The success or failure of any F&B enterprise, be it a restaurant, QSR or coffee shop, hinges on accurate, reliable data. It’s the only way to gain a complete oversight of your entire operation. For restaurant chains, this is often easier said than done. Operational complexities, restaurant-specific processes and outmoded practices can all lead to fragmented information.
The Root Causes of Fragmented Data in Restaurant Chains
For multi-site estates, data fragmentation is often the result of multiple systems being used in different locations to take orders, manage inventory and conduct supplier purchases. In some cases, individual venues effectively operate semi-independently, adopting their own systems or relying on outmoded data collection practices. The impact on strategic planning and decision-making can be far reaching and damaging, often leading to:
- Inefficient Inventory Management
- Inefficient Use of Excess Stock
- Rigid and Unprofitable Menus
- Costly Procurement Practices
- Inaccurate Financial Reporting
- Poor Portion Control Leading to Waste
- Unresolved Complaints and Grievances
1. Inefficient Inventory Management
Fragmented, siloed data makes it impossible to effectively manage inventory levels across multi-site estates. Stock movements can’t be properly monitored leading to storage and replenishment problems. The costs associated with food waste and spoilage can also spiral out of control.
2. Inefficient Use of Excess Stock
The efficient management of waste and spoilage requires constant monitoring – something that’s extremely challenging with fragmented data. A lack of oversight means that excess stock must be disposed of instead of being repurposed.
3. Rigid, Unprofitable Menus
Unprofitable menus are often the result of rigidity and standardisation, either brought about by neglect or inadequate customer data. Without a full picture, it’s difficult to create menus to meet demand variances between venues, or which take into account supply challenges that might be unique to a specific restaurant. Lost sales opportunities, stockouts and over stocking tend to be the results.
4. Costly Procurement Practices
Procurement is an area in which chain restaurants often lose money hand over fist. Problems tend to arise when individual restaurants use their own purchasing methods. This effectively creates a data silo which means that errors are often overlooked, giving rise to cost discrepancies, unnecessarily high prices and price fluctuations.
5. Inaccurate Financial Reporting
For busy managers of restaurant chains, keeping tabs on productivity and sales is often easier said than done, especially if their operation is struggling with data silos and incomplete information. An inability to monitor day-to-day expenses potentially leads to profit margin erosion and in worse case scenarios, liquidity problems.
6. Poor Portion Control Leading to Waste
Standardise information about food prep and portion control can dramatically reduce waste, particularly with regards to multi-site estates. Without this data, kitchen staff are left to prepare dishes based on feel and intuition – all in all a costly practice that becomes magnified when implemented across multiple outlets.
7. Unresolved Complaints and Grievances
It should be possible to evaluate customer feedback for all of your restaurants. But with limited or no access to customer feedback, it means that complaints are not properly dealt with or are left unresolved The resulting damage to your brand can be significant leading to lost future sales and leaving your business vulnerable to competitors.
Next-Gen Solutions to Fragmented Data
Avoiding the perils of data fragmentation requires a robust system that integrates, manages and monitors key operational areas across all venues. Next-gen tech provides the most obvious solution.
Next-Gen restaurant management platforms provide end-to-end integration of all front and back-of-house processes, from POS terminals and kitchen operations, to inventory and supplier management. In essence, each process is brought together into a single unified system. But this kind of functionality isn’t restricted to single-site operations.
The latest cloud-based systems can easily be deployed across entire estates, consolidating data from all outlets into a centralised database. With everything managed in real time, any changes made at specific locations are instantly reflected across the entire chain. The metrics are therefore current, consistent and easily accessible.
1. Integrated Inventory Management
Advanced restaurant stock management systems do a great job of automating and streamlining inventory management processes. But this is half the battle. As a restaurant chain owner, you need complete visibility of your holdings in order to make reactive and proactive decisions. This is where cloud-based systems can prove invaluable.
Once deployed, they collect inventory data from each outlet which is stored in a centralised system. From a single dashboard, stock movements can be monitored, consumption patterns analysed, spoilage rates controlled and comparative reports generated for specific restaurants.
2. Inefficient Use of Excess Stock
The sustainable practice of repurposing ingredients that are close to expiry is a useful way of reducing food waste. The process is made possible with advanced tech solutions which alert kitchen staff when stock is running close to its sell-by date. With this data, these ingredients can be incorporated into dishes instead of being disposed.
3. Complete Menu Agility
While standardisation is central to sound chain management, this isn’t entirely the case with regards to menu management. While a certain degree of standardisation is of course important, there needs to be flexibility, especially for restaurant chains.
Modern tech solutions will include an advanced menu management system that allows you to create profitable menus for all of your locations. These can be adjusted on a per-restaurant basis to cater for varying local tastes, thus maximising sales opportunities. Supply challenges unique to individual venues can also be factored in, helping to avoid stockouts. The result is a menu that resonates with customers and delivers profitability across all locations.
4. Unified Procurement Practices
Cloud-based tech unifies purchasing across restaurant chains. The best systems provide a centralised system for monitoring purchasing orders and leaving feedback about specific suppliers. This can prove essential for seeing the big picture when it comes to supplier performance. With the more advanced systems, you can even create hypothetical ‘what if’ scenarios to gauge the impact of potential supplier changes.
5. Comprehensive Financial Reporting
With front and back-of-house processes integrated and running in sync, sophisticated restaurant reporting and analytics are available at the click of a button. P&L levels and expenses can be checked at any time and from any location with an internet or cellular connection. On a strategic level, it becomes easier to make longer-term decisions that will have an impact on your business such as financing or expansion.
6. Standardised Portion Control
With the help of advanced analysis, the latest restaurant management systems can standardise food production to maintain consistent portion sizes and provide precise control over portion sizes. This ensures uniformity across all restaurant locations, thus reducing overserving and drastically cutting down on food waste.
7. Centralised Customer Feedback
Best-in-class systems will include centralised feedback collection and response systems. The ability to collect real-time feedback means that service problems can be quicky addressed and timely responses provided – this is key to protecting brand reputation and building customer loyalty.
In conclusion, integrating a next-gen solution is going to have a significant impact on your entire operation. And Syrve includes all of the features mentioned here. By using our best-in-class platform to unify and streamline all key processes across each of your venues, you’ll gain a cohesive view of your business that drives more informed, strategic decisions.
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