Running a restaurant is not for the faint of heart, as we all know. According to research, 60 percent of restaurants fail during the first year of operation. In the first five years, up to 80% of businesses close.
You can lose your shirt even if you have a superb menu, amazing food, and dedicated waitstaff. On the other hand, you could simply pin your food photos to Pinterest and start making money hand over fist.
The best thing you can do to run your restaurant as efficiently as possible is to learn how to improve restaurant operations. Restaurants increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to help them optimize their processes and manage their operations.
Milagro is an AI-powered Restaurant Operating System (ROS) created for multi-location restaurants and retailers. We offer a complete solution via a single unified, simple, and transparent platform that manages your entire sales, operations, HR, and marketing operations.
Here are some pointers and ideas on how to improve your restaurant’s operations and increase your chances of success.
The Reality of Running a Restaurant Business
Cooking and serving food to the general public may sound like a simple business model. In reality, however, maintaining a smooth restaurant operation is a really complex job.
A restaurant operation shouldn’t be viewed as a single thing. Instead, they are a collection of systems that work together to provide the best possible service and food safety to your customers. Even a single faulty link in the chain has the potential to bring the entire system crashing down.
One of the most important aspects of restaurant operations is efficiency. Every minute spent on tasks that do not increase revenue is a minute wasted.
Successful restaurant operations are built on deliberate, well-informed goals and methods. Designing solutions that not only save you time and energy but also add to your bottom line, is part of operations management.
5 Actionable Tips to Improve Restaurant Operations
The success of your restaurant will be determined by how well you manage your operations. It’s challenging to train employees, keep up with daily sales, and provide excellent customer service while adhering to local regulations.
This is why it’s critical to have a well-functioning operating system that keeps you on top of things. Here are a few things you can do to improve your restaurant operations.
1. Smart Reservations and Waitlist Management
No-show is something that costs a lot of money in any restaurant. However, you can quickly manage your waiting and accommodate your guests with the help of the restaurant management system’s waitlist management feature. Restaurant reservation and table management software from Milagro saves money, minimizes no-shows, and increases revenue. It also ensures that each client receives exceptional service. Customers who are added to the waitlist receive a simple SMS text message and a web link to a page where they can track their position in line. Milagro’s restaurant reservations system aids in the optimization of waitlist operations by reducing walk-outs by up to 25%. These powerful features have the potential to double table turns while also improving guest and host satisfaction.
2. AI-Powered Digital Menus
The menu is one of the most common challenges that restaurant owners face. Creating a good menu system can be a tricky balancing act. Are there too many or too few menu options on your menu? Are your dishes reasonably priced? Is there a consistent theme to your menu?Menus with digital and touch screens have been around for a long time. Milagro’s AI-powered menus, on the other hand, take digital screens a step further. AI-powered menus gather critical client data such as preferences, settings, previous orders, and loyalty information. This contributes to a more seamless and enhanced customer service experience.With persistent upselling, optimized menus, and self-paced ordering, Milagro’s smart menu system transforms the hospitality model. Our AI-powered menus boost sales, appeal to a wider audience, and provide a secure contactless alternative during and after the pandemic.
3. Improved Food Stock Management
Starting with your inventory is a good place to start analyzing your operations. Restaurants have a lot of perishable inventory, so an investment in inventory can quickly be wasted if it isn’t managed properly. Furthermore, your food inventory is closely related to the cash flow of your restaurant. As a result, in an uncertain economy, operational oversight of your inventory is critical.Investing in inventory management software is the best way to keep track of your inventory.Milagro, an all-in-one solution, makes it simple to track both short-term and long-term trends in your food inventory. Milagro consolidates all data into a single location.When you have complete visibility into your inventory numbers, you can make informed decisions about the state of your business.
4. Reduce the Cost of Labor in Your Restaurant
Labor optimization is notoriously tough. This is because you must examine a variety of operational concerns, customer service requirements, staffing levels, and labor laws. Leveraging your sales forecasting is one of the most essential methods for lowering your labor costs. To forecast future sales levels, these forecasts use previous sales data from comparable periods, as well as other broad economic patterns. Sales forecasting can be an automated, data-driven process if your POS, scheduling software, and restaurant accounting software are all integrated. Having detailed information about sales trends will allow you to make informed decisions about how to allocate your labor effectively.
5. Streamline Your Reporting
Although your restaurant management software may provide data, are you getting useful, actionable insights from your reporting? Standardizing your reporting can assist you in all aspects of your restaurant’s operations. Your restaurant reporting software should provide you with a comprehensive overview of all aspects of your business. Furthermore, any reporting software you use should integrate seamlessly with any other systems you use. Time spent manually importing and exporting data is time not spent making useful operational changes.
Do you want to implement more operations management strategies? Get in touch with our Milagro team today.
