The restaurant industry is one of the most important industries. From an economic point of view, it provides thousands of people with the possibility to earn a living. This increases people’s lifestyle, as well as increases purchasing power. The latter is vital for everyone, including business and government.
In reality, restaurants are much more than this. They make up the industry of delicacies and aesthetics from the gastronomical point of view. Clients enjoy having a meal in a pleasant atmosphere. However, sometimes this can become a problem and make you lose some profit. Why so? Because it slows down a table turnover.
What Is a Table Turnover Rate?
The table turnover is one of the crucial metrics for a restaurant. Basically, it features how many clients you serve per a certain period of time. Usually, people choose an hour as a timeframe.
There is no unified table turnover rate. Each facility is a unique universe. It has a particular capacity and aims. The latter is vital in making a decision on whether the average table turnover time is good or bad. For example, if you don’t want to present yourself like a fast-food restaurant, you don’t need to aim for a very high service speed.
In the pursuit of serving more clients, entrepreneurs may undermine one of the core aspects – restaurant customer service. This is a fatal mistake that may hurt the budget even more than the low restaurant table turnover rate.
The main goal of optimizing the parameter is to find loopholes in the operations. This will help to improve profit and increase restaurant customer satisfaction. By the way, another way to measure it is by collecting restaurant customer feedback. However, the analytics of the operations proves to be more objective.
- Calculate Your Turnover Rate and Find Loopholes
A little mathematics never hurts. The principle is valid for any business. Data and analysis should be the basis of any cost optimization. Although some believe that the ad hoc approach also deserves a chance, that’s not reasonable when we speak about finance.
A mere example is increasing the restaurant capacity by establishing a sidewalk café. You purchase movable partitions, tables, chairs, invest in marketing to increase customer turnover. However, the problem may lie in the poor organization of waiters’ work. Or maybe your kitchen isn’t capable of serving clients when all the tables are booked. In this case, you will only worsen your position.
Calculation of the customer turnover rate will guide to the next step of the investigation. You have to pay attention to what is so special happening in times when the parameter is the lowest. Then, you can identify the factors that contribute to this.
Logically, the next stage is to tackle the problem. In other words, eliminate it. And measure the rate once again. If the situation looks up, we congratulate you: you are on the way to success. If not, keep analyzing, searching, and experimenting.
So, how to calculate the table turnover? There are several simple steps:
- Set the timeframe. Choose a part of the day that you will analyze. You can divide the whole day for small periods and evaluate them all. Another approach is to focus on the rush hours: for example, lunch or dinner time.
- Count the number of parties served within the set period of time. Also, identify how much time does it take to clean a table, for how long do the customers wait until a waiter brings the bill. All these can be the barriers you need to overcome.
- Divide the number of parties served by the number of tables. Here is your turnover rate. Suppose the timeframe is one hour. It will show you how many parties you serve per hour.
- Automation Is an Effective Tool to Tackle Low Table Turnover
It’s not a secret that automation is an effective solution to optimize business processes. Its ultimate goal is to reduce the processing time and increase quality. Technologies, robots, and computers are good at fulfilling tedious manual work. What can you automate in a restaurant to improve customer turnover?
Install Self-Service Kiosks
Self-service kiosks can save plenty of time. Basically, they will take some part of the waiter’s duties. This will leave more time for a waiter to clean tables and serve meals. However, you have to keep in mind that a luxurious restaurant customer might not consider them a fit.
Have Tablets with Menu Right on the Tables
How much time does a waiter wastes on taking orders? Definitely, a lot. It’s not time-consuming to hand out menus to clients. However, the situation is different when explaining the menu and waiting for a customer to make a decision. Tablets right on the tables are here to take this responsibility. Or they can be put right in the restaurant vestibule.
Considering Adopting Mobile
Mobile is on the rise. And restaurants shouldn’t underestimate its power. Apart from connecting to customers and using a mobile app for restaurant marketing, you can speed up the operations. For example, you can launch an on-the-go ordering. People like it. Dunkin’ Donuts claims to experience growth from 6 to 8 million users one year after they introduced the feature, according to the PR Newsletter.
Automate Table Reservations
Waiters or hostess have to waste much time answering the constant phone calls of those who want to book a table. You can launch such a feature in your mobile app or on the website. It will save time for more meaningful tasks. Moreover, you will address the needs of the tech-savvy target audience. It’s a win-win situation if you ask us.
- Adopt Speed-Up Policies for Your Stuff to Follow
Your employees need to learn what is time-management in the restaurant business. There is no time to waste. One wasted minute means that a waiting party is getting even more dissatisfied and irritated. They may leave or never return again. This way, you let the potential income out of your hands.
Your stuff has to learn how to work fast and efficiently yet remain welcoming and hospitable. You can start with a simple rule: a waiter has one minute to take an order. However, he/she mustn’t be rude and hurry clients up.
It will help a lot if the waiter consolidates his trips. What we mean is that every time he passes by the table, he should bring something. This will help to prevent a situation when a waiter has to bring water, orders, and bread, for instance, at the same time. It goes without saying that he wouldn’t be able to do it in one trip.
You can train your staff to use simple tricks to empty the tables. For example, if customers are enjoying their evening but don’t order anymore, offer them to have a free drink at the bar. They are likely to order more after. This is much better than dropping the check and asking them out.
Adds-on should be prepared in advance. It’s obvious that a ramekin with salad dressing or ketchup doesn’t require much time. However, it actually does when you need ten of them at a time. Another point in favor of this is that every minute can make a difference in rush hours. Don’t waste it.
- Change the Atmosphere
An atmosphere is one of the aspects that brings customers to you. Many adopt the Starbucks marketing approach. It implies a café as a place with an amazing atmosphere that provides a unique experience. However, sometimes it can work against you. For example, big comfortable chairs are likely to make customers too comfortable. Thus, they will spend more time in your restaurant.
To improve the turnover rate, consider two factors:
- Loud and fast music – It encourages clients to eat faster.
- Bright colors close to red, yellow, and blue – in terms of restaurant marketing strategies, such colors inhibit customers from getting too relaxed.
As you can see, it all starts with a table turnover rate calculation since each case is unique. Nonetheless, there are many unified principles that help to speed up the operations. Some of them have a psychological effect and make the clients eat and leave faster.
If you decide to calculate your average restaurant table turnover rate, share it with us in comments. You will be able to compare your parameters to others. We wish you a never-ending flow of customers! Have a good day!
About the Author
The author is the owner of a restaurant in New York. The place is one of the well-known restaurants in the city. The entrepreneur always manages to organize the work so that the clients don’t have to wait long to have a seat at the table.
