The holiday season is just around the corner, and we all know that means the food industry is busy, busy, busy. As a restaurant owner, you know that from Thanksgiving to Christmas to the New Year, customers flock to your restaurant to celebrate with friends and family or stop by in between their holiday activities.
However, if you’re a seasoned restaurant owner, you have a handy game plan to prepare for the influx of customers coming in. But if this is your first holiday season, let us help. Here are five ways to help you prepare your restaurant for the busy holiday season.
Inventory
With so many customers, things always sell out fast, especially during the holidays. So, keep your customers happy (and keep them coming) by keeping a well-stocked inventory. You are probably wondering where you will find the time to run inventory checks when you are busy enough trying to keep up with the crowd.
This is where restaurant inventory management software can be of use. You can easily integrate this software onto your point-of-sale system, which allows you to enter an initial stock amount of your goods so that each time an order is placed, the system updates your stock amounts to indicate what is left. You can opt-in for notifications when it is time to purchase more. The inventory software can also keep track of how old your current stock items are based on when you bought them, which helps you ensure you are not serving expired foods.
Forecasting
In addition to inventory management, analyzing data acquired through your modern point-of-sale system is another way to help you prepare your restaurant for this holiday season. Forecasting is a technique used by modern businesses to help plan inventory, marketing, as well as staffing needs.
For instance, when customers purchase a meal from your restaurant, that data is stored within your point-of-sale system. Information like the product purchased, quantity, and date are captured during the checkout process. This information can be used to create a forecast for estimated sales and revenue, which can help you make business-smart adjustments, saving you time and money. Additionally, sales data can help you adjust your holiday menus, or the amounts needed of a particular produce or perishable good.
Staffing
If you have not done so already, you may also need to re-evaluate your staffing needs for a busy holiday season. Perhaps you have noticed through experience that your restaurant has a normal influx of customers at certain hours or on a particular day. You should expect that to be worse during the holiday season.
You may want to consider adding additional staff for those times. Otherwise, your team may become overwhelmed with the rush, and customers may experience a lower quality of service as a result. To keep everyone happy and things running smoothly, it may be in your best interest to hire a few more waiters, bartenders, cooks, and/or dishwashers.
Training
Training is a big part of preparing your restaurant for the holidays, especially when hiring seasonal staff. To maintain and exceed your restaurant’s quality of service, and to retain your customers after the holidays, consider setting aside a day or two to concentrate on refreshing current employees and training seasonal staff. Layout your expectations and also provide seasonal staff with some tips on how to provide exceptional service like opening doors for your customers.
Tables and Chairs
We all know that the holiday season is typically associated with family gatherings. Aunts, uncles, in-laws, nephews, nieces, the list goes on. During the holidays (especially during shopping), when hunger strikes, droves of families always go to restaurants to satisfy their appetites. So to prepare for that, consider bringing in extra tables and chairs to accommodate them. Along with additional tables and chairs, also check if you have a sufficient amount of cutlery to cater to the influx of customers.
A Final Note
These are only five ways to help you prepare your restaurant for the busy holiday season. So, to alleviate stress and earn additional revenue, create a game plan for the holiday rush!
