Restaurant: 10 recurring problems and their solutions
September 20, 2024
Running a restaurant is much more than just cooking or serving at the table.
Every day, restaurateurs face a series of challenges that put them to the test: inventory management, customer satisfaction, health and safety standards, reservation tracking, optimizing fill rates, staff management, negative customer reviews...
Fortunately, there's a solution for every problem!
In this article, we have identified 10 recurring problems for restaurateurs which we suggest you solve as simply as possible.
Take a deep breath... By the end of this article, you'll feel much better!
1. Staff shortages: the thorn in every restaurateur's side
Have you ever been to a restaurant and found the service extremely slow?
Everything drags on: from the distribution of menus to the taking of orders, to the preparation of dishes... not forgetting the bill that never seems to arrive on the table (any resemblance to a scene from "Cauchemar en cuisine" would be purely coincidental).
The fault of poor organization?
Well, no.
Or at least, not always...
Most of the time, slow restaurant service is synonymous with... staff shortage !
This demanding profession is less and less attractive to the younger generations.
As a result, the foodservice sector is struggling to recruit.
Less drudgery, higher pay, more free time: these are the expectations of young people.
Except that restaurateurs can't keep up.
The solution to staff shortages?
Instead of promising them the moon, here are a few ideas to attract candidates and make up for the staff shortage:
- Boost your tips
How do we do it? By offering online payment. With the dematerialized tip function, the tip left with the waiter increases from 20 to 30%.
- Improve working conditions
Opt for solutions that simplify tasks in the dining room or kitchen. For example, the use of digital ordering solutions saves time for waiters and speeds up dispatch to the kitchen.
- Give the gift ofautonomy to your customers
QR Code menus, digital ordering, order kiosks, online payment... Digital solutions enable you to reduce waiting time and increase customer satisfaction, even with fewer staff.
2. The headache of home delivery
Restaurant owners know this well. When you have limited space in your establishment, you need to find solutions to generate additional revenue.
This is where Click & Collect and Home Delivery come into their own.
These services enable us to reach a different type of customer, one who is in a greater hurry to eat.
However, implementing the Home delivery is sometimes an obstacle course for restaurateurs.
Managing the order-taking and dispatch process, collecting cash online, ensuring on-time delivery... Home delivery is a business.
That's why most restaurateurs turn to specialized intermediaries like Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber Eat.
But these platforms have one big drawback: they're expensive. Visit commissions The margin charged on each sale is high, and the restaurateur's margin is reduced to a trickle.
The solution for home delivery?
A more advantageous and less costly alternative: white-label home delivery.
The restaurateur relies on a partner's delivery fleet, but registers the orders himself (on his website, for example).
The combined Obypay - Uber Direct gives foodservice professionals greater freedom, while providing them with the support and technology they need.
3. Rush-hour stress
11:55 a.m... Tension mounts in the team as everyone prepares for the mass arrival of customers.
The traditional "coup de feu" puts staff under stress, and the risk of error increases - both in the kitchen and in the dining room.
You have to know how to manage this influx over a very short period of time to ensure quality of service and avoid frustrated customers.
Obviously, good management of a rush hour requires impeccable organization.
The solution for busy periods?
To ensure a seamless customer experience, you can opt for digital solutions that facilitate every interaction between customer and staff:
- Consultation of smartphone menu
- Stand-alone control by QR Code, on tablet or on control terminals
- Online bill consultation and payment
4. Big tables at checkout time
Do you know Muriel Robin's sketch on "L'Addition"?
In it, the French comic revisits a classic restaurant problem: large tables and the fateful moment when you have to "do the accounts".
Between Ginette who didn't drink any wine, Robert who took the gourmet menu, the little ones who took a children's menu and Fred who is on his third digestive, there's plenty to pull out your hair!
And while the whole table is busy with the calculator, your waiter is there, waiting to find out how much he owes. cash.
The solution to the large-table bill?
Set up the digital payment.
By scanning a QR Code on the table, customers can view the bill on their smartphone and decide how to split the payment: split into equal parts, pay in full at once, pay for individual drinks, fixed amount...
Meanwhile, your servers can do something else!
5. The horrible booking book
Wrong, scribbled, illegible... the reservation bookletIt's a bit like your old family doctor's prescription.
We don't get it!
And that's not even counting the time spent on the phone - often in the middle of a firefight - jotting down a booking in a hurry... that no-one will ever be able to read again!
Some even have nightmares about it.
The solution that replaces the reservation booklet?
Visit online reservation.
There are many solutions on the market, and consumers are becoming increasingly accustomed to them.
Some cash register software packages offer this functionality. Even Google offers to integrate a booking solution on its Google My Business page.
And one of the other advantages of online booking is the "Automatic reminder" function.
We'll tell you all about it right after.
6. The unbearable No-Show
It's 8:15pm.
Your restaurant is packed.
There are still two tables available... but they are reserved for 8.30pm.
You have to turn away 5 new customers who show up without a reservation.
At 8:30 p.m. on the dot, you look out towards the front door, hoping to see customers arriving at the two reserved tables.
But... nobody!
9pm, still nothing.
You instruct the staff to free the reserved tables. Unfortunately, it's too late.
No one pushes the door of your establishment anymore.
And you've just lost sales because of customers".No Show".
The solution to No Show?
Once again, the online reservation.
Most of the solutions available on the market include a confirmation function and an automatic reminder by SMS or email... with the option of canceling your reservation with a single click.
So you can be informed in good time when a table becomes available, and stop turning away customers!
So remember to automate as much as possible.
Tips: in many "top-of-the-range" restaurants, a member of staff calls to confirm the reservation and ask about any allergies - top-notch customer service!
7. Lack of visibility
It's no secret that it takes more than just a good location to get the job done. attract customers in his establishment.
From now on, the online visibility is central to a restaurant's marketing strategy.
Social networks, website, online advertising... before you spend a lot of energy and budget on the Internet, focus on the 1st brick of your online visibility: your Google My Business page. In fact, we've devoted an entire guide available here.
And the cornerstones of good visibility on Google are customer reviews.
So make the most of every visit to your restaurant to gather valuable feedback.
The solution to lack of visibility?
Set up an online payment solution and automatically collect the notice once the bill has been paid. With a well-informed customer database, you can also send emails or SMS inviting them to leave their review on Google.
What about negative reviews? The answer is here.
8. Customer infidelity
There's more to building customer loyalty than good food. It's often necessary, but not sufficient.
Competitive rates, ambience, quality of service, location... All these factors influence customers' decisions about whether or not to return to your establishment!
The solution to customer infidelity?
Fortunately for you, there are additional levers you can easily activate.
Thus, the restaurant loyalty program is well on its way to becoming an industry standard.
Each time a customer visits your premises, they identify themselves by their loyalty card. They accumulate points or benefits and can use them later in your restaurant. What's more, with the digital version of the loyalty card, you can collect data on your customers with every order, and tailor your loyalty offers to their consumption habits.
9. The average basket... not full enough
Every restaurateur knows: it's the little extras and extras that boost the bill and therefore sales.
And to achieve this, you need to be able to rely on your staff to make suggestions to customers, right from the order-taking stage.
This more commercial approach to customer relations can be embarrassing for some. To the point where you miss out on additional salesYour staff are a little too reserved.
The solution to the tiny average shopping basket?
Use the product push function included in order online as with Obypay.
As at Mc Donald's, the ordering interface on the kiosk or smartphone automatically prompts suggestions to be added to the basket. This means that you can no longer forget to "suggest" upgrading to the XL version or paying supplements, but also complementary products: the famous additional sale.
10. Too many contacts!
Between the point-of-sales softwareFrom digital loyalty to order management, payment system and home delivery platform, you won't know where to turn.
Too many interlocutors and too many different interfaces will eventually get the better of your patience.
And we understand you...
After all, you're a restaurateur, not a computer scientist!
The solution to too many contacts?
Opt for a all-inclusive platformintegrated with your cash register software. This means you have just one contact to manage everything, in addition to your cash register system.
The Obypay platform integrates the digital menu, ordering and payment at the table, Click & Collect, Home Delivery, Loyalty and even a CRM and a mail order solution. marketing campaigns.
Ain't life grand?
The all-in-one solution for restaurateurs' recurring problems
What if, with a wave of your magic wand, you could solve all these problems?
Hard to believe, isn't it?
And yet, even if it's not magic, Obypay allows you to solve all these problems thanks to a complete platform of digital functionalities.
From online ordering and payment to digital loyalty, Obypay is the ideal partner to help you run your restaurant with greater peace of mind.
Book a demo with one of our experts and tell him about your restaurant problems... He's sure to find a solution!
