Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows that operations don’t come to a stop when that Closed sign is hung on the door. From taking stock of your inventory for the next day’s meals to ensuring your marketing efforts are meeting your goals, the food service industry gives new meaning to the whole concept of 24/7.
As a restaurant owner or manager, there are some tasks that you can’t (and may not want to) assign to either technology or others—and conversing with your regulars or taste-testing new dishes may be chief among them. Fortunately, there are still a handful of services and practices you can take advantage of to dial down your day-to-day duties and boost your bottom line.1
Caught your interest? We thought so.
Here are 4 essential services for restaurants to optimize your time, energy, and operations.
Why is Efficiency Key to a Successful Food Service Business?
“Time is money” is one adage that likely won’t go out of style, and nowhere is it more applicable than in a profession where every second counts. (Just think of the consequences of leaving a juicy ribeye under the heat lamp for even a minute too long!)
More specifically, enhancing your food service business’s overall efficiency may lead to a number of benefits, such as:
- Increased customer satisfaction – A streamlined, well-run restaurant has a direct impact on customer satisfaction.2 By developing standard procedures for tasks like ordering and good customer service, your guests are consistently given a positive, perhaps even flawless dining experience. This may translate to an uptick in food sales, as well as a stronger reputation.
- Increased revenue – Several services for restaurants help cut down on costs, whether it’s having just enough of the ingredients you need to avoid spoilage or having just the right number of servers on the floor (read: lower labor costs and more cash in your servers’ pockets). In turn, not only will you improve your dining service but you’ll also see your profit margins widen and increase employee retention while you’re at it.3
- Reduced waste – Estimates indicate that food waste in restaurants accounts for $25 billion in losses annually.4 Relying on restaurant services designed to mitigate food waste can not only save you money but will also help you do your part in nurturing the planet. Food waste takes a hit on the environment by contributing to pollution and climate change.
With all of this in mind, you may want to consider implementing the following, or improving upon the services you already have in place:
1. Cooking Oil Management
Whether you manage a five-star venue in NYC or own a quick service restaurant (QSR) in Orange County, you know that restaurants burn through a huge amount of cooking oil daily. To be more precise:
- On average, restaurants go through 35 gallons of cooking oil per day5
- An estimated 300 million gallons of used cooking oil is produced by QSRs in the US each year
Automated commercial cooking oil management can help you meet your restaurant’s unique cooking oil demands. Further, it can enhance safety in your back-of-house (BOH) operations and aid in keeping cooking oil theft at bay.6
The Benefits of Automated Cooking Oil Management
Food service business services like Restaurant Technologies’ Total Oil Management provide cooking oil delivery, storage, filtering, monitoring, removing, and recycling. This may result in:
- Reduced cooking oil costs
- Increased cleanliness
- Greater sustainability
What’s more, automated cooking oil management may mitigate the number of responsibilities your BOH employees already have, allowing them to concentrate on what matters most: the quality of your food and their health, happiness, and safety. Because what’s a restaurant without a satisfied staff?
2. Waste Management Services (and Practices)
Reducing food waste isn’t just vital to your revenue; as mentioned, it can also elevate your sustainability practices. This, in turn, may boost public perception of your small business or enterprise.7 In fact, 78% of consumers claim that sustainability is crucial to them—and they’re proving this with where they choose to open their wallets.
Waste management solutions can help with this immensely. In addition to standard restaurant practices like the “first in, first out” approach, consider the value of implementing8:
- Staff trainings focused on food storage and safety
- Food waste management software that tracks, evaluates, and prevents food waste
- Sustainable preparation practices, such as washing all of your produce at once to avoid wasting water
- Inventory management software
- The repurposing of ingredients
- Composting post-consumer waste
- Donating food when possible (and where it’s legal)9
Further, if you don’t have a disposal and recycling service as part of your overall team, now is the time to find one: Proper waste management is central to doing what you can in the name of environmentalism.
The Benefits of Waste Management Services and Practices
A savvy food waste management plan often comes with a bunch of perks, including10:
- Reduced food costs
- Decreased labor costs and waste pick-up costs
- Bolstered employee morale
- Prevention of cooking oil contamination
- Elimination of unpleasant odors that might make your restaurant smell like sewage
3. Equipment Maintenance and Repair Services
A dishwasher that goes bonkers in the middle of your lunch rush or an air fryer that malfunctions at dinnertime can turn a calm shift into pure chaos—to say nothing of lost sales, a staggering repair bill, increased downtime, and a frantic staff. In fact, appropriately running and maintaining equipment is absolutely key to a successful kitchen.
To that end, weigh the importance of establishing a preventive maintenance (PM) program (if you don’t have one already), as well as prioritizing daily, weekly, and monthly cleanings and inspections.11
All of this can be streamlined with equipment maintenance software, which has the ability to12:
- Track replacement parts
- Monitor and update service schedules
- Keep a record of your repairs
- Automate alerts to indicate when a piece of equipment needs to be checked or serviced
If you opt for a software system, search for a product that allows for a customized workflow and detailed reporting.
The Benefits of Equipment Maintenance and Repair Services
Automating your maintenance and repair processes saves you time and money, just as it may help you dodge emergencies. As such, it may lead to:
- Reduced downtime
- Increased cost control related to repairs and replacements
- Decreased breakdowns and accidents
What’s more, technology can help you remain safety compliant while also helping ensure your equipment performs without a hitch and delivers delicious dishes to your patrons without delay.
4. Pest Control Services
Nothing can squash your reputation like a customer finding a rodent in your restaurant’s restroom—or worse, a pest in their Caesar salad.
And while you might think that pest infestations are reserved only for unsanitary establishments, think again: Pests are naturally drawn to eateries, thanks to the fact that they have the food, water, and shelter they need to survive.13 At the same time, pests can have a gigantic and crushing impact on your venue, including:
- Diminished (or even lost) customer confidence
- Decreased profits
- Increased treatment costs
Furthermore, QSR magazine reports that 20% of a food service business’s health inspection score is based on pest control.14 In other words? Enlisting pest control services is critical to your survival.
There are several preventative measures you can adopt on your own, like ensuring your doors and windows are closed and sealed, keeping your restaurant thoroughly cleaned, and rinsing out bottles, plastic, and cans before tossing them into recycling. Moreover, though, partnering with a pest management service is a must for restaurants.
The Benefits of Pest Control Services
The most alluring advantage of hiring out your pest control tasks is that you don’t have to do it yourself! Passing on this particular obligation may also:
- Curb food contamination
- Mitigate property damage (such as termite infestations)
- Comply with health and safety standards
Remember: news of a restaurant that has even a single beetle can spread across social, Yelp, and Google My Business, and scare away diners for good.
Essential Restaurant Services: The Runners-Up
In addition to the services for restaurants outlined above, you might also want to consider the pros of:
- Commercial cleaning – You likely already have a cleaning schedule in place, but there’s a substantial difference between sweeping and mopping your kitchen and employing a team of professionals who can do a comprehensive cleanse and disinfectant of your restaurant. A commercial cleaning service can turn your eatery into an immaculate, welcoming environment for both diners and employees, just as they may prevent infectious diseases and help you comply with health inspection standards.15
- Staff training programs – Staff training programs can be a boon for the restaurant owner, managers, and employees alike. Such programs can help employees stay on top of the latest health and safety requirements, enrich the food waste management best practices detailed earlier, and standardize your operations for a smoother flow. Plus, routine staff trainings may persuade your employees to stay: research indicates that 70% of hospitality workers would leave a company if it didn’t offer training. Additionally, these programs can educate your staff on critical safety procedures, such as how to treat an oil burn, ensuring a safer workplace for everyone.16
Revolutionize Your Eatery with Restaurant Technologies
Time is always of the essence for restaurant employees, particularly those, like you, who are at the helm of operations. Fortunately, advances in technology, coupled with our increased understanding of what works best in FOH and BOH activities, have transformed how food service businesses are organized and run.
Restaurant Technologies’ cooking oil management system holds one of the keys to improving your venue’s efficiency. Our Total Oil Management system provides everything from bulk oil delivery to cooking oil recycling so that you can focus on the more important aspects of overseeing a thriving restaurant.
Become part of the Restaurant Technologies’ family today, and bask in the extra time and energy it will afford you.
Sources:
- Pop Menu. How technology can help boost restaurant profit margins. https://get.popmenu.com/post/restaurant-profit-margins
- Access. 10 strategies for boosting operational efficiency in your restaurant. https://www.theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/hospitality/resources/boost-operational-efficiency
- Qwick. 13 proven ways to retain restaurant employees. https://www.qwick.com/blog/how-to-retain-restaurant-employees
- Altametrics. Essential facts about food waste and how restaurants can combat it. https://altametrics.com/topics/essential-facts-about-food-waste-and-how-restaurants-can-combat-it
- NW Biofuel. How is used restaurant oil recycled? https://nwbiofuel.com/how-is-used-restaurant-cooking-oil-recycled
- Security By Design. Theft of cooking oil. https://www.securedbydesign.com/guidance/crime-prevention-advice/theft-of-cooking-oil
- McKinsey & Company. Consumers care about sustainability—and back it up with their wallets. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/consumers-care-about-sustainability-and-back-it-up-with-their-wallets
- TouchBistro. How to reduce food waste in restaurants: 16 practical tips. https://www.touchbistro.com/blog/how-to-reduce-food-waste-in-restaurants
- Waste Away. Restaurant waste disposal: how to set up your restaurant’s waste management plan. https://www.wasteawaysystems.com/blog/restaurant-waste-disposal-how-to-set-up-your-restaurants-waste-management-plan
- Back of House. A complete guide to food waste management solutions for restaurants. https://backofhouse.io/resources/food-waste-management-solutions-for-restaurants
- Restaurant Owner.com. Five restaurant repair and maintenance best practices. https://www.restaurantowner.com/public/Five-Restaurant-Repair-and-Maintenance-Best-Practices.cfm
- MaintainIQ. The impact of equipment maintenance software on restaurants. https://maintainiq.com/equipment-maintenance-software-for-restaurants
- Food Safety Magazine. Common pests in restaurants and how to deal with them—part 1. https://www.food-safety.com/articles/7828-common-pests-in-restaurants-and-how-to-deal-with-thempart-1
- QSR. How to prevent the dirtiest restaurant pests. https://www.qsrmagazine.com/food/food-safety/how-prevent-dirtiest-restaurant-pests
- Web Restaurant Store. Hiring a cleaning service for your restaurant. https://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/127/hiring-a-restaurant-cleaning-service.html
- Lightspeed. Restaurant training: how to get new employees ready for service. https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/restaurant-training
