As a successful restaurateur you may be curious about how you can obtain and maintain a successful restaurant.
Whether you are starting out or have been in the business for a long time, there is always room to enhance customer satisfaction, improve customer loyalty, reduce wasted time and resources and boost revenue.
The majority of these results depend greatly on your valuable characteristics:
1) Being Goal Oriented
A study in 2016 found that some of the main reasons restaurateurs fail is because they have unclear or nonexistent plans, poor operations management, and unexpected growth.
On the other hand, successful restaurants set clear short-term and long-term goals. In this way, they give their business a direction that can guide all decisions and enforce business values.
It is equally important that goals maintain a certain level of flexibility, as new information or data should alter the way your business runs.
2) Keeping Up to Date with New Technology
The advantages of keeping up to date and investing in new technology for your restaurant are limitless.
You can benefit from effective online ordering systems, quicker ordering and serving times, efficient kitchen operations, better dining experiences, and reduced stock waste, to name a few.
One of the easiest ways to implement state-of-the-art technology is through a modern point of sale (POS). It streamlines all the most important aspects of your restaurant into an integrated, simple system.
For example, you can merge the front ordering station and online ordering system with the kitchen, stock count and customer data reports.
Another great way to incorporate technology within your restaurant is to test new ways of efficient ordering. For instance, depending on your clientele, customers may enjoy self-service ordering systems.
Related: Top 10 Tips to Increase Restaurant Profits
3) Focusing on the Customer
As a business owner within the hospitality industry, you are already aware how important customer satisfaction is to the success of your restaurant.
However, you may not be informed about your target customers if you are not tracking their habits and preferences.
The recipe is simple: find out exactly what your customers like or appreciate, and strive to implement more of that within your restaurant.
You can do this in various ways. For instance, having a social media presence means you can use short, interactive polls or quizzes to gather research.
Having an online ordering system means you can implement customer ratings and feedback.
You could also track and analyze past orders to figure out which meals and appetizers are trending, which methods of payment are popular and what the peak times for customers are.
4) Being Financial Savvy
If you can manage your finances accordingly, it is much easier to make decisions that increase profitability to improve your restaurant.
Although many restaurateurs do not have formal financial training or education, this does not mean they cannot achieve proper financial organization.
The main way to improve your restaurant’s financial health is to prepare a clear, daily business review. When you are able to efficiently track day-to-day sales, customer counts, and payroll, you are able to view and manage unnecessary losses and predict opportunities better.
Moreover, it is necessary to budget for expenses taking into account your lowest revenue months. If typical low-profit months can cover rent, loan payments, utilities, payroll, product orders and other expenses, you place yourself in a positive position for success.
5) Prioritizing the Details
Every successful restaurateur knows that a major achievement is an accumulation of small wins over time.
By prioritizing details and staying consistent you set yourself up for long-term prosperity.
One of the details that many restaurateurs neglect is inventory management. Poor inventory management correlates with restaurant failure. It directly leads to customer dissatisfaction through not having what customers want or need, and to wasted money and resources through spoiled food products.
While you could monitor this with regular stock counts, you may take advantage of a stock control program that streamlines the process.
It collects and tracks stock data, compares prices between stock suppliers, shows if you are charging correct prices, amongst other essential information.
6) Always Improving Upon What is Expected
As you know, in the restaurant industry there is a great deal of competition. That’s precisely why it’s important to stand out from the crowd, especially when you have already mastered providing delicious food, top-tier dining experiences and top-notch customer service.
One of the ways you can gain a competitive edge is by finding innovative ways to improve upon what is expected.
For instance, many customers expect to be served the meal they ordered but they may appreciate being served free extras while waiting.
Other great examples include live entertainment, digital menus, comfortable lounge areas, outdoor seating areas, or loyalty discounts.
The type of ‘above and beyond’ service you provide is up to you and should be tailored to both your restaurant atmosphere and your clientele.
Related: Is Disruption About to Reshape the Restaurant Industry
7) Seeking Opportunities
If you wish to increase customers or appeal to new target customers, one of the best ways is through expanding your business.
You are not limited to purchasing or building physical locations, although this certainly can be an excellent option.
You can also grow your business effectively through online ordering and delivery apps.
In the past couple of years, these modes have expanded exponentially. They are currently one of the best and most affordable ways to attract new clients and keep a loyal customer base.
All in all, these seven characteristics can greatly assist you in being a successful restaurateur and building and growing a successful restaurant.
And the most important point of all….
8) Respect your Employees
In the restaurant and hospitality industry, your staff are what will make or break you. It doesn’t matter how good your food is or how pretty the decor is, if your staff aren’t up to scratch then your business is sure to fail.
Related: Take Care of Your Employees and they Will Take Care of You
Ideal Point of Sale and Ideal Stock Control can assist in creating and maintaining consistency with many of these practices. Reach out to us today!
