by Abby Henson | Apr 12, 2017 | Blogs
With Britain basking in spring sunshine this week, it’s easy to believe summer is just around the corner. Here are our top five tips for how to make summer 2017 efficient and profitable.
Restructure the bar
The summer season brings a prime opportunity to restructure your product offer behind the bar to optimise efficiency. We speak to many operators who give disproportionate fridge space to bottled beers, but swapping the grain for grape, especially refreshing whites and roses, can be an easy summer winner. Dedicating extra space to the products you know will sell well will also reduce the need to make trips to the cellar, allowing staff more time to focus on sales and service.
Efficient summer stocking doesn’t end behind the bar. Canny operators will be ensuring their cellars and spirit cabinets are prepared for any eventuality, and with most products having a shelf life well beyond next week’s delivery, it is always better to be overstocked than left short.
Balance the menu
Getting your food offer right is often just as critical to summer season success. Light meals like salads will always sell in warm weather, but to broaden your menu’s appeal should be offset by heartier offerings. Grilled meats, pizzas, and burgers are likely bestsellers whatever the weather. Summer’s customer upsurge will be a blessing for many in our industry, but to maximise potential profits kitchens must be able to cope with demand. Creating a menu around dishes that can be prepared at speed will keep service brisk, chefs smiling, and customers coming back.
One of our pizzas at the George at Backwell – a surefire summer winner
Perfect staffing levels
There is a delicate balance to be struck with summer staffing. Most sites will take on additional bodies to deal with increased customer numbers without sacrificing service, but going too far in the other direction can lead to uncontrolled labour spend or staff disgruntled with reduced hours. Analysing past years’ sales data to accurately predict the staffing levels needed will help you avoid these pitfalls.
Re-recruit seasonal staff
Training new employees takes time and money, so real efficiency savings can be gained by re-hiring seasonal employees. University students are an asset as they will become available just as the busy summer season begins and will be returning to their studies in the autumn when trade tails off. If you are not lucky enough to currently be able to re-hire past employees, recruiting people who are willing to return next year is a move you’ll be glad you made in twelve months’ time.
Get the routine change right early
Running an efficient site through the summer months is a different beast to the rest of the year. Factors like mobile tills, tidying gardens, and sunglasses for staff suddenly become pertinent, and without effective planning can leave you stung. It may only be April, but with the mercury already rising fast it is by no means too soon to start working on the processes that will maximise productivity through the season’s peak. Embedding these habits now and ironing out any issues will allow you to focus on maximising your summer offer when the season starts in earnest.
by Abby Henson | Mar 15, 2017 | Blogs
It’s a stretch to say that summer is just around the corner, but the days are getting longer, the weather’s getting warmer, and spring’s first daffodils are here. In the hospitality industry, however, there is rarely time to stop and smell the flowers. Smart operators are already turning their attention to the challenges and opportunities that the season can bring in terms of staffing, site layout, and offer.
Staffing
Summer will bring an upsurge in custom for the vast majority of sites in the industry and therefore a wonderful chance to drive sales. To maximise this opportunity, it can be crucial to get staffing levels right. This will help deliver the quality service that keeps customers coming back all year round, as well as mitigate against the costly missed sales that can come from being understaffed.
Many managers will look to take on new employees to help them through the busy months ahead, but it can be difficult to attract quality staff in the short term. University students can be a great option. Often, they finish exams in May and will not return to their studies before well into September. This gives them time to be properly trained before the summer’s peak in July and August. Happily, at the end of the party when the weather starts to cool and trade starts to slow, they will return to university and release pressure on your wage budget. Employing students also has the likely benefit of the opportunity to re-hire the same people several years running, saving time and money on training.
Students can make ideal summer staff
Now is also a good time to think about the composition of your staff in terms of part and full time team members. Sites where business peaks significantly on weekends will reap the rewards of having primarily part time staff who are happy to work a couple of shifts a week. Locations like city centre pubs that are likely to have steady footfall, especially when the sun is out, may find that having a well-drilled corps of full-time workers will help them optimise both service and sales.
Offer
The seasons drive consumer trends, and customers will expect a very different food and drink offer in June and July than January and February. A challenge for operators is to match the demand for summer dishes without overburdening the kitchen. A radical menu change is rarely a good idea. A simple but effective food offering based around summer classics like salads, barbequed meat, and seafood is a likely winner. Additionally, the warm weather brings a golden opportunity to upsell deserts like ice cream, Eton Mess, and strawberries and cream.
Drinks tastes also change with the weather, and sites can benefit from serving easy-drinking golden ales, more white and rosé wines, and summer cocktails. However, to get the most out of their summer drinks offer, managers must be savvy enough to resist the temptation to stock products that might not sell in bulk. 2017 is tipped to be the year of tequila, and summer partying will bring a spike in sales. But if your business caters to a more traditional clientele, such trends may be best avoided. There’s no point buying in an expensive premium bottle if it’s going to spend the next year on your shelf gathering dust.
Site Layout
This year’s late Easter will herald the start of the summer season in earnest, especially if the weather is kind. The four-day weekend is likely to see beer gardens and outside seating areas given their first serious use, so it’s crucial to have them all set and ready for business. This means grass should be neatly mowed and furniture clean and repaired after any winter damage, as well as laid out in a way that optimises access and maximises the number of outdoor covers. Well-placed outdoor advertising can also be a great way to keep customers informed and drive sales.
Whether big sporting events are a blessing or a curse for your business, with no major football tournament or Olympics, arranging the interior of your site to cater for sports fans is likely to be less of a priority this summer. However, the summer months are second only to Christmas in terms of the demand for high-cover social eating and drinking, so arranging your site to comfortably accommodate large groups is likely to be a shrewd move.
The living may not be easy this summer time, but with effective prior planning across all areas of your business, it can certainly be profitable.
Featured image created by Katemangostar – Freepik.com
by Abby Henson | Mar 15, 2017 | Blogs
Mothers’ Day is almost upon us, and will be swiftly followed by Easter, May’s bank holidays, and the busy summer season. Making the most of these opportunities on an annual basis can be essential to the success of many hospitality businesses. Here are our top tips on how to do just that.
Scope out the year in advance
To ensure the best possible preparation for all the calendar’s biggest dates, proper prior planning is key. It’s a great idea to take some time to think ahead to the next twelve months and scope out all the significant events to come. This applies both in terms of days of national importance, such as Mothers’ Day and bank holidays, as well as more localised events. These could be festivals, local sporting occasions, or even big bookings for weddings you may have taken months in advance. Having a firm grasp on what is happening to affect your business and when it is happening is the first step towards driving bumper sales.
Summer bank holidays drive bumper sales
Dwell on the past
Every hospitality business is different, and an event that may cause a huge sales uplift in one may barely register at another. The best way to predict the impact an event may have on your trading, and therefore guide your staffing levels and offer, is to consider historic data. Sales patterns from the same or a similar occasion in previous years are likely to be repeated. S4Labour gives you crucial insight into historic trading, with reporting considering factors like the day of the week and weather to help managers accurately forecast sales.
S4Labour gives you crucial insight into historic trading, with reporting considering factors like the day of the week and weather to help managers accurately forecast sales.
The human factor
People are at the heart of hospitality. To maximise the potential benefits that special events can bring your business, it is important to get the human side right. Good communication between managers and employees, while always healthy, is even more valuable around key events. Publishing rotas well in advance and briefing both front and back of house teams on what’s expected of them will help the smooth running of the big day.
Happy holidays
There is always value in keeping a close eye on holidays in the context of event planning. There is little worse for a manager than finding themselves caught between the need to not be understaffed and an employee asking for time off that they have accrued and have a legal right to take. This is particularly pertinent for businesses running a January to December holiday year with a likely conflict between holiday requests and the busy festive season.
S4Labour allows you to quickly and easily manage your staff’s holiday allowance, accrual, requests, and payments. This saves you time and effort and keeping employees happy and motivated.
Make the occasion special
Though the potential for increased profits around special events is huge, boosted sales are never guaranteed. Consumers have a lot of choice so making your offering as attractive as possible is critical. Spend some time well ahead of the event to define your offer and invest time and energy in marketing it well. Think about practical factors like how many cover turns you can perform, and whether there may be value in rearranging furniture. The prime table arrangement for Valentine’s Night is likely to be very different to a big sporting event’s perfect layout. You can also release pressure on your busy kitchen team through effective planning of special menus. Dishes that will drive sales but are not labour intensive and can be part-prepared ahead of time are ideal.
Featured image by Nensuria – Freepik.com
by Abby Henson | Mar 1, 2017 | Blogs
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.cattonhospitality.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Comprehensive-Guide-to-User-Access-Levels-Customer-Facing-Version-1.pdf” title=”Comprehensive Guide to User Access Levels (Customer Facing Version)”]
by Abby Henson | Feb 28, 2017 | Blogs
As the labour management solution of choice for many first rate operators, we are superbly positioned to provide unique insight into the challenges faced by the industry. Our research into the impact of living and minimum wage increases was recently featured in both Propel and The Morning Advertiser.
by Abby Henson | Feb 15, 2017 | Blogs
Reporting is an important aspect of modern hospitality management, with operators benefiting from a wealth of illuminating information. Here are our top tips on how you can make reporting work for your business.
Daily Reporting
To stay on top of their business performance, it is important for site managers to have quick, easy access to key headline figures, and to check them regularly. This includes forecasted and actual sales, as well as data on labour spend. We find that although weekly data can be useful to give an overall picture, data broken down daily is needed to gain true insight. Armed with this information, managers will be far better placed to make the decisions needed to ensure labour costs stay tightly controlled without ever compromising on service, driving long-term success.
Responding to Sales
Albert Einstein once said that “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change”, and flexibility is certainly an important aspect of an intelligent approach to labour management. It is a good idea for managers to adopt an adaptable approach to rota-building, adding in hours at times when takings are higher than expected, and cutting them back when they are lower. Through its flexed budget settings, S4Labour allows its users to be truly fluid, by calculating an optimal labour percentage using an equation driven by the level of sales. We find that our clients who use flexed budgets are among the best at writing optimised rotas.
Planning to Win
Great sales forecasting is a cornerstone of effective hospitality management. However, we often speak to operators who find this challenging. Those with a focus on service may deliberately over-forecast to facilitate higher staffing levels, while those with an eye on the bottom line may low-ball their forecast to save on wages. Although tempting, we would advise managers to avoid succumbing to these pitfalls, as in the long run, truly accurate forecasting, coupled with a good understanding of the level of staffing needed to deliver the sales and service you desire, will give you the best possible chance of success. Honesty really is the best policy.
Of course, forecasting accurately is easier said than done, so we like to give S4Labour users a helping hand. Illuminating historic data covering past sales trends, a location-specific weather forecast, and the ability to easily account for special events are among the system functions that promote the best possible forecasting.
Slack & Stress
We like to think about labour levels in terms of time spent with spot-on, slack, and stress conditions. Naturally, spot-on is the ideal, with team members working briskly and efficiently to deliver great service. Slack hours account for the times when too many staff are working, and employees may be standing around idle, and are a waste of wages. Stress hours are the opposite – times when too few staff are on shift, and those who are working are rushed off their feet. Quality of service is likely to suffer, and crucially, you could be missing out on hundreds or even thousands of pounds in sales opportunities by being unable to serve customers efficiently.
Minimising slack and stress hours is a great way to promote overall business health, but often we speak to operators who have no way of monitoring these conditions. S4 provides truly insightful reporting on slack, stress, and spot-on time, driven by metrics that can be customised to suit your business. This allows the best possible rotas to be written.
Percentage to Sales
Although the industry is changing fast, labour spend as a percentage of sales is still by far the most commonly used measure of labour management performance. It’s undoubtedly useful to know just how much you are spending, but it can be more useful to know how effectively money is being spent. It’s helpful to keep track of exactly when you’re spending your labour budget, and in what areas of the business, as having and acting on this information will lead to reductions in stress and slack, improvements in service and staff motivation, and increased overall profitability.
S4Labour helps you grasp not just how much you are spending on staffing, but how well you are spending it, all in an intuitive, user-friendly format.
Featured image by Mrsiraphol – Freepik.com
