Top Cost-Saving Tips For Restaurants

Your ability to boost profit margins may be limited, but you can realize significant cost savings by with common sense enhancements to your restaurant operations. “It’s all about making small changes that create big, lasting results. Many of the reasons that restaurant costs can flare are that simple procedures and tests get overlooked," explains restaurant industry expert Jeremiah Higgins. Here are some of the top cost-saving tips restaurants of any size can easily execute for nearly immediate impacts on the bottom line.

Establish controls that reduce waste. The more you can control where loss occurs in your restaurant’s operations, the more you can proactively minimize it. Dedicate one trash can for food that is dropped or thrown away because it was prepped or stored improperly — this will help gauge more accurate inventory levels and identify where you can make process improvements to reduce future occurrences. Assign conveniently located “recovery bins” to reclaim stray silverware and stemware that is otherwise tossed in the garbage when dirty dishes are scraped. Reduce energy usage and costs by cooking in an oven, microwave, or steaming, which tends to use less energy and heat than range-top cooking. Keep kitchen equipment free of grease and carbon buildup (which also uses more energy and heat), and invest in low-flow, pre-rinse spray valves to reduce water and sewage costs.

Instill basic sizing standards. Use scales to define exactly what amount of ingredients go into each dish, and train staff to confirm whether the customer wants additional “garnish” like salad dressing and croutons, lemons in water and included side dishes before they habitually add them. Such standards ensure consistency in your brand experience, reduce the potential that a dish is returned to the kitchen, and provide a true sense of costs, so you price appropriately.

Ask your staff for ideas. After you’ve taken morning inventory counts, tell staff products that are in surplus. Invite their suggestions for how to reduce the inventory, which may include offering appetizers, salads and soups that use the ingredients. They might also suggest internal contests and customer-facing promotions that you publicize through low-cost channels like email and social media to move these items.

Staff based on revenue opportunity. Cross-train employees to assist in a variety of functions that may be in demand at any given time to lessen employee-related overhead. Similarly, invest in tools that eliminate process redundancy, improve productivity and boost the overall customer experience, like a mobile point-of-sale system that allows staff to process customer payment tableside, from a smartphone or tablet device.

Capture true demand. Being aware of the “lost sales” that occur when a customer expresses interest in an item that’s frequently out of stock after peak dining hours (but doesn’t get entered into your order system because of no inventory), can be a key way to optimize menu profitability and inventory levels. When you know what customers want the most, you can increase the prices slightly for in-demand items, and negotiate a lower price with the vendor to order more of the product.