In the restaurant business, change is a constant. From swapping ingredients in a recipe to rearranging a floorplan layout for social distancing, restaurant pros are quick to adapt to changed circumstances.
Here is what four restaurant experts recommend to make sure your restaurant can wade through any current or future difficulty.
Quality business comes from quality products
“You have to start with a great product,” Curtis Duffy, restaurateur and winner of three Michelin stars, recently advised students of the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. “A great product comes from years and years of relationships with farmers, foragers, and fish mongers. Developing those relationships gives you the better edge to getting those great products.”
Quality ingredients are essential for your restaurant's success. Knowing where your ingredients come from and their quality builds trust with your customers. That's why it is vital to maintain fresh ingredients by educating employees on handling, monitoring refrigeration temperatures, and using ingredient management technology for accurate forecasting and minimal waste. As well as fostering a trusted relationship with suppliers for easy last-minute orders or changes.
Prioritize and cultivate great staff members
“The only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul, and remain consistently successful is to attract, hire, and keep great people,” says Danny Meyer, restaurateur and CEO of the Union Square Hospitality Group, in his book Setting the table: the transforming power of hospitality in business. “The human beings who animate our restaurants have far more impact on whether we succeed than any of the food ingredients we use, the décor of our dining rooms, the bottles of wine in our cellars, or even the location of the restaurants.”
Creating a positive dining experience goes beyond just serving delicious food. According to a recent Deloitte customer experience report, the key element that truly enhances the dining experience is the friendly and authentic engagement between restaurant staff and customers. Your employees are the face of your brand and play a crucial role in delivering the experience you want your restaurant to be known for.
Investing time and resources in training your staff is essential. By setting clear rules, offering courses, and providing ongoing training, you can empower your employees to excel in their roles. Equipping them with technology, such as mobile Point of Sale systems, can further enhance their ability to engage with customers. With this technology, they can take orders in a conversational manner, access detailed information about dishes, and send orders directly to the kitchen. This eliminates the need for constant back and forth between the kitchen and the front of house, allowing your staff to focus on providing exceptional service to your guests.
Empower servers to handle dissatisfied guests and create a culture of excellent service. Hiring hospitality-minded individuals with strong work ethics and genuine care is crucial. Prioritizing staff training and development ensures consistent delivery of a remarkable dining experience that keeps customers coming back.
Take advantage of technology
“There’s no question that being hands-on while staying on top of the numbers can be tedious and time consuming. But with a good point of sale (POS) system, both tasks will be a lot less daunting,” states restaurateur and industry consultant Roger Fields in his book Restaurant success by the numbers. “When properly used, a POS system will not only allow you to make timely decisions based on readily available and accurate information, it will also free up more of your time to do the really important work of taking care of customers, properly managing and supervising staff, and growing your business.”
Using technology to automate tasks in your food and beverage enterprise reduces the risk of human error and gives you more time to focus on what matters. Modern restaurant management systems unify POS, inventory, scheduling, and financial functionalities into a single platform, simplifying your life even further. Mobile POS devices allow servers to take, modify, and send orders directly to the kitchen from the guests' table. Kitchen display systems prioritize order tickets by cooking times, and Business Intelligence tools help make sense of data, optimize product ordering, and reduce waste. With a modern restaurant system, you can spend more time with guests and have accurate customer and business data to stay efficient and profitable.
Always be prepared to change
After Covid-19, restaurants have had to adapt to new consumer habits by transforming menus, floor plans, kitchen routines, and delivery models. This ability to change is crucial for survival in the industry. As Tilman Fertitta says, businesses must constantly evolve to stay ahead of change and dictate their own terms. This has always been a key factor for success in the hospitality industry.
The message from some of the most successful restaurateurs in the industry is clear: a thriving F&B enterprise is built on high quality ingredients, unsurpassed hospitality, and the ability to keep reinventing yourself, following your customers. You can make the most of these elements by implementing the technology tools that can help you make informed, data-driven decisions. Do you need help selecting the tech that will best support your business? Contact us.
