The most wonderful time of year is just around the corner. This season, experts are expecting this year’s hospitality sales to exceed pre-pandemic levels. While we love to see sales in the hospitality industry bouncing back, we know brands are still facing plenty of post-pandemic challenges.
Now more than ever it’s time to start anticipating the busy months ahead, so you can sail into the holidays without the added stress. Here’s our questionnaire built around key considerations for success.
- Do you have enough staff to keep operations running smoothly?
Staff shortages remain, but thankfully the industry has adopted new ways of working to keep guests happy and operations running smoothly. It’s important to anticipate not only if you have enough team members on board, but also to anticipate them taking additional time off to soak up the season.
If you’re worried about having enough floor staff to keep customers engaged in a timely fashion, we recommend considering the option to install Table Ordering and/or Skip the Queue. Both options use QR code ordering. Table Ordering is an excellent option for guests looking to dine-in and benefit from table service, whereas Skip the Queue provides a speedy alternative to ordering through your front-end staff.
Training your staff to lean on these during busy times is easy with our getting started guides, and it will allow those working on the floor to focus on the guest experience, running food and clearing tables, while your guests can benefit from an efficient self-service alternative.
- Have you noted important dates and planned for holiday hours?
Whether you’re planning for additional closures or planning to stay open on stat holidays, both require different elements of preparation. Regardless of what your business is planning to do, make sure you’re prepared to communicate it effectively with enough notice to both your staff and guests.
If required, make sure your store hours are up to date across your website, signage, and Google. It’s extremely important to make sure your hours are up to date on your digital ordering platforms, so guests aren’t placing orders outside business hours.
You may also want to plan for the addition of holiday surcharges on specific days. If you plan to introduce these, make sure your staff are aware so they can communicate it effectively to guests.
- Have you planned for holiday promotions?
If you haven’t already, take some time to consider what promotions may entice guests over the holiday period. Review your customer data to find insights to inspire new menu combinations that reflect items frequently purchased over this time of year.
Based on any menu changes, brands should also be looking at the additional marketing assets required to promote these to guests. This could be anything from actual menu updates in-store and online, as well as assets to promote specials across your communication channels, such as social and email.
- Have you considered the changes to your inventory needs?
An increase in guest activity this holiday season may require slight or significant changes to your regular stock. Not only is it important to have all the ingredients necessary to fulfil an influx of guest orders, it’s also important to refamiliarise yourself with how to update your stock across ordering platforms.
To avoid upset customers, make sure you and your team know how to quickly make menu updates, so when guests place their order they only have access to items still in-stock.
- Have you created a staff communication plan?
Whether you’re communicating with your franchisees and/or store managers, or directly with staff, it’s important to have a corresponding plan in place. Make sure you’re providing ample time to communicate holiday hours, promotions, menu changes and more. Benefiting from higher AOV and revenue opportunities will require your teams to feel they have been properly onboarded this holiday season.
Create a two-way dialogue for questions and concerns, so you can anticipate potential challenges this season and provide information on escalation options and solutions.
Let the good times begin
Here’s to an exciting holiday season ahead. As always, we’re here to support our customers 24/7 if there are questions, concerns or if you’d like extra guidance on how to future-proof your business for this year’s busy season.
