Reblog from Venners Consulting: How to Improve Restaurant Operations in 4 Steps
Do you have the key to success? The know-how to improve restaurant operations? What operational improvements are you implementing so that your restaurant maintains maximal performance?
If you are a restaurant operator, knowing how to improve restaurant operations and achieving maximal operational success is an ongoing challenge. Operational improvements are made even more complex in a multi-site setting. Shrinkage, casual staff, seasonal or changing menus, and constantly shifting Health & Safety legislation are just a few of the headache inducing areas keeping the entrepreneurial restaurateur up at night. Then there’s dealing with suppliers, the costing of dishes, fluctuation of operating costs, security, theft and staffing issues.
And there is no silver bullet. It is just hard work. There is no ’golden rule’ either, no ‘quick-fix solution’ to knowing how to improve restaurant operations.
What we do know is that operational improvements are the key to safeguarding profits, and therefore, your restaurant’s success. Operational improvements can be realised through the implementation of controls in a variety of areas of your restaurant: financial, legislative, stock management, compliance, just to name a few. Keeping oversight on all these aspects, all of the time, seems pretty impossible!
But despite there not being a ‘quick-fix solution’, there most certainly is an all-encompassing one. As one of the hospitality industry’s longest serving suppliers, we have developed an innovative new service that covers all areas of operational improvement. It combines elements of financial performance consulting, stock control, loss prevention and legislative and operational compliance checks – all of which can help you find out how to improve restaurant operations. A fully comprehensive platform for future gastronomic success. But first let’s have a look at the areas you need to consider in your restaurant’s operational improvement plan.
Areas where there is always room for operational improvement
Stock management
Stock control is still proving as profitable now as it was in 1900. Stocktaking as a solution has become synonymous with prudent stock management right across the sector. It works by reconciling what you have remaining in stock with what you have bought in and what you have sold. Ultimately providing the operator with a hoard of data from which sources of loss can be exposed and dealt with efficiently, reversing the loss and improving profit as a result.
Restaurants and food service businesses may find a higher portion of their shrinkage comes from the loss of high value items, such as steaks and other meat dishes. Controlling those items is a really good way to protect and improve your profits.
Ops Compliance
Severe damage can be caused if staff do not adhere to your agreed operational protocols and, in hospitality, where companies are heavily reliant on casual labour and temporary staff, tracking and analysing the efficiency and compliance of your staff is critical to maintaining customer service, brand equity, service quality and company reputation.
Health & Safety Compliance
Aside from the extremely strict requirements Health & Safety compliance restaurants have to adhere to legally, compliance in this area also hugely affects customer satisfaction and therefore also footfall figures, reviews and much more. Food Safety being a huge player in this, your restaurant’s reputation relies on far more than the location, food and liquor offering and customer service. Food hygiene ratings, and thoughtfulness regarding your customer safety are fundamental to satisfaction ratings and keep legislative violations at bay.
Internal theft and fraud can severely damage a restaurant’s profits and reputation. And if not dealt with early, a “theft culture” can take hold within a restaurant as more staff see how easy it is to get away with. Site managers are left tearing their hair out wondering why their results are so poor. But with no way of knowing how the inventory losses are occurring, the haemorrhaging of lost profits can run well into the tens of thousands for every complicit employee. It is then understandable that rooting out the criminals operating within your business becomes critical to success.
How Venners Consultants can help you take care of all operational improvements
Developed specifically for the restaurant and casual dining scene, and with profit maximisation right at its heart – our Restaurant Controls solution is the Swiss army knife of restaurant auditing. It aims to produce operational improvements by eradicating losses, solidifying compliance controls and boosting the operating and turnover performance of your eating establishments. And it’s currently being endorsed by a growing legion of fans from right across the UK-based restaurant industry.
The service, which comes in different size packages to suit all budgets, contains everything a food service operator needs to run a tight ship, including:
- An upfront series of exploratory consultancy visits to gather data and then report on opportunities for profit growth and margin optimisation.
- A program of liquor stocktaking and high value item food stock controls.
- All the compliance support you will ever need including health and safety auditing, reporting, training and policy shaping, operational / brand compliance checks, food safety and allergen checks as well as financial and banking compliance audits.
- It even comes with covert bar and EPoS surveillance options for when you sense theft is occurring and need hard evidence in order to take proper action.
Need help you with your restaurant’s operational improvements? Call us for a free consultation on 01279 620820