When you're opening a restaurant, defining your brand's identity is crucial. One of the most effective ways to do this is through a restaurant mission statement. It might seem like a simple idea, but a well-crafted mission statement can serve as the foundation for your restaurant’s vision, values, and goals, helping to align your team and connect with your customers.
In this post, we’ll explore what makes a strong mission statement and share some examples to inspire your own.
What is a Restaurant Mission Statement?
What exactly is a restaurant mission statement? A mission statement is a sentence that defines what your restaurant is about. It should be a primarily internally-facing document that helps those who work for you to make decisions that are in-line with your vision.
Why Should Restaurants Have a Mission Statement?
Restaurant mission statements are handy for a few reasons, but the most important of them is guidance. By establishing a clear mission and vision for your restaurant, you’re able to provide a document that allows management to make large decisions that are aligned with your vision, encourage employees with an idea of what they should aim to do, and even potentially bring in new employees to align with your mission statement.
In short, it’s a great guide to help figure out who you are, why you do what you do, and what the purpose of the restaurant should be.
Key Elements of a Restaurant Mission Statement
A restaurant mission statement has three primary elements that help make it work. Let’s take a look.
Vision: Defining Your Restaurant’s Future
Before all else, it’s important that you establish your vision for what your restaurant will be. What is the ultimate goal that you want from your restaurant? Do you want a place to encourage intimate conversations, dates, and celebrations? Do you want a restaurant that’s a communal gathering space for people of all walks of life? Maybe you dream of a space where marginalized groups can feel safe in a public space — all of those can be part of your vision for your restaurant and its future.
Values: Core Beliefs and Principles
Along the same line of thinking, a restaurant mission statement needs to have core values to truly function. Generally, these values will reflect the overall vision and purpose (more on that momentarily) of your restaurant. In the previous example, we mentioned a vision of creating a safe space for marginalized groups. If that were your vision, it would make sense to have values of security in your space, respect, and open-mindedness.
Your values will directly inform how your restaurant operates and, importantly, who wants to work there — so think carefully.
Purpose: The Why Behind Your Restaurant
Some restaurants have a simple purpose of feeding people; that’s okay! However, it’s important to understand your actual purpose when building a restaurant mission statement. If all you want is to feed people great food, then do that — but if you’re aiming to create a space in your community for families and friends to gather, ensure that is reflected in your mission statement.
Oftentimes the simple act of writing down why you want what you want can be quite powerful, especially when in the form of a mission statement.
Steps to Crafting the Perfect Restaurant Mission Statement
Now that we know what a restaurant mission statement is and why it’s important, let’s discuss how to actually craft one.
Step 1: Identify Your Restaurant’s Unique Selling Points
As with any business, it’s important to know what makes your restaurant tick; what are its strengths, its weaknesses, and the things that make it unique? By narrowing down what makes your restaurant uniquely yours, you’ll find that you can narrow down a few key points. From there, it’s time to think about what your customers want and, crucially, what they expect.
Step 2: Align Your Mission with Customer Expectations
While your vision should be important when building a restaurant mission statement, it’s vital to remember that, at the end of the day, you’re in the service industry. As such, the demands and needs of your customers will directly impact how your business operates. If your vision doesn’t align with that of your regulars and your community as a whole, chances are that you won’t last long.
That’s not to say that you should give up on your vision, but rather that you should take the time to craft your restaurant mission statement around your vision and the needs of your customers.
Step 3: Keep It Clear, Concise, and Memorable
A restaurant mission statement should be simple. A mission statement generally consists of only one sentence, so you need to be clear and concise while communicating what is often a far larger concept than a single sentence.
Step 4: Involve Your Team in the Process
While this may seem like an obvious idea, you should absolutely involve your staff in the process of creating your restaurant mission statement. They’re likely to be a large part of your business for the foreseeable future, so make sure that they align with the mission that you’re putting forward.
That’s not to say that they should have full control over your mission statement, but it does mean that they should be involved.
Step 5: Review and Refine Your Mission Statement
As with all things in life, a bit of editing can’t hurt — and your mission statement is no different. Take your time, revise, and draft it again if needed. Your restaurant mission statement isn’t going anywhere, and you’re not pressed for time to make it. This is an important step in creating a fully fleshed-out business concept, so treat it as such! In short, take your time and don’t relegate yourself to the first draft.
Examples of Effective Restaurant Mission Statements
With that out of the way, let’s talk about restaurant mission statement examples. Below, you’ll find a few relatively well-known mission statements from major restaurant chains — hopefully they’ll help to get the creative juices flowing.
- McDonald’s: Our mission is to make delicious feel-good moments easy for everyone.
- Tim Horton’s: We work hard to deliver the highest-quality products and services, and strive to be a leader in everything we do. It's that simple.
- Starbucks: With every cup, with every conversation, with every community – we nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection.
While there are countless restaurant mission statement examples out there, the simple truth is that these are perfect examples of what makes a quality mission statement — clear, concise, and easy to understand.
Where to Highlight Your Restaurant MIssion Statement
Once you’ve gotten your restaurant mission statement up and running, it’s time to put it to use. Display it in your employee handbook, in clear view somewhere in your restaurant, and put it in a suitable page on your website.
Your mission statement should help customers and employees alike to understand who and what you are at a moment’s glance, so don’t hide it! Beyond display, though, what should you do with your restaurant mission statement?
Training Staff on the Mission
Once again, we come to one of my favorite talking points — train your staff! Your employees should be the first to know your mission statement and, importantly, they should be fully aware of how to execute it. That means that some coaching will likely be required in order to make sure they understand its finer details, but that’s part of the job. Training and coaching should be an ongoing part of management, and this is an excellent reason to get that ball rolling.
Reflecting the Mission in Customer Interactions
On the same note of training, your customer interactions should reflect your brand’s mission statement. If your staff are properly trained to work around your restaurant mission statement, then that shouldn’t be a problem — but if they’re not, expect to iron out some kinks. If you ran with the example above of creating a safe space for those who need it, your staff should know to be gentle and welcoming.
Similarly, if you’re here for the sole purpose of making incredible food, lean in to that. Stand by it and make it clear that your staff aren’t there to chit chat with guests, but to deliver the best and fastest food that they can. This is, once again, why displaying your mission statement in clear view can be so important — it helps both guests and employees to remember what you’re about.
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