Achieving a high table turnover rate is one of the top goals for any restaurant or eatery business. The problem is, this can take time to master. Restaurateurs should figure out a way to speed up the table turnover without sacrificing the quality of the customers’ dining experience. Your customers must not feel like they’re unappreciated or unwelcome because you’re trying to get new orders on the table.
Restaurant table management is necessary for increasing orders and revenue in your business. If your place is currently suffering from a low table turnover rate, we’ve listed a few strategies below to get those numbers up.
Upgrade your service gear
The equipment that your servers use is essential for improving the table turnover rate. One perfect example is inventing in food service carts. Those waiter trays may be efficient, but they can barely hold multiple orders. By using food utility carts, your waiters and waitresses can accommodate more orders and serve more tables in one trip.
Investing in call bells at every table can make it easier for your guests to call your servers to get their orders. You can waste several minutes if you let guests wait for your servers to pass their way just so they can order their food. Also, don’t forget to gear up your staff with presentable and professional server uniforms, which is vital if you’re a fine dining place.
Train your front staff
As soon as the guests enter your restaurant, your staff should greet and welcome them politely and immediately. Find them a good size that’s appropriate for their purpose and group number. No one wants to wait outside a restaurant for long periods where there are actually open tables available.
According to industry standards, a server must approach the table within a minute of being seated. Drinks must also be offered when your staff gets to the customer’s table. And within ten minutes, food must be ordered. Keep in mind that saving even just a few minutes can do wonders for your business. But remember, this tactic is not exactly suitable for all types of dining. For instance, guests at fine dining restaurants love to chat before ordering.
Consolidate the visits
Consolidating table visits is another way to speed up turnover and improve service. Your staff should know how to serve multiple tables or initiate several orders at the same time. For instance, your servers can bring free drinks or bread to waiting tables or see how the guests are doing. You can also avoid a mess in the server station by bringing the essential condiments and napkins to the waiting customers. This way, they are more likely to start eating once their orders arrive since everything they need is already on the table. You can cut off about five to ten minutes from service time by consolidating trips.
Improve your space
You don’t necessarily need a complete renovation of the dining area. A simple rearrangement can work. One popular tactic used by most restaurants today is placing the tables and chairs in the room’s center. This hectic spot is a good solution to make your guests eat faster. Tables and chairs located in the corner or the edge of the room are where guests like to stay and chat for long periods.
Aside from that, you can also change your interior color scheme that can subconsciously encourage your guests to eat much quicker. Some exciting colors to use in your restaurant’s dining room are green, orange, yellow, red, and other bright colors. You can incorporate these colors into your dinnerware, accent pieces, upholstery, and walls.
Shift to contactless payments
Today, technology can help a business in almost all kinds of ways, such as improving table turnover. Think about how much it takes for your server to visit multiple tables, print out the checks, process the transactions, or get the customers’ signatures. Using a fixed payment terminal or a legacy POS system isn’t ideal if you want to increase your table turnover rate. Instead, consider using contactless payments.
Get your team efficient credit card readers that they can use to speed up the transaction process. Furthermore, contactless payments offer other great benefits such as minimizing customer fraud and security concerns, creating better loyalty programs, and meeting consumer demand.
Speeding table turnover in your restaurant is not only good for your business but also the customers. You can boost revenue while cutting off waiting time and improving customer satisfaction. If you still find it hard to boost your table turnover rate, we recommended seeking the help of a professional business advisor.
