How To Increase Table Turn At Your Restaurant
Increasing the table turnover at your restaurant can have a great impact on your sales; as more people are able to dine at your restaurant, you can maximize the amount of orders you receive. Here are some things to think about when setting a plan to increase your table turnover.
Having Enough Staff
One thing to think about is your staffing model. Do you have enough servers, hosts, bussers, and line cooks to suit your needs at the peak times? In order to find out, you may need to walk through a few meals or send someone in to analyze your service flow. This way, you can see where the bottlenecks are during the meal, and whether it takes too long to be seated or to receive your appetizers. From here, you can make decisions about where to hire new staff.
Thinking About Your Table Layout
Your table layout is another factor to analyze. During your busiest hours, are there certain types of tables that sit idle while demand for other types can never be met? If so, you may need to create more large or small tables. It may be necessary to change the table layout throughout the day, perhaps by creating more small tables for lunch and then grouping them together for large dinner parties.
Setting the Standards
Another critical thing to do is to set your requirements for service. For instance, you could set a policy for each table to be greeted within 1 minute of them sitting down, or for no table to remain vacant for more than 5 minutes during peak service hours. At the same time, it can be helpful to set backup plans when things don't go quite right. For instance, if you have a table that's taking a long time to leave the restaurant, think about getting them out of the table by offering them a drink at the bar.
Hiring a Specialist
When you're trying to increase your turnover in a growing restaurant, there are many factors to consider. If you work with food service management services, either as a contractor or a regular consultant, you can get the benefits of a revamped service plan. The food service management specialist can do in-depth analysis to show how each part of your business is working, from the staffing to the layout to the policies for interacting with customers. It sometimes takes a thorough eye to make the best decisions about table turnover, and if you can hire a specialist to collect data and suggest improvements, this is an excellent step towards increasing your customer flow and improving sales.