Managing a restaurant is a big job. Operators must juggle several responsibilities, from scheduling to equipment maintenance to updating menus to ordering inventory. Add in multiple locations, and restaurant management can be even more stressful. Thankfully, though, technology is helping multi-unit operators streamline the management process.
A main challenge for restaurant operators who manage more than one location is that they aren’t able to get to every location as often as they’d like to see what’s going on. This means they lean a lot on data and indicators such as sales, profit, customer complaints, and customer compliment numbers to gauge how things are going. However, having access to technologies that make management easier can make the whole process simpler. Here’s how.
With every location having different back-of-house needs, a technology platform that aggregates all information and presents it in one easy-to-navigate place is a huge convenience. With technology that puts everything at your disposal, operators can quickly and easily access a dashboard to keep track of every restaurant’s needs, from staff scheduling and inventory management, to equipment maintenance and employee requests. Technology that compiles all of this data and makes it accessible anywhere at any time means that operators of multiple units don’t have to worry about getting to each location every day or even every week—they can manage everything from afar if needed, all without worry.
With multiple locations of a restaurant comes multiple staffs that all have different training needs due to differing times of hire and variable turnover rates. Traditional training, offered onsite between managers and employees, isn’t the most efficient way to manage new hires or provide continued training to current staff. Instead, operators should consider utilizing technology that hosts training videos online or in the cloud, with password protection. This way, managers can provide unlimited access to training videos so that staff can keep up with any new training that needs to be done, from new-hire training to information on the latest standard operating procedures.
It used to be that every restaurant’s recipes were stored in a binder, and when menu items changed, so did the binder. Updating recipes across locations meant having to update multiple binders with multiple recipes. Likewise, when different locations add new LTOs or promotions, it can be difficult to keep track of which location should be updated with which recipe. With digitized recipe cards, a restaurant’s staff has an easy way to accurately keep up with recipe information and menu changes. Beyond the efficiency of digital updates, technology that manages menu changes eliminates the expense of printing and replacing damaged or lost recipe binders.
Onsite management isn’t always possible for operators who manage chains or multi-unit restaurants. Whether the locations are too far apart or there’s just too much to do offsite, it’s helpful to have everything accessible remotely, rather than on a restaurant’s computer or management terminal. Some technology solutions are accessible from mobile devices, allowing managers to receive updates and alerts and tend to a location’s specific needs whenever a problem arises from wherever they are.
TransAct Technologies (NASDAQ: TACT) is a global leader in market-specific technology solutions. We have helped restaurants and convenience stores improve food safety, increase operational efficiencies and gain critical insights into their daily processes. Our mission is to transform customer’s back of house with custom solutions that automate manual processes to ensure food safety and empower people to work smarter, not harder.