For restaurant owners · The owner's desk

Find your slowest shifts from last week's covers

A plain read of last week's covers by shift from your own reports, with the slowest shifts named and the questions left for you to decide.

By Aaron Byrne, KeenHand

The prompt

Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in each part in [BRACKETS]. Restaurant owners and general managers.

I run a restaurant. I go by feel on which nights are slow, and I want to see it in my own numbers before I set next week's schedule.

What I have:
- Last week's covers by day and by shift, from my point of sale or my reservation system: [COVERS BY SHIFT]
- The same week from a month or a year ago, if I have it: [COMPARE WEEK]
- Anything unusual that week, like weather, a game downtown, a private event or a closed patio: [WHAT HAPPENED]
- How many people I had on each shift, by role: [STAFF ON EACH SHIFT]

What I want:
1. Show covers by shift in a simple table, slowest to busiest.
2. Name the three slowest shifts and say whether they were slow in the earlier week too, if I gave you one.
3. Point out any shift where staff and covers do not line up, both ways: too many people for a quiet shift, too few for a busy one.
4. Note anything from that week that might explain a shift.
5. End with three questions for me to decide, not answers.

Rules:
- This is a draft for me to read. Do not send anything or change any schedule.
- Use only what I gave you. If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing.
- Show the math so I can check it.
- Do not tell me to cut anyone's hours or change prices. Lay out what you see and let me decide.
- Leave out guests' names, card details and anything about their health.

Give me back:
- The covers table, slowest to busiest
- The slowest shifts, with anything that might explain them
- Where staffing and covers do not line up
- Three questions for me

When to use it

Monday morning, before you set next week's schedule and prep, when you want to see where the dining room was full and where it sat empty.

When not to

Do not use it to cut anyone's hours or change prices. It shows you the pattern; what to change about staffing or the menu is your decision.

What to paste in

[COVERS BY SHIFT]: Covers for each lunch, dinner or brunch shift last week, from your point of sale or reservation report.
[COMPARE WEEK]: The same counts for an earlier week, or a line saying you do not have one.
[WHAT HAPPENED]: Weather, local events, private parties, closures, anything that made the week unusual.
[STAFF ON EACH SHIFT]: How many servers, hosts, bartenders and cooks worked each shift, by role, without names.

Never paste

Guest names or reservation details
Staff names or pay rates

A filled-in example

Sample. Fictional business, fictional client.

COVERS BY SHIFT: Tue lunch 22, Tue dinner 61, Wed lunch 19, Wed dinner 58, Thu lunch 31, Thu dinner 88, Fri lunch 44, Fri dinner 162, Sat brunch 96, Sat dinner 171, Sun brunch 130, Sun dinner 47.
COMPARE WEEK: Same week last year: Tue lunch 25, Wed lunch 21, Sun dinner 70, everything else within a few covers.
WHAT HAPPENED: Rain Thursday and Friday, patio closed Friday; a holiday party of 40 in the back room Saturday night.
STAFF ON EACH SHIFT: Lunches 2 servers, 1 host, 2 cooks. Tue to Thu dinner 3 servers, 1 host, 3 cooks. Fri and Sat dinner 6 servers, 2 hosts, 4 cooks. Sun brunch 5 servers, Sun dinner 3 servers.

What you should get back

A covers table from slowest shift to busiest
The slowest shifts named, set against the earlier week if you gave one
Shifts where staffing and covers do not line up
Three questions for you to decide, with no hours cut for you

What stays with you

The prompt writes a draft. You decide what happens to it, and nothing should reach a guest until you have read it. Decisions about money stay with a person every time, and so do health questions and complaints. When KeenHand builds a routine like this, every message carries the same four decisions: Automate, Approve, Revise, Reject.

Find cover for a shift someone just dropped. A message to your team asking who can pick up a dropped shift, a direct ask for the right person and a short reply to whoever called off.
Write the weekly specials or event post. A post for this week's specials or a music night, written from your own notes for your social pages, your email list and the sign by the door.
Check vendor invoices against what you ordered. This week's vendor invoices checked against your orders and what came in the door, with every short, sub, return and changed price listed for you.

More: every prompt for restaurants, the owner's desk, and AI for restaurants.

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