Are you a "Late Adopter?"

Are you a “Late Adopter?”

            If you keep up with current events in either the news or any trade journal you may have heard the term “early adopter” when the author speaks of the use or review of any form of technology intended to increase an efficiency or task common to a specific industry.  This begs a question of food service operators, if you could use technology (usually in the form of software) that could shorten your daily management tasks allowing you more contact time with guests and the opportunity to support your staff would you “adopt” and use that technology?

            Recalling my introduction to food service I was fortunate to begin at independent fine dining in both French and Continental cuisine establishments where servers took guest orders using a standard industry guest check and a pencil.  Wow, that may appear to make me look older beyond my years; however, it’s 2016 not 1916 and there are still a multitude of restaurant operators utilizing this order-entry, guest-check method!

            My contacts in the POS supply channel tell me a food service operation that switches from handwritten tickets to a POS system can recoup anywhere from 5% to 10% in lost sales and / or incorrect orders within the first year of implementation.  One vendor told me a small family casual dining operation did just that where the majority of the loss was due to illegible handwritten tickets whereby cooks were giving it their “best shot” at the server’s intentions.  We have been using computer-based business solutions for over 70 years, why not give it a look?

            While working in the Washington, DC area in the early ‘90’s I had a client who had good food and beverage sales, they just couldn’t be sure of their bottom line accuracy.  I suggested they look into establishing their costs for both categories through the use of cost analysis software.  This was an older, first generation product that actually required a programmer to install it on their network (unlike the current disc-based or download products) and it was a database style product.  Once all inventory and menu items were entered we were ready to take the system live.  We were able to identify waste on the food side of the business and “shrinkage” on the beverage side and along with regularly performed inventories they were able to identify and develop a plan for their cost issues.

            Another challenge to operators is the channeling of their labor assets to which a POS system can also benefit them.  POS systems may have a time clock function to track hourly wages as a percent of daily sales.  Using such a system managers can decide when to make “labor cuts” based upon company guidelines and accepted industry standards.  Some systems also offer staff scheduling software that allows managers to enter staff availability and the system calculates a schedule given parameters as determined by management.  If you have ever written a staff schedule for a 200+ seat operation you will appreciate the amount of time you may save with this software application.

            Human resource managers have software and back-end systems to speed their recruitment, training and evaluation tasks as well.  Imagine a web-based tool that allows your HR manager (maybe that’s YOU) to post job openings along with education and experience guidelines, a job application and a pre-employment test to determine if a candidate should be contacted for an interview.  How many steps, emails and phone calls could be saved along with the “time” required to perform these tasks?  To learn about more opportunities to boost your time efficiency contact Tim at www.themenuspring.com.