By Mike Walls

Your key areas of focus should be:

• Order accuracy
• Speed of service
• Friendliness during the brief connection
• Preparedness
• A high-quality, consistent product

Order Accuracy

Accuracy is critical in takeout, drive-thru, and delivery orders. Ideally, the order should be taken directly into the POS system and entered immediately. Be sure to provide the total right away to prompt the guest to have payment ready at the window. Always double-check orders for accuracy while packaging the order using the receipt and then triple-check by listing the items in the bag as the order is delivered to the guest.

Speed

Make sure to follow a routine that provides guests with a consistent experience while ordering at the window and preparing the orders. Interactions should be short during peak hours to increase throughput, so be sure to build your systems, routines, and habits for optimum speed and accuracy. Your physical space must also be designed to flow towards the pick-up window with no wasted movements or fetching. You want the cooks or barista’s hands to be in action, not their feet, whenever possible so they can focus on preparing an item or component, sending it in the right direction, and beginning the next one right away. Can you change your line’s layout to prevent unnecessary movement by placing everything for each order within arm’s reach?

Friendliness

How can you express hospitality during a 30-second interaction? The best way is to smile and sincerely thank everyone while inviting guests to come back again soon. A smile should be part of the uniform.

Preparedness

Take care of non-customer-related tasks in off-hours only. You don’t want to be rushing to take out the trash, manage breaks, or stock supplies during a rush. Know your rush times and be ready for them by using a checklist with time constraints that indicate a set of tasks that must be finished before a particular time. Be proactive and set yourself and your team up for success.

 

A High-Quality, Consistent Experience

Everything must come together to provide a high-quality experience. Keep hot food hot under a heat lamp and cold items cold away from the heat. Bag hot and cold items separately. Ensure packaging does not ruin the product by allowing it to cool too quickly or to steam and become soggy. What items can you pre-package or bundle that won’t affect quality? Can tasks be shared differently to increase efficiency? Is the menu board, exterior entry zone, order zone, wait zone, pay/pick-up zone, exit zone, and parking lot as clean and welcoming as the restaurant’s interior?

Analyze and continuously improve in these areas, and you’ll turn guests into raving fans and regulars!

By: Chef Natasha Reta

Have you had to pivot your offerings to include drive-thrus, walk-up windows, and delivery? Then you know this is not just as simple as putting up the sign and opening the windows. It takes serious thought and consideration when executing this plan through your whole establishment. Clarity and communication to staff on all new standard operating procedures (SOPs) will enhance your service and your team’s safety and well-being.

Third-party deliveries take charge of our efforts to maintain social distancing. Often rushed and sometimes pushy drivers will flood your vestibules, take-out counters, and drive-thrus to quickly transport meals as they are demanded. This haste leads to order mistakes, inconsistency, waste, and disappointed guests. How to help?

 

Ordering:

Consider how your BOH staff will receive and view an item to prepare. Personally, look at the screen or paper that they are required to review.  Is it paper? Is the ink easy to read from all positions on the line? Is it a KDS (kitchen display screen)? How is each station on your kitchen line communicating to complete orders?  A few items to address:

1. Be sure that there is standard practice for calling out orders to the kitchen team and there is a lead to address issues as they arise.
2. Determine estimated cook times of dishes and be sure staff is following preparation per recipe. This will ensure that the dish is prepared in the exact time it has been set in your KDS system or otherwise recorded and taught in your recipe process.
3. Enhance the packaging process by setting quality control points that the final bagger must verify.

 

 

BOH Set-Up:

It is always important to review your kitchen line and its daily operations.  It is imperative to assess cleanliness and organization and the tools required to prepare each dish.  Does your staff have to walk long distances from their position to complete a dish? Do they have all the correct tools? Are the appropriate to-go boxes per dish in the corresponding station?  A few every day rules behind the line:

1. Cleanliness and CLEAN as you go. Open clean, stay clean, and close clean. Having a standard operation for daily organization and upholding your staff to these standards will ensure that your kitchen follows health and safety protocols. Opening and closing checklists will provide clarity to staff on what is required daily.
2. Organize each station so that the team member working that station can produce dishes without leaving their station. Staff should be working in a bubble around themselves, not in a squiggly line crossing over each other. This will not only help cleanliness but is a safety measure for maintaining distancing in very tight quarters.

 

Picking Up:

Has the pick-up process been a challenge for you and your staff? Do you have signs and designated stations for walk-up guests and for third-party deliveries?  Sure, not all restaurant owners can afford the footprint of a drive-thru in order to designate specific windows for third-party services. With some strategically placed signs and added social awareness, you can ease the pick-up process.

1. Use social media. Owners utilize these platforms to show off their tasty treats. Consider showing your guests and new guests that you follow safety protocols.  Explain to them a new process of pick-up or delivery and be sure your staff follows the same standards.
2. Utilize signage on the ground and arrows to direct the flow of traffic.
3. Be certain that no one receives a take-out without being confirmed of order and name.

 

There’s no denying that these have been difficult and trying times. It is important to remember that EVERYONE is and has been affected by this.  Trying to ease pressure and confusion on your guests and staff will create an atmosphere that guests enjoy, and your team appreciates. Organization and clear communication will always be the solution.

In an article in QSR magazine, Takeout and Delivery Is Now Essential to Customers; we see the shift to off-premise dining was initially geared toward survival in the early days of the pandemic. However, since then, “roughly half of full-service operators said they devoted more resources to expanding off-premises business since the onset of COVID.”  As a result, in many cases, off-premise dining represents a “larger proportion of sales than it did pre-pandemic.”  The National Restaurant Association’s State of the Restaurant Industry Report examined some of the most significant off-premises shifts and shared how these “operational trends will influence consumers’ restaurant decisions in the coming months.”  Nearly 68% of all adult consumers say they’re more likely to purchase takeout food from a restaurant than they were pre-COVID.

 

Curbside

“Curbside was broadly the single-most adopted off-premises jump…” and was the least capital-intensive option for many operators. As a result, 8 out of 10 fine dining, family dining, and fast-casual operators have added this option. It offers a key benefit to diners and restaurants; unlike third-party delivery, it provides convenience at no extra cost per order. Take a look at the restaurants of the future designs coming from some of the industry’s top chains, Fast-Food Restaurants of the Future.  In addition to curbside parking spots, they offer integrated smart technology that alerts employees of a customer’s impending arrival.

 

 

Delivery

Nearly half of full-service and slightly fewer fast-casual operators introduced delivery in 2020. Operators were more likely to add third-party delivery rather than set up their own in-house option; however, some did both.  Third-party was the easiest and “quickest path to expand reach to an already dedicated customer base.”  It has been reported that nearly two-thirds of delivery customers prefer to order directly from a restaurant, so there is an opportunity for brands to capitalize on this and reduce some of the commissions tied to third-party delivery.

 

Drive-Thru

Drive-thru restaurants have always been viewed as the ultimate in convenience and speed.  However, during the pandemic, they were a lifeline for restaurants that had them. During mandated dine-in closures in April, May, and June 2020, drive-thru visits increased by 26% and represented 42% of all restaurant visits.  As more restaurants reopened in July, drive-thru visits still increased by 13%.  But what about those without a drive-thru option? Obviously, “adding a drive-thru takes space, capital, and likely landlord sign-off.” However, real estate developers are opening up to the idea as they begin to understand consumer demand. “Drive-thru operations are delivering a high ROI during the pandemic, offering convenience, speed, and the comfort of social distance to consumers using them,” reports David Portalatin, a food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America.

An article in Restaurant Business Online highlighted how fast-food chains are embracing AI and other technologies and are working to make their drive-thrus smarter.

Check out our current client, Hi Auto, and their Drive-Thru of the Future, using conversational AI built to function in a noisy environment. Hi Auto works with drive-thru brands using voice automation to streamline their ordering, improve customer satisfaction, increase revenue and lower their labor costs. Additionally, Hi Auto record calls for 60-90 days while their AI learns the menu. In these 60-90 days, the operators receive essentially a “complimentary data-driven drive-thru operations assessment” that will tell them how often (or how not often) the team is upselling, wait times, lag times, customer service experience, wrong orders, etc. Operators can use this information to better train and develop their team, operations, and overall customer satisfaction.

As the demand for these off-premises options has exploded, there is also a heightened need for new and different types of containers to transport menu items. Ensuring that your food can travel well should be a top priority for restaurants investing in off-premise dining options. This means that operators must rethink packaging and find innovative ways to ensure that food arrives at the right temperature.  For example, operators are looking to preserve the integrity of hot foods and finding vented containers that keep crispy food crispy in transit.  Additionally, with the surge in takeout and delivery, restaurant “operators have to make sure customers feel secure that their food is safe.” California passed legislation mandating that operators that use third-party delivery have to “secure containers to indicate they haven’t been opened or violated.” Novolex developed a new bag for delivery that includes “tamper-evident seals to communicate sanitation and safety.”

Early in the pandemic, some states temporarily loosened rules that prohibited restaurants from selling alcoholic drinks for off-site consumption. A new bill introduced in California would permanently allow restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages for takeout, as long as the drink is sold with a meal order. The ability to offer alcoholic beverages with off-premise orders can provide a much-needed lifeline for many restaurants to increase their off-premises revenue stream.

According to Upserve, it’s not just younger people flocking to off-premise dining options; consumers of all ages are coming to expect these services.  The National Restaurant Association reports that “more than 60% of the restaurant foods are consumed off-premise.  By 2025, off-premise is likely to account for approximately 80% of the industry’s growth”   So, off-premise operations are here to stay and will likely be a significant part of the U.S. restaurant industry’s recovery and future.

So you’ve decided to expand your restaurant by offering catering—smart business move! Now you can count on more revenue through off-premise sales. You have your catering-specific menu with pricing and have even ironed out the operations and logistics. All systems go? Not so fast! Customers won’t magically start calling in orders. How are you going to let customers know about your new service? It’s not as simple as printing out a pretty menu and calling it a day.

Effective promotion is vital and it comes through strategic planning. Word-of-mouth can only get you so far and you wouldn’t want to get off to a bad start with your new catering venture. So, what are your options? Give your new catering program the marketing attention it deserves. Let’s go over some pointers and areas you need to cover:

• Packaging: Extend your marketing onto your takeout boxes and bags, but be sure to keep it on-brand.

• Online ordering and delivery: Consumers are craving convenience. Make ordering online possible, whether through a third-party site or on your dedicated website. Give the customer an estimate on when the catering order will be ready as well as where and how they can pick it up. Offer delivery? Emphasize it—it’s a great time-saving feature!

• Dedicate a page on your website just for your new catering menu. Feature it on your homepage and add the menu on your Yelp profile, too.

• Get social: A no-brainer in this day and age, but we had to mention it! Let your followers know about your new catering program. Reach out to local businesses to inform them you have catering available for their office parties and events.

• Cross-promotion: Cross-promote all services from in house dining, catering, takeout/delivery, and private dining, especially if you have a loyalty program with marketing features.

• Create an email campaign and send out an offer: Get your customer base aware of your new catering service by sending them a message. They signed up for your emails because they want to know about promotions and news about your restaurant! Remind them of the kind of events your catering menu can serve and consider an exclusive discount for first-time catering orders.

If you’re looking for a professional catering marketing strategy, call Synergy’s off-premise sales and catering specialist, Monica Challingsworth-Lyons.  With over 15 years of industry experience and over $16 million in catering sales, Monica can help develop an off-premise sales program that will elevate your offerings and ultimately, your revenues! !

Operating out of a ghost kitchen can save thousands in operating costs, but without marketing, your customers may not know you’re there

The spiraling costs of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant has served as the catalyst for a number of foodservice trends, including food trucks, food halls, and container restaurants. Food entrepreneurs are now looking at ghost kitchens as the next step in this evolution. Ghost kitchens — rentable kitchen space for professional food production — provide a place for restaurants to prepare their menu items for pick-up by third-party delivery services like GrubHub and DoorDash. For cash-strapped restaurant concepts and small operators looking to expand their market reach, ghost kitchens offer the opportunity to set up shop without the expense of a full-blown restaurant to build and staff.

Despite the allure of drastically reduced facility and labor costs, ghost kitchens are not a cure-all for the single-unit operator. “Ghost kitchens are an amazing alternative for well-known restaurant brands since they have already established a high level of name recognition,” said Monica Challingsworth, catering and off-premise sales consultant for Synergy. “They typically incorporate a high level of marketing spend in their operating costs, so they’re less reliant on foot traffic for promotional purposes. For the small operator, ghost kitchens are a really challenging business model when trying to build brand exposure.”

Do the lower costs of the ghost kitchen model make it easier to break into the competitive restaurant landscape? Not according to Challingsworth. “When you’re operating without the visibility of a  physical location, all you have is your own marketing efforts and the third-party delivery services. You can’t completely rely on delivery companies to be your only promotional channel because the bigger brands are paying to have their restaurant featured at the top of the list of customer choices. Yes, you’re spending less on a location, but you must significantly increase your marketing and social media spend to gain any kind of market share,” says Challingsworth.

Ghost kitchens can provide expanded capacity and efficiency for operators with significant catering and third-party order volume.  As a former Catering Director for both Seasons 52 and Lemonade, Ms. Challingsworth says, “ghost kitchens are a great addition to a restaurant chain that does high-volume catering or delivery since it takes the food production and packaging responsibilities out of the hands of the restaurant locations. But you still must have a catering salesforce pounding the pavement to promote your services. Just having a production facility is not enough to ensure success.”

Despite the challenges of operating in a ghost kitchen, specific food concepts can benefit from this operating model. “Concepts who specialize in pre-packed ice cream or individually packaged frozen goods are great candidates for using ghost kitchens that specialize in frozen packaging and delivery, typically a big headache for a restaurant,” according to Ms. Challingsworth.

For single-unit operators considering a ghost kitchen to enter a new market without the brick-and-mortar costs, Ms. Challingsworth offers the following advice. “If you want to bump your restaurant higher on the third-party delivery lists, offer free delivery. Their algorithms favor restaurants who don’t charge delivery fees. You can slightly increase your menu prices to compensate but be careful not to price yourself out of the market. Your biggest consideration is your marketing spend and promotional efforts. Yes, you save money on operating costs, but you can’t cut corners on marketing. There really is no free lunch.”