It’s getting especially tricky nowadays to find the right balance between having good table turnover while simultaneously maintaining a stellar guest experience despite the importance of having both. And while many owners put a lot of focus on giving their customers the best experience possible, it’s still a struggle to keep table turnover from becoming stagnant. Thankfully, increasing table turnover isn’t as hard as it seems with the right tricks. Here’s 6 ways for your restaurant to increase table turnover
#1: Consider pay-at-the-table technology
With pay-at-the-table technology it makes getting the cheque a breeze for customers. Gone are the days where they’ll need to line up at the till to pay as they can now pay directly from the comfort of their tables. What more, having pay-at-the-table technology allows for a wider variety of payment options to be offered to your customers, giving them further peace of mind once they are done with their meal. All this can lead to happier customers who are more likely to keep coming back for more, and often, hence increasing your overall table turnover rate.
#2: Use mobile POS systems
By using a modern, cloud-based POS system, it frees up a lot of your restaurant processes from getting backed up or stalled during peak hours. Orders are sent directly to the kitchen and waiters can turn their entire focus to making sure your customers receive the best experience possible. What more, by eliminating the time it takes for waiters to manually bring new orders to the kitchen, customers can receive their food faster which results in less downtime for diners and much faster table turnover rates.
#3: Use contactless payments
Not only does the right technology speed up the ordering process within your restaurant, it also saves you tons of time during checkout that could be used to bring in new diners. Technology is not just a great way to speed up the ordering process, but it can also help you save time during the checkout process. By bringing in credit card readers equipped to accept contactless payments customers can skip the hassle of having to insert a card into the reader or fumble with the PIN pad, which translates into faster table turnover rates.
#4: Keep your menu simple
Nobody likes to overcomplicate things. If your menu is filled with too many dishes that are hard to pronounce and even harder to understand, chances are you’re wasting valuable table turnover time. Keep your menu short and sweet, and try using visual aids like pictures or a display board to showcase your bestselling dishes. This will save both the customer’s and the waiter’s time, allowing for more dishes to be literally dished out to customers
#5: Play around with your restaurant’s design and ambiance
There’s no need for a complete restaurant upheaval in order to send your table turnover rate on the rise. By simply modifying a few simple elements within your restaurant like your chairs, lighting or even the music you play during operating hours, you can convince guests to not only stay longer thanks to the cozy environment but to also keep coming back to experience it time and time again.
#6: Deep dive into POS reports
One huge mistake restaurant owners can make is underestimating the value of POS reports. POS reports show valuable insights within a deeper level of how your restaurant runs, such as staff performance or average dining time during specific hours. By combining, comparing and analyzing these figures restaurant owners can identify which areas of their restaurant need improving and what areas or time slots can be capitalized on for higher table turnovers. Even though you now know how to calculate table turnover rate, this number is only part of the picture.
Ultimately, introducing technology into your restaurant processes leads to more benefits for you and your customers. And the more satisfied customers are, the more likely they are to keep coming back for more at your establishment, giving you more revenue on average.
Keen on taking the first step towards digitization for your restaurant? EasyEat is here to help! Get in touch with us by clicking the link here to book your FREE demo! We look forward to hearing from you!
