Ask most restaurant operators where they're focused this year, and you'll hear a familiar list: new menu rollouts, marketing initiatives, technology upgrades, platform consolidations, maybe new unit growth. All important. All worth pursuing.

But there's one investment that tends to get overlooked. And in my experience, it might be the one with the highest return: genuinely equipping your General Managers to lead at the location level.

This isn't a knock on how brands are currently operating. It's more of an observation. The tools and processes that exist today were largely built for corporate teams, less so for the person running the floor at 11:45 AM on a Saturday. And that gap is quietly costing brands more than they realize.

GMs Shape the Guest Experience More Than Anyone Else

Here's something that's easy to lose sight of when you're operating at scale: your guests don't experience your brand, they experience your location. The team, the energy, the quality of the food on that specific visit…all of that is shaped by the GM who set the tone for that shift.

When something goes wrong consistently at a location, or when a location just can't seem to hit its stride, it's rarely because the GM doesn't care. More often, it's because they're operating without clear direction. They know something is off, but they don't have a specific, data-backed picture of what to fix or where to start.

That's a solvable problem. And solving it at scale is one of the most powerful things a brand can do for its overall performance.

The Problem With Most GM Dashboards Today

Most brands have reporting tools in place. The challenge is that those tools were designed for people who have time to analyze data, not people who are managing a team through a lunch rush.

A typical GM dashboard might show rolling averages, regional comparisons, or trend lines going back months. That information is valuable in the right context, but it doesn't answer the question a GM needs answered every single day: What should I focus on right now?

When the answer to that question isn't clear, GMs end up in reactive mode. They respond to whatever problem is loudest at the moment instead of working on the things that would actually move the needle over time. And guest feedback, one of the most valuable signals available, often gets reviewed at the corporate level but never reaches the person who can actually act on it.

What Changes When GMs Have the Right Tools

When GMs are given clear priorities and real-time access to their own location's guest feedback, a few things tend to happen:

• They stop guessing and start improving. Specific, actionable priorities that are grounded in actual guest data make it easier for GMs to focus their coaching and make targeted operational adjustments. Instead of a general "we need to do better" conversation, they can walk into a shift briefing with something specific: what guests are saying, what the pattern is, and what the team is going to work on.

• Guest recovery becomes part of the routine. When a negative guest experience happens and no one follows up, that guest is likely gone for good. But when a GM can see flagged submissions in near real-time and respond quickly, the outcome is often very different. A thoughtful, timely response can turn a frustrated guest into a loyal one, and that loyalty has real revenue impact over time.

• Accountability becomes clearer. When GMs have a specific monthly objective tied to their own location's data, progress stops being abstract. They can see where they stand, what's working, and where they need to adjust. That clarity is motivating in a way that vague performance targets simply aren't.

A Dashboard Built for the Person Running the Location

This is the thinking behind Tattle's new Single Location Dashboard: a tool designed specifically for GMs and franchisees, built around how they actually work.

Rather than presenting a wall of data, the dashboard gives each GM a personalized, prioritized view of what matters most at their specific location.

A few things make it different:

• AI Coach delivers monthly, location-specific action items. Each month, every GM receives a tailored set of priorities generated by AI—drawing from their brand's own training materials and their location's guest feedback data. The result is coaching that's specific and relevant, not generic. A location struggling with food quality gets different guidance than one dealing with speed of service issues.

• Guest submissions are surfaced for fast follow-up. Individual survey responses are spotlighted so GMs can see who needs a response, respond directly, and close the loop. The dashboard also tracks recovered revenue, so there's a clear picture of the impact those follow-ups are having.

• Everything is in one clean, mobile-friendly view. Daily priorities, monthly objective progress, guest sentiment, leaderboard standing are all accessible at a glance, without digging through multiple systems. It's designed for someone managing a restaurant, not analyzing one from a desk.

A Simple Question Worth Asking

What does your average GM's Monday morning look like?

Do they start the week knowing their top priority, backed by feedback from their own guests? Do they have visibility into which submissions came in over the weekend and might need a response? Is there a clear, specific goal they're working toward this month?

For a lot of brands, the answer is somewhere between "sort of" and "not really." And that's okay—it's where most of the industry is right now. But closing that gap is one of the highest-leverage moves available to multi-unit operators.

GMs want to lead their teams well. When they have the right information and a clear direction, most of them will run with it. The opportunity is in making sure they have what they need to do exactly that.

Want to see the Single Location Dashboard in action? Lear more here.