Managing a number of multi-unit restaurants can be challenging but put those restaurants inside an airport and you’re facing some very unique obstacles. Here are 5 tips on how to improve restaurant operations in airport locations. I will use OTG in some of my examples. OTG is a client of ours who specializes in airports locations. Make sure to check out the links in the article, we have some video interviews from our friends at OTG!
1. Keep track of where sales occur
You may have multiple point of sales, tablets and kiosks taking customer’s orders and money. Using a reporting system that allows you to track checks by revenue center can help you keep track of where problems may be occurring.
Example: Mirus helps OTG do this through our dimension maintenance tool that allows them to customize their own revenue center categories so they can easily filter and sort reports.
2. Be sure to use enplanements in your projections
Use a forecasting tool that allows you to pull enplanement information together with your weekly, monthly, yearly or period comparative sales information. This will help you with proper sales forecasting and labor scheduling.3. Stay on top of things without being in each location
Restaurants in airports are usually pretty spread out so you can’t physically keep an eye on everything. Use exception based reports and alerts to know what is going on without actually being physically there.
Example: OTG tells us with the use of their iPads they’re pretty credit card heavy so when an employee suddenly has a lot of cash tenders they’re alerted by Mirus to dig a little deeper to make sure employees aren’t pocketing the cash and stealing from the company.
4. Take a look at your menu
What may be popular in your other non-airport locations might not be as practical or popular for airport patrons. Use a reporting tool to do some menu analysis to see what is popular for each location. Also look at service times and maybe tweak or make note of items that may take longer to prepare. You don’t want someone walking out of your restaurant for fear of missing their flight.
5. Turn your reports into visualizations.
Some people are numbers people and some people are visual people. Use a reporting tool that allows you to turn those numbers into graphs and charts so everyone can easily grasp what is going on.
Example: Analysts at OTG use Mirus to turn data into trending graphs so managers can see and better understand how they’re doing.
Summary
Reviewing segmented data in a “top” and/or “bottom” ranking is a powerful tool all multi-unit restaurant operators should have. The insight is reliable, accurate, and will allow decision makers to make detailed improvements.
Thoughts?
What tips would you recommend for a restaurant in a airport?
Do you think managing restaurants in a airport is more or less difficult than a traditional location?
About Mirus:
Mirus Restaurant Solutions is a multi-unit restaurant reporting software used by operations, finance, IT, and marketing.
For more information, please visit www.mirus.com
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