Ultimately, you end up spending more time fixing the error than focusing on customer care. And it could have been avoided in the first place.
If you want to save yourself the money and stress of dealing with order errors, take to these five tips that will improve order accuracy in your restaurant.
Have Servers Repeat Orders Back To Guests
Here’s a simple method, one you’ve definitely heard and probably deployed before. Even with the rise of technology in restaurants, repeating any order back is a top notch way to improve order accuracy.
Busy Friday night. The dining room is loud. It’s easy for an order to get lost in the mix of chatter and clatter.
Train your servers or service counter folks to repeat back orders to guests so they can verify it. This leaves little room for an error to be made before they hit the send button next order.
Simplify Your Menu
How long is your menu? Is it littered with fun, quirky names for rather simple dishes? Or similar sounding dishes? If so, consider simplifying the menu to help stop error orders.
A simple menu makes it easier for customers to comprehend, as well as servers to understand what they want. And the solution helps BOH operations as well.
If your kitchen line has to remember 30+ dishes, versus say… fifteen. Odds are they’ll slip up more frequently on orders. Either way, simple is better and will benefit everyone involved in the food-to-table process during busy service.
Mobile Ordering Apps Like Tayble
One highly effective way to stop error orders is deploying mobile ordering into your restaurant or cafe. What better way to clear up confusion than having diners order themselves.
Put the POS in the palm of their hands. And don’t stress about too many orders at once. Tayble does not send full orders until everyone at the table taps in their meal.
This eliminates the misheard mishap we commonly find in restaurants of all shapes and sizes. Tayble also saves guests previous orders so they can re-tap their favourite meal easily without asking your server…
“I can’t remember what I got last time, but it was sooo good!”
Weall know how the story plays out from there.
Mobile ordering truly makes your staff lives easier and saves you money by stopping order errors.
Limit Substitutions and Off-Menu Items
Unless you offer a top secret menu, minimising a number of substitutions and off-menu items can stop error orders.
Your kitchen works like a well-oiled machine, where any kink can screw with the whole operation.
If there are five different ingredient substitutions for the same dishes at three separate tables, you’re welcoming a world of possible confusion.
Granted your staff are seriously awesome and gets the job done. However, the chance for a slip-up decreases when the kitchen sees minimal special orders.
Dietary restrictions and allergies are one thing of course. But you don’t need to alter every single dish to guest demands. Especially when it contributes to messing up the flow!
Sometimes, the chef knows best.
If There Are Substitutions, Have Runners Clarify With Kitchen First
There’s nothing worse than a vegetarian with a plate of meat in front of them. Or someone who’s allergic to tree nuts getting cashew cheese on a veggie burger.
Mistakes happen. We know that. But some order errors can be detrimental to your guests in certain situations.
To prevent this, train staff to verify with the kitchen that it’s the correct substitute dish. Sometimes that soyrizo seriously looks like chorizo!
Do your best to eliminate error orders before they leave the kitchen by verifying dishes with substitutions.
Final Thoughts on Order Errors
Given the amount of time and effort it takes to fix error orders in your restaurant, it’s best to implement methods that can stop them from happening. The more efficient your ordering process is, the less order errors your staff will encounter.
By deploying methods like mobile ordering with Tayble app, dish verification, and a simplified menu, you can stop error orders, save money, and keep every in your restaurant happy… including yourself.
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