Today we’re going to look at 2 drastically different ways to approach a speed of service issue:
- You can rely on hope, but we all know hope is not a strategy.
- You can use real-time data to identify and remediate issues before they affect speed of service.
Number 1 will work sometimes because, as they say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. But most of the time it won’t work out. So that means that most of the time prep amounts are wrong which means that someone will leave the line during the rush to prep. So that means most of the time there aren’t enough straws or lids at the drink station which means during the rush someone has to stop taking an order to grab a straw. You see where we’re going here.
This all has a negative impact on speed of service which has a compounding effect on sales. If the line is too long people may not even enter your restaurant or drive thru. Those sales are gone forever.
If they did get in line and it takes too long, they may leave, or they may stick around, but will be extremely frustrated and more than likely never return. Now you’ve spent a ton of money acquiring this customer, but they will never pay off because of a speed of service issue.
Now imagine a world everything is prepped, stocked, clean, held at the right temperature all prior to the rush. In this world customers move through process like a well oiled machine, the food tastes great, expectations are exceeded, they become repeat customers and tell their friends.
That’s number 2. When teams have all the data they need to know what needs to be done, when and how, have processes that guide them through their tasks and helps them catch and fix mistakes before they affect customers, they understand the importance of completing the tasks, then speed of service isn’t an issue.
It’s little things that normally get brushed to the side as no big deal that have real ramifications to important parts of your business such as speed of service. It all boils down to setting yourself up for success and then making it happen.
The best chains are habitually great at executing the basics. To be able to do this you need to start with this question: how are you identifying operational issues at your locations today?
We can help. Reach out.