Summer is often a crucial time for your restaurant, when business can explode with the arrival of tourists and customers in search of a meal and refreshing summer flavours. Yet with this increase in demand also comes increased pressure on your day-to-day operations management.
How do you ensure that every service is a success every time?
Don’t panic! Here are some effective management strategies and tools to help you maximise your profits while maintaining an exceptional customer experience.
5 points to remember for a successful summer season:
1. Optimising your staff management
During peak summer periods, effective management of your staff is essential to meet growing demand while maintaining service quality.
Adjust your management to suit the situation:
- Advanced timetable planning: Anticipate peak periods by planning staff timetables accordingly and inform your staff well in advance. Take account of past visitor trends and local events to adjust your workforce in line with forecast demand.
- Effective training: Ensure that all staff are well trained to manage busy services. Set up additional training sessions to refresh skills and improve operational efficiency. Keep them informed about any innovations put in place, made available to customers, particularly for welcoming international tourists.
- Transparent communication: Encourage open communication between staff members to coordinate tasks and minimise downtime. Use internal communication tools such as mobile applications or bulletin boards to share important information quickly and efficiently.
Our advice?
Every morning, it’s essential to do a debriefing on the previous day’s incidents or the day’s news!
Regularly monitor your customer reviews online and on your social networks and, above all, respond to comments.
Then tell your staff about all the positive and negative feedback!
2. Manage your stocks proactively
During the summer, fluctuating demand can lead to stock management challenges. To avoid shortages or wastage, adopt proactive stock management strategies:
- Analyse your sales trends: Use your historical data from previous seasons to anticipate stock requirements and adjust your orders accordingly. Identify high turnover products during the summer and ensure you have adequate stock levels to meet demand.
- Flexible seasonal menu: Offer a seasonal menu that uses fresh, local ingredients and can be easily adjusted according to availability. This will minimise the risk of shortages while offering customers fresh and attractive options.
Our advice?
Take stock of your Best Products and talk to your suppliers before the rush to negotiate volumes and prices more effectively!
Also take stock of the products that are most popular but not ordered. If they’re “slumbering” in your fridges, you’ll need to review your prices.
Use your digital menu management platform to find out more about your customers’ attitudes to your menu. The history of your Data is a good tool for steering your business.
3. Minimising food waste
Food waste can have a significant impact on a restaurant’s profitability, especially during the summer season when sales volumes are often higher.
Here are some strategies for reducing food waste:
- Precise portioning: Train your staff to serve precise portions to minimise surplus food returned to the kitchen. Encourage customers to ask for portions adapted to their appetite to avoid wastage. With a digital menu, your customers will be able to better understand the quantity offered for each dish, thanks to attractive photos.
- Managing leftovers: Put in place practices for managing food leftovers so that you can use them in new dishes or offer them as takeaway portions.
Our advice?
Offer takeaway or reduced-price options. This way, you can reduce the amount of unsold food at the end of the day.
With an effective Click & Collect solution, you have an additional, commission-free sales channel for managing the day’s unsold food. Double the benefit! No more losses and protection of your margins!
4. Managing your orders for error-free production
Order management is crucial to ensuring error-free production and maximum customer satisfaction. Here are a few tips for optimising this process:
- Increase the number of ordering tools in the restaurant: flexibility will guarantee better service for your customers. With a digitised menu, for example, you can optimise the customer journey from ordering to payment. As a result, your staff will be more available to provide a quality welcome, advice, etc.
- Opt for mobile, pad server or tablet solutions. They can enable your customers to consult your menu and order their food and drinks completely independently. Each order is transmitted directly to your cash register, so production and payments are secure!
Our advice?
Invest in a solution that allows you to take orders quickly and seamlessly. Features such as personalised ordering and real-time stock display can help minimise ordering errors
5. Manage your cash receipts efficiently
Cash management is an essential aspect of running a restaurant during the summer season.
Here are some tips on how to optimise this process:
- Use efficient cash register solutions: Different types of restaurant (fast food, sit-down, takeaway, etc.) require specific functionality. Make sure the cash register can meet your specific needs, such as managing tables, takeaway orders, personalising menus, etc.
- Staff training: Train your staff to use cash register systems correctly to minimise transaction errors and speed up the payment process.
Our advice?
Your checkout solution should be user-friendly for your staff. Make sure it’s intuitive and doesn’t require complex, time-consuming training to use effectively. This is particularly true of AirKitchen, which is both comprehensive and easy to use.
Bear in mind that during the season you are likely to have new staff to integrate. They need to get to grips with your checkout system!
Conclusion
By carefully planning staff management, proactively managing stock, minimising food waste, optimising order management and improving cash management, your restaurant should thrive even at the busiest times of the year.
