Improving Your Table Turnover Rate
Everything we do in our restaurant is designed to bring customer in through the door to sit in our seats, eat our food and drink our cocktails. Food and drinks may be infinitely replenished and adjusted but your chair count is finite, and so is the space you have for them in your location. Once we’ve filled our chairs there are only two things we can do with our customers: increase the average check and improve our table turnover rate.
Increasing the average check is a common theme when talking about improving your restaurants bottom line, turning over tables faster is a point rarely focused on. However, creating the time for an extra turn during service can bring in much more money than just increasing the average check in your restaurant. Here’s a breakdown of how different departments in your restaurant can help to improve the table turnover rate.
Hostess
These are the first people that guests will meet in your restaurant, and as they are the ones who seat people in your restaurant and they can definitely help increase your table turnover rate. The main way in which they can do this is by not seating incomplete parties. Seating incomplete parties takes up space and time at a table, where you could have a full party sitting and ordering as soon as the table is sat at. Although the people at your door say the rest of the party is arriving you can never be sure that they really are “5 minutes away”; and often this can keep getting pushed back, taking up valuable time where others could be spending money whilst sat at that table.
This tactic is only useful in locations that do not take reservations and at the busiest of times. This tactic may annoy those guests whom have to wait for the rest of their party to arrive, but your hosts can still direct them to the bar to enjoy a drink whilst they wait for the rest of their party.
Servers
Being the person whom your guests interact with the most it is no surprise that these are the ones whom can help influence your guests the most. Here’re many tactic they can employe in order to move your guests along.
Asking About Time Constraints: The simple question of “what brings you here this evening?” can tell you a lot about how long your guests may stay at their table; whether they may wish to eat and leave quickly or take their time.
Suggestions: People always ask for suggestions from their servers. Suggesting items which are quick to prepare and serve from the kitchen and the bar will definitely move their time at the table along quicker.
Hitting Multiple Tables: A good server can hit multiple tables in one trip through their section. After learning to do this, not only will this speed up service for your tables and increase your table turnover rate but it will also make your servers better servers.
Ask Campers to Leave: This often isn’t done directly, but tactfully one can nudge people towards leaving their table. Clearing everything off their table and asking them if they need anything else with increasing frequency are two commonly employed tactics. There is also the honesty angle where we can come to them with the check and tell them we need the table back for some others to sit at it; this especially works well if you told them you would need the table back when they arrived.
Clearing and Setting up Tables: Many servers leave clearing and laying their tables to their support staff. If they’re not busy seeing to other guests, assisting in clearing and laying up their tables will help turn your turn tables over quicker.
Kitchen
The kitchen can help to increase your table turnover rate by increasing their speed of service. This means having many quick to prepare items on your menu; which, in turn, your servers can then suggest to your guests. Also having limited options on your menu which decreases customer indecisiveness helps to move their decision making along at a faster pace. This last point also stands for your bar menu.
Outside Factors
Besides your employees and guest interactions there are other factors which can help move guests along and out of your restaurant.
Music: Louder more upbeat music unconsciously entices guests to eat faster and, therefore, leave faster.
Seats: Comfy seats means people stay longer, high top tables with back-less stools or tables with firm seats mean that guests will linger for less time after eating.
Colors: Bright colors ensure that your guests will not relax as much and will therefore leave more quickly.
These are all tactics that you can employee in your location to help increase your table turnover rate and therefore the overall take in your restaurant. If these tactics are not currently being employed in your location, introducing them and perfecting their use could see you gain up to a full turn of all your tables during service.
