Food and restaurant industries were always the innate part of our lives, whether it a date night with your partner, get together with your friends, birthday celebration or a quality family time, restaurants were always the ideal place for it. However, after the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation has changed completely. Even though the situation has changed and things have become normal, there is a significant change in the way people use to go outside with their friends and family. Today hygiene and safety have become the biggest concern for the people.
Though it is becoming increasingly hard for restaurant owners to stay in the competition, it does not mean that they cannot do anything about it. There are many changes and updates in your operations and functionality you can bring to adapt to this situation.
Four tips in order to effectively run your restaurant business
1. Managing Your Staff
There are major changes which are needed to be made in order to successfully run your restaurant business. First and foremost, proper training needs to be given to your staff, about the new policy and the way they work. Since the spreading of pathogens is the biggest concern for the people, even though things have gone normal, your staff should work in the most hygienic and safest way possible. There should be regular use of face masks, sanitiser, and a frequent health check-up of your staff. There should be a change in the sickness policy of your restaurant as well.
Overcrowd should be avoided, and social distancing norms should be followed. Though this sounds simple, it will increase the cost of operation since you will be able to facilitate fewer customers than before. So cutting the cost is also important. With effective staff management, you can reduce your operational cost. For example, rather than hiring a full-time accountant for your restaurant, you can take restaurant accounting service by outsourcing. Restaurant accounting outsourcing services can save you a lot of money. Similar strategies can be used to save money and increase the profitability of the business.
2. Digital Presence
The world is becoming digital rapidly, and people are using digital services in all forms. Whether it is booking a movie ticket or buying your accessories online, digital platforms have taken over the market. This is true for the restaurant industry as well.
Restaurants that wish to stay in business as social barriers fall away will need to use digital ordering to reduce in-person ordering. You’ll likely experience a steep drop in sales without digital ordering, and the business you do bring in will be largely by phone, affecting your labour expenses as personnel accepts orders.
One of the best ways to go digital is by starting to take orders through online mode. Try to have a well-equipped website and app for this function. Going online will significantly increase your sales, and your presence will be more accessible to the consumers. A branded restaurant mobile ordering app may be useful for taking your digital ordering to the next level. As a result, you’ll be able to communicate with visitors more effectively and improve customer connections. To stay top-of-mind, you may send push alerts and targeted promotions, which can be especially useful when operations are failing. Other than that, people will be able to review your menu anytime so that they will be updated with all the latest changes and offers in your restaurant. Online mode is the best possible way to connect with your audience; it is for that reason restaurants are quickly adapting to this change.
3. Delivery
Nothing feels safer than to have your favourite food from the comfort of your home. It is for that reason food delivery is one of the best ways to increase your sales. It has been found that in the post-COVID-19 situation, most of the restaurants started to deliver food to their customer as they realised the need for it in order to survive. If you want to start delivery of food as well, you can do it through the following ways.
1. In-House Delivery: This is the most cost-effective method of delivery. You don’t have to divide the earnings since you retain them all. If you don’t currently provide delivery, you’ll have to put it up and hire delivery personnel. Though the profitability is higher here, you also have to do more work and have to take care of and everything by yourself, such as a delivery person, customer care, technical support, and many others. You will need a market strategy that stands out to make people aware of you and motivate them to order from your restaurant.
2. Third-Party Delivery: If you don’t have the people on hand to handle the surge of delivery requests, third-party delivery services can assist you in handling it swiftly and easily by connecting with your POS system. Moreover, this is the best way to increase your reach. Your only job is to prepare the food ordered by the customer, and the rest of everything will be taken care of by the third party. In order to provide you with this service, the third party charges some percentage of your profit from each delivery. However, with the increased reach, this can still help you to earn good profit.
It is crucial to note that the price of food is comparable both in dine-in as well as in the delivery system. A reasonable price will enable more consumers to your restaurant.
4. Look for The Opportunity
Every problem comes with an opportunity; one just needs to think out of the box in order to take advantage of that opportunity. Try to find such opportunities which can expand your business and raise its profit. For example, you can start a different kind of meal combo specialising in various sectors such as customised family meals, special food offers. Adapt your menu in response to changing consumer behaviour and attitude. Keep an eye on new food trends like “clean” cuisine, paleo diets, plant-based protein, and so on. On top of that, you have to think of various promotional strategies such as donating some percentage of money to the people unprivileged class of the society, which allows people to be part of something good. You should be able to do experiments with many ideas in order to check which brings the most profit into your business.
Most restaurants will require a makeover to achieve growth with the rapidly changing market. Consider if you should adjust the physical structure of your restaurant to take advantage of the move to off-premise dining. Additions to the layout might incorporate drive-through and pickup lanes, for example. The movement of traffic into and out of these zones will need to be carefully considered.
Here is Your Guide To Restaurant Accounting Services.
Moreover, engage in sophisticated analytics and automation to increase efficiency and offer contactless services. Advanced analytics and the IoT can help you estimate daily customer demand and changes in eating patterns more precisely. Labour automation can boost restaurant production while also providing contactless solutions that fulfil the health concern of the customer. Numerous restaurants have already started to experiment with a variety of technologies, including robots that deliver takeaway orders, pulley systems at registers to simplify customer transactions while retaining physical separation, and SmartScreen-controlled racks for keeping pickup orders.
Running and managing a restaurant business is not easy with a rapidly changing market. However, using the above tips, you can effectively and efficiently manage your restaurant. Every restaurant needs to plan for the future with appropriate Standard Operating Procedures, which include hygiene inspections, social distancing guidelines, tech-friendly service, and a reduction in visitor capacity, among other things. On top of that, reducing staff costs by outsourcing your restaurant’s accounting work can save you a lot of money and increase the profitability of your business.
Want to outsource your restaurant accounting services to reduce your cost. Call us today at +1 201-778-0509 or reach out to us at [email protected].
