WhenToManage | Employee Scheduling, Inventory Management, POS Intelligence

Melthouse Bistro Catches Unauthorized Discounts, Saving Thousands!

wthompson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:57:35 +0000

Troy Davis, Owner of The Melthouse Bistro

“The Digital Dining Dashboard was a Godsend! Let me put it bluntly… We had been operating without the web-based reporting tool and as soon as the implementation was completed, we found thousands of dollars of fraudulent discounts. I’m an owner with a lot on my plate, but it took me only a few seconds to see the report and take action.” Said Troy Davis, who along with his wife Susan, are owners of Melthouse Bistro. And it is with this quote that we wanted to start our blog post today, but before we go further, let’s look at the concept to define what our folks did to help reach resolution on this issue, which impacts a lot of new restaurants.

Located in Milwaukee, WI in the heart of the revamped Kenilworth Apartment complex, the Melthouse Bistro brings to light a different kind of fare. Separate from the normal, Melthouse offers Wisconsinites gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches containing fresh Wisconsin cheeses on a wide selection of artisan breads. “We wanted to offer a more upscale grilled cheese sandwich than what you would find in other restaurants. A creative taste to your grilled cheese with ingredients like gouda, thick-cut Pecanwood Smoked Bacon, Apple Butter, and Country Buttertop Buns.” Said Davis. The Melthouse Bistro also offers a wide selection of premium craft brews and wines, many produced in the state of Wisconsin!

The Melthouse Bistro has been using the Digital Dining Dashboard for only a few weeks and achieved ROI almost instantly. Using the web-based reporting tools and labor scheduling solution, Davis and his team was able to manage operations above-the-store all from a web-browser. The data contained in their Digital Dining POS is polled and sent to the reporting dashboard and reporting functionality. Next, Davis wanted to better account for scheduling and labor costs. The company also purchased the labor scheduling solution to push schedules into the POS and create a faster way to manage labor. Finally, the Melthouse Bistro is also just starting to implement the Digital Dining Dashboard inventory management solution which will help control food costs by creating an accountability stream on purchases, food waste, recipes and more.

“We have been very pleased with the solution. I’d say that we’ve recorded an ROI of about 300% (in just three months of usage). I say this by calculating what we’ve spent, what we identified via fraud and what we anticipate improving via the inventory module.” Said Davis.

Social Media for Restaurants – An Interview with Michael Atkinson of FohBoh

rmcrorie — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:31 +0000

This week we had the opportunity to sit down with one of our industry’s social media experts. Michael Atkinson, www.fohboh.com, gave us about 30 minutes of his day to talk about what it takes to succeed in today’s social media environment! We’ve enhanced our podcast with a screencast, so you can watch along as we go through the conversation. Thank you Michael!

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested in joining one of our podcasts, please contact Walker at wthompson@whentomanage.com.

Growth and the Art of a Self-Managing Restaurant

rmcrorie — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:45:41 +0000

I read an interesting article today about the Great Harvest Bread Co., headquartered in Dillon, MT; it covered the franchises’ overarching philosophy which is to set its franchisees free after a one-year apprenticeship to run their stores in the time-honored mom-and-pop way — but with “handrails,” as former CEO Tom McMakin called the help that’s available if wanted. And, most importantly its “learning community” aka collaboration.

Furthermore, the article covered several points we at WhenToManage stress to new/current clients alike about developing processes that drive growth, increase collaboration and promote a hands-off managerial approach.

While most franchisors dictate everything about their franchisees’ operations in order to ensure a predictable experience for customers everywhere, Great Harvest doesn’t even require that its franchisees use the same bread recipes. In other words, Great Harvest says to its bakery owners, do whatever you want. Except in one respect, which makes all the difference: Every owner in the chain is encouraged to be part of Great Harvest’s “learning community.” Those who join (and most have) must share information, financial results, observations, and ideas. If asked questions, they must give answers. They must keep no secrets. They must, as McMakin described it, “let things go.” The result is what academics would call an intentionally created “complex adaptive system.” A learning organization.

At its simplest, the idea is to let people “create their own enterprises but stand on the shoulders of existing owners,” as McMakin put it. To that end, Great Harvest both facilitates the casual swapping of ideas and maintains formal mechanisms that steer owners to the best sources of help.

For instance, Great Harvest staffers provide franchisees with a top 10 list, a rundown of the 10 best-performing bakeries in 14 statistical and financial categories — from total sales (the biggest Great Harvest shop tops $1.3 million), net profits, and payroll, to costs for ingredients, utilities, promotions, and “continuing education.” If a franchisee has a problem controlling labor expenses at their store, Great Harvest staffers tell the owner to call up the bakery owners who’ve got that figured out and get their advice.

Sounds great, right?! But where does a multi-unit operator start — there are so many factors to take into account 1) various POS Systems, 2) a myriad of SKUs or Recipes and 3) the range of Manager/Employee Capabilities to name a few…turns out, we have the most appropriate solution available on the market, called Enterprise Management.

When packaged with our restaurant management solutions (Employee Scheduling, Inventory Management and POS Intelligence), Enterprise Management facilitates the exchange of information like Great Harvest does by accumulating, processing and distributing insightful data from a variety of sources, while giving the super-user one place to manage the entire operation. Simply put, it streamlines operations and opens the door to a “learning community” that can promote growth.

If you are interested in learning more about our web-based Enterprise Management solution (featuring a flexible API), ending the need to sift through manually generated reports faxed in by franchisees or switching platforms to compare data, contact us today! (888) 316-8861 or click the Support button on the left – we would love to show you how we can help you create a self-managing restaurant.

A Change in Corporate Culture could Drive Results

rmcrorie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:45:43 +0000

Have you ever read books about corporate culture and come away overwhelmed? I have. Most of them do a good job explaining what comprises corporate culture, but few lay out steps for how to go about changing culture in a company.

Since culture and change are often big challenges in the work I do in organizations, I’ve been researching action steps that can be applied in group settings in order to facilitate rapid cultural change.

Organizational culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization.

It has been defined as “the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization.” It’s also been defined as “the way things get done” in a company.

Although it’s difficult to get consensus about the definition of coorporate culture, several constructs are commonly agreed upon – that corporate culture is holistic, historically determined, socially constructed, and difficult to change.

I don’t want difficult. I want simplicity and effectiveness. I think I may have stumbled upon some answers. At least, the authors of this book seem to have some good ideas. They explain their definition of culture in terms that will get employees to quickly adopt new thinking and acting to produce rapid results. And they provide examples of companies that used their methods and reached goals within 90 days.

The book is Change the Culture, Change the Game: The Breakthrough Strategy for Energizing your Organizations and Creating Accountability for Results by authors Roger Connors and Tom Smith.

Here’s an example of work the authors did to change the corporate culture in a fast food restaurant chain. The goal the organization wanted to achieve was a 5.5 percent profit margin. First, they determined to stop sending mixed messages by communicating the same key results to everyone in the company. (That, in itself, is often necessary in some companies.)

Then they ensured that all employees could connect the dots between their daily work and the results they needed to achieve (5.5 percent profit margin).

Within months, a check on the alignment in the company proved that people at every level of the organization and within every restaurant understood and embraced the new profit margin goals. A random visit to a restaurant illustrated this alignment. When asked what their jobs were, even the people busing tables were able to articulate their participation in the goals:

“My job is to achieve a 5.5 percent profit margin, and here’s how I do it: The faster I clean and set a table, the more people we seat per hour. The more people we seat, the greater our contribution. The greater our contribution, the better our margin. That’s what I do.”

When people can describe what their job is in terms of what they contribute to driving results for the organization, you can be sure you have a culture that supports the change initiative. The culture is driving action, and people at all levels can see their part.

To me, that’s a good illustration of how culture drives results. What do you think?

If your company is looking to improve the bottom-line, contact us at (888)316-8861 or sales@whentomanage.com, we can show you how to do it under 15 minutes!

* Special thanks to guest blogger Doreen McGunagle for providing this valuable content.

All In a Day’s Work

jrush — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:23:34 +0000

The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent. For that matter, I don’t even remember them.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to take a step back and count your blessings; you never really know how good your situation is until you do. I often make routine calls on existing customers to give them the opportunity to sound off on ideas, recommendations, or just shoot the breeze. Sometimes I uncover a feature possibility we’ve never thought of before, a support issue that’s been swept under the rug because the customer didn’t have time to call us, or an opportunity to provide a solution that helps them with a business problem.

Most calls I expect some level of traction, especially if its an existing customer. Even if they’re busy, at least they’ll leave the door open for future conversations. One of today’s calls was more like a scene in a film noir (Believe me, I don’t think of myself as some dashing private eye from the 50′s; too young for that). Humorous, snappy, a little gritty; the receptionist who answered the phone had a voice with character, a little on the raspy side. She wouldn’t let me talk to her boss, but she assured me he was happy.

“If he weren’t happy, youdaknownaboutit by now,” she said. “He’s only got two speeds, nothin’ and ticked off!”

I laughed, tactfully. “So I guess we’re lucky he’s been using WhenToManage for so long?” “Yeah,” she agreed,”he’d have dumped you guys a long time ago if he didn’t like it.”

I took another tack: Well, if he’s happy with the scheduling solution, do you think your boss would be interest in exploring some other solutions?” “Like whaaaat?,” she croaked suspiciously.

I laughed again, ’cause she was sweet. “Like POS reporting or inventory management.?” “No we use ACME and Generic Inc for those. He’s happy with them too. Our philosophy around here is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

So we shouldn’t make waves? “Nope, don’t call attention to yourself.” Well, thank you very much. I laughed again and hung up.

The lesson here? I don’t know, be prepared for anything I guess? Even in the realm of technology, new isn’t always better. People use software like they used the adze, or a horse drawn sod-tiller: they use it everyday, for everything they can and they milk the use out of it. They fix it if they can, they get as much support as they can eke out of the agreement, and then when they retire they leave it for their kids to dust off and sell at an antique auction, or eBay. Like the difference between a flimsy Swiss army knife and solid, sturdy, two-function hunting knife, the better it is at a few good things without breaking, the more trust you elicit from your customers. It’s nice to know the toughest judges like our products enough to tell us to stop calling.

Restaurant “Operations” with Jim Laube

rmcrorie — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:20:17 +0000

This week we had the opportunity to sit down with one of the industries finest operational experts. Jim Laube, RestaurantOwner.com gave us about 30 minutes of his day to talk down and dirty about what makes a restaurant, well a business! We’ve enhanced our podcast with a screencast, so you can watch along as we go through the conversation. Thank you Jim!

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you’re interested in joining one of our podcasts, please contact Walker at wthompson@whentomanage.com.

An Hour a Day…

jrush — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:14:52 +0000

What does an hour of your day look like? Are you a rapid multi-tasker that makes a computer look like an amateur? Or are you a happy-go-lucky, everything in its own time type that delegates well and likes to relax? Depending on the day and the time of day, I find myself being both; I can annihilate my task-list in the first forty-five minutes of the morning, but I’ve also seen three paragraph blog posts take me three days to write.

Some people are definitively one or the other. In the restaurant industry there are absolute maniacs that live on their smartphones from start to finish, a breed of tech-saavy entrepreneurs that operate like bond traders on the floor of the stock exchange, and there are reformed hippies with a more blissful perspective on what is necessary right now versus what can slide from day to day, and there is everything in between. But with both of these styles, there’s a question being answered: “What needs to be done, and when?”

The answer to that question is not a matter of right or wrong, or even best practice versus pure laziness or obsessive compulsive behavior. The lens I view this through is that of a software solutions provider, and my solutions have to provide tangible results that save time for all users, not just the ones that think they have more to win or lose in a certain period.

So, if the user is a mad-dash, on-the-go freak, an hour saved means that much more gets done with their precious, manic, youthful life force and one more task gets checked off the list. If the user is one who deliberates each decision, delegates thoughtfully and is content to ruminate on pending decisions, time is still of the essence. An hour saved is still an hour less spent ruminating deliberately.

The value proposition of software for these distinct types of users is not that different, though it is positioned differently. The freak wants to get more done faster and sooner. The mellow dude wants more tools at hand to make informed decisions and be able to collaborate on those decisions with his team. Each user type is deriving value from time saved. For the record, what makes “time saved” so valuable in these instances is where the time comes from: above store, centralized, web-based reporting means convenience, ease of use and rapid data exchange. So its not just time, its tools to get the job done. Its the difference between a push mower and a John Deere, both in terms of efficacy and comfort. You still get the lawn mowed either way, but the tractor makes it faster and with a padded leather seat and drink holder, its easy livin’.

To The WhenToManage Blog Readers, Thank You!

wthompson — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:51:43 +0000

To our readers, commenters and idea generators, thank you! Keeping up this blog isn’t easy, and our aim is to continuously share restaurant operational ideas, theories and, of course, our opinions! The stories from our customers and our growing podcast series are two goals for 2012. Naturally, we want to hear more from you… If you have an idea to improve our blog, or want us to research something, please email Walker Thompson and we’ll look into it! Happy Holidays!

4 Tips To Keep “Inventory Shrink” From Making Profits Smaller

rmcrorie — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:57:18 +0000

Every month your restaurant spends thousands of dollars buying food. More than likely, it’s the second largest expense on your balance sheet after labor. And every month, that inventory of food products might be “shrinking,” meaning a percentage of it is disappearing due to either unintentional waste or very intentional theft.

When you’ve got thousands of dollars worth of inventory, even a tiny percentage of shrink can mean big money off the bottom line. Unfortunately, simply trusting employees, especially when turnover rates are so high, is not an acceptable option. A much more effective strategy for minimizing shrink is “trust, but verify.” Some tips:

Use clear trash bags. A common tactic used by employees who steal is to stash inventory in trash bags and recover it later after their shift is over. Other employees may simply be throwing perfectly usable product away without realizing its value. Either way, you’re losing money. Clear trash bags make it easy for you to spot product that should be in the walk-in instead of the dumpster.
Audit the trash. Even though this doesn’t sound like a particularly appealing strategy, regularly going through trash and auditing the contents will help you catch and prevent both intentional (deliberately taking food product) and unintentional (mistakenly tossing usable food product) theft. Using the clear trash bags will make this task much easier.
Ban backpacks and other personal bags from the kitchen. Ideally, set up an employee changing room with shelving or lockers where your staff can leave their personal belongings while they are working. If you don’t have such a room, ban backpacks anyway. Otherwise you’ll have no way of knowing what’s coming out of your inventory and landing in the bags of your staff. And not knowing simply isn’t good enough when you’re a restaurateur trying to survive this economy.
Break down cardboard boxes. The old boxes that food product comes in is another popular way for thieves to move your inventory out of your kitchen. Luckily, the solution is easy: have staff break boxes down before taking them outside. That way there’s no chance that product is leaving in boxes.

If you do encounter intentional employee theft, make sure you have some strategies in place to deal with it. In the case of unintentional waste, make sure you use examples of waste to educate your entire staff on how you want food product used and disposed. Taking the time to train staff and emphasizing the importance of completely using product rather than discarding it can translate into some significant savings for your restaurant.

Forked from The Back Burner Blog

Build a Customer Base for your Restaurant with these 4 Websites

rmcrorie — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:20:48 +0000

Each week we strive to deliver value through our products and our blog, that said, here are 4 websites that can help you build your restaurant customer base without breaking the bank:

National Restaurant Association

They work to help its members build customer loyalty and find financial success. For example, the organization sponsors members-only webinars which allow you to learn from industry experts. The programs feature insights into new trends, economic conditions, cash flow management, effective pricing strategies, innovative marketing and promotions programs. In addition, you can network with some of the leaders in the business so you can learn from the experience of others. The NRA’s annual conference and trade show is a popular industry event where you can network, learn new techniques for marketing and menu development, and find the latest products to help you build your business.

CoverBoom.com

It is primarily a website development and online strategy company for restaurants, but it also offers free, educational webinars. The webinars are presented by online marketing restaurant experts. For example, an upcoming event teaches you how to create an online sweepstakes for Facebook to attract new business.

MarketingProfs.com

A great resource that offers practical know-how to help you market your products and services both smarter and better. While the material is designed for all types of businesses, the site does provide restaurant-specific content. You’ll find helpful newsletters, seminars, forums and conferences to help you design smart marketing strategies that work for you.

ItsYourBiz.com

Information, tips and inspirational examples of how small-business owners just like you took their businesses to the next level. You’ll find a host of segments produced for the restaurant and hospitality industry, including coverage of past NRA conferences and how to build your business dream through restaurant ownership.