Running a takeaway in 2021 is no mean feat. It takes serious guts, determination and savvy to make it work. And to perform to a high standard, it’s recommended you take regular stock of what’s going well and what you could be doing better.
Because restaurants are facing a lot of issues. One of which is wasting 200,000 tonnes of food every year. And the food that’s chucked out comes at a substantial cost to both the environment and to the pockets of restauranteurs, who are throwing £682m away every year.
So, if you’re new or seasoned in the takeaway business, we’ve got some tips that could help you reduce your costs, waste, boost performance, and keep your business running for longer.
1. Make good daily habits
Communicate: High performing restaurants rely on excellent communication between staff teams. So, make sure each person in your team knows what they need to do.
Train your staff: If you staff don’t know what to do, consider training them. And although you may be pushed for time to do it, be certain it will pay off in the long-term. Especially when your staff are working independently and you become free to grow your business.
Be positive: When you focus on practicing daily positivity, it tends to come back to you.
2. Automate your processes
Timing is everything for a successful takeaway, which is why you should treat automation as your friend. Automating workflows between the point of order to kitchen to delivery driver will help you increase sales. And especially if you’re faced with high volume, repetitive, time-pressured tasks.
Pizza Express, for example, triggered a 5% increase in their annual sales by using their ePOS system to push click-and-collect across each of delivery touchpoints.
3. Use the right software
ePOS software is essential to any well-run takeaway. And because it will improve your workflows, speed up delivery times, and drive customer satisfaction, it’s important to get yourself set up with the solutions that will address your pain points.
For example, Italian Express saved money, sped up operations and processed more orders in a streamlined way with a hybrid system. Hybrid ePOS systems are also cloud-based, which means any power outages or loss of connection won’t stop you serving at busy times.
4. Encourage feedback
If you’re doing the right things it’s usually pretty easy to tell – you’ll see increased revenue and returning customers. But could you be doing things better?
For any business, it’s important to conduct regular customer feedback surveys. And these could be by encouraging online reviews or through active surveys of your customer base.
Alternatively, consider employing a mystery shopper service. Of course, you’ll never know who the shopper is, but you will gain valuable feedback to understand what it is you should be doing better for customers.
5. Get someone in to help out
Let’s face it, we all need some help sometimes. And even the most independent of businesses will seek it from outside the firm, or from an independent consultancy.
So, it’s worth considering which activities you could outsource to other companies. And front of the queue in your list should be your delivery function, especially if you want to grow your business and meet the overwhelming demands for deliveries. That’s because food deliveries are bigger than ever. Almost 9,000 small and independent restaurants started using Deliveroo as their delivery partner for the first time between March and September in 2020. And this is set to keep growing in 2021.
Our final thoughts
So, if you want to save yourself money, time, and elevate your takeaway to meet customer demands, it’s worth spending the time doing a self-audit. Could you be improving systems? Are you working with the right partners? Does your team know what they’re doing? And do you have the right ePOS system to help?
Our modular ePOS platform can help to scale and grow as your business does. So why not take a look at our range to think about how we can enable your business to run smoothly and efficiently.
