how to improve speed of service in restaurant

Seating and furniture layout are another major factor in a restaurant’s atmosphere, even if the guests aren’t as aware of it. Will a customer really care if his or her meal was served quickly if it isn’t correct? This is one of the more effective ways to improve the customer delivery process from the inside out. Without sales, service can’t exist, and without service, you can’t sell anything. – Ben Hoffmeyer, Director of Restaurant Services, Stripes, Corpus Christi, TX. If you’re realizing that your restaurant’s service isn’t quite up to snuff, the next three tips will help you start improving your hospitality. Technology continues to shift the drive-thru experience forward and it, in tandem with great food and service, can improve drive-thru ordering even more. This includes modifying the waiting staff, restaurant cleanliness, serving of food and menu. Read more: 12 Restaurant Branding Ideas to Build a Memorable Presence. All operators will have a Speed of Service process in place. If temperatures start rising, employees will catch it early, receiving notifications on personal devices and moving inventory without loss (and replacing it with inventory so you’re ready for customers). CMO council found that the most important attribute of a good customer experience, according to the customers’ themselves, is a fast response time. Inventory: Are you all accounted for? No one wants to wait too long for their food! Good customer service centers around carefully listening and attending to your customers’ needs and desires. 3) Train new cashiers during non-peak day parts. 3. How to improve restaurant service is just very easy. Upload speed refers to how fast your connection can upload data to the internet. Regardless of how long your food delivery business has been present on the market it is always a good idea to grow and renew it by finding ways to improve. 1. According to recent studies, 80% of all restaurants will close within 5 years.Your customers will only be faithful as long as you can provide: Superb customer service; Excellent food quality It amazes me how many restaurant operators think they understand SOS and its impact on guest satisfaction. Staff the right employees at the right times. 66% of people believe that valuing their time is the most important thing in any online customer experience. All you need is to modify some of the important aspects of your business. Past researches have shown that an increase in the perceived product quality and service quality have led to an increase in the restaurants’ profit and better customer satisfaction ( Rust et al.,1995). That’s the plan at UNH Dining at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. With the new payment system, customers can pay with Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay both in … We have the chance to see what works and what doesn’t in restaurant service, and often, the difference between a fabulous night out and an uncomfortable evening comes down to the timing. What training can I give my team to improve their speed of service? Here are the top 10 things I suggest restaurant leaders consider when wanting to improve their customer service and hospitality programs. Now, she’d hate to think where they’d be without it. No matter how friendly your staff is, if the food is prepared wrong or the product doesn´t work as advertised, I´m not only not going to come back, I´m going to tell others about my negative experience. Its most important that you find balance between quality of service, satisfied guests, per-person average check size, and table turns. Closing Thoughts. A … In this blog, we’ll discuss five things that QSRs can focus on to … But even then, quality service is a little more important than fast service. Respond quickly. The most important principle of any great restaurant service is that there should be consistent and effective communication between all your staff members. The speed and efficiency of your restaurant service improve which overall contributes to the better customer experience. The increased speed and efficiency of service mean higher table turnovers which will enable your restaurants to serve more guests. If your customers are happy and satisfied, it will lead to more mouth-of-word recommendations. In quick-service restaurants, things like order accuracy and speed of delivery are more accurate measurements. Improving restaurant efficiency relies on excellent communication between your cooks, food preparation staff and servers.. 3 Ways to Improve Consistency. In fact, 81% of restaurant-goers have used a restaurant's website to order food online. storage and preparation area; serving area and service counters will depend upon the speed of service desired; offices to a corridor and garbage area be located at the back with built-in sanitation facilities [9]. Track and Improve Store Performance With The Right Tools. A temperature tracking system monitors humidity and coldness. Focus on speed . Krista decided on the purchase after running a Speed of Service report from the ConnectSmart® Kitchen Enterprise portal. Here are 3 areas to focus on that will improve consistency: Measure and improve checklist completion rates. The study demonstrated that speed-of-service timers have a positive impact and that a restaurant with a timer in place has significantly better speed-of-service than a restaurant without, as illustrated in the data below: Restaurants with timers were on average, 29 seconds faster than those without a drive-thru timer. In this piece, I will discuss three effective strategies: employee training, scheduling and suggestive selling, which can contribute immensely to … 4. We feel better when people step up and take responsibility. Then read on because in this article we're going to take a look at some of the most important tips that will definitely improve your restaurant's customer service. Effective operators monitor labor stats in the POS to save dollars, but stretching labor too tightly can hurt your service and in the end, cost you more. I am new to the position and need help to improve them, as we have twenty minutes to deliver the food, and time and time again it’s over that. They’d been struggling with their kitchen processes to improve the speed of service. Many restaurants operate without service training guidelines or employee handbooks that include service guidelines. 1. SOS - Improve Guest Satisfaction With an Improved Speed of Service. Produce Accurate Forecasts. 1. 5 Quick Tips for Improving Drive-Thru Speed-of-Service. The very first step to speeding up your service is … Moreover, he marvels that he can see these upswings reflected in the data, without being physically present in the kitchen. During the course of our work at Serious Eats, we spend a lot of time at restaurants, and we often go out for special occasions, too. Get clear on what great service looks like for your restaurant and write it down. For Farmer Boys, Speed of Service was critical to their location's success. Download speed is how quickly your internet will download data, like video files. Higher is better – you’d want 6-8Mbps or more for HD streaming. – Michael Edgar, Kitchen Team Leader, Greene King, Worcestershire, England. If you are not constantly on the lookout for opportunities to improve your customer service, then your relationships will stagnate. In the case of McDonald’s, even if customers say that friendliness of service is just as important as speed of service, their actions might speak otherwise. While food quality is incredibly important, it is the experience diners have from the minute they walk in the door to the minute they exit that counts. In the fast-casual and quick-service restaurant industry, improving the speed of service is a never-ending goal. Fast-Food Chains Push to Increase Speed Most customers at fast-food restaurants order from their vehicles. Restaurant Owners... How do you define great customer service? Actually there are few easy tips and tricks that can help you improve your food delivery service in just a few steps. This goal should, however, get all the emphasis it can get. Start by training them on proper customer etiquette like how to speak politely with the customers. When you have accomplished operators running a chef-driven dining program, you give them great food and equipment, stand back and let them create. Investing in tracking systems that help servers get the right order to the right table quickly improves speed of service and customer satisfaction. Aces in Places It’s no mystery that the right employee in the right role will do a job better and faster than one who isn’t. This measurement is called Speed of Service. Computer Simulation. When communication between these three integral teams is outstanding, your restaurant’s workflows and operations are more efficient, which results in faster table turnover, higher revenues per service and more satisfied customers. To keep customers coming, speed and efficiency are imperative. Strategically using drive-thru speed-of-service timers allows QSRs to set, measure and evaluate service times and performance. Great restaurant management should leverage these tips to improve productivity and profitability. Even if it’s bad news like a price increase, we feel more respect for someone who’s prepared to take accountability for a decision, explain it and stand behind it than we do for “The Marketing Team” or “The Customer Service Team”. Speed should be of the essence — especially for smaller issues that don’t take much time to solve. Let me explain: you should give your customers relevant answers/ information to their inquiries and not just for the sake of responding quickly. The top Key Performance Indicators every restaurant CEO should track. Quick s ervice restaurant players explore on the approaches to optimize the efficienc y of restaurant management. Improving speed of service will help guarantee a continual stream of cars, and improved traffic. Let’s see how you can employ restaurant staff training to improve the speed of service and efficiency of the staff in your restaurant. Why speed matters in customer service. To many restaurant owners, service is the primary asset of their brand, a business’s invisible product. To gather this data, you can put a link to a survey on a receipt and giveaway a free menu item upon completion. Great restaurant management first requires hiring qualified staff members. When operating a restaurant, it is critical to make sure that all the operating parameters, processes, and procedures are optimally design and in alignment because efficiency is crucial to the success of a restaurant. Our Service & Sales Excellence restaurant training shows your servers how to improve service and increase sales with real-world restaurant techniques they can use on their very next shift. Every moment a crew members spends wandering around your restaurant, order in hand, looking for a customer, is a moment lost. In the QSR industry, overall customer experience is largely impacted by how well the drive-thru operates. 2) Practice tendering both cash and credit cards. The speed of service of your establishment is not only dependent on how your front of house is run but also how your back of house is run. Improved service and product – Technology if used appropriately, can aid restaurants to provide improved and consistent service to customers. To stay true to your name, follow these tips and tricks to increase your quick service speed of service: Step 1: Streamline Back of House. Instead, something smaller like D-Link’s DWA-192 is probably a better option—but still pretty overkill and expensive, at $70.) The concept of Speed of Service (SOS) is not foreign to most business owners; in fact, it’s a critical aspect of their operation. Because most restaurant operations are comprised of repeatable tasks, you can take steps to measure, and improve them. It’s hard to over-estimate how significantly a restaurant’s drive-thru wait times affect sales, but every 7 seconds a chain shaves off drive-thru wait time equals about a 1 percent increase in sales, according to a recently published study by researchers at the Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. Customer Satisfaction Success … Managing speed of service is critical to achieve your operational goals. Answer: Everyone wants operations to be faster, cheaper and better. Voice solutions for restaurants, QSR and Drive-Thru: improved order delivery speed and accuracy. There should be good communication between the wait staff and kitchen staff which will ensure timely service, as soon as the food is prepared. If the jobs are divided among people, coordination gets easier. Have only one person calling out orders and designate the position of ticketing and ensuring the order goes to the waitstaff. Answer (1 of 2): Both speed & quality are important to customers. 1. Let's start with the obvious – a fast response makes your customers feel important. Because a vast majority of Farmer Boys' revenue was being generated by their Drive-Thru channel, they knew they needed to increase their Speed of Service to appease customers and increase overall satisfaction at under performing locations. 1. Communicators®. An example cafeteria system is shown in the picture to the right. Fast-Food Chains Push to Increase Speed Most customers at fast-food restaurants order from their vehicles. Whether it’s customer service, speed, quality, or behind-the-scenes factors like marketing and finances, there’s always a way to improve operations in some fashion. Unfortunately, many restaurant owners don’t understand that constant updates are crucial to staying at the top of your game. One common problem is that managers ask for speed without carefully assessing where holdups are. Luckily, it should all be part of a larger digital marketing strategy for restaurants that is no longer optional in this day and age but necessary. Advertisement. The need for speed: 6 ways to increase efficiency in your restaurant. Answer (1 of 2): Both speed & quality are important to customers. It's super simple once you know these tips! Seating for groups of four to six could mean the restaurant is family-friendly. The mobile app and curbside service, which will be introduced at the chain’s U.S. restaurants this year, could on their own help improve … A motivated, eager employee is going to be a lot more productive than someone who’s only in it for the tips. Rows of 2-tops will indicate that this is a place for date night. By forecasting sales and demand, restaurant managers can make informed food purchase orders and schedule employees appropriately. This is key to improving the speed of service because it will ensure that the restaurant has enough inventory and staff to fulfill customer orders. Resolving customer queries as quickly as possible is a cornerstone of good customer service. Image credit: Jingoba on Pixaby. However, this is clearly not a measure that would be relevant in a quick-service restaurant, showing the importance of context. Keep reading to learn a few tips on how you can increase your restaurant’s speed of service. Operators focus on restaurant speed of service because it is important to customers. The Study showed that speed of service could be reduced by up to 24 seconds per vehicle when 7 or more Communicators® were used. Initially, many wondered if it was the right way to go. Doing so will improve the customer service in your venue in a number of ways. That’s a big piece of the bottomline pie and a good reason for making sure your drive-thru is working at optimal capacity. Installing a screen in your kitchen will improve workflows, speed up service and even prevent food waste in the process. Don’t be anonymous. The restaurant industry is dynamic. KFC is ready to speed up service, thanks to new technology. There's an unmistakable correlation between speed of service and sales." An estimated 17% of restaurants fail within their first year, and the overall average lifespan of a restaurant is 4.5 years, so it’s imperative that restaurants find a way to stand out from the competition while ensuring their … Sometimes service is only given to select customers. Speed of service is a crucial determining factor in the overall success of fast food restaurants. But, before going into further discussion, it is important to define the concept of speed of service. The speed of service is the time a restaurant takes to serve a customer. Moving forward, Popeyes wants to improve its speed of service times even more by adding production management equipment. As a restaurateur, tracking your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a necessary part of daily business – and a key process when it comes to accelerating your success. The Polar diagram below shows how KFC restaurant performs in manager, staff and customer perspectives base on the data that was collected. Will a customer really care if his or her meal was served quickly if it isn’t correct? 8. Learning how to improve food delivery service as a restaurant owner in a full-blown pandemic can be challenging. With a whopping 70% of service coming from the drive-thru, it’s critical that businesses have processes in place to help increase speed of service and throughput while improving order accuracy.. 1.) No glitches! Firstly, it lessens the frequency of customers paying by card at the bar, which speeds up service (a cash transaction takes far less time than a card transaction). Positivity and Inviting. Hotelwifitest.com’s recent report, “ Hotelwifitest.com Focuses on Poor WiFi: If Holiday Inn Express was a City, It Would be Las Vegas ,” a hotel should have “a download speed of at least 2 Mbps, an upload speed of 1 Mbps, latency not exceeding 500 ms, and an average stability rating of at least 3 out of 5.”. They believe that good service makes a meal taste even better. 2. The faster the drive-through line moves, the more money the restaurant makes. 1) If your POS systems includes a training mode, use it to: practice navigating the keyboard to build confidence, and role play order taking and guest interactions. How to get 5 Star restaurant in Restaurant Tycoon? These all rely on each other to create optimal throughput. Put your point of sale system to work to keep staffing in check and improve efficiency. The faster the drive-through line moves, the more money the restaurant makes. A stellar restaurant staff training should be an indispensable part of your business strategy. So, in this blog post, we’re going to discuss five ways to deliver excellent customer service at your restaurant. 1. Devise A Plan Specific To Restaurant Staff Training. Getting customers in and out, while providing high quality service, is one of the most important factors in running a successful fast casual or quick service restaurant. He understands his restaurant data, down to the minute, so he can improve speed of service. To improve the speed of service, employees should make sure that orders are correct. At the very least a restaurant should measure how long it takes the food to be cooked and in turn given to the guest. Produce Accurate Forecasts. Order confirmation boards. If a customer changes their mind mid-order, servers can immediately inform the kitchen. 4 ways Drive-thru can improve the Speed of Service. Put the Customer First If you really want to enhance your delivery processes, increase speed, and focus on accuracy, you must put the customer first. Saving 24 seconds per drive-thru customer can significantly impact a restaurant's bottom line.By industry standards, an increase in drive-thru efficiency by 10% But even then, quality service is a little more important than fast service. We have the chance to see what works and what doesn’t in restaurant service, and often, the difference between a fabulous night out and an uncomfortable evening comes down to the timing. Encourage Effective Communication Between Staff Members. Customer service speed is essential in handling customers’ issues, however, it shouldn’t compromise on the quality of the service delivered. It's up to you to determine what combination of speed and revenue per guest leads to the most satisfied guests with the most profits. 1. To improve line flow and minimize queuing time, we can also use computer simulation, another Industrial Engineering technique, to model and quickly test any production or queuing system. To other food service operators, service is no longer the main priority—quality, value, speed and accuracy are the most important parts of the transaction. The three components to keep in mind are speed, accuracy, and quality of service. They can do this by repeating the orders back to the customer before sending the ticket to the kitchen. Long communal tables say this is a place to gather with friends. This is key to improving the speed of service because it will ensure that the restaurant has enough inventory and staff to fulfill customer orders. No one wants to wait too long for their food! 5. If you manage to offer a high-quality service in a fast and seamless way, you will easily take your business to the next level. Don’t run with a thin staff. Waiting Staff - A waiting staff should have a positive attitude and that's really the one thing that restaurant mangers should look for when hiring. Restaurant insurance can help cover you from various things like damage, liability, and worker’s comp , but it can’t protect you from bad customer service complaints.. "Customers will notice 20 seconds, particularly the time-pressed customers, [during] the busy peak hours, whether that is the breakfast rush or lunch hour," Easterbrook said of McDonald's 20-second reduction of drive-thru times. Second, speed matters in customer service because your customers demand it! Here are … A Kitchen Display System communicates orders clearly and in real-time, completely removing unnecessary back and forth. In a restaurant, service and sales go hand in hand. See how to improve your restaurant's speed with these 6 Delaget tips. Front of House 1. How to Improve Your Company's Customer Service ... a Missouri-based firm that works with retail and restaurant chains on improving customer service. The path to increasing the efficiency of your Quick Service Restaurant From the technological point, there are few things that you can do in order to speed up the processes within your restaurant. Nothing will slow down service faster than a cooler food of too-warm food. Online ordering has become a norm to many of our current and potential customers because of the convenience and speed factors. This was a take-off on an actual popular restaurant in New York City, where the soup was good but the owner was surly. Discover the most intuitive, accurate and fastest way to process customer orders in restaurants: with Veovox intercommunication and speech recognition AI technology staff need only to speak to take orders, communicate when products are ready in the kitchen, inform about the products … The speed of service is the time a restaurant takes to serve a customer. The clock starts when a customer enters the restaurant or pulls at the drive-thru, and the clock stops when the food is delivered to the customer. Does speed of service contribute to customer satisfaction at fast food restaurants? Having restaurant service standards in place helps your staff deliver consistent service throughout.