In our age of technical progress, new technologies appear every day. This concerns all the spheres of human life, and catering is not an exception. Very often the success of the establishment depends on the level of its technical equipment. So the question is if the usage of these modern techniques makes the degree of customer service higher. It is no doubt that food cost control is essential for every restaurant. Food service managers must be good in marketing, accounting, and legal issues. What is more, they must have a firm grasp of food production and sanitation.
Food and beverage control systems are used in catering companies and in dining establishments to enable managers the opportunity to plan stock control and cash flow more effectively. They also help chefs to create more structured ways of developing menus. What is more, these systems help them take into account various financial and nutritional considerations.
Food and beverage software allows managers to make their businesses more successful. It detects price creep, helps control counts, levels are reported by item or group. This software can instantly recalculate recipes. Food and beverage control systems allow hit global and category targets using suggesting optimal selling prices. Menu engineering reports allow managers to detect “winners and losers” of the menu. In its turn, this helps to maximize the restaurant’s profit.
In many establishments, food control remains unstructured and chaotic, and in this case, the use of food and beverage control systems is of great help too.
The appliance of food and beverage control systems helps to make more effective decisions, which may help reduce the overall cost of sale and at the same time maintain profits (Food and Beverage Control Systems, 2005).
Very often restaurant budgets are based on the achievements of last year. Ideally, it would be good for every chef to have an opportunity to cost out each dish on a menu. This may help to create an accurate picture of the cost of each item to be able to measure against the revenue. In such a way it is possible to find out which items are the most gainful, and if the wastage of food is low enough for managers to reach the profitability targets.
Food and beverage control systems allow managing the ingredients more accurately when building into the standard estimates for food end beverage wastage. They make it possible to calculate so-called “shrinkage” from a major food group to an actual item. The reports show loss and usage sorted by dollar amounts. For example, they make it possible to estimate the amounts of wastage after chopping and peeling fruit and vegetables or wastage of cream caused by transferring it from one bowl to another. If the manager knows the exact cost of a meal, it allows him/her to price this dish more accurately. In its turn, this helps to undercut the competition and still to make a noticeable profit. Every saved dollar then goes to the restaurant’s “bottom line” (Lower Food Costs, 2008).
Food and beverage control software also gives the chefs opportunity to inventory the food. These systems are also used to produce worklists, which makes it easier for staff to know about what to expect any day.
The central position of organizing a concordant work of the staff is time-shaping. Most of all it is important is the kitchen. If the chef wants a dish to be cooked properly, he must take into account the temporal dimensions of all kinds of activities. Timing distinguishes crunchy vegetables from mush, a juicy steak from a charred one. Synchronization of different tasks is also important for cooking a meal on time. Food and beverage control systems may help to perform this task too. Vegetables and meat courses must be cooked simultaneously; the other way round the dish will lose its sensory appeal.
Every restaurant has its special temporal structure. There is the period when there are many visitors, it is “peopled”. And this is the time when a restaurant works “at full capacity”. And there is a time when a restaurant is almost empty. So for managers, it is crucially important to structure the working hours of employees. To maximize the profit it is reasonable to close the establishment when it is not paying to be open. “A profitable service establishment should have no more employees on duty than is necessary to cope with expected customer traffic, although, again, some establishments may employ more workers than absolutely needed to insure that customers will expect that there will not be lengthy service delays” (Fine, 1990, p. 17). For the restaurants which work in a highly competitive environment, it makes good sense to be open long hours to meet its customers’ demands. Many restaurants choose the time when there are no guests to sign for the food. Sufficient time is necessary for the workers of the restaurant to store the goods appropriately. After that the cooks prepare the expected portion of the delivery in order to meet the customers’ demands.
The use of food and beverage control software helps to control the timing and in such a way makes the work of the staff more effective and well-coordinated.
Maybe the most important function of food control systems software is reporting. It can be used to analyze, for example, how volatile the price of a certain ingredient has been during the last period. These reporting models can help to find the best performance or to identify the highest margin menu dish.
But of course, this accountability is useful only when the staff is well-trained. Otherwise, this system can be unused. But if everything is done properly food and beverage control systems enable managers to set their business for long-term goals.
So we see that food and beverage control systems are very profitable. But the question is if they make the service better? A good restaurant is impossible without good service, and this is the aspect for which clients pay a lot.
There are some instructions following which allows managers and staff to achieve success. Of course, service training is very important if the managers want to please customers. There exist different kinds of service, which include English, American, Russian, family-like, etc. Each of these types demands the staff following rules of, for example, how to greet and seat customers. There are different instructions on how to take orders and answer customers’ questions. It is important to serve beverages and food properly. There are also special rules for serving alcoholic beverages. The staff must also time the meal so that the guests don’t have to wait or eat in a hurry. At the end of it, a waiter should give the client the check and after that accept payment.
There are sometimes emergencies, to which the staff must respond immediately. There is a wide range of these situations from power outrages to client injury. So the staff must be able to react immediately and without panic.
The personality principle is very important too. Some techniques make the clients more forgiving if their orders do not come in time. For example, if the waiter’s name is tattooed on his/her sleeve, this makes the waiter-guest communication more personal. But as for fine dining, polished neutrality is welcomed in this case. This does not mean unfriendliness, just creates a feeling that the evening out is good for the food.
So when the staff of the restaurant is well–trained, it greatly contributes in increasing tips developing a faithful clientele.
So it is obvious that the success of any restaurant depends on many factors. It is important to control all the stages of work of the establishment. Different technological achievements like food and beverage control systems make the work of the staff better coordinated. The chefs have an opportunity to better structure the menus. The profits which the establishment receives increase too. But as for the customer service, it is doubtful that systems like these may improve it somehow. To the greater extend customers service depends on the human factor, which cannot be controlled or assessed by machines. There are some situations like emergencies when these systems are useless. So the usage of food and beverage control systems improves the restaurant’s functioning in general and increases its profit, but the level of customer service does not depend on it.
Reference
Fine, G 1990, ‘Organizational Time: Temporal Demands and the Experience of Work in Restaurant Kitchens’. Social Forces, vol. 69, pp.11-19.
Food and Beverage Control Systems 2005, Web.
Lower Food Costs 2008, Web.