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Month: June 2020

6 Ways to Boost Employee Morale in a Restaurant Business

Posted on by inrestoblog

Employees are the backbone of a business. This even holds true in the case of a restaurant business. Sadly, restaurateurs have been unsuccessful in paying them enough importance. This, in turn, negatively impacts the restaurant business. When your employees are discouraged this shows in their body language and work ethic. This will reflect in the discharge of their service to the customers.

There is a massive percentage of employee turnovers in the restaurant industry. Delve a little deeper and you’ll find that most of the staff take their leave simply because they are discontented and dissatisfied. The work environment and insufficient support from the owners could have influenced them to walk the wrong path. 

Employee turnover means the beginning of an arduous process of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new people. This entails a financial burden too. But, it would have been way better not to arrive at this situation in the first place.

In a recent study by EmployeeChannel, only 16% of employees have said they felt “connected and engaged” to their employers. In the restaurant business, this denotes a high employee turnover rate. In order to curb that, restaurateurs must work on boosting employee morale and paying more attention to their staff. 

The retention of employees is a skill. It’s an achievement in itself. It also indicates that the business is running successfully. Here are 6 tips to boost employee morale that will bode well for your restaurant business. 

1. Collaborative Scheduling 

Working in the restaurant business is a demanding job. Therefore, care must be taken to see your employees are not stressed out. Collaborative scheduling with employees should be encouraged. Likewise, shifts can be scheduled based on their availability, especially on the weekends. They must be allowed to take part in those decisions and have their say. This makes the workers feel valued and respected.

A successful restaurateur must ensure that his/her restaurant is not understaffed. Restaurant Scheduling Software works effectively to ensure that the restaurant authority can plan and manage their staff’s work schedule. Restaurant scheduling software can help the employees to notify their availability on a timely basis. Trading shifts among the employees should be supported. It helps build trust and creates a friendly working environment. 

2. On-the-job Skills Training

As an owner, you can take your employees into confidence by showing your interest in building a long-term career for them. Don’t only treat them merely as your workers but you also must be concerned about how they are developing and honing their skills. By investing in various professional development opportunities for your chefs, sous chefs, bartenders, servers, etc., you can ensure that employees attach emotional values with you and your restaurant. 

Many restaurants provide educational opportunities for their staff. Employees are also encouraged to develop new recipes. Highly-skilled employees can also help interns or newly recruited employees in developing their skills. They are also more likely to get bigger tips. On-the-job skills training goes a long way in building employee trust and boosting their morale. This builds a better bond and makes the employees want to stay. 

3. Recognize Your Employees’ Successes 

This strategy is not new and has always reaped rewards in terms of uplifting team spirit. Employees who are working hard deserve a pat on their backs.

The “Employee of the Month” program is an internal employee boosting strategy that many businesses have. This always works in keeping the employees motivated. You can announce the winner at the staff meeting. A more personalized way is always welcoming. Perks like an extra paid day leave or a valuable gift for the winner are an excellent way to keep the spirits high. Restaurateurs can also publish the results on the restaurant’s social media page that will attract a lot of attention. 

Little things like an acknowledgement letter, a round of applause in front of everyone, a thank-you note, etc. can go a long way in creating bridges that will last for a long time. Many restaurants also share the current statistics of their restaurant and give targets to their employees to achieve. This is a fun way of working and employees also take a keen interest. 

4. Provide Free (or Discounted) Staff Meals

Many restaurants offer perquisites like free food service that includes trying out new items for free or at a discounted rate. In doing so, the employees can also recommend changes to the items that might not excite the taste buds. Their recommendation proves to be fruitful in determining the menu at times. 

When there is an excess of food (a common occurrence at a restaurant), it’s always encouraged not to throw away the food but provide it to the staff for free – a noble way of not wasting the food which would otherwise have been dumped into the garbage bin. This keeps the employees pumped up. 

5. Reward Employee Loyalty

The increasing work hours are a headache for every employee in every company. Of course, it is difficult to significantly reduce the working days or hours. But restaurateurs can reward employee loyalty and gain trust. 

Promotions and bonuses always work well with employees. Among the personal leave options, you can provide extended vacations to your employees. Work anniversaries are something that is celebrated internally by the employees. The owner personally taking part in it is something that will make all of them happy. 

6. Schedule Extracurricular Activities for Your Team to Connect

In every work culture and work environment, extracurricular activities help the workers relax and take their mind off for a while. It permeates a positive vibe all across the workplace. These activities are enjoyable and everyone can participate in them. Team building exercises like paintball, rock climbing, etc. are a good way of bonding with each other. 

Some restaurant businesses encourage employees to bring board games to keep themselves from getting bored. Many choose to go for a team picnic every year to unwind and have a fun time.

How to Reduce Food Waste at Your Restaurant

Posted on by inrestoblog

Research suggests that around half a pound of food is wasted on average per meal per day in restaurants all over the world. In India, annual wastage of food in restaurants amounts to thousands of crores in monetary terms. Food waste is a severe crisis that we collectively face. Especially in a developing country like India where the disparity between the poor and the rich is glaringly high, it’s a crime to waste billions of tonnes of food at restaurants.

Wastage of food not only adversely affects the environment but leads to the untimely collapse of many restaurants. This alarming issue results in a huge loss of profits for the restaurant business. It leads to surging food prices and an eventual decline in turnover. 

Many organizations and start-ups are coming up with effective and innovative ways of curbing the amount of food wastage by a considerable amount within the next 10 years. 

Such a strong supply chain management system is offered by Dineout, India’s largest dining out platform. Dineout provides a cloud-based restaurant software system that helps in effectively managing a restaurant’s backend operations. It helps to manage inventory at a centralized or decentralized kitchen level resulting in increased profit margins and wastage reduction to 2%.

A few such ways of keeping a tight rein on food wastage in restaurants have been enumerated below. 

1. Waste Audit 

A waste audit delves deep into the minute details and reasons behind the food wastage crisis. A systematic review or assessment is imperative to know the facts that lie hidden beneath the superficial surface. 

Conducting a waste audit involves getting your hands dirty as you need to rummage your trash bin. Audit the trash minutely before disposing it off. The first step to auditing involves categorising the trash into paper goods, takeout supplies, meat products, agricultural produce, plastic, etc. The classification depends on your restaurant’s type, menu, special features, etc. 

After that, calculate the weight of each of those waste stacks on an annual basis. This will give a clear idea as to the most weighed waste basket among the lot indicating the highest amount of category-wise wastage annually. A waste audit guides you and pinpoints the changes you need to make to reduce food wastage.

2. Training of Staff 

This is a matter of values and principles. It needs to be permeated across all levels of staff. It’s not only about cooking the best food, but the chefs must also be careful not to pile up a big load of scrap. Every dairy, agricultural or meat product is important. Emphasis on the store’s ledger and stock-taking is key. A strict policy will keep the staff aware of the unnecessary wastage of food. 

3. Waste Journal 

A waste journal acts as a constant reminder of the crisis. In turn, it helps the staff to stay alarmed for useless wastage. The team should record the weight of the trash bins and the individual categories of waste stacks as found in the internal audit. Meticulous documentation paves the way for a better check against food wastage. A waste journal should also include details of items like rotten goods, spillage, broken crockeries, etc. Unnecessary events resulting in wastage of food items must also be documented. Further inspection must be carried out to find what was at fault. 

4. Adoption of the FIFO Method

FIFO means First-in/First-out method. FIFO reduces spoilage. It denotes that the stocks which are oldest will be used first i.e. the items which came in the earliest will be the first ones to go out. For e.g., if a particular raw material is purchased on Friday and then again on Tuesday, then the ones which got into the repository on Friday will be utilized first. 

FIFO helps in proper movement of goods and ensures that no stock is wasted due to negligence. It is recognised as the most appropriate inventory valuation method. Other methods are more susceptible to wastage as the usage then becomes need-based and no particular order is adhered to. 

5. Over-preparation of food

At times, some ingredients are quite frivolously used by the staff. For e.g. additives or accompaniments like sauces. A waste journal will give you an idea regarding excessive usage. If inspected properly, anomalies will be found. 

The preparation of food needs good planning. A restaurateur must understand the pulse of the business to identify and forecast the usage of certain items depending on the average footfalls on a daily basis. Your kitchen must pile up or relinquish orders of raw materials accordingly.

6. Storage Facilities 

It’s a primary objective to account for proper storage facilities when you are managing a restaurant business. Certain foods need to be stored at a certain temperature. Certain food items need marinating overnight or for a few days. Suitable containers and appliances must be kept to keep the items fresh. Food items should be sorted according to their types. Perishable items need to be labelled with a special eye on the expiry date. Sometimes colour-coded labels are used for better functioning. 

7. Inventory Days on Hand

Inventory days on hand (DOH) is a concept that helps you gain a comprehensive knowledge of the performance of each food stock. It is a metric that can be applied to every stock to see if it is selling well or getting wasted. Inventory days on hand can be calculated by dividing the average inventory of a particular stock by its cost of goods sold (COGS), and then multiplying the result with the number of days you want the figure for (7 days for a week, 90 days for a quarter, 365 days for a year, etc.). This formula can be applied to the whole of the inventory also. 

The inference is if stocks have a lower ‘inventory days on hand’ ratio, then they are selling thick and fast, denoting that the items are a hit with the customers and are in high demand. While making an order for those stocks, you can get a better discount for bulk purchases.

But if some stocks have a higher ‘inventory days on hand’ ratio, then it indicates that they are stuck in the stores for a long time. It means they are not selling fast. You can make appropriate provisions for such items while placing your next orders and conduct an investigation as to why the items are not popular amongst the customers. 

Inventory days on hand also helps you understand the current trends among the foodies that can influence your decision regarding making changes on the menu. 

8. Use of Technology 

Traditionally, a restaurant point of sale (POS) system was used for facilitating transactions. In the modern-day, it is availed for a variety of services including inventory management. It tracks your inventory and monitors real-time usage of products. A kitchen display system (KDS) integrated with a restaurant POS helps you get the best out of modern-day technology. It aids in product-costing, integration of online orders into the operations, optimization of stock levels, reduction in chances of theft, etc. It gives a detailed report on the average time being needed to process and also prepare an order.

It is important to make use of the best technology available that can directly result in food wastage reduction and increase profitability. 

9. Multi-Use Menu Items

Spoilage can be reduced if you can make use of food items in multiple preparations. This holds true for special items that otherwise would only be needed in one signature dish or a few dishes. But if it can be cleverly used in other dishes then wastage can be reduced. At the same time, the particular item’s inventory days on hand ratio will improve considerably. 

10. Weekly Specials & Promotions

If there is an excess of some items on hand after the end of a period (say a week or a month), then a novel way of utilizing the stocks instead of letting them get wasted and coming up with a newly invented weekly special dish is a great idea. Giving a discounted limited-time offer will attract customers to those items. You can also innovate and put those items in other dishes as complimentary offers or even as combos. 

11. Food Seasonality

Some food items are seasonal. The demand for such items will be high in some seasons and low in some seasons. Provisions should be made likewise. For e.g. ice-creams will sell less in winter than in summer. A restaurant owner must learn to either revamp their menu accordingly or order less of that particular off-season item. This will help reduce wastage of such food stock for those seasons. 

Contactless Dining: Enabling Safe To Eat Out

Posted on by inrestoblog

The COVID19 pandemic has got us all thinking of new ways of moulding our lifestyle.Businesses across the world have been impacted by it and are constantly working towards reevaluating and revamping their business strategies. While things are gradually falling into place and adjusting to the new normal, people in certain parts of the world have started eating out, shopping and travelling, and as things ease and people will get back to their usual routines, while fighting the pandemic. Countries like China, Germany and Vietnam have started their usual routine of going out as the lockdown has lifted. Normal life activities continue but with the utmost precaution.Restaurants have adopted contactless dining to eliminate high touch elements and take care of the safety of everyone.  

Back home we are contemplating and fighting against the irresistible urge of travelling, dining out with our friends,and shopping for the latest collection and the dreadful thought of catching the virus and getting sick. People are looking for a safe way to experience outdoors and socialise. COVID19 certainly has brought a lot of change in diner preferences and thereby, in the way a restaurant business operates. And this can be made possible by adopting a contactless way of dining out that reduces touchpoints for both diners and staff and enables the restaurant business to flourish again.

Speaking of going contactless at your restaurant, here is how you can do that- 

1. Pre-Booking And Contactless Seating

We are very well acquainted with the concept of reserving tables at restaurants beforehand via calling or reservation apps. People used to do that to get their favourite table at their favourite restaurant even during the busy hours and weekends. In the post COVID19 world, the significance of it goes even further. Restaurants  will accept limited bookings to maintain physical distance, and diners also want to visit less crowded restaurants. Pre-booking via apps like dineout, makes it easier for both the parties to uphold the new norms. Diners who walk in can self-check-in by scanning a QR code, entering their details. This removes the need for a manager to personally take their details by exchanging a paper and pen thereby eliminating unnecessary contact. During this process, you as a responsible restaurateur can ask necessary arogya setu questions to make sure that people entering your restaurant are not a threat to other diners and your staff.  

2. Contactless Valet

Here diners hand over their cars to the valet at your restaurant with the utmost trust and security. In order to service this part of the diner journey better we need to understand a diners need. While handing over the keys, and the car, their major concern is of hygiene and safety. The valet comes in contact with hundreds of people in a day, and non of them want to be in close contact. In this case a valet must follow all the necessary safety guidelines. He must be wearing gloves and a mask. Additionally waiting for the car to arrive in a packed lobby is something diners are averse to now. This can be avoided simply with the adoption of technology. Here valet can accept a parking request and diners can initiate a recall vehicle request from their own devices. Using this service a valet can manage the vehicles using a handheld device, this includes both incoming and outgoing cars, thereby reducing the waiting time and overcrowding at the lobby.

3. Contactless Ordering 

In what was known to be normal, diners arrived, were led to their table, and handed over a menu card. This menu card went through multiple hand exchanges.Which is unacceptable now. Like many other high touch elements, a menu card is a carrier of germs from one person to another, and the diners want to avoid coming in touch with such elements. But a restaurant is not a restaurant without a menu. So what do you do here?

Digital menus are the answer here. There would be no passing on of paper menus, or going to the counters for placing orders. The diners can just scan a QR code placed on the table and the menu will pop open on their phones, and they can directly place their orders. It is that simple 🙂 A restaurant also had the added advantage of changing it as per their convenience, cross-sell and upsell items to increase their revenue.

4. Contactless Payments 

currency is an element that comes from many strangers, a vegetable vendor, hospitals or places you can never guess. Transmission of germs through cash has a higher probability than anything else at your restaurant. And you don’t want that. And just how many times has anyone made a run to the ATM in the past few months? As per trends, digital payments have hit the ceiling. So why shy away? Paying bills digitally involves no touch and does the job seamlessly. Diners can use dineout Pay or just scan a QR code, and the bill is cleared. 

5. Contactless Feedback 

For every consumer-centric business, feedback from their diners is really important. Feedback is even more important now, cause everyday is a make and break situation. Diners do not touch anything that a lot of people have touched before them or use a pen that someone else might have used to fill those forms and you would not want to miss out on the feedback. 

And we already have a solution for that, digital feedback forms. This way the diners can share their feedback digitally using a link directly from their phones. A restaurant can track these in real-time and correct any untoward incidents that might escalate into a terrible experience for a diner. This will help build confidence amongst diner, ultimately restoring faith in the restaurant’s service.

By adopting these services at your restaurant, you can go contactless and make it a safe place for your diners and staff. By reducing unnecessary touchpoints and replacing it with technology, you can maintain proper hygiene and build a #SafeToEatOut environment for your staff and a trustworthy relationship with your diners. 

Stay responsible, stay safe 🙂 

8 Promotional Ideas that Could Work Wonders for Bars

Posted on by inrestoblog

It’s a challenge to open a bar and sustain it. You need to come up with innovative marketing and promotion ideas that will augment diners and maintain a steady influx. A brilliant ambiance and awesome food are just the fundamentals. In order to keep your diners coming back to your bar, you must have something special. 

The altering taste of millennials has caused a major deviation in sales figures. This has subsequently resulted in elevating the preference for innovative and experiential drinking. In a consumerist culture, you need to have some eye-catching marketing strategies to keep them hooked to your den. 

A great example is Dineout’s Gourmet Passport programme that provides complimentary offers on not only buffet food but also on drinks. The best thing about this exclusive membership programme is that a member can order both food and drinks and enjoy complimentary services. And furthermore, no annual subscription fee is needed either. This kind of marketing idea will make the diners come back to your bar.

Here are some bar marketing and promotional ideas to increase the diner base and sustain the same. 

1. Social Media Advertising

Social media is the most important tool in the digital age when it comes to marketing your brand. By hyper-targeting your audience, you can reap great benefits from various social media sites. Popular sites like Facebook and Instagram can reach your targeted audience through sponsored advertisements. 

It’s important to select the potential diner base. For e.g. if you find men between the ages of 25 – 35 liking pages or posts related to vodka, then you can hyper-target them setting a location radius of your preferred choice.

Advertisements need to be attractive and witty. They could also be need-based. If footfalls on particular days are low, then you must provide some added benefits like exciting discounts and offers that will entice diners to your bar.

Affiliations to restaurant aggregators and dining out platforms also help your restaurants garner more popularity and recognition among diners. Dineout, India’s largest dining out platform provides exciting offers and promotes their partner restaurants and bars through emphatic promotions and campaigns. Thus, it is no surprise that Dineout can reach to a larger mass of audience through their social media platforms. 

2. Accessible Online Menu

Literally speaking, everything happens online these days. Well, almost everything! But one thing is for certain that diners scavenge the internet when they look for restaurants or bars. Usually, the search is based on location. For e.g. people generally search for something akin to “bars near me”. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that your bar’s website pops up when people forage the search engines. This method of adding your website to the endless lists of search results is known as indexing.

Thus, the online menu must be easily accessible and should always be kept updated especially on aggregators like Dineout. This will be beneficial for your diners to have a quick look at the menu items. At the same time, your website must be appealing to the youth brigade. Engaging blog posts and social media campaigns are a good way to increase footfall at the restaurant.

3. Easy Location Search via Google Maps

As mentioned above, everyone is searching online. Just like looking for websites on search engines, people use Google Maps very often to find the direction to their preferred destination. 

Google has its own analytics tools to find the location of businesses. To have your business location on the map, you must open a Google My Business account that is free to create. This account lets you handle the basic data that diners look for online like restaurant address, contact information, timings, etc. 

4. Diner engagement through Games and Fun Campaigns

You cannot rest on your laurels, now that you have diners coming to your bar. The difficult job lies in making them come back for more. Your guests must be kept engaged and entertained. That way, word of mouth publicity will ensure more diners in the future. 

Games and related campaigns are a fun way of engaging your diners. The principal reason is that games entail the participation of more than 1 person. Guests are more likely to come in bigger groups and immerse themselves in addictive games like darts, pinball, foosball, pool, etc. At times, you can opt to charge for some games also, especially if diners are madly addicted to them. Many bars levy charges for a game of pool. Another way of gaining popularity is to host events on special days or maybe once a week (especially on slow nights). You could give diners a complementary game for free on such occasions. “Free to play trivia nights” are also popular among the diners. But the rewards must also be exciting enough to keep the guest interested. 

More the diners, better the sales for that day. Keeping a diner longer ensures a fat bill.

5. Host Live Music

This has become almost mandatory for any bar in the world. The choice of music is key. You can mix the current chartbusters with some classic rock ‘n’ roll at times to keep a balance between different genres. To play live music, you must meet the licensing compliances. To get the best bands in your city, you can approach the right event coordinator. There are talented solo artists that can be as effective as a band. Local artists can evoke a community feeling that sits well with diners who, in turn, will stay loyal to your bar.  

It’s important to highlight such events on  your website and social media pages. Even advertise and update on the aggregator websites like Dineout and bookmyshow to draw more footfall. Artists or bands who already have a huge fan following will ensure brilliant promotion for your bar. 

6. Partnership with Local Businesses including collaboration with artists

A joint venture is always welcoming. Temporary events such as special cuisine night or musical night help businesses flourish. It not only depends on what type of business you’re forming a partnership with but also on the desire and will of the business owner to join hands together for mutual benefits. So, you must be ambitious and careful at the same time. 

Collaborating with the popular and upcoming artists is a good idea too. You could just give out space for workshops during the non peak hours. This will not only give them a platform but also add a taste of diversity to your diners.

7. Bar Blog 

Blogging is a tested way of reaching out to people. Brand building has always relied on effective blogging in the past. Moreover, blogs can be linked back to a reservation page or social media pages by a simple effort. You need a set team that will regularly post on social media pages. Interesting topics will keep your diners hooked. Witty posts including a famous cocktail recipe and trivia about cuisine and liquor is sure to allure the audience. Such posts can also become viral on the internet. Additionally, subscription to newsletter helps generate substantial potential diner databases. Thus, you can notably boost your business up.

8. SMS and email marketing

Restaurants can conveniently create their own database using the tool of SMS and email campaigning. Thus, a massive pool of clients could be targeted at a go. Subsequently pitching to the interested ones could result in qualitative business. This smart marketing tool is sure to be effective.

Thus, following the above-mentioned marketing tools can be instrumental in building and further hooking a trustable diner base. The idea is to reach out to diners in a comfortable manner. Further catering them their taste complementary items could make the process much simplified.