Sometimes going for the most fascinating strategies results in missing out the most basic ones. This happens quite a few times when it is a lucrative gleaming business like a Restaurant Business, and things are complex and sophisticated.
While some of these restaurants are getting it right, the majority are struggling to get their restaurant's operational strategy on track. Making the best use of your resources through proper planning is what operations strategy clearly means.
Let's brush up these basic operational strategies that will help you recall their importance and might bring you with really cool ideas.
Customer Service is your Gold Ticket
There is a common saying in the restaurant industry that states people will come for the food, but will come back again for the service.
Expanding and operating business is still a hurdle for many restaurant owners. To thrive in this competitive market, make sure that the customer service that you provide is excellent and on par with your competitors.
Making the most ensconced atmosphere, lovely decors, easy-to-go menus, and everything so liked about your restaurant is started with good customer service.
Being a Tech-Savvy will save.
Implementing technology in every walk of life makes it an easy go and so it does in our work life. This adds unhindered growth in your business. And so is for a restaurant business.
Juggling with complex operations all day can be a daunting task but is much more easy-peasy with apt management software and tools.
Use technology and software tools for bookkeeping, inventory management, reservation, online ordering, POS. Using technology for simple tasks might help you to avoid unavoidable human error and will make you more efficient and productive. This also improves client retention and diner frequency at your Restaurant.
Efficient over Disproportionate
The thought of "more manpower, hence more productivity" is very tempting. However, this may not be effective.
Quality over quantity has been a universal strategy. Adopt an efficient labor allocation strategy and manage your labor costs. Effectively manage your manpower: train them to use the latest technology like using electronic systems to take and submit orders or calculating totals.
Explore different methods of staff training and based on data of performance, choose the most efficient one.
Prevent your staff form working more than 40 hours per week. Plan and hire accordingly. Give them ample time to relax and to return to work. This will eventually lead you to serve a quality service.
A Common Big Picture.
Like every other business, Restaurant business also has a goal of high turnovers, loyal patrons, honest employees, and so on. Make sure they share the same and are already in their blood.
Ensuring that they own proper skill sets will definitely not cost much effort to help them learn things. Customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer acquisition, Customer service, maintaining relationships, and other objectives should already be their core qualities. These will help the restaurant expand and grow along with their growth should be deep-rooted in them.
Scrutinizing your suppliers is a critical step to success.
Steps should be taken to ensure your supplier provides the right quality of raw material at the right time. Compare with 5-6 vendors before you choose the correct one. Your vendor should provide you with a clear report about the pricing and quantity of the raw materials. It should not be overlooked provided; you are planning to cut down operational costs.
A healthy relationship with your supplier can also be of great help in times of crisis. Rebates, on-time delivery, offers will be special offers for you.
Menus to Kitchen and kitchen to table.
The key to a profitable and memorable menu is to keep it small and focused on items that you want to be known for – while differentiating your concept from local competition and offering a balance in pricing. This is the recipe for success!
Deciding your menu price keeping in mind the mindset of the customers is crucial. Make sure the menu plan matches the concept of your restaurant. Run a kitchen test. The food cost should be in the neighborhood of 25% to 35% of what you pay for the food. You should also undertake an advanced hyper-local analysis (competitive analysis), understand your target customers, and aim to understand your local economic factors.
Engaging resources judicially
Practicing portion control might lead to higher chances of survival in this competitive market. Portion control means knowing exactly how much ingredient to be used in every dish. This method also helps in cutting down costs that are otherwise invisible.
Also, you can maintain the desired cost of a particular dish by mixing expensive items with less expensive ones. All costly items in one dish can make your dish price go unreasonably high.
Online Presence be a cakewalk
Seeking attention online has been easy since the trending social media platforms came to existence. We are in the era of food porn and social media platforms are bustling with several pictures of delicacies that make the thriftiest of people spend some extra money.
When it comes to food, Instagram is King, Facebook is Queen and the rest are puns. The key to going social and churning in profit is posting top-notch food pictures and video clips. You can always hire experts to help you with doing so.
The online success of your restaurant is highly dependent on your offline performance; so get your offline activities right.
CONCLUSION
Don't forget that execution is everything. All these above points if followed might help you to run your business smoothly and effectively. Even, there are chances that these points might have laid forgotten under the current pressure of the panic situation of Coronavirus.
Though it may seem extremely tedious and difficult in the beginning, the best way to achieve it is by borrowing a helping hand of a company which is specialized in all these. It will definitely help you to meet your own set objectives.
Enhance our performance to meet your expectations and turn them into reality.