Posted by Walker Thompson on Fri, Aug 13, 2010 @ 06:57 AM
Sometimes funny, but mostly about what makes the retail and restaurant industry tick, each Friday the WhenToManage team plays on our company name with a WhenTo(DO). This week's WhenTo(DO) is all about the time-to-interaction with a diner or WhenToGET-BACK-TO-THE-DINER! We all know the story here: customer walks in is seated and waits and waits and waits... And who likes to wait? Diners are hungry, thirsty or on a lunch break and truly have limited time. Sure, at the post office, we all turn into professional wait-ers, but in the restaurant business it is service, service, service.
If you haven't heard of a New York Minute, then I suggest you listen to this Eagles' song; you will understand how fast it truly is. And if you don't have time for that, then know a good rule of thumb is (at least in the US) for diners to be greeted within 60 seconds after being seated. Any longer and the potential for an irritated diner grows with each passing second. Interestingly, in Germany and according to German-way.com, you might wait forever. Entering an Austrian, German or Swiss restaurant requires a diner to find their own table. Sometimes a sever may suggest a table, but they’re usually too busy ignoring the people who are already seated.
Alas, we are across the pond... So this WhenTo(DO) begs the question: how do you teach this sense of urgency to servers, and do they understand your "New York Minute" requirements? The answer is make sure you state it consistently, train it and then manage it... We've created a series of report options for operators and managers to know more about table turn times and the resulting server performance.
Using one of our standard reports a manager can drill down into table turn times by employee. In this demo report, you can see that we are looking for an average turn time of about 50 minutes. We see exactly what tables were seated in this time frame, the check average, number of guests and even an option to go to the item level. Armed with this information, a manager can make station adjustments, improve training, optimize floor plans and help drive table turns. The goal here is to monitor and reward great customer service - your diners will.
Thank you to http://www.flickr.com/photos/batega/3775180564/ for the great picture.
Posted by Jeff Schacher on Sat, Jul 24, 2010 @ 08:55 AM
WhenToManage uncovers communication trend: web-based scheduling application fosters increased collaboration and productivity in the restaurant industry
WhenToManage, the leader in real-time, online reporting and integrated point of sale (POS) business analytics solutions for retailers and restaurants, released the results of a nation-wide user survey proving the critical value of online labor scheduling. Operators, faced with multiple employee scheduling demands, using the web-based communications and scheduling technology, can now more effectively optimize employee-to-management information sharing through a fundamental improvement to the labor scheduling process. The 2010 Survey of WhenToManage Online Employee Scheduling Users, a national web-based survey of over 700 online restaurant employees conducted throughout June and July, found that 90% experienced improved communications to the point where they would highly recommend the application to employers. Over 70% of respondents stated the seamless communications, enabled by the application, increased productivity through improved workforce collaboration. The survey findings highlight new thinking about personnel management in the restaurant and retail industry. The data posits that increasing employee engagement through seamless and interactive scheduling technology makes for more productive employees and efficient scheduling procedures. “We were very pleased at the overall survey results. The fact that 90% of employees would recommend WhenToManage to future employers says volumes about our tools. Many of them commented saying that it ‘totally opened up communication,’” said Jeff Schacher, CEO of WhenToManage. “We discovered that many of our employee users ended up being the power-users of our technology. They are one of the driving forces behind adoption at their restaurant. Frankly, because WhenToManage is so easy to use, we believe it will reduce the headache of employee management now and in the future. Some personnel matters will go away leaving more time for essential management duties resulting in happier employees to boot!” said Schacher. Employees using the application can review their schedules and manage availability requests from either the internet, email or mobile text messages. Using secure log in functionality, employees interact with the system by requesting days off, set preferred shifts, update availability and swap shifts with other employees. Employee requests are then sent back to the store manager for approval. “With employees having less time to accomplish more, the online scheduling application addresses key productivity challenges by opening up communications and encourages employees to work together. This key development keeps the entire operation running smoothly.” Said Schacher.