July 2017 - inresto

8 Instagram Hacks Every Restaurant Must Know For Insta-Success!

Posted on 31/07/2017 by inrestoblog

These days nearly every restaurant is on Instagram, but are they making the most of it? Usually, they play it safe, but that way they could be losing out on a lot of engagement opportunities. You need to mix it up and take a different path to get noticed. We’ve got some tricks to pave the path to your Insta-success!

Let Influencers Take Over

We know you’ve been reaching out to influencers for reviews and shoutouts, but that’s not all they’ve got to offer. You can ask them to takeover your instagram account and create a buzz in their own manner. You could amass a bunch of their followers in the process. This might give your handle a boost, but it’s still important for influencers to give you a push from their own accounts.

Use Insta-Stories to Give Diners a Sneak Peak

If you want to flaunt your chef’s or bartender’s skills, insta-stories are the way to go! You can show the chef preparing his signature dish, weaving a small story through various short videos, photos and boomerangs! You can also ask other brands to take over your Insta stories or maybe give a special offer that lasts till the story expires.

Create A Unique Hashtag Relevant to Your Restaurant

You might already have a basic hashtag as your restaurant’s name that you promote, but what might work better is a short catchy phrase that’s relevant to your restaurant or cuisine. For instance, Tamasha has created the hashtag #DekhTamasha, which they use to promote user generated content. You must use this hashtag in all posts and can ask people to use it to get featured on your page.

Find The Right Hashtags For Your Restaurant

You may already be familiar with commonly used hashtags like #foodporn, #foodlovers and #foodgasm but you can’t just rely on these to get you more traffic. Hashtags that are niche like those location based ones might help you tap into the right audience. You can search such hashtags and see what people are using them. For instance; the hashtag #delhifoodie has been used in 109,652 posts. You must use apps like Iconosquare to find the right hashtag.

Encouraging User Generated Content

It goes without saying that sharing food shots of enthusiastic diners works really well. But how can you get more out of them? The best way to go about this is hosting a contest, giving out a freebie. This way your food reaches their audience and you get free word of mouth marketing. Reposting this doesn’t just give you good Instagram content but also shows your diner that you value them.

Regular Contests Are A Must

Make sure you host contests regularly and reply to each and every comment – that way you don’t leave diners coming to your page high and dry. You must also give people a shout out by reposting or featuring their content and giving out free meals or some offer exclusively for them.

Avoid Dim Lighting & Take Photos in Sunlight

It’s best to click colourful pictures and get them in natural light to avoid shadows and bad quality images. You can then add various filters to beautify your masterpiece. If you’re preparing food only for Instagram purposes, make sure the food is undercooked so that your meat is still juicy and colours of the ingredient vibrant.

Timing Could Be A Gamechanger

If you’ve been trying to find the right time to post by hit and trial method, it may take you ages to hit the right chord. You can use apps like Preview to track when your posts get maximum engagement. Also, to make sure you don’t miss the right time, you must use apps like Schedugram or Hootesuite to plan, analyse and schedule your posts.

You may have tried some of these, but you’ll only see results when you’re doing everything right. Keep these pointers in mind while you chalk out your Instagram strategy next time.

6 Tips to Create the Ultimate Dining Experience That Will Help You Retain Diners!

Posted on 18/07/2017 by inrestoblog

Sometimes you’re doing all the right things but your diner count’s graph is still a downward curve. If you’ve been wondering how to make a lasting impression to retain diners, we’re here with some hacks to ensure they get hooked to your restaurant.

First Impression Is The Last Impression

The first and most imperative lesson is impeccable service! It’s important to pay attention to your diner as soon as they walk in. From a server greeting them to the manager visiting their table to ask about the meal, taking good care of your customers is crucial. Make sure that your diner’s experience is as good as the food and ambiance.

Reservations For A Seamless Experience

Providing the option of table reservation is taking a step towards a fine-dine experience. It also makes diners feel special when they have a table waiting during peak hours.

Never Make Customers Ask You For Their Order Again

If you keep your diner waiting for their meal for too long, it would definitely work against you. If something takes a little longer to prepare, it’s best to let them know beforehand rather than facing a hungry and annoyed diner later. It’s also a great practice to give them a complimentary bread basket or something else to munch on while they wait for their food.

Know Your Menu Well

Your servers and manager should be very thorough with the menu and must be able to explain all dishes properly. When diners ask for preferences and the servers aren’t well acquainted with what’s on the menu, it shows your restaurant in a bad light. They should also be able to make recommendations as per the diner’s taste.

Feedback Matters the Most

You might realize some pitfalls of your restaurant, but it’s best to know where you stand with your customers. Letting them know that you care about their overall experience along with improving your service and food also works in your favor. It also helps you assess what customers love about your restaurant, and what they’re not so fond of.

Tackle Problems in a Courtly Manner

Handling problems politely is another important aspect to create a seamless experience. So, if there are any road bumps along the way, it’s best to handle the situation with grace and polite respect. If there’s a mixup, one must own up to their mistake and apologize immediately. It’s also a good practice to appease your diners by offering them something on the house or making up for it with a discounted bill.

There must be a perfect balance of delicious food, inviting interiors and impeccable service to offer the ultimate dining experience. A happy diner with great memories will always have good things to say about your restaurant.

Here’s How The GST Will Impact The Restaurant Business.

Posted on 18/07/2017 by inrestoblog

GST is currently the flavour of the season. This new tax overhaul drive will impact each and every business of the nation. The objective of GST is to get rid of corruption in the country and have transparency in the market and in its operations. The government claims that GST will achieve that and create a simple, more effective tax structure. However, it will be interesting to see how palatable GST is for the restaurant business! One thing is certain, that after its implementation on the 1st of July ’17, GST will replace at least 17 federal and state indirect taxes.

Restaurant bills before & after GST

The restaurant and hospitality sector was loaded with multiple taxes, cesses and charges due to the indirect tax regime. Restaurants have been charging service tax on 40% of its F&B bill or an effective rate of 6% along with an additional service charge apart from VAT @ 12.5% – 14.5%, as per the State VAT laws that vary from state to state.
This is how post-GST bill should look like:

With GST in the system, there will be uniformity – a market free from unnecessary additional taxes. Talking about the restaurant industry, its implications seem to have a mixed reaction.

AC or Non-AC?

Now, a diner will have to pay a tax of 18% on the F&B bill in an air conditioned restaurant as against 10.6% charged (including VAT and service tax) in the indirect tax regime. Whereas, non air conditioned restaurants will charge 12% GST on its F&B bill.

But one thing to be noted here is that if someone is visiting a restaurant with both AC & Non-AC setup and decides to sit in the Non-AC section, he will have to pay 18% GST. So it’s not all good news for the diner!

Online Delivery Hassles

Another trend that has been noticed is that small restaurants and vendors are pulling away from online delivery start-ups. The reason? E-commerce firms will have to deduct tax collected at source (TCS) when they make payments to restaurants and vendors using their platform. Also, these vendors will receive their payment after a TCS of 2%. Although Foodpanda has said that it has been talking to restaurants listed with it on how to manage this 2% deduction.

Bakers Get Lucky!

Bakers, on the other hand, are going to have it good under GST as the applicable GST will be lower than the present combined tax on processed food products which include bakery products.

Few on Cloud 9!

The obvious beneficiaries of the new tax structure are small restaurants and QSRs. Restaurants that have a turnover of 50 lakh INR or less can heave a sigh of relief as now they will go at the rate of 5% GST composition.

Another reason to cheer for Restaurant Owners!

Previously, restaurant owners had no choice but to adjust the output service tax liability with the credit of input VAT on goods consumed. Now, these have been replaced by GST. Irrespective of goods and services consumed, the credit input can be adjusted against the out liability easily.

Dining at 5-stars Has Become Costlier

However, with GST, 5-star, 7-star restaurants and hotels will be charged a luxury tax as high as 28%. This will lead to customers abstaining from dining out at high-end restaurant properties, hampering their sales.

Liquor prices remain untouched

The GST regime doesn’t include service of liquor. Hence, two separate set of transactions will have to be maintained, increasing the cost of compliance for pubs and eating joints that serve liquor as well.

Barring the initial glitches, we can safely say that GST, the new value adding tax regime will be a boon for both restaurant owners and customers. It will create a new and healthy business environment which the customers should find satisfactory. This will hopefully give impetus to the idea of eating out to foodies.

How managing Inventory will help in reducing cost thereby increasing profit.

Posted on 03/07/201717/03/2021 by inresto

In the wake of COVID-19, the restaurant industry is struggling to cope up with sharp fall in sales. Having a tighter grip over inventory control has become the need of the hour, as you cannot afford to bear the losses caused by wastage of resources.

As per the survey conducted by Peerless Research Group, 69% of respondents said improving inventory control was an action taken to adjust operations since pandemic, ranking only behind adjusting warehousing processes as the top area of adjustment.

5 Tips to manage your restaurant inventory

Let’s delve deep into how you can manage restaurant inventory effectively.

Implement a restaurant POS system:

A modern day restaurant Point of Sale (POS) system not only takes care of inventory management but also helps you manage billing, customer data, loyalty programs, marketing and a lot of other functions on a single platform. India’s leading cloud based platforms such as inresto SCM have made real-time inventory tracking possible from anywhere, anytime. Alerts on minimum threshold quantities reminds you about stock replenishment, and there is no need to worry about running short of stock anymore. It lets optimum use of kitchen resources and brings down wastage and pilferage to the minimum.

Order wisely:

An effective method of cutting down food and inventory costs is by placing orders for fresh stock wisely. Though the POS system provides valuable insights on reorder levels, you need to have a clear idea about the materials to be ordered and the respective quantities. Choose your vendors carefully that helps in sourcing the raw materials at competitive prices. Eliminating the middlemen and directly approaching the vendors adds to your cost savings. Also monitor the market price fluctuations daily, so that you don’t fall prey to excessive pricing by vendors. With the help of Inresto, you can manage procurement effortlessly and get better cost margins. The highlight of the system is that purchase orders are sent to relevant vendors from the central kitchen. It helps to bring down costs drastically.

Analyse your inventory:

When you don’t perform inventory audit on a regular basis, it leads to manipulations and irregularities. Based on your preference and the type of restaurant you operate, you can choose to audit inventory on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The best way to start inventory audit is with ABC Analysis or begin by reconciling the most valuable purchase items in your inventory.

Under the ABC analysis, the inventory is divided into three categories. Items with very tight control and accurate records fall under A, the less tightly controlled and good records under B and C belong to those items with the simplest controls possible and minimal records. Most of the restaurants take inventory at the beginning or end of the day for some items and then reconcile the entire inventory for all the items on a weekly basis. Maintain consistency in the pattern you are choosing to analyse your inventory.

Follow the FIFO approach:

First in First out (FIFO) approach means that you first the food material that first arrived in your inventory. This approach ensures that there is no need to worry about food spoilage. It also aids in optimising the purchase and usage of raw materials at your restaurant. Some food materials have a shorter expiry date, and you should use those materials first.

Train your staff members well:

Make sure to deliver adequate training to your employees who are in charge of inventory management. Implement standardised processes and conduct periodic checks to ensure that your staff is following the guidelines. As per the survey by National Retailers Federation, shrink- a loss of inventory related to theft, error or fraud costs retailers about 1.33% of sales. Instead of appointing a single person to manage inventory, it’s always better to train multiple people. It helps to keep mistakes, theft, and manipulations at bay.

Parting Words

The 5 tips discussed above will come handy in handling inventory management effortlessly. As the restaurant industry is already operating on wafer thin margins, cost cutting has become an imperative for survival. The modern day, digital restaurant POS systems will help you cut down unnecessary expenses and have better grip over inventory management.