COP to 50,000 COP, 4.2 % up without touching a single menu price. With 214,000,000 COP a month and a 48,000 COP check that is 4,458 tickets. If the dining room carries 2,700 of them -your assumption until you check it against the point of sale- those 2,000 COP turn into 5,400,000 COP a month and 64,800,000 COP a year.
And the three items clear the margin filter: the 12,000 COP starter at the 34 % menu-average food cost leaves 7,920 COP of contribution margin; the 14,000 COP dessert, under the 32 % ceiling for a promoted item, leaves 9,520 COP. The drink never touches the kitchen.
③ The mid-meal question
Three minutes after the main lands, with the table eating, ONE question is asked and ONE box is ticked. That minute is the border between a lukewarm plate that gets swapped and a one-star review written in the car park.
The question, with the guest's name and the dish in it: "Don Jorge, how is the sancocho treating you?". Nobody asks "everything all right?" from three tables away with a tray in hand: that gets answered with a nod and tells you nothing.
| What the table answers | What the server does, on the spot | Box |
|---|---|---|
| "Fine", with the plate half eaten | Refills the drink if the glass is empty and moves on | YES |
| "It's lukewarm" or "it needs salt" | Takes the plate back to the pass with the docket marked, says how long the replacement takes -6 minutes- and promises no less | NO, with a reason |
| Silence, or a plate that has not moved | Asks a second time using the guest's name; if the plate still has not moved, it is removed and not charged | NO, with a reason |
The border, written down so nobody crosses it alone. What lives here is the gesture at the table inside the shift, and nothing else. The compensation ladder by role, the money cap each rank may authorise and the complaint log that hunts for root cause belong to the service recovery procedure, not to this sheet. Same with the drawer count and the collection: the check shows up here as a guest moment -how long it takes to arrive and who says goodbye- never as a money method.
Hard rule: the control-point box is ticked at the table, with the guest in front of you. Ticked at the end of the shift, it is a signature with no walk behind it.
The full example has 2 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.