In your restaurant setting, you might have a lot of to-go orders. Even if your restaurant is primarily an establishment in which people come in and sit down to eat, there might still be a lot of people who call in orders or who take an order home with them for a family member or friend. On the other hand, you might actually operate a business that sells takeout food most or all of the time. Regardless, you could be wondering if there is anything that you can do so that you can streamline the process of preparing to-go orders in your restaurant. Luckily, following these tips can help you improve the process.
Invest in the Right Equipment and Packaging
First of all, it is not a good idea to skimp on the equipment or the packaging for your to-go orders. For one thing, you should take a look at the cups, plates, pans and other packages that you might use for sending out to-go orders to your customers. Quality is very important, so you may want to make some changes to the type of packaging that you use. Additionally, you may want to consider looking into equipment that can help you with the process of packaging things up. For example, companies like Wilpack Packaging sell products that can help seal up cups of condiments and more automatically. This can help you improve productivity and can help you ensure that the job is done right.
Take Online Orders
If your business does not currently take online orders, then you are really missing out on an opportunity to increase your to-go orders. Plus, if customers are able to submit their orders online, this can cut down on things like the number of phone calls that come in and the amount of time that your employees have to spend on the phone with customers who are placing orders. Even though it can take a little bit of time to set up a good online ordering system, you are sure to find that doing so is a good idea for many reasons. Along with streamlining your process in-house, you might find that this will also help with increasing to-go orders.
Have Dedicated Staff
Right now, some of your servers or kitchen staff members might do a lot of different things in your restaurant. Along with helping with cooking and assisting customers who are dining in, they may also help with preparing to-go orders. To help speed things along and ensure that all of your customers are getting the best service possible, you may want to consider having a few dedicated staff members working who can focus on preparing to-go orders.
As you can probably see, there are a few different things that you can do if you would like to streamline and improve the process of taking to-go orders in your restaurant setting. If you have noticed that you are having problems with doing this, or if you would just like to make sure that you are running your restaurant in the best way possible, consider making these changes. In no time, you are sure to see a difference in how efficiently you are able to take, prepare and send out to-go orders for your customers, and your customers are sure to notice a difference as well.