While part of your marketing strategy is designed to raise awareness about your restaurant, it doesn’t always mean you can serve more people. If you aren’t prepared to handle the increased demand for your services, all your hard work will go to waste. So, how can restaurants serve more customers without sacrificing quality? Learn from these five tips.
Upgrade Your Systems
If you’re using systems you have used for years, it could be time to upgrade to ensure better efficiency and increased reliability. While technology makes things easier, it can also become outdated quickly, which can lead to slow performance, especially for cash registers or POS machines. You can accelerate your service by upgrading to a table service POS, which enables you to take payments at the table instead of asking diners to queue.
Increase Staff Numbers
Busy periods are one of the biggest reasons to hire more full-time staff for your restaurant. With summer upon you, there is no better time than now to bring in more bodies to handle the increased demand in your restaurant. As you’ll likely welcome more customers and open the patio for outdoor dining in better weather, the extra bodies can help you serve more people. This way, customers will not need to wait too long for people to take orders or bring drinks and dishes directly to them.
Accept Reservations and Walk-Ins
Perhaps your restaurant operates on a sole policy of reservations or walk-ins. Although this may have been a successful method, you should expand your approach to ensure you can serve more people. Sure, reservation-only dining encourages exclusivity, but it also means you’re missing out on more business. Some customers may not know about this change, so send out marketing emails to announce the shift and put together marketing materials to post online or around the local area.
Keep People In the Line Happy
If your restaurant is popular (and why wouldn’t it be?) you may frequently have people lining out the door waiting for a table. Your approach to line management can make or break your season and reputation, so consider how you can keep people in the line happy and prevent them from looking elsewhere. Taking drinks orders or finding compromise can make them feel seen and heard, which will make them more likely to stick around even if the wait is a little longer than they’d prefer.
Make Ordering More Straightforward
The pandemic forced many businesses to get innovative with how they take customer orders but you shouldn’t abandon these processes now that things are back to normal. Making ordering straightforward and offering various ways to submit an order can make your restaurant more appealing. Some still prefer to order with their server, while others enjoy the convenience of QR codes and smartphones. As long as you provide diverse ordering options, you will retain your customers.
Served
You should never sacrifice the quality of your service just to earn a little more because your restaurant’s reputation will–eventually–suffer. These tips will help you manage increased demand without affecting your service and help your hospitality business reach the next level.
