As the world shifts to multichannel restaurant ordering, peak hours in restaurants demand efficient management that comes to the biggest challenge of all. Customers despise slow service and long lines, which has a negative influence on the brand’s reputation. Furthermore, they are unconcerned with how excellent the restaurant’s food is. If guests have to wait hours to try the meal, it will undoubtedly affect their overall impression of the restaurant. Thus, they will remember the experience and share it with their loved ones.
Reduced restaurant wait times are a must in this situation. Customers can place their food orders online, via mobile apps, or over the phone if a F&B queue system is installed.
The stats say that:
- 95% of restaurant business owners believe that tech helps to improve business efficacy.
- Restaurateur believes seamless payment choices are necessary to integrate into the POS systems for better consumer experiences.
This demonstrates the necessity to invest in technology to improve client experiences without overburdening employees.
Besides, the restaurant’s personnel is under strain during peak hours due to the increased and continuous influx of orders. As a result, you’ll need to increase your service speed during peak hours in restaurants to both satisfy customers and reduce employee workload. This will increase sales and satisfy consumers, whether they come for drive-thru or dine-in.
Here, below are given the strategies the restaurants can implement to reduce the wait times customers spend waiting in-person. All this will help to measure the current service speed and improve the restaurant’s efficiency. Thus, maximizing the bottom line.
How Restaurants Can Stay Productive and Organized During Peak Hours
Install Self-Service Kiosks
During peak hours, the restaurant’s staffing levels are sometimes insufficient to handle client orders. While many consumers accept that they may have to wait for a while, they grow annoyed when the wait time is unexpected and unknown.
Here, the great way to address this issue comes by installing self-service kiosks. Of course, this tech can not entirely replace the employees, it can help the employee perform the basic tasks with ease. Instead of making the customers wait or allocating the staff to take orders, customers can order their food themselves.
Even 54% of successful business owners believe that self-service kiosks boost visitor experience.
Besides, when you integrate the kiosks with the POS system, the orders are directly sent to the kitchen. This helps the customers to order immediately at the high-traffic places and reduce wait time in the restaurants as well.
Provide Accurate Wait Times
Delays are one of the most significant factors that impact the reputation of the restaurant industry. Service timings can harm the visitor’s experience, whether it’s delaying presenting guests with the appropriate seating or processing orders. As a result, giving accurate wait times is essential to maintain the restaurant’s reputation and customer happiness.
Keep customers entertained while they wait
You can offer complimentary snacks or coffee while the customer waits for their order. Besides, you can put on a TV to keep them engaged. This will not make them feel stuck while they wait.
Inform visitors about expected wait times
Let them know if there is already a queue of customers waiting and you know it will take longer for their order to be prepared. It is usually preferable to offer the expected wait time rather than surprise customers with uncertain wait times.
Encourage Seamless Communication Among Employees
The most important concept in providing restaurant service is efficient and constant communication. Employees must maintain contact with one another and be taught how to engage with one another, especially during peak times. Routine staff meetings are also required.
The kitchen and ordering personnel in restaurants must be able to coordinate effectively. This will ensure prompt service and quicken the preparation of the food. Furthermore, spreading the tasks amongst people makes collaboration much easier. You only need one person to call out the orders while others take care of other important chores.
Provide Channel to Let People Share Feedback
Customers who find the services enjoyable are more likely to come back. Collecting their views and opinions is a great technique to acquire genuine ideas in this case. You can also use these ideas to improve the customer experience in your restaurant.
In addition, 35% of customers also refer to reading reviews before deciding on which restaurant to visit.
Besides, the kitchen staff will be under a lot of stress, and things will go wrong the majority of the time. As the restaurant owner, you must compliment your employees for their positive experiences and successes. Customer input can be used to improve kitchen procedures once again. Customer input can help to improve kitchen procedures once again.
Enable Tableside Payments and Ordering
Waiting to order first and then taking forever to get it served is the annoying part of dining in a restaurant with poor management. Here, installing technology such as tableside ordering allows the staff to take orders at the table and transmit them to the kitchen for preparation.
This reduces the need for servers to physically go to each POS station and manually enter orders. Additionally, relying on tableside ordering will help to enhance order accuracy and lower errors.
For quick checkouts, tableside ordering may also need to include tableside payments. Such payments can reduce the procedure to a single visit rather than collecting cards, processing them, and then returning them to clients. Furthermore, the customers will have more discretion over when they leave, and wait times will be reduced.
Advanced Technology to Acquire Customers
It is crucial to adapt to the restaurant industry’s ever-changing innovations regularly. Off-peak hours are ideal for renovating your restaurant. At these times, client turnover would be less. Furthermore, the eateries will face little risk of losing consumers.
Investing in automation or simple queuing software could help the restaurant’s business operations run more smoothly and attract more customers. Consumers can reserve a table online and visit the restaurant when their reservation becomes available. As a result, they avoid having to line up physically.
Furthermore, users can be notified about virtual queues and their projected wait periods via SMS or text message channels.
Provide Exclusive Offers
Introducing loyalty programs during high-traffic times is an amazing strategy to encourage people to come during off-peak hours in the restaurant. During prime hours, you can use digital signage or a POS system to update menu item pricing and upsell the food with a large margin. Liquor and alcohol, for example, have higher profit margins. Additionally, offering food discounts on weekdays enhances the likelihood of customers preferring to dine in.
If you manage a café with in-house booze, establishing a happy hour with reduced drink prices and food included can be ideal for specific times of the day. This will assist in attracting a huge clientele.
Ensure Optimal Staffing
To optimize staff and enhance their production, better staffing management is necessary. This is only achievable if restaurant managers are better able to predict sales trends and peak hours when planning efficient staffing.
Restaurants can take advantage of the POS services here. It provides sales and staffing expense reports. Furthermore, this information can help arrange enough workers for various shifts during peak times. Thus, allowing clients to receive the best possible service while avoiding needless labor expenses.
Utilize Digital Signage Technology
Some informal establishments, particularly drive-thrus, may consider adopting digital signage to grow their business and make menus simpler to read. This makes it easier for customers to choose their order while waiting in line. As a result, cashiers will be able to process orders more rapidly and serve more customers.
Furthermore, this signage shows consumer orders on digital screens to assist staff in ensuring accuracy.
Offer Several Ordering Channels
Avoid shutting down specific food ordering channels while controlling peak hours in the restaurant. You can reduce the physical strain on your premises by better implementing the proper strategies and methods. Of course, when demand grows in the kitchen, effective communication and technology can help streamline the digital ordering process.
Summing Up
The demand for meals during peak hours in the restaurant will undoubtedly raise operational needs. As a result, having the Qwaiting queueing solution could be worthwhile if you want to make the most of these times while simultaneously reducing wait times. Rather than relying entirely on your employees, you must invest in emerging technology that is advancing the restaurant sector. This will enable you to succeed in a fast-paced, competitive environment. As a result, the staff would be able to operate more efficiently during peak hours while increasing the bottom line.