Getting Restaurant Staff Prepared for a Busy Holiday Period

As we reach this time of year, we tick off the things separating us from the frantic holiday season. With Halloween and thanksgiving both over, we’re well and truly on the way and nothing is going to slow the journey down. As you know, more customers walk through the doors in the last month of the year and this can put stress on your staff. Considering most restaurants hire young staff, many can be unprepared for what’s to come.

In the last six weeks, diets are forgotten and people are more likely to treat themselves and their families. Let’s not forget, businesses all around the city also have their Christmas meals too. Therefore, you need to ensure everything is ready and this includes your stock rooms, your menu, and your staff!

Assertiveness is a Valuable Skill – If you have experience in managing a restaurant, you’ll know that walking the line between assertiveness and plain pushy can be dangerous. During the holidays, you need people to come in, enjoy their meals, and then leave again without making them feel as though they were spared an experience…this is easier said than done.

When talking to servers in the lead up to Christmas, start by encouraging a faster pace because nobody wants to be waiting at the front door just to get a table. To get things started, they should also explain the specials as they sit down rather than walking away immediately; this way, they’re already thinking about eating. Sometimes, you might just strike gold and the table will say ‘that sounds great, we’ll all have the ‘enter delicious dish here!’.

If you have room for display dishes around the restaurant, make them visible because it’ll catch the eye of the diner. With any luck, they’ll have that specific dish on their mind and order it without even checking the rest of the menu when the time comes. If your staff can master the art of offering assertiveness with a smile, your guests won’t feel cheated out of their experience.

Consider Different Ordering Options – In other industries, the invention of the mobile device has allowed the ordering process to become more efficient. For most, they believe this doesn’t apply to the restaurant niche but we would be cautious in thinking this. Nowadays, online and mobile food ordering is a possibility and it could pocket you a nice sum of money during the upcoming season.

Do your members of staff currently spend most of their lives on the phone taking orders? If so, this is a huge inefficiency considering the orders have the potential to come through automatically via the internet. In addition to making the process easier, it also severely reduces the number of mistakes made. Of course, we’re only human so the customer could say the wrong dish by accident or your team member could mishear something over the phone. With online ordering, communication improves and there’s proof of the order so blame can be portioned accordingly for mistakes; this could reduce the number of extra dishes you have to give away.

If you’re going to introduce this ordering method, make sure it’s advertised sufficiently on social media, your website, and in your restaurant. Suddenly, your restaurant becomes available without the upheaval of writing everything down and then placing the call. With increased accessibility, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy an increase in orders too.

Sometimes, the introduction of online ordering can be slow to start so try some online-only special offers; people sometimes just need a gentle push in the right direction. If they have a reason to order online, such as 10% off, they’ll do so to see how good the service is.

Consider Your Stock Carefully – As a restaurant, there are some mistakes you make during the holiday season that are forgivable including bringing the wrong menus or the wrong dish every so often. However, there’s one thing that should be considered a crime against eateries around the world; not ordering sufficient ingredients.

If you have a POS system, or if you track things manually, you should know your most popular dishes and you should be aware of how busy things can get in December. If this is your first year, don’t just assume you’ll need the same weekly order because Christmas is a different beast altogether.

If you need to order extra, go ahead and do it; what’s the worst that can happen? You don’t order quite as much once the season is over. If you end up wildly overestimating stock levels, this isn’t a problem for foodstuffs with a long date. Even if you’re forced to throw fresh food away, at least you’ll learn for next year and at least you didn’t need the embarrassing conversation of telling guests half your menu is unavailable.

As a restaurant, customers are willing to forgive certain errors but your role within the community, at the very minimum, is to provide them with delicious food.

Promote Early Catering Orders – If you don’t provide a catering service, 1) consider it because you can make some great money at this time of year and 2) feel free to skip to our next piece of advice. If you do, we recommend encouraging your customers to make their orders as early as possible. When those last-minute huge orders come in, they’re almost impossible to turn down because it presents a healthy sum of money. Yet, at the same time, it places the whole business under stress.

In the past, we’ve found that discounts work quite well because people always like to save money. For example, a 5% discount per week they order in advance (with a maximum of three weeks; 15%). With an early order, you have time to prepare and it becomes easier to cope with for your team. As long as you spread the message as far and wide as possible via social media, newsletters, emails, your website, and in the restaurant, the more likely people are to take notice.

Your employees will find it much easier to stay motivated when the orders come in early because they feel respected!

Is Your Current Team Capable? – Of course, we aren’t questioning the ability of your employees. Instead, we’re asking whether they can handle the expected demand alone or whether you’re going to need more people. When the workload spreads between fewer people, the customers don’t get the attention they deserve and the staff themselves feel mistreated.

For your restaurant to run smoothly this season, we advise looking at your staffing requirements carefully. These days, plenty of people want seasonal work and it prevents your customers from waiting for 30 minutes just to get a table. Instead, they’ll be in and out enjoying a superb experience and you can take more tables over the course of an evening.

Summary – Ultimately, this time of year requires some consideration; if you go into it without really thinking, you WILL come unstuck like many ex restaurant owners before you. After thinking about staff, stock, online ordering, scheduling, your menu, and every other factor, you can keep the restaurant running like clockwork even with more people sitting down than ever before.

For your employees, they need strong leadership at this time of year. If you remain strong at the top, they’ll keep working away even when they feel like giving up!

Restaurants are a popular place in movies, they’ve been shown for a large number of events ranging from the meetings between two people in love to carrying out hits on the members of the rival gang but what they fail to show is the everything things which go behind the scene at nearly every restaurant at all times. At the end of the day, every restaurant is a business and like every business, there are a great number of things which need to be taken care of. One of the most important ones is the competition which goes on in the restaurant industry but there are things which you can take care of to keep yourself ahead of the competition.

The most important thing is to streamline all the process in your restaurant. This can mean the difference between success and failure. A lack of clarity can result in a waste of time and resources. Everyone must understand their life in the business and know whatever is expected of them.

There are so many things which happen at any given moment in a restaurant that it becomes very difficult to keep a track of them as the issues just seem to be coming continuously. It is important that one stays ahead of the curve by not getting distracted.

Almost everyone on the team is going to have an opinion on every issue the restaurant faces but it is important to keep track of the reasons why you got in the industry. One should never forget his or her true calling and never shirk away from making tough decisions when the time comes. In the restaurant, as is also true in life, one must remain true to his own self.

Consistency is perhaps the greatest requirement for success. It makes the whole process easier and everybody understand their role in the picture. Making too many changes too soon can send wrong signals to both your employees and your customers.

Things like the menu, the bar, and other stuff which are hidden from the customers may not seem so important but they are the framework on which the entire business stands, one shouldn’t stop paying attention to these seemingly boring issues.

The customer should be the center of the entire experience after all he’s paying for it. The food is important too but it is the overall experience which is usually more memorable than the food itself.

Having the right team is extremely important for any business but it is especially important in the restaurant business. Look for people who work on the same frequency as you. Things, like sharing the same work ethic and having similar goals for the business, can make a lot of difference.

Saving money in things like the cutlery, food etc. and people may lead to some short-term savings but customers usually see through these things. It is important to invest in high-quality, both in materials and in people. Good service makes repeat customers which is good for the business.

Restaurants don’t start making money on the first day of their opening, no business does. There should be a safety cushion of money one must have especially for the initial months when cash flow is an issue.

Last but not the least, it is important to find a balance between your restaurant and home life, after all, it is usually the family that we do everything for. If we’re to neglect family life for the sake of our business then there is a risk of losing both in the long-term. Small things matter, it is important to maintain a balance in life.

The Journey of a Restaurateur – How to Avoid Food Allergy Reactions?

Exhilarating, demanding and somewhat rewarding – these are the key three elements around which a restaurateur’s life revolves. Opening a professional restaurant chain is one of the best careers you can choose in this fast paced technology controlled era; taking in account the pace with which the culinary industry has revolutionized over the past few years.

However, in any business operation protocol, especially when running a professional restaurant, keeping a check over the safety of the customer’s is the most important thing you need to take care of. One of the biggest problems customers have to go through is a food allergy reaction, during galloping down chunks of their favorite exotic recipe.

A research carried out by the Food Allergy and Research Education (FARE) shows that approximately 15 million Americans are suffering from food allergies – including 1 out of 13 children.  For United Kingdom, the estimate goes to 17 million. After a recent death of a customer; due to peanut allergy, the restaurant owner was sentenced to a 6 year prison for food negligence which has driven restaurateurs to learn about food allergy reactions. Here is what you need to know!

Learn The Triggering Aspects

Although you can never be sure about which food would trigger the allergic reactions, but studies show that 90% of all the food reactions are triggered from foods, falling under of the ‘Big 8’ categories – milk, soybeans, fish, peanuts, eggs, tree nuts, wheat and shellfish.

You staff must be trained to prevent cross contamination between different ingredients. Moreover, the customers also need to be well-versed about which element would ignite the allergic reaction, for example protein.

Plan to Reduce the Risk of Food Allergies

Once the customer notifies the restaurant about an allergy, the food service operator needs to devise a four-pointer plan, which is to be followed by the staff. The first thing in the plan is that all the staff needs to know the allergies, and how to serve clients suffering from such disorders.

Second, you need to prevent any chances of cross contamination. Then, the front and the back house needs to stay in contact seamlessly, in order to make sure that right food goes to the right customer. Finally, you need to make sure that your marketing materials and welcoming strategy include empathizing with people suffering from food allergies.

Design and Implement a Protocol

A restaurant needs to follow a certain protocol in order to make sure to deal effectively with people suffering from food allergies. First, the servers need to ask everyone at the table about any allergies, and explain each dish in the menu in detail.

When addressing the customers, the servers should inform them who and when to contact in case of any food allergy situations. Moreover, in order to prevent cross contamination, the servers need to serve the order themselves – to the person suffering from the allergy!

The Bottom Line

Being an owner of a restaurant may provide you with a list of opportunities to prove you metal in the marketplace and make your mark, however, you need to make sure that you prioritize the safety of your clients and your employees every step of the way. In such cases, you need to learn about the most common food allergies, and design a protocol to deal with such scenarios efficiently!