Restaurants are a centuries-old business, so it’s a big understatement to say the world has changed since they first arrived on the scene! Here are some tips to keep your restaurant popping, some which are old, tried tested and true methods, while others are modern.
The New Tricks:
New Software
Sometimes it feels like there’s a technological revolution every few months. Such is the pace of change. It can be overwhelming sometimes, and it’s important to find the balance between engaging new tech when it’s useful and abstaining from it when it isn’t.
Modern Point of Sale (PoS) terminals make it easy to process payments and track cash flow, food costs, and other important metrics. Here’s a question with important implications you should ask yourself: yes you want use technology effectively, so are you using workforce management software in your restaurant? It can be integrated with all the PoS systems commonly used by restaurants across North America, as well as save your staff a lot of aggravation and time when you’re planning the staff work schedule. Be smart with your money and make sure you get the right software.
Temperature Sensors Via Bluetooth:
Every country (hopefully!) has regulations for restaurants concerning mandatory temperatures for their ingredients—this used to have to be done manually, but now Bluetooth sensors make this process remote and automated. This is beneficial for a few reasons. The time it took employees to do this task has been reduced, and since the process is automated, it can’t be falsified. This means it saves your business from product loss while also ensuring your patrons eat safe food.
Old Tricks
Experience What You Delegate
You’re the restaurant manager, so nobody expects you to do all the mundane tasks on a regular basis, but if something needs to get done, it’s nice for the employees to see you get your hands dirty. Presumably you’ve worked the more menial jobs in a kitchen and restaurant at some time in your career, but there’s something to be said for renewing your appreciation for how stressful it can be to deal with demanding customers or work the kitchen when the restaurant is full.
You’ll get respect from your colleagues, and in turn you’ll respect them more after refreshing your sense of what they commonly go through.
Restaurant Managers Manage People
Restaurant managers must deal with the cooking and buying of food and the pleasing of customers, but a big part of the job is managing your team. There are a few signs that things are going south: employees are absent too often; they engage in gossip or bullying against other staff, potentially including the manager; they discuss the mistakes of others behind their back. See these as signs of an underlying problem to be addressed, rather than just something on the surface to stomp out. Employees working in a positive environment don’t behave this way, so try to figure out what’s going wrong and fix it.
If you master the newfangled devices to hit the market and complement them with the old tricks of the trade, you’ll be well on your way to managing a successful restaurant in the modern era.
