How to Improve Restaurant Operations

Jun 07, 2022

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Originally Posted On: https://blog.freshcheq.com/how-to-improve-restaurant-operations

Did you know that most restaurants survive on a 6.2% profit margin? As a result, you have to stay on top of your restaurant’s operations. Otherwise, a little mistake or mismanagement will result in your business failing.

Reinventing your business and finding creative ways to keep your restaurant going is key to its survival. However, many restaurant owners and managers struggle to maintain efficiency in everyday operations.

Learning how to improve restaurant operations can make a huge difference. It could be the reason why your establishment will not only survive but also thrive.

So, what can you do to refine your restaurant operations? Here are a few tips you could use.

Refine Your Menu

Customers will always look forward to your menu. They want to find something delicious to eat with the utmost ease.

If your menu has multiple pages trying to capture the taste and preference of every customer, it will be overwhelming. This is true not only to the customers but also to your kitchen staff.

In conjunction with your staff, you need to re-examine your menu. It would be better to have a few popular dishes that your clients love than a hundred different dishes. Eliminating some items from the menu will undoubtedly work in your favor.

Categorizing different sections of your menu will also make it easy on the eye. It will allow your customers to make quick decisions. As a result, this will simplify your operations by improving the turnaround time.

Automate Your Inventory Management

Studies show that 4% to 10% of food purchased in restaurants goes to waste before reaching the consumer.

Without proper inventory management systems, the chances are that a lot more food is going to waste. Automating your inventory monitoring system can help you reduce waste. And in doing so, you will save money and achieve your restaurant operations improvement goals.

However, you will need to incorporate data from your point of sale system to get it right. By analyzing data, you can identify your sales patterns. These should help to anticipate demand for particular types of food.

The objective is to avoid ordering excess supplies that will lead to unnecessary food waste. If analyzing data isn’t your forte, consider hiring an expert to help you.

Adapt to New Trends

Some circumstances can introduce new trends in a business. For example, the pandemic changed how people dine. Customers opted to have restaurants deliver their food.

While it is now business as usual in the restaurant industry, most people still want to order food from home. For this reason, you need a team that will deal with deliveries only. Such a strategy will be instrumental in streamlining your operations.

When you have employees dedicated to deliveries, the rest of your staff can focus on in-house orders. They’ll not need to put their customers on order as they try to process a delivery request.

Also, you will want to ensure that clients can order food online easily. Incorporate popular ordering apps such as Uber Eats, Yelp, and so on.

Improve Your Work Environment

If your restaurant staff members keep resigning, you need to get to the bottom of the matter. More so, it is expensive to hire and train workers. This is something you want to avoid.

Moreover, whenever several workers leave, your restaurant operations suffer. It takes time to find a replacement and this interferes with the rest of your team.

You can avoid this undesirable situation by improving the working environment in your restaurant. See to it that your management treats everybody equally. Listen to the grievances of your workers and address them accordingly.

When providing staff feedback, ensure that it is encouraging and constructive. A team with positive morale is likely to be more efficient. Consequently, this energy will have a positive impact on your overall operations.

Train Your Staff on Tech Usage

You probably have several pieces of equipment and restaurant management systems. These are the likes of coffee makers, milkshake machines, POS systems, and much more. It is prudent to ensure that all your staff is conversant with this type of tech.

Sometimes, one of your employees could miss work due to illness or personal emergencies. You want to make sure that someone else can fill in their gap temporarily. Otherwise, this will cripple your operations.

Even if it means bringing in a professional to train your employees, go for it. Having a highly competent and versatile team is key to improving restaurant operations.

Set Clear Goals

When your goals are ambiguous, your team will not know how to achieve them. The lack of a clear direction to follow will slow down your team. And the effect will trickle down to your restaurant operations strategy.

Your employees should be well aware of what you want from them and when you expect it. Nonetheless, your goals should be specific, measurable, time-bound, and relevant. When your team understands the targets and objectives of the business, they will be more efficient.

Embrace Technology

Technology has revolutionized how we run businesses. Restaurants are no exception. You can invest in various tools and management software to improve your operations.

There are many individual programs that you can integrate into your business model. For example, the best restaurant management software programs are customizable. Moreover, they can tremendously help you to improve accuracy and order times.

With modern restaurant technology, you can integrate payments and bookkeeping. The idea is to streamline all aspects of your restaurant operations. Another goal is to help you realize the full potential of your business.