Why your next bestsellers might not be on the menu (But on your team)

Labor is now your biggest cost and biggest opportunity! While innovating menus get the spotlight, it's your staff who drive the upsells, turn tables faster, and turn first-time guests into regulars. Today in restaurants, efficiency is everything, your team’s performance is a direct line to your bottom line.

Investing in your people doesn’t just lead to smoother shifts. It protects margins, reduces turnover, and increases guest satisfaction. Let’s talk about how to build and retain teams that perform like top-sellers.

Menus Sell Once. People Sell Always.

You could serve the best shawarma or burger in town, but if a server misses the order or mishandles a guest interaction, that’s what your customer will remember.  

Regulars don’t just come back for the food. They come back for who serves it. That personal “Hey, good to see you again!” creates emotional loyalty, and emotional loyalty creates revenue.

That trusted smile. That familiar face. That upsell that didn’t feel like a pitch.

Repeat customers spend 67% more than first timers. People drive that kind of loyalty.

What Makes a ‘Bestseller’ Staff Member?

A great team member is like your signature dish. It’s balanced, reliable, and memorable. Here’s what they usually have in common:

• Product Knowledge – They don’t just take orders; they guide orders. “If you like the ravioli, you’ll love our house-made focaccia.”

• Ownership Mindset – They don’t just clock in, they care. They straighten menus. They wipe counters before being asked and they fix issues as they see them.  

• Emotional Intelligence – They can sense when a table wants a quick meal or when it’s a birthday worth celebrating. They read the room - and act on it.

These team members drive higher order values, better NPS scores, and keep shifts running efficiently.

How to Build Your Dream Team: Training & Development

No one walks into your restaurant ready-made. Talent is developed, not hired. Here’s how smart operators build winning teams. There are a lot of learnings restauranters can take from the hospitality industry, so let’s look at a few:

Effective Onboarding

A leading hospitality brand overhauled their onboarding after noticing a 23% new manager turnover rate. With a new three-week program blending mobile learning, mentorship, and structured coaching, that dropped to just 7.85%.  

Now imagine applying this inside your restaurant. A regional burger chain with 15 delivery-first locations was struggling with high new-hire churn. Using Grubtech, they created a digital onboarding flow that mapped every role’s training modules to real-time performance tracking.

Within 30 days, average onboarding time dropped from 10 days to 6, and early attrition fell by 58%.

More results:

• Step-by-step training builds lasting habits

• Interactive, digital-first learning keeps them engaged

• Mentorship means they’re never left alone

How Grubtech Helps:  

With Grubcenter and tools like gData, you can track training milestones, monitor day-one readiness, service performance and reduce ramp-up time.

Upskilling Long-Term Staff

Ever seen a waiter beam with pride over their sommelier certification? That’s the energy you want. When staff feel like they’re growing, they stay.

One multi-brand operator with over 40 virtual brands used Grubtech’s middleware integrations to roll out a cross-training program for kitchen staff. By tracking prep speed and accuracy across stations, they could identify high performers ready for upskilling.

Within 90 days, cross-trained staff were covering peak hours more flexibly, cutting overtime costs by 18% while keeping average order prep times under 12 minutes during lunch rush.

Retention isn’t just about keeping staff, it’s about keeping them engaged. Fast-food brands now use digital micro-training, certifications, and flexible learning modules to help team members grow into multi-role contributors.  

What this means for your restaurant:

• Lower burnout, more balance

• Flexible shift coverage  

• More homegrown leaders

More results:

• Lowers staff turnover

• Continuous learning on the job

• Better service quality

How Grubtech Helps:

With tools like gKDS and gData, you can identify top performing stores, track them by dishes, and order turnaround times, and reward learning progress. It’s now easier to build shift rosters around data-backed capabilities.

Leadership Development

Great managers multiply great service. Chains like Shake Shack implemented leadership academies like “ShackSource” to identify and develop top talent. The result? A 40% rise in internal GM promotions. It included cross-functional project work, peer mentorship, and leadership workshops focused on real-time problem-solving.  

A mid-sized pizza chain with dine-in and delivery service integrated Grubtech’s performance dashboards to monitor staff KPIs—like upsell rates, shift punctuality, and customer review sentiment.

They introduced a recognition program based on this data. After six months, staff turnover dropped from 45% to 29%, and average ticket size grew by 8% thanks to improved upselling.

How Grubtech Helps:  

With gData’s performance dashboards, you can monitor upsell rates, punctuality, and guest feedback in real time. These insights make it easy to identify rising stars, reward top performers, and create targeted development plans that improve retention and boost sales.

More results:

• Staff learn leadership skills by working on real tasks

• Mentorship from peers builds confidence and teamwork across locations

• Clear growth paths help keep strong leaders in your restaurant

Recognition – The Motivation That Move Mountains

Good staff become great when they feel seen. Incentives don’t have to be complicated, nor does recognition need a massive budget, just consistency. Whether it's bonuses for upsells or a simple 'Employee of the Month', public appreciation drives performance.

Smart operators use data to drive recognition.

• Who gets the most 5-star ratings?

• Who covers extra shifts without prompting?

• Who drives add-on sales consistently?

How Grubtech Helps: Through integrated data from your POS, delivery apps, and in-house metrics, gData paints a full picture of staff contribution.

Conclusion

Here’s a fact: Great menus get people talking. Great teams get people returning.

When it comes to growing revenue, too many operators chase the next menu hit while ignoring their biggest asset, which is their people.

Grubtech helps you see, support, and scale your team’s potential, whether you run a single outlet or 300+ locations.

Want to boost retention, spot rising stars, and turn performance into profit? Learn more about it! Book a FREE Demo today!