At a time when many famous chefs are having to come to terms with their missteps in managing restaurant culture, chefs Ashley Merriman and four-time James Bear Award winner Gabrielle Hamilton stand out for knowing how to establish a healthy one. Hamilton opened Prune in lower Manhattan in 1999 and she and Merriman have since made it into not just a successful restaurant but an employee-friendly place to work. Guiding them are five simple values, which they recently shared in a Quartz report: Be thorough and excellent at everything you do, even when no one is watching; be smart and funny; be disarmingly honest (that means willing to tell the truth, but not in a brutal or overly earnest way); work without division of any kind (strive to put the person who sweeps the floor on equal footing with the owner); and to use service as leadership. That final point implies that through serving people, you set the tone for an experience with your greeting, eye contact and demeanor. They joke that they are actually an institute for living masquerading as a restaurant.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) could have nationwide implications for how restaurants manage their data, protect consumer privacy and market their business. The National Restaurant Association hosted a webinar recently with Helen Goff Foster, a partner in the Technology + Privacy & Security for Davis Wright Tremaine, who reviewed the implications of the law, which is set to go into effect next year and could likely set similar legislation in motion in other states. The act will impact how businesses manage the consumer data they collect and the loyalty programs they operate. Unlike GDPR, which is about having consumers opt in to providing personal information, CCPA is about allowing them to opt out. In broad terms, for a wide swath of businesses, the law requires businesses to let consumers access the personal information you track, and gives them the right to delete information, and to opt out of the sale of that information. It also requires you to give consumers two methods of contacting you about it (including an 800 number). Businesses must therefore be able to retrieve consumer information across its affiliates, business units, product lines, etc. The law is intended to prevent businesses from providing discounted service or price to certain customers but not others (which clearly creates some hazy territory for businesses operating loyalty programs). There are fines in the thousands of dollars for violating the law and businesses could also be exposed to a private right of legal action by consumers against the business and its affiliates. Franchises could be especially vulnerable because they could bear legal risk but aren’t able to dictate privacy policies of their parent company. Foster advised that the best thing businesses can do now is identify where their consumer information is and how to access it. You’ll need to determine how to provide opt-outs for most of your consumer data and assess the ability of your vendors to do so as well, so update (or establish) your information security program. For more information about the law’s potential effects on restaurants, access Foster’s webinar and Q&A here.
When food is prepared and waiting to be eaten by a hungry consumer, every minute can impact the quality of the meal. Now that so many operators are embracing consumer demand for delivery and are seeking to stand out in a growing crowd of off-premise dining options, the next push is to make that delivery as fast and seamless as possible. For a number of major brands, that means delivering in less than 30 minutes and striving to shave additional time off of that rate. In addition to restaurants adding pick-up shelves for delivery drivers collecting orders and opening delivery-only kitchens in locations with a critical mass of customers, Skift Table reports that some brands are introducing prepaid delivery for third-party couriers and retrofitting vehicles to become mobile kitchens that can cook a pizza on the go. (Pizza Hut, for one, is testing a robot-powered pizza kitchen that sits in the bed of a modified Toyota Tundra.) How can you shave minutes off of your delivery?
It’s not enough to have a loyalty program: 59 percent of millennials quit loyalty programs because the rewards were not valuable enough, according to a recent study by Software Advice. Other common complaints: Guests feel like some restaurants string them along too long before they can earn a reward, and they feel bombarded with emails and other notifications. The right use of tech can help. The Rail suggests operators first find ways to clarify the path to rewards. So instead of saying “50 points earns you a free appetizer,” show the guest how many meals she has purchased or points she has earned toward that free offer. If you have a mobile app, integrating mobile payment into it is a bonus because it helps guests speed past the steps typically required to make an online purchase. Finally, when you send notifications, aim to customize them based on the guest’s past buying behaviors to better your chances of translating promotions into sales.
Are you among the many operators trying to figure out how to make delivery profitable? At a time when off-premise sales account for 38 percent of restaurant sales, according to Technomic, delivery has become a must for restaurants, even when the margins aren’t necessarily making the service profitable for those brands. Fortunately, new models are beginning to make the numbers work out. Recent Technomic forecasts have predicted that “subscription models that eliminate per-delivery fees in favor of a flat-rate subscription will emerge to present a clearer value proposition to customers.” The Spoon reports that a number of third-party delivery providers have come up with palatable offers for restaurants and consumers alike: DoorDash’s DashPass offers a monthly subscription of $9.99 for delivery of orders priced $15 or higher from a selection of restaurants, and Postmates has a similar offer. In the UK, Deliveroo is offering a £7.99 per month subscription for orders of any amount, and Uber Eats is reported to be testing a loyalty program that could eliminate delivery fees — if the experiment works there, it is likely to make its way across the pond eventually. Even operators who aren’t opting for subscription models are finding ways to make delivery profitable. In fact, delivery may be helping Chipotle make a comeback. Skift Table reports that delivery sales climbed 13 times in the fourth quarter of 2018 as compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Chipotle’s CFO credits a couple of factors for the success: the creation of a separate, digital food assembly line for off-premise orders, which enables the restaurant to process a greater number of orders, as well as a delivery-friendly menu (burritos and taco bowls are good travelers).
Do you have an eye on trying a new concept, expanding locations or adjusting your service model this year? While there is no shortage of challenges to launching a new foodservice business, one area where operators have a lot of support for tapping into new opportunities is in shared kitchens. These kitchens are becoming increasingly common in the industry, and because they minimize the overhead expenses of launching a business or making significant changes to an existing one, they are making it easier to test new ideas. A Medium report indicates that these shared kitchens, typically offered via a membership fee or charged by the hour, are taking a variety of forms. Delivery-only or ghost kitchens (Kitchen United is one example) can provide not only food preparation space but also business intelligence that operators can use to build a delivery program. Culinary flex spaces might better serve operators looking to test new food concepts or launch a new idea with help from the latest tools and equipment. Incubator kitchens (Kitchentown in San Mateo, Calif. is one example) are another form of shared kitchen space giving foodservice entrepreneurs a boost right now. They’re good places for entrepreneurs to build community and find resources to fuel the expansion of an idea: It’s possible to connect with food industry consultants, access technology and manufacturing space, and potentially tap sources of growth capital. At another incubator, the Hatchery in Chicago, entrepreneurs can access a talent pipeline and find new employees to help launch an idea. Finally, food truck commissaries (Kansas City’s Food Truck Central is one) are helping operators test out food truck concepts by providing power and water, along with waste disposal services.
Wage dispute claims are rampant in the foodservice industry. In 2017 alone, the Department of Labor heard more than 7,000 wage and hour claims and recovered more than $483 million in back wages for employees — nine times more than any other industry. The threshold is low for workers looking to file suit. A QSR Magazine report says foodservice operations are vulnerable if they don’t have clear policies around such topics as compensation for time needed to change into uniform, rounding employee hours, calculating overtime, or taking additional breaks. To help, the report advises you have detailed written information describing your wage and hour-related policies, as well as about meals and break periods — and that you review timecards carefully to ensure staff take their breaks. Consult an employment attorney to make sure your policies are clear and then reinforce them with staff.
As labor costs rise, your ability to monitor and manage your team’s schedule has the power to protect your restaurant’s bottom line. A Restaurantowner.com report advises operators to start by auditing the first and last 15 to 30 minutes of a shift. A leisurely pace of work during those times could indicate that you need to make staffing adjustments. Then look to your anticipated sales and guest counts and build your schedule around that instead of leaning on a repetitive schedule that doesn’t flex when business speeds up and slows down. Cost out each schedule by multiplying each person’s hourly rate by hours worked and compare that figure to your sales each day to understand where you can be more efficient with staffing. If you find you have lulls but still need staff on hand in case a large group comes in, plan to have prep work available throughout the day (versus at the start of a shift) to make best use of the people you have on hand during the day. If your shift manager carries a shift card listing employees and hours, it will be easier to see who can be assigned some prep work or cleanup, or who can be sent home. Finally, find the right balance of part-and full-time employees. Restaurantowner.com advises operators maintain one-third to one-half of staff as part-timers. It can help you avoid paying excessive overtime costs and keep staffing affordable.
Something is lurking in your trash. If you’re lucky, it’s money: Many foodservice operators who have changed their approach to trash disposal have minimized waste when it comes to both food and finances. (There’s a lot of waste to reduce: According to a 2014 study by the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, more than 84 percent of unused food in American restaurants is thrown away — and while those figures have likely improved in the past few years, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.) Restaurantowner.com suggests several tips to help operators take charge of their trash. First, remove trash bins from the kitchen — even as a temporary experiment — and give each employee a clear, labeled bin to be filled with food scraps or trimmings they want to discard during food prep. Following the shift, have a manager inspect the contents of each box for usable product. If any is found, the manager can provide on-the-spot training to that employee to make sure usable product isn’t wasted in the future. Inspecting bins in the dish room can be helpful too: Make sure china, silverware and other expensive tableware aren’t getting damaged or accidentally tossed out. Finally, monitor your dumpster, which can provide easy cover for a dishonest employee. It’s a common practice in the industry for someone looking to steal a case of wine to hide it in the dumpster only to retrieve it later. Having a manager approve who takes out the trash and when, or even monitor the dumpster via video, can help protect your business from those losses. (Want to talk trash? Contact Team Four about how your operation can save on trash disposal.)
There’s a lot of room for cost savings in your inventory. Are you making the most of it? RestaurantOwner.com has some tips (and Team Four can help you incorporate systems to manage them if you need assistance). First off, make sure you have detailed specifications on every product you buy. They can be useful when comparing bids from suppliers and gaining a better understanding of where you might be able to get a less expensive product to deliver results similar to a more expensive one. Next, lower your inventory levels. If you’re like most operators, you have more food on your shelves than you actually need. It pays to assess your inventory by product, then reorder based on how much of that product you are likely to use, plus a bit added just in case. By cutting back on your excess inventory, you demonstrate to your team that portion control and precision are important. As a result, waste and spoilage should become less of a problem. Finally, list the 10 to 15 items that comprise the majority of your food cost and take a daily inventory of those items. At the start of each day, tally the opening quantity you have on hand for every product. Add any purchases you make that day, then at closing, count your ending inventory. Add your starting amount and purchases, then subtract your ending amount to get the amount of product that was used that day. Compare that figure with your POS product usage report. If your actual usage exceeds the usage tracked on your POS, you could have a problem with theft, over-portioning or another issue that needs adjustment right away.
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