In an industry as fast paced and cut throat as the F&B industry is, problems are bound to arise guaranteed to stop you in your tracks and leave you scratching your head. But if you take a step back and analyse them, you’ll find that these restaurant problems have solutions that are easier to achieve than you thought. Here are 8 of some of the worst problems restaurants are facing these days, and their surprisingly easy to achieve solutions.
#1: Building an Excellent Menu
The Problem: The F&B industry has a great deal of challenges popping up every now and then, with cohesive menu design being one of the greatest. The number of questions you could ask yourself here are literally endless ranging from pricing to simply how many items should you feature on it.
The Solution: First and foremost, the menu layout should be easy to read and comprehend for people from all walks of life. Ideally you should place your most popular dishes first and use unique menu descriptions to make those dishes come to life and seem more appealing. Aside from that you should also make sure that your menu is always updated whenever a dish is added or removed, or prices change. Investing in a POS system here that allows you to make these changes on-the-spot is ideal as it ensures customers are always given the most accurate information in regards to your restaurant.
#2: Administrative Overload
The Problem: Some problems tend to pop up behind the scenes rather than in front of them. Take day-to-day restaurant administrative operations for example. From trying to figure out which items are the most and least profitable to what your profit margins are, they can be quite a headache to manage.
The Solution: In order to have stellar administrative operations, you’re going to need an equally stellar team of managers, chefs, and accountants to keep the delicate balance of your restaurant check. Adopting a restaurant management software can also ease your day-to-day restaurant operations by making certain tasks like getting orders to the kitchen from the dining area a lot easier.
#3: Serving more Customers on the Daily
The Problem: It’s every restaurant owner’s worst nightmare: an empty restaurant. And while other problems may come off as less threatening, this one’s a doozy. Even if your restaurant serves an adequate amount of customers daily, there’s always the opportunity to serve more. Yet, despite the gravity of this problem, the solution is actually quite easy.
The Solution: Want to know the fastest way to prevent customer lag in your restaurant? Two words. Table. Ordering. You can utilise your website or even create a digital app that allows customers to not only order from their phones from the moment they are seated, but also preorder dishes in advance for when they arrive! Not only does this ensure that your tables are always full and helps you keep track of which dishes are headed to which tables, but it also helps maintain a steady flow of customers coming in and out of your restaurant which in turn means you’ll be serving more people on a daily basis.
#4: Bad Inventory Management
The Problem: Keeping track of your inventory is hard. On top of trying to tally what sells the best in your restaurant that you need to keep buying inventory for, there’s also maintaining that inventory from going bad and reducing the inventory needed for dishes that are underperforming.
The Solution: This is the part where you might want to consider investing in an inventory management POS system. Not only will this system help eliminate any food wastage problems within your restaurant, but you will be able to automatically reorder low stock items and discover the best selling items.
#5: Online Reach
The Problem: One of the key issues restaurant owners face these days is reaching more people online while still maintaining their on-ground operations. But the overall biggest question here is: How can I get more online visibility without breaking the bank?
The Solution: Turns out, the solution is right under your nose. Or rather, right there on your trusty restaurant website. Firstly your website should be both sales and SEO (search engine optimization) optimised. Optimization is key here as it can help you get your restaurant on the first page of Google, increasing the likelihood of potential customers clicking on your website. Sales optimization on the other hand puts as few steps as possible between turning your everyday internet user into a customer.
#6: Labour Shortages
The Problem: Amongst the many challenges that come alongside managing a successful restaurant, not having enough labour can prove to be quite the headache for numerous reasons like employee turnover. Losing key employees is always hard, especially when you consider it costs more to keep hiring and training new staff rather than retaining existing ones. Amidst a labour shortage however, the problem just got a lot harder.
The Solution: The key point here is avoiding employee turnover as much as possible. To do so it’s wise to make your employees feel as if they are a crucial part of your team and tell them everything they need to know about their job, ranging from opportunities for development to rewards, training, and more. It’s also fair to note that while you can never avoid turnover altogether, what you can do is be aware of its reality and do your best to keep it in check. Another way of dealing with not having enough manpower in your restaurant is by investing in table ordering systems that take some of the workload off your existing staff. By utilising table ordering, it frees up your staff to solely focus on customer service and serving them instead of having to run to and fro from the kitchen delivering orders both ways.
#7: Order Mix-ups
The Problem: Let’s face it, not getting what you’ve ordered can be one of the most frustrating problems for a customer in a restaurant. The same goes if they have a server who keeps forgetting to bring them something after they’ve requested it time and time again. This leads to heavy customer dissatisfaction and will likely drive them away.
The Solution: So how do we fix this? While it is true that mix-ups are bound to happen, we can seriously mitigate them by once again using a table ordering system. With the table ordering system in place customers can put down what they want word-for-word and have it sent directly to your chefs for cooking. This completely eliminates any possibility of human errors and can even entice customers to order more than they originally set out to do.
#8: Lack of Automation
The Problem: Nowadays, a lot of the operational challenges faced by restaurants stem from not having enough automation within the restaurant to keep things running smoothly. In turn what this results in is overcomplicated problems, especially for smaller businesses. With more and more restaurants adopting online ordering, it would be wise for yours to start too if you want to avoid losing out on customers to competitors willing to go the extra mile.
The Solution: I think you and I both know what the solution here is going to be. You’re going to want to implement an online ordering system within your restaurant’s website. Having online payment options and a modern up-to-date POS system should also be a priority in your eyes. In their eyes, customers find it a lot easier to pay online for their food compared to forking up cash when they get their food deliveries.
While it may feel like encountering these problems spells out doom for your restaurant, more likely than not the solutions to them are not only easily achievable but also well within your grasp as a smart restaurant owner.
Keen on taking the first step towards digitization for your restaurant? EasyEat is here to help! Get in touch with us by clicking here to book your FREE demo! We look forward to hearing from you!
