Management

Ecological awareness occupies an increasingly important place in restaurant management. Establishments giving priority to the issue of waste have multiplied and apply different strategies aimed at the following objectives:

• Participate in the fight against the environmental problem represented by the tons of garbage generated by the catering sector.
• Reduce the amount of food wasted when cooking meals in restaurants.
• Increase recycling and reuse of different products.
• Reduce economic losses .

Do you know how much waste your establishment generates each day? And most importantly… do you know how much money you are losing? Chances are, the answer is yes and you’ve already taken charge. But if you haven’t implemented any measures yet, here are 6 tips to make your restaurant management more efficient and greener. So take note!

1 – Analyze the waste produced by your establishment

To begin with, it is important to know and analyze the rejects generated by the restaurant. You can divide them into two groups:

Waste from production

This is all waste resulting from the preparation of dishes in the kitchen. These include product packaging, spoiled food, spilled liquids or excessive production. They are sometimes even the result of improper use of work tools. For example, if your cooks do not use the correct knife to peel potatoes, it will result in more peelings and therefore waste.

Food not consumed by customers

Analyzing these leftovers provides valuable information about the ingredients and products that customers disdain, which in turn allows the menu to be re-evaluated.

Errors In The Restaurant’s Facebook Profile

2 – Adapt the menu

When you have analyzed the composition of the waste, it is essential to identify the items on your menu that generate the most waste and waste. You will be able to:

• Reduce the amount of food in dishes that always generate leftovers.
• Eliminate dishes which do not directly produce profits or which are not popular with customers, but which, on the other hand, generate waste.
• Modify or reduce the ingredients which do not add value to the dishes but which on the other hand lead to losses.
• Create new recipes with products that have a better yield.

The idea is to successfully reduce the amount of waste, reduce the cost of food production and increase the profits of the restaurant. Read this article on menu engineering to get the most out of your menu

3 – In restaurant management, optimize your stock

If you tailor your purchases to the exact needs of your establishment, your inventory management will be much more efficient. For example, you can invest less in low-cost ingredients and more in products that customers consume the most.

To do this, it is essential to know the references of your customers.

If you register in restaurant management software your customers’ favorite dishes and drinks and especially their food intolerances, and the foods they cannot or do not want to consume, you will be able to serve them exactly what they need, no more no less. If you know that a customer is not consuming bread, you will not need to serve it to them and you will avoid waste and loss. Click here to manage your clients’ preferences with TheFork Manager

4 – Prepare your team

A key aspect is that all your employees understand the importance of waste assessment and treatment. Everyone should know why you are putting these initiatives into practice, the impact they will have on your establishment and the contribution you make to the environment. That way, you create the trade-off necessary to get them done right .

You must also ensure that you establish clear rules for handling food and especially waste. You can create simple manuals outlining the steps to integrate into day-to-day restaurant management.

5 – Recycle your waste

Separate your waste into categories (organic, plastics, glass, paper, wood, etc.) and dispose of it in the corresponding containers so that you can create strategies to exploit it:

• Make an agreement with a local recycling company who will come and collect them every day.
• Donate consumable leftovers to food banks.
• Sell ​​your waste to specialized companies.

6 – Join the trashcooking vogue

As we told you about in this article on the increase in sales with vegetarian dishes , trashcooking is a trend that is likely to become the norm in restaurant kitchens. It consists of exploiting organic waste and including it in recipes. Instead of throwing away produce like organ meats, skins, and seeds, your kitchen team can use them as ingredients for creative, profit-generating dishes.

Here are two restaurants that are pioneers in trashcooking:

Image: Rub & Stub web

The Rub & Stub was the first European restaurant to adopt trashcooking. Located in Copenhagen, Denmark, it specializes in the organization of ephemeral events with a gastronomic offer made from recycled products . The restaurant is also an active player in the fight against food waste and offers workshops and special events.

A pioneer restaurant in participatory gastronomy is the Freegan Pony , in Paris, which allows supermarkets and specialized companies to play a role as well. It offers a new menu every day , based on unsold fruits and vegetables from these companies. It thus offers vegetarian dishes cooked by different chefs and consumed by “green” customers.

In conclusion, by deciding to fight against food waste in your restaurant, you will be able to:

• Reduce your inventory costs and increase your revenue.
• Communicate a positive image of your restaurant to customers.
• Managing a restaurant that is environmentally conscious and responsible.

Three important reasons to apply our few restaurant management tips. So what are you waiting for?

Restaurant management involves quite normal mistakes that any manager is led to make, especially when opening his establishment. However, it is possible to anticipate some other errors and avoid them before reaching an extreme situation. TheFork recapitulates some of the most common ones here in order to make you aware of them.

1 – Offer a very large card

Some restaurants strive to cater for all tastes by offering a huge array of dishes. Sushi, burgers as well as risottos parade through their kitchens. This strategy can work in restaurants that depend exclusively on tourism. On the other hand, if the restaurant wishes to retain its customers and have a stable return, offering such a vast and contradictory menu is a mistake.

In fact, as emerging trends indicate, specialty restaurants that prioritize a star product perform better, as customers increasingly tend to be foodies and gourmets.

The Rotation Of Chefs: An Original Idea To Attract Customers

2 – Create a confused atmosphere

Besides the gastronomic offer, the decoration is one of the other key aspects of restaurant management. Some establishments neglect the decoration and receive their clients in uncomfortable spaces without personality. Result: the click is not made among the guests and in general, they do not repeat their visit.

The ideal is to define an atmosphere that matches the style of the establishment. Current trends highlight the success of thematic restaurants, where the menu, furniture, colors, materials and all the elements express the same concept.

3 – ignore the competition

Restaurant management shows that some managers sometimes err on the side of overconfidence by forgetting the competition. One thing is certain, the restaurants are more and more numerous and it is now easier to find them and to reserve a table there. Excessive navel-gazing will always be a mistake because, in addition to the risk of losing customers, it also leads to the risk of losing the sense of reality.

It is essential to constantly analyze the competition, because this approach allows you to see what works and what does not, like looking in a mirror. Observing the competition allows you to discover good ideas that can be adapted to the establishment, and especially to know what should absolutely not be copied.

4 – Restaurant management without a business plan

Some restaurants open their doors and start to find customers , but once the novelty has passed, they see their room empty without knowing why. They then try various strategies haphazardly, but none of them last long. It is therefore essential to develop a plan including estimates of the expected results in the short, medium and even long term, even if it is necessary to modify them along the way.

Planning must define not only profitability and profits, but also aspects such as the evolution of gastronomic quality, service, team, etc. The management of a restaurant must always have a clearly defined direction: it will always be superior to a management without objective where one expects customers to tumble as if by magic.

Aware of this imperative, TheFork has created its reservation management software, offering various features that help you make business decisions.

5 – Not having a digital presence

In modern restaurant management it is very important to use all current methods. Digital is everywhere, with the software that allows you to manage your reservations efficiently, with visibility on the Internet, now essential to find customers and even with the free WiFi that you offer and that sets you apart from the competition.

Restaurants that have not adapted to these tools and continue to believe that their customers are not using social media may very well collapse suddenly even if they have a great reputation and even if their customers today owe it to themselves. ‘hui register on waiting lists. On the other hand, the role of digital resources is to improve and facilitate restaurant management processes, so why ignore them?

It’s okay to make mistakes in such a complex business as a restaurant. However, there are mistakes that common sense and sound management can avoid. We hope these tips helped you show off without hitting those obstacles, or at least got you cleared of them in time.

How do customers rate restaurant management? Only the food? Although the quality of the dishes is the point they value the most, there are also other aspects of the establishment that are very important to the hosts, these can even be decisive when they have to recommend. an institution.

If you have raised your arms to heaven thinking … “My food is delicious but my service is very slow” … “The dishes I offer are delicious, but my establishment lacks atmosphere” … It’s time to ” act, at least on these 5 aspects, which are those that customers take into account when it comes to restaurant management:

1- Cleanliness

Are customers more sensitive to cleanliness than to service in a restaurant?

This is confirmed by this report , drawn up by the company SCA, with restaurants in six European countries, where an eyetracking system analyzed the experience of guests from their own eyes .

One of the conclusions of the study was that the lack of hygiene is the second reason for dissatisfaction of restaurant customers after the poor quality of the cuisine . A clean toilet with the provision of toilet paper, soap and hand towels is highly appreciated.

The toilets are a small part of the establishment, but not the least, on the contrary on the opinion of customers about the management of the restaurant. The perception of customers is that if the toilets are clean, so will the kitchen, which makes them feel safe and reassured.

The Perfect Team In The Management Of A Restaurant

2- An open kitchen

Customers increasingly prefer the chef and cooks to be a full part of their restaurant experience. This is the reason why open kitchens have become trendy .

This atmosphere gives added value to the establishment, customers are sensitive to the fact of being able to see how their dishes are cooked while being witnesses of the hygiene of the kitchen. A live show that promotes loyalty and shows that there is good management of the restaurant.

The Ma Cocotte restaurant in Paros offers an open kitchen, long tables like a school canteen, all surrounded by market antiques and modern art. An atmosphere that allows customers to enjoy a multi-sensory experience.

3-The dishes

Customers love to display what they eat on social media , so it’s only natural that tableware has become more important than ever. Many restaurants are taking this aspect more and more seriously in their restaurant management. Examples ?

Chef René Redzepi, of the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, is one of the first to embrace this trend. He uses dishes that play with the naturalistic style of his cooking. Indeed, when he opened a “pop-up” version of Noma in Tokyo for 5 weeks, he was so successful that he launched an online store in which he marketed a line of products , created in collaboration. with 14 Japanese artists .

The restaurant Le Bien Aimé in Paris, atmosphere of 18th century France, takes its guests into the past to relive the monarchy. In the management of his restaurant, his majestic, made-to-measure crockery is one of the essential elements.

Interesting fact: The dishes can modify the perception which one has of the food served. A study between the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, states that the color and material of dishes and cutlery can influence the flavor and aroma of food .

According to this study, for example chocolate would be best served in an orange-colored cup with a cream base and foods served in bowls give the illusion that they are denser and more nourishing.

4-A personalized welcome

It is important in the management of the restaurant to have a friendly, kind, fast waiter who seems happy to work. This is the profile desired by all customers. If we add to that a personalized welcome, we get the perfect employee.

Restaurants that have customer databases and use them to provide a privileged welcome to their guests, have experienced an increase in their turnover and growing loyalty.

Consider the case of Marcos, a good example of excellent restaurant management. When he arrives at the restaurant, the waiter already knows:

– That he likes white wine.

– That he’s used to coming with his wife and 2-year-old daughter.

– That the last two times he came, he ordered duck.

When he arrives, the waiter calls him by his first name and leads him to the table he has prepared with a special chair for his daughter. In the introduction he explains:

“I have a bottle of that wine you asked for last time, would you like to take some back? ”Or“ The duck is delicious today, do we prepare it for you or do you prefer something else? ”.

Will this client come back? What do you think ?

5- Quality / price ratio

The phrase “value for money” is one of the terms most used by customers in their reviews of restaurant management. Although this assessment may be subjective and vary depending on the means of the client, it is one of the most important aspects of catering establishments.

A good way to know if your prices correspond to the quality you offer is to observe in detail the rating of your establishment on sites such as TripAdvisor or TheFork  in the “Value for money” tab.

In general, restaurants get a good rating on this point, so, in the event of a bad rating, this fact should be interpreted as a signal about the management of your restaurant and that you must adjust your prices: customers do not return to the list. restaurants where they felt ripped off.

Discover the weaknesses of your restaurant

Each restaurant has its own characteristics In order to know which points are taken into account for the customer who frequents your restaurant and which are the points to be improved, you can intervene at different levels:

• Send an email satisfaction survey to customers after they have visited your establishment. You can also do this on a regular basis in your emailing campaigns.
• Ask them directly about their culinary experience, their opinion on the management of the restaurant, through a natural and non-commercial exchange.
• Give a card on which appears the address of the site where they can post their opinion .
• Check the opinions posted by your customers on a daily basis, on the site, on the Facebook page, social network accounts and in particular on specialized sites.

I would like to send satisfaction surveys to my clients thanks to TheFork

Gone are the days when the dish was the crux of good or bad restaurant management. Besides eating, customers want to have an experience, so there are many aspects that restaurants need to work on to shine and stand out. Do you pay enough attention to these 5 elements in your establishment? It’s worth it !