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Month: October 2018

How Restaurants Can Overcome Competition and Turn Profitable?

Posted on by inresto

The restaurant industry is witnessing fierce competition in India . According to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), the industry was worth a whopping Rs.43,000 crores in 2010 and has been registering a healthy 15-20 percent growth annually.

Now the billion dollar question is how you can fight competition and turn profitable? Here are 7 effective methods for restaurants to beat competition.

Come up with a USP

Stand out from the rest of the competitors by offering a unique selling proposition (USP). Just imagine that your restaurant is launching a rare cuisine or a signature dish that is not served by any other restaurant in the city. An example can be a Russian cuisine or a chef who has been roped in from Japan. Highlight that unique feature in your promotions and marketing campaigns. Constantly come up with unique dishes or concepts so that your restaurant earns a distinct place in the minds of food lovers.

Research on your competition

To stay in the business, you need to know how your competitors are faring in the market. Visit other restaurants in your city, taste their dishes and experience the ambience they are offering. Evaluate their quality of service, behaviour of employees and other parameters and compare against yours. Raise your standards and implement the best practices followed by leading players. Also, follow their social media profiles and learn from the marketing strategies.  

Reap the benefits of technology

Go for a robust restaurant management software that help you increase efficiency significantly. With digital, cloud based platforms such as inresto POS you can manage several areas such as reservations, inventory management, loyalty programs and a lot more. Come up with your restaurant’s own website and mobile app so that customers can order food online.  

Right pricing of your menu

The menu pricing can make or break your restaurant. Hence you need to fix the prices carefully. Research on the prices charged by your competitors for the same dishes offered at your restaurant. Though you can use the competitor’s pricing as a reference, it’s not necessary to use that as the deciding factor. Slashing prices to beat competition may affect your profits badly in the long run. Platforms such as inresto POS provide valuable insights on the fast-moving and slow-moving items in your menu. If your customers are willing to pay more, increase the prices of the fast-moving items.

Deliver proper training to your staff

Employees are the eyes and ears of any restaurant. Train all your staff properly to behave politely with the customers. Also conduct frequent training sessions to keep them abreast of the best industry practices. Ensure that your staff is well-versed on the various dishes in the menu. If a customer asks a doubt about any dishes, they should be able to explain the details. A smart waiter can upsell dishes and boost your profits.   

Market your restaurant

The restaurant management system helps you market your restaurant through SMS or E-mail marketing. Launch targeted campaigns based on a variety of criteria such as age, region, etc. There is also the option to automate these campaigns. Monitor the effectiveness of these campaigns periodically and make tweaks wherever necessary. Nowadays social media plays a crucial role in deciding the fate of restaurants. Build a business profile on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Upload high quality photos and videos of dishes and respond to comments promptly.

Keep a tab on the food quality

In these times of COVID-19 customers place increasing importance on food quality and hygiene. Inferior food quality can tarnish your brand reputation in the market beyond repair. The food should be appealing, delicious and exceed the expectation of diners. Maintain consistency in food taste so that there is no scope for complaints.

Parting words

Restaurants are struggling to turn profitable and they operate on wafer thin margins. The pandemic has made the situation even worse, adding to the woes of restaurateurs. Thus, the need of the hour is to bring your restaurant back to profits. The 7 points discussed above will help you significantly in overcoming competition and turning profitable.

How Can Restaurant Software Help You to Run a Chain of Restaurants in the Easiest Way?

Posted on by inresto

Running a chain of restaurants is no doubt a daunting task. Integrating multiple functions such as human resource management, kitchen operations, and supply chain management is just not possible with manual efforts. The best way to manage your restaurant chain is by implementing a Restaurant Management System. Here are 7 major benefits of Restaurant Management Software

Optimise your kitchen turnaround time

When you are dealing with multiple outlets, the concept of central kitchen helps you achieve better control over kitchen operations. To add on, centralised kitchen operations work best when you have a robust RMS in place. Here, you prepare the food items at a central location and supply to all the outlets.

With the help of the software, you can view the food material requirement, consumption and wastage pertaining to multiple outlets on the same platform. Apart from reduction in kitchen turnaround time, it aids in cutting down workforce, thereby achieving cost savings.

Streamline inventory management

There are times when you lose track of inventory as there are multiple outlets spread across various locations. With restaurant management software such as inresto SCM now you can track the stock status of different outlets from anywhere, anytime. Real time tracking help you get rid of the nagging problem of running short of stock.

Get timely alerts on minimum threshold quantities specific to the various outlets. It helps in placing fresh order of stock on time. One more benefit is that your supplies and raw materials are quite secure with the system. The platform leaves absolutely no scope for theft.

Efficient Employee management

Tracking the login timings of employees such as chefs, floor managers and other employees working at multiple outlets is quite easy now. Your staff may work in rotational shifts to manage the rush during peak timings. An efficient RMS will help you schedule the shift timings as per business requirement.

The reports provide details on the employee availability, leave balance and absentee reports pertaining to the different outlets. Another important feature is the assessment of employee performance. The platform lets you monitor the time taken by waiters for serving food at the table.    

Smart insights on sales figures

Crucial decisions such as business expansion is taken based on the sales figures at all outlets. When dependent on manual efforts, you are missing out on valuable insights. RMS provides intelligent information such as which outlet is consistently making profits and those that are running in losses.  Another benefit is that you can pull weekly and monthly reports of the sales figures at all the restaurants. 

Centralised recipe management

It happens quite often that at some of your outlets the food is lip-smacking. If a customer tries out the same dish from a different outlet, it may taste horrible. Unless you maintain consistency in taste across all the outlets, it can spoil your brand reputation. The key to maintaining uniform taste is centralized recipe management. A good RMS ensures that standard recipes are followed across all the outlets.  

Boost sales through Loyalty programs

It’s always hard to acquire a new customer at your restaurant. The best method is to entice the existing diners through irresistible offers and discounts. Create customised loyalty programs around the data and the smart insights provided by the RMS.

Loyalty programs can be developed either based on the number of visits or the amount spend at your restaurants. Assess the impact of the loyalty programs periodically and make necessary tweaks.

Smart reservation management

In these times of Covid-19, customers prefer to reserve the tables in advance at restaurants. When you are managing a chain of restaurants, handling advance booking from diners is a real pain. RMS makes reservation process a breeze as you can manage all the bookings from a single dashboard. 

Managing a chain of restaurants is altogether a different ballgame. Relying on the legacy manual systems leads to unnecessary delays, chaos and more chances of misappropriation. Smart restaurant management systems have proved to be a boon as it relieves you from all the hassles associated with manual work. It not only increases efficiency, but also achieve significant cost savings.