Restaurant operations are a far more complicated business than many people realize. A good manager can find the middle ground between keeping the bottom line in mind while supporting the wellbeing of their staff, but that takes work. In this blog, we’re going to talk about a few of the most effective ways to improve restaurant operations.
Streamline Front-of-House Operations
Even if your servers, hosts, and bartenders are doing an excellent job, there’s almost always something a good manager or owner can do to get the daily FoH restaurant operations more streamlined.
Enhance Customer Service
Enhancing customer service is a broad goal, but that means there’s a lot that you can do to get started. While we certainly want to improve the customer experience overall, it’s best to start small. Observe how your hosts greet guests, how the bartenders interact while getting drinks, and, crucially, how your servers sell guests on food and drinks.
The fact that servers are, at the end of the day, salespeople, is something that’s either way too emphasized in restaurants or that’s not even acknowledged. A good server will constantly (and subtly) upsell specials and new items. Unfortunately, though, so will a bad one. Maybe they push too hard, don’t try to interact beyond the minimum, or they simply aren’t invested; what matters is that many may take the sales side of the job a bit more heavily than the hospitality side.
If you catch this, it’s time for training. Show how to interact with guests in a natural manner, demonstrate ways to upsell subtly, and remind your FoH team that their job is, first and foremost, hospitality.
Optimize Table Turnover
Table turnover is a relatively small aspect of restaurant operations, but it’s one that can turn a great spot into one that’s popping off. Sure, you fill up quickly, send food out, and get on with your day — but can you do it over, and over, and over again?
How does your FoH encourage table turnover, if at all? Are they offering checks once entrees and drinks have gone out? If you’re a counter service joint, are your bartenders asking about another round, or are they still making drinks for other guests? If you’re a “sit and chill” type of spot, do you have a minimum set for how much a guest needs to spend to take a table? Questions like these can help you determine where you can improve your table turnover rate.
Boost Back-of-House Efficiency
An efficient kitchen is a thing of beauty, but one that’s breaking down can be scary to even the most grizzled of line cooks. So, how can we improve our restaurant operations for the kitchen?
Improve Kitchen Workflow
This is far and away the most important aspect of any kitchen. While cost control (we’ll get there, I promise) is also crucial, the day-to-day efficiency of your kitchen is won and lost by its workflow. To improve kitchen workflow, you need to ask a few questions:
- What space do you have? Can you reasonably fit enough people into your kitchen to operate it at the capacity you need?
- How organized is the kitchen? If the answer is “not very,” what can you do to improve that? Organizational tools like speed racks can turn chaos into efficiency.
- How well-staffed are you? This is a question that most managers hate to hear. The simple truth is that skeleton crews have become more and more common in recent years. Fixing that by hiring more cooks, a dishwasher, or whatever else you may need is the fastest way to improve your kitchen workflow. The more hands, the better.
Manage Inventory Effectively
Okay, I promised cost control — it’s time. Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. If you don’t know the terms COGS, you need to check out this article on restaurant benchmarks. It’s an acronym that stands for Cost of Goods Sold, and it basically boils down to the following:
You need to know how much money you’re spending in order to properly budget and price items. This may seem obvious, but it’s what makes inventory management so important. Take a look at your full stock of goods, and ask yourself these questions:
- How much are you spending on perishable goods each month? Do you sell all of them, or is there a good amount of waste? If so, can you order less, or is your volume simply not high enough to sell everything consistently?
- How many items do you buy that are only used for one menu item? How well do those specific items sell? Would it be more cost-effective to cut that item from the menu?
- What can you order in larger quantities for a discount, and what can you order piecemeal that you’re currently ordering in bulk?
- Do you have a clear list of your backstock? If not, make one!
Integrate Technology
Technology makes most things easier, we all know this. As such, it should be no surprise that bringing new tech into your restaurant operations can be a lifesaver.
Implement a POS System
First things first — if you don’t have a POS system in place yet, you need one. Handwriting tickets is prone to many issues that an organized, all-in-one system can easily handle. And, ultimately, we’re here to help you streamline things and improve your restaurant operations as easily as possible.
Find a POS that works well for you, and you’ll find that things don’t have to be as hectic as they once were.
Utilize Management Software
On the admin side of things, using software to manage accounting, scheduling, inventory management, and even recipes can be a massive win for busy restaurants. No chef enjoys admin work, and no GM ever yearns to do the schedule and payroll — so make your life easier with management software.
Consolidate Your Delivery App Tablets
If you’re operating with multiple delivery apps tablets all running at the same time, consider consolidating those tablets with software like Cuboh. Our tablet manager helps you take care of order adjustments, see driver information, 86ing, and more in one place so you can run multiple delivery apps at once with ease.
Optimize Staff Management
If you’re wondering how to improve restaurant operations, the simple truth is that no matter what you do, you’ll always be behind without top-notch staff.
Hire and Retain Quality Staff
This is a pretty simple topic, but one that’s surprisingly difficult to nail — truly successful restaurants become successful because of their staff. You can boast about your menu and cost-cutting too, but at the end of the day, you need competent people to keep the ship intact.
There are a few surefire ways to do this:
- Offer competitive pay. If the industry standard is X, offer X+$1 an hour. If your restaurant operations are actually stable, then this won’t be an issue. If it is an issue, it may be time to look at what needs to change to be able to offer this.
- Provide benefits. At least in the United States, one of the fastest ways to retain restaurant staff is by providing benefits beyond a free meal and maybe a shift drink. We’re talking vision, health, and dental insurance, sick pay and vacation time, and whatever other benefits you can afford. Show loyalty to your staff, and they’ll do the same.
- Provide a safe and inclusive work environment. Nobody wants to go to a job where they’re bullied, yelled at, or otherwise made uncomfortable. Be sure to ensure everyone knows that your business is safe for everyone, and enforce that should problems arise.
Provide Comprehensive Training
One of the most important things you can do to ensure successful restaurant operations is to have comprehensive, streamlined training. The simple reality is that well-trained staff stay, and they do their job better.
Improve Financial Management
The most obvious way to improve your restaurant operations is by financial management. It’s often tedious and boring, but knowing precisely where every dollar you make goes is a major step to true success.
Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Keep an eye on the cost of labor, produce, and rent/utilities, as they add up very quickly. Should you find that labor is getting too high too fast, it may be time to cut the schedule. Similarly, an overfilled walk-in may mean that it’s time to cut the menu a bit and fine-tune your ordering processes.
Control Costs
Controlling costs can be the difference between success and failure for most restaurant operations. It’s incredibly easy to over-order, over-staff, and under-sell, and the fallout from that is never good. Keep a consistent eye on your finances and, if possible, have a professional do it for you.
Market Effectively
Marketing needs to be targeted properly to work. And, as we’ve discussed time and again here, the best way to make that happen is by knowing your target audience and demographics. Cater your marketing to the groups that you know want what you have, and don’t waste time trying to have “something for everyone;” know your crowd and stick to them.
Implement Digital Marketing
Digital marketing may sound scary, but it’s the reality of the world we live in and, as such, actually pretty simple. Spending even a little every month on Google ads, social media management, and/or blog posts just like this, getting your name into the wider discussion will always pay off if done properly.
Foster Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty will always start with quality service and a killer product, but once you’ve got that nailed down, it’s time to find new ways. Whether it’s a weekly event like a “beer club” meeting for regulars, discounts, punch cards, or just knowing their order before they speak, encourage your customers to remain loyal and they likely will.
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