Restaurant management is more than just evaluating numbers. Especially when it comes to growth. This is where restaurant real time data comes in.
Instead of solely focusing on crunching numbers, owners and managers should be looking at employee performances, customer satisfaction, and questioning what they aren't excelling in. And proper understanding of the value and importance of real time-data requires three key steps: awareness, improvement, and growth.
As an owner, having a management team that you can depend on is crucial in aiding in the success of your business. Check in daily with your team. Know your costs, and where they’re going. Has someone clocked in late for their last three shifts? Do you have the right tools to track metrics like overtime or no shows? Being aware of the day to day activities at your business will ultimately affect how you can improve your business.
If you’re not keeping a daily logbook of your restaurant’s activities, you could be losing out of valuable information about your business. Tracking real-time events like promos, could be telling you how well your serving staff is doing. Alternatively, tracking dishes that get returned is also a good way to measure kitchen staff performance. Consequently, if there’s an influx, something has to be wrong. Are employees not performing well enough? Is your kitchen not properly stocked? Metrics like these, will remind you instantly on how you can improve service.
Being aware of the shortcomings of your business is the best way for you to improve and grow. Especially when understanding what your restaurant real time data is telling you will allow you to make decisions wisely. When looking at data, it’s more than just looking at what you’re excelling in, but also evaluating where you can improve upon. For example: you may want to change your operating hours if you find that sales are spiking right before your closing time.
Though restaurant real-time data is a key component of restaurant growth, there is always room for error when manually handling or analyzing data. Report automation solves this issue! Centralize all your important notes, trends and numbers into restaurant management software and get reports on the fly.
“In the labor numbers, we were reporting about a $300 to $400 difference than what we were getting through Push!”
-Tara Hardie, ZZA Hospitality Group, 16 locations