标签存档： customerexperience

FOOD FOR THOUGHT THIS VALENTINE’S DAY

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Customer service is an integral part of running a successful restaurant. It doesn’t matter how fabulous your new restaurant looks or how delicious the food is, if the service isn’t good, customers are not likely to return.

 

Valentine’s Day is reportedly the second-busiest day for restaurants in America, (behind Mother’s Day), as a restaurant owner, it is imperative that you tackle customer service from many different aspects.

HOW DO YOU DELIVER EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AT YOUR RESTAURANT?

For a restaurant experience to be great, both the product and the service must score. A failure in either department often leads to a substandard experience. The server is incredible but the food is dry and stale. Bad experience. The food is amazing but the server simply can’t be bothered to refill your drink for the entire meal. Bad experience.

Too many restaurants fail on at least one level consistently. From restaurant cleanliness to brand management, running a restaurant necessitates a holistic experience that hits the customers on more than one level. That’s where BARE International comes in.

From fast food to gourmet fine dining establishments, BARE customer feedback programs, like our mystery guest visits can identify the key drivers at your establishment that are encouraging customer satisfaction and revisit intent. A customized formula of mystery calling and shopping, in-store and online audits, e-mailing, and mystery leads reveals how well your employees were trained and brand standards are executed.

FINAL COURSE (OF ACTION)

Restaurant customer service has many layers, and it is easy for leaders to get sidetracked by the operational details and to forget the fundamental service focus that is necessary for long term success. By leveraging BARE’s deep understanding of the restaurant industry this Valentine’s month, you can finally streamline operations, increase integrity, and improve the quality of customer service.

Let BARE International help your establishment leave a good taste in customer’s mouths, contact us to start the conversation today.

CASE STUDY RESTAURANT CUSTOMER SURVEYS.

By partnering with BARE, this national restaurant company was able to gather valuable information regarding exactly what its customers found important, and then channeled that feedback into the quantitative measurement of service and brand standards.

Download the case study here.

TOP 4 CXPECTATIONS IN 2023

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As we move further into 2023, customer experience has become more important than ever before. With increased competition and consumer awareness, businesses that prioritize customer experience are more likely to succeed in the long run.

 

1. AI-BOOSTED EXPERIENCES

One of the key trends in customer experience in 2023 is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These technologies are being used to personalize customer interactions and create more efficient and effective customer service. For example, AI-powered chatbots are being used to handle routine customer inquiries, freeing up human customer service representatives to focus on more complex issues.

2. DATA-BASED PERSONALIZATION

Another important trend is the increasing use of data analytics to understand customer behavior and preferences. By analyzing customer data, businesses can identify patterns and trends that can help them improve their products and services, as well as the overall customer experience.

In 2023, customers are also expecting a more seamless and integrated experience across different channels and touchpoints. For example, a customer might interact with a business via social media, website, and mobile app, and they expect a consistent and personalized experience across all these channels.

3. EFFICIENT SERVICE RESPONSE

In terms of customer service, businesses are recognizing the importance of providing fast and efficient service. This includes offering self-service options such as chatbots and automated phone systems, as well as providing quick and effective support through human representatives.

4. EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS

Finally, businesses are focusing on building emotional connections with their customers. This means going beyond providing functional benefits and creating an emotional connection with customers by providing experiences that are memorable, authentic, and meaningful.

In conclusion, customer experience continues to be the top priority for businesses in 2023. By leveraging the latest technologies, analyzing customer data, providing a seamless and integrated experience across different channels, and building emotional connections with customers, businesses can create a competitive advantage and succeed in the long run.

BARE INTERNATIONAL DESIGNATED “ELITE EXPERIENCE RESEARCH COMPANY” FOR RECORD NINTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR

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Congratulations to BARE International for earning Elite Company status from Mystery Shopping Professionals Association Americas. This will be the record ninth consecutive year BARE has earned this prestigious honor.

FAIRFAX, VA. (PRWEB)

For a record ninth year in a row, BARE International is honored to be a recipient of Elite company status, as designated by MSPA Americas.

MSPA Americas, the trade association for companies engaged in creating, measuring and enhancing the customer journey, announced the winners of its annual Elite program for 2023 at its recent CME Conference in New Orleans. MSPA Americas Elite companies are those members of the organization which most support the mission and objectives of MSPA Americas, as set annually by the board of directors, in advancing the stature and relevance of the trade association. The designation, earned through advancing association goals in 2022, is effective for 2023.

“On behalf of the Board of Directors of MSPA Americas, I’m proud to congratulate these outstanding companies for their support of our association’s mission, and their leadership in advancing the association’s goals for the customer experience and retail service provider industries as a whole,” said MSPA Americas President Stan Hart. “We all are grateful for their lead-by-example support, and we are honored to recognize them for achievements.”

In July, BARE International celebrated 35 years and introduced a soft rebranding including a modern logo that further defined the evolution of Customer Experience Research and BARE’s commitment to providing support businesses need.

“Our clients are true partners in business, and we share their goals,” stated CEO Dale Bare. “We recognize that each client has a unique path based on their needs in that moment of time, and we’re here to provide guidance through meaningful insight collection and analysis.”

“Our team’s tireless dedication to providing our clients with the most accurate and comprehensive insights into their customers’ experience is what sets us apart,” states President and Co-Founder Mike Bare. “We are committed to continuously improving our offerings and services to ensure that our clients receive the highest quality of customer experience research.”

“For 35 years, we’ve dedicated our business to providing the best, actionable insights to our client partners,” states Jason Bare, Global Vice-President.

“As we look forward, we remain committed to delivering innovative solutions and exceptional results for our clients. This award is a strong validation of our work and encourages us to continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.”

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About BARE International

BARE International sets the industry standard as the largest independent provider of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. Founded in 1987, BARE International is a family-owned business with global capabilities. BARE is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia with ten offices around the world. To learn more about BARE International’s customer experience research services and their dedicated field force of evaluators, visit http://www.bareinternational.com

 

About MSPA Americas

MSPA Americas connects and supports businesses which measure, quantify, aggregate, interpret, and re- define customer experience through varied research and merchandising methodologies. Widely recognized as the leader in customer experience measurement, management, and training, MSPA Americas provides essential support to its members, and promotes the benefits and services of its diverse companies to enhance the industries they serve. Learn more at https://www.mspa-americas.org/

WHO WILL BE GETTING YOUR ‘LIKES’ THIS HOLIDAY SEASON?

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Holiday shopping season is here… but who will getting your business and social feedback?

The key to a profitable and joyful holiday retail season is ensuring exceptional customer service across all channels where customer interactions and feedback occur. Social media is increasingly becoming the most popular choice of ways to complain. Over 1 MILLION people view Tweets alone about customer service – a staggering 80% of those are negative. (Source: Touch Agency) So how do you avoid falling in the bottomless pit of bad social media reviews by disgruntled customers?

Before you open your doors to the last-minute frenzied shoppers, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Are all your employees clear on your company goals?
  2. Are your employees portraying a positive and friendly interaction as the shopper enters the store?
  3. Are you treating your employees the way you want them to treat your customers?
  4. Is your customer service department and contact center is ready for this influx of calls and customer requests?

It’s not just brick and mortar stores that need to take note… did you know that during the upcoming Holiday Shopping Season you can expect up to 80% more live chats online? In order to turn these chats into sales, you’ll need to streamline your online customer service. Get the Live Chat Cheat Sheet here.

Every 2 minutes, a BARE evaluation or audit is completed by our field force of more than 500,000 evaluators. Using calls, clicks or in-person visits, the common thread of our services is always revealing the moment of truth when your customers interact with your brand.

Through mystery shopping, social media monitoring and more, BARE International’s service offerings can finally reveal the true nature of your business. Contact us today to find out more.

CONNECTING WITH YOUR TARGET MARKETS DURING THE YEAR’S BUSIEST SHOPPING SEASON

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It’s that crazy time of year when marketers pull out all the stops to capture their share of holiday consumption. In the past, the day after Thanksgiving would launch the season’s retail insanity. In recent years, the holiday shopping season has started increasingly earlier. This year, it seems like “Black Friday” has turned into “Black November.”

Just as the time-frame has expanded, so have the ways to connect with consumers. With multiple devices and numerous traditional, online and social platforms, marketing has become progressively more complex. Never has it been more critical to understand who your market is and how you can best reach them.

WHICH GENERATION ACCOUNTS FOR THE LARGEST CONSUMER SPENDING?

The answer may surprise you. Here is a quick look at the three biggest spending groups—baby boomers, millenials and the often-overlooked “middle child,” generation X. According to Pew Research, there are around 77 million boomers and 83 million millennials. Because of their size, these two generational segments garner almost the complete focus of marketers. The smaller gen X segment, around 65 million, is typically awarded little regard, yet this generation is the most financially influential of the three and has the largest buying potential.

American Express research indicates that Xers have more spending power than any other generation, including the boomers. Although they only make up 25% of the population, the Xers account for 29% of estimated net worth dollars and 31% of total income dollars.

CONNECTING ACROSS TARGET-RELEVANT PLATFORMS

Whether you target boomers, Xers, millennials or all three, it’s important to know the best channels to connect with your audience.

Screen size, speed and performance, and length of task influenced device preference. The study showed that 81% of consumers across generations prefer to complete five-minute tasks via smartphone. That number drops to 43% for tasks that take between 10-20 minutes, indicating even millennials prefer laptop/PC for many high-involvement tasks.

According to Oracle Commerce, 40.7% of millenials shop online at least once a week, 36.8% shop on mobile and only 8.7% think seeing/touching is important before buying. Although 62.2% of millenials shop in-store at least once a week, 95.5% would check product info on their mobile while in the store.

By contrast, 16.4% of boomers shop online at least once a week, 4.8% shop on mobile and 20% think seeing/touching is important before buying. Seventy-four percent still prefer to shop in-store, but 68.4% would check product info on a mobile while in-store if possible. And 31.7% of boomers believe store staff should carry smart devices to handle customer inquiries.

Gen Xers fall somewhere in between. They grew up during the birth of technology, so they are comfortable with both traditional channels as well as digital media. According to Forrester Research, 48% listen to the radio, 62% still read newspapers and 85% have favorite TV shows. They are also quite active online for banking, shopping and researching products they want to buy. Like boomers, Xers develop loyal relationships with brands and are willing to pay a premium to brands they value and trust. However, like millennials, they will forsake brands that don’t reward their loyalty.

While all three generations may differ in their use of traditional and digital platforms, they have some key elements in common. They desire a seamless in-store and online experience, expect in-store staff to be equipped with technology for more informed, swifter and easier service, and want to be able to check product information in-store using their mobile devices.

MAKING SURE YOU GET IT RIGHT

Accurately defining your target markets and implementing relevant strategies to connect is just the beginning. Customer research will reveal how well you’re hitting the mark. Many companies turn to firms like BARE to assess and monitor marketing efforts.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Surveys provide instant results, unlimited feedback, and allow for customer incentives in exchange for completing surveys. Surveys are cost-effective and user friendly. Mystery Shopping uses calls, clicks and/or visits. BARE’s global workforce of evaluators follow predefined scenarios and record experiences at various touch points throughout the customer journey.

BARE also offers rapid-fire business intelligence (BI). Analysis can be done at a global and/or regional level to compare results between regions, countries, store types, chains and scenarios. BARE’s BI comprehensive reports include insights and conclusions derived from your data and can identify the evolution of results over time.

Effective marketing takes more effort and time than ever before. Make sure you are investing these resources wisely to achieve maximum success.

WHAT IS INCIDENT MANAGEMENT AND HOW CAN DIGITAL CHECKLISTS HELP?

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A five-hour computer outage cost Delta Airlines $150 million in 2017. Similarly, companies lose an average of $300,000 per hour in revenue, staff productivity, and maintenance costs due to system outages. 

Major disruptions can significantly outweigh such expenses. The reason behind this is simple: customers who are unable to pay their bills, participate in a video conference or purchase a plane ticket are eager to switch to a competitor.

 

Moreover, such incidents can disrupt the organization’s processes and make them highly critical to its future. Therefore, incident management is vital to ensure smooth business operations and to avoid such incidents in the future. 

WHAT EXACTLY IS INCIDENT MANAGEMENT?

Businesses use dozens of technological packages in the forms of software and hardware to increase productivity. But like other systems, these IT systems too are vulnerable to breakdowns and stutters or can malfunction from time to time.

One incident could be all it takes to break your business practices, and it can throw your entire organization in flux. This is mainly because the incident occurs out of nowhere, and no one is prepared for it.

Incident management refers to a certain set of IT practices and preparations that your team or organization would carry out to measure KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and detect and solve problems or an “incident” in the business. 

Incident management ensures that your IT team can resolve technical malfunctions at the earliest, to reduce damage and even your reputation in the long run. For instance, you don’t want your website to stop running amidst a big sale, for it may repel customers indefinitely.

BENEFITS OF INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

A good incident management software will give KPIs to help the concerned team dramatically reduce incident response time.

However, it must be noted that KPIs themselves will not solve your problems. Still, they will assist you in identifying the source of the problem and directing your efforts toward digging more profound in the appropriate areas.

Here are some benefits of incident management:

  • Deriving vital KPIs for current and future use.
  • Prevention of incidents and risks.
  • Reduction and elimination of downtime.
  • Securing confidential data.
  • Improving customer service.
  • Better efficiency by identifying areas of improvement.
  • Mitigating spontaneous labor and costs.

HOW CAN A DIGITAL CHECKLIST HELP?

Manually conducting safety auditing, inspection management, and meeting compliance standards can be tedious.

But harnessing digital checklists, businesses can streamline incident management and make it more accessible.

All industries have a unique set of challenges they face during operations. Digital checklists simplify these processes, making it much easier to tackle challenges while maintaining an organized workplace.

Digital checklists can prove your team with some critical KPIs like timestamps, uptime, SLOs (Service Level Objectives), SLAs (Service Level Agreements), MTTR (mean time to repair, resolve, respond, or recovery), On-call time, MTTD (mean time to detect), and MTTA (mean time to acknowledge). 

Furthermore, you can use digital checklists for incident management to do the following:

  • Log all incidents.
  • Determine the location and sensitivity of the incident at hand.
  • Isolate the incident to ensure it doesn’t affect other resources.
  • Identify regulatory measures for the incident.
  • Assign duties throughout your team according to various factors for faster issue resolution. This can be done according to the category, location, and effectiveness.
  • Eradicate malfunctioned or compromised data.
  • Develop a list for forensics and hardware replacement if needed.
  • Analyze data to study why the problem arose and how you can avoid recurrence in the future.
  • Create an incident report that logs which areas of the organization were most affected.
  • Track and monitor all incidents to ensure accountability as well as faster resolution of incidents.
  • Improve security measures.

As you can see, digital checklists can be beneficial in the case of incident management.

HOW CAN BARE HELP?

BARE-IFY is an iAuditor alternative that helps you create digital checklists and carry out vital functions that support your organization to run smoothly and effectively.

BARE provides businesses with KPIs for incident management to identify and diagnose problems with processes and systems, provide benchmarks and realistic targets for the team to work toward, and serve as a springboard for more extensive inquiries.

Additionally, BARE has a user-friendly mobile app that operates offline, gathering data for you to inspect and analyze easily. A simple dashboard displays real-time results that are easy to gauge.

The BARE-IFY mobile audit application is easy to use and super practical. Revolutionize your business practices, meet standard compliances, and rise to the top.

MOBILE AUDITING – LENDING A HELPING HAND TO YOUR EMPLOYEES

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We all live in a modern era. People generally prefer to use cloud storage and digital technology in their day to day life. Gathering information on paper forms can be simpler compared to the usability and speed of the mobile audit application.

Also, using paper forms may be too complicated and disorganized. It can take a lot of time to search, which may be very frustrating to employees. To make it more efficient and quick, mobile auditing helps in inspection in an organized manner.

 

WHY ONLY MOBILE APPLICATIONS?

Using paper forms to work may be a time-consuming way; instead of that, laptops and desktops can be more efficient. But, there is a higher possibility that you won’t be carrying your laptop or desktop with you every time. Considering that case, a mobile application is built for inspection because mobile phones are portable, and used by almost everyone. A mobile application for auditing and inspection can bring more productivity and minimize the consumable time.

THE BENEFIT OF MOBILE AUDITING

A smartphone can be useful to gather information anywhere and anytime. The following are several points that mention the benefits of mobile inspection and auditing:

  • Easy to Use: Mobile auditing is performed on a mobile application that has user-friendly software.
  • On-Demand Access: Users don’t have to search for data at several places and spreadsheets.
  • Checklists: Preloaded checklists and forms related to marketing and products are available. These templates make it easier for employees to work.
  • Work From the App: Companies can assign tasks to employees and keep track of their actions and progress.
  • Connect the Field to the Office: Since mobile phones are easy to carry anywhere, an employee can update the fieldwork on the mobile application from anywhere at any time.
  • Capture Images: A person can also capture the image of the work’s confirmation.

HOW CAN IT BE HELPFUL IN THE POST-COVID SCENARIOS?

During this pandemic situation, companies may be worried about the safety of employees. Industries such as healthcare, transportation, and food production need inspections and audits in weekly intervals. Mobile auditing application provides various checklists and forms for:

  • Washing and sanitizing workspaces
  • Intake forms (screen clients before entering the site)
  • Safety and hygiene audits
  • Vendor inspection forms

BARE-IFY has hospitality audits for COVID-19, so it allows a company in tracking activities to be 100% sure about a safer workspace. There will be higher possibilities that post-COVID consumers will only buy from brands that are concerned about safety and hygiene.

BARE-IFY – THE BEST FIELD INSPECTION APP

BARE-IFY powered by Pulse Tech is the technology that resolves all the challenges faced by a company in inspecting, auditing, and storing the data. It is a user-friendly platform that your work team can easily access. It has the following benefits:

  • This mobile audit application allows a store or office team to start inspection immediately.
  • It has preloaded checklists. These are necessary for a business (however, it also allows users to customize the checklists). The preloaded checklists contain forms for Covid-19, infrastructure, visual merchandising, marketing, and products.
  • It allows the user to select the industry type such as automobile, retail, medical, banking, etc. It reduces the time complexity. This simply means the work which needs an hour to complete can be easily done within a few minutes.
  • It allows you to assign and track various tasks for your employees. Assigning tasks in just a few clicks can reduce the time, and tracking their activity enhances productivity. BARE-IFY makes the company’s environment more efficient and enjoyable.
  • It allows you to assign major actions to the employees. “The more the actions completed, the more will be the improvement in sales and performance.”
  • It has an advanced dashboard for data analytics.

The features of BARE-IFY that always make it a front runner are:

  • Automation
  • Analytics
  • Action tracking
  • Scale/ Efficiency
  • Accountability

The BARE-IFY mobile audit application should be considered as a replacement for paper forms. It has an effective dashboard that provides accurate information. It maintains the data in an organized way. BARE-IFY is easy to set up, accountable, cost-efficient, and highly configurable. You can customize your forms and dashboard. If your business needs to be more efficient, then BARE can help you to do so.

SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE EMERGING PILLARS OF WORK CULTURE

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One of the popular buzzwords quoted in corporate investor meets and annual reports in recent times have been ‘Sustainable’.

Over 93% of CEOs see sustainability as necessary for their company’s future. Sustainability has moved from being just an ‘add-on’ into ‘that’s how we do things here.’ 

 

The same goes with safety; organizations find their financial, social, and environmental risks, obligations, and opportunities better met when focused on safety in workplace culture. So how are these two parameters – safety and sustainability shaping the next-gen workplace cultures? In this post, we dive into this question.

WHAT DOES SUSTAINABLE CULTURE MEAN?

Sustainability and culture are increasingly used interchangeably or together in corporate narrative, despite both words having different connotations.

The World Council on Economic Development perhaps gives the most cited definition of sustainability – practices that “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987).

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says: “Sustainable organizations strive to balance the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit to achieve long-term success and viability.”

Hence, a sustainable culture means businesses are managing the ‘triple bottom line.’ This includes making decisions that take financial, social, and environmental risks, obligations, and opportunities into account.

This means, accounting for environmental and social implications in business reporting is not enough. Sustainable businesses produce jobs, healthy ecosystems, and strong communities. Sustainable enterprises thrive in healthy economic, social, and environmental systems.

Companies across the world are aggressively chasing sustainability goals to become carbon neutral, among others. To do that, companies often focus on establishing sustainable cultures in the workplace.

For instance, one of the world’s biggest sports-tech companies, Nike, launched its Reusable Dishwasher Program, encouraging its employees not to buy or bring disposable lunch containers to work. As a result, Nike cut single-use containers (cups and bottles) by 16,000 pounds per quarter, and by the end of the year, trash per employee was down 11.5 percent.

Another notable example of how global companies harness workplace culture to attain sustainable goals is the case of chip-giant Intel. The company reportedly allows compensation to their employees who uphold recycling ethos on campus. As a result, E-waste bins populate the company’s California campus, where employees are encouraged to dispose of their old electronics for recycling. The result? Intel can recycle 75% of its total waste and is reportedly one of the world’s most sustainable-minded corporations.

Safety and Sustainability: Two Sides of a Coin

At their core, safety and sustainability concepts are geared towards the same objective – preserving resources. And when it comes to safety, the resource that is in question is the human workforce. An organization cannot be called sustainable if it does not focus on protecting the health and safety of its employees.

Some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by member countries at the landmark United Nations Summit in 2016 specifically deal with employee health and safety. These goals pertain to protecting labor rights, promoting safe workplace conditions, managing hazardous chemicals, etc.

OSHA has also been instrumental in promoting these guidelines and standards to ensure sustainable practices and reporting to protect the interests of workers.

SAFETY AND SUSTAINABLE CULTURE: HOW CHECKLISTS CAN HELP?

Almost every organization has a number of industry-specific health and safety risks that they need to take care of. Many companies put multiple guidelines and SOPs in place to mitigate and tackle each of these risks. However, it is quite a daunting task for an organization to ensure that these norms are being adhered to across all units.

This is where BARE can help. The BARE-IFY Audit App is an advanced safety compliance and auditing tool is an audit and inspection platform with robust incident reporting mechanisms and super user-centric UI. With our intelligent checklists and state-of-the-art mobile applications, ultra-modern interface, and fast team adoption, you can seamlessly implement and monitor your organization’s safety policies and procedures.

Our pre-created, easy-to-use, and logic-infused checklists make safety and sustainability compliance easier. Through the app, you get a 360-degree view of all your business operations and can take corrective actions against any safety violations in real-time.

The application offers industry-standard safety, which means large organizations’ sensitive and mission-critical data are in safe hands. Pulse also integrates seamlessly with your existing interface and is 100% mobile-ready.

Some stats to support BARE-IFY’s excellence in meeting safety & sustainability goals are:

  • 23% environment impacts reduced
  • 33% sustainable goals boosted
  • 73% risks minimized by fewer incidents
  • 9-hours saved in each inspection

As the quote goes – “Safety does not happen by accident,” to preserve one of the most valuable resources of your organization, i.e., your workforce, additional steps need to be taken. Only then will your organization prove to be sustainable and resilient in the true sense.

IS YOUR RESTAURANT’S PIE OF REPAIR COSTS INCREASING DAY BY DAY?

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Any business has to incur a mix of fixed and variable expenses. If you are running a restaurant business, you will have expenses like salaries and rent that you incur irrespective of the number of open days and customers’ footfall. Expenses on food item purchases, however, would vary on the scale of business. 

 

When it comes to repairs and maintenance, a certain amount of it is expected in any business. Items like your kitchen equipment and air-conditioning will go through regular wear and tear. However, when these expenses occur too frequently, you need to sit up and take notice.

You look into the expense trend, sift out the avoidable ones from the unavoidable ones, and look for ways to avoid them to the extent possible. Here is a coordinated approach that you can adopt to keep your restaurant repair cost within the tolerable limit:

BUDGET AND ANALYSIS

Excessive costs erode a business’s profitability, sometimes to an alarming degree. It is always worthwhile to update budget figures and take stock of the restaurant’s various expenses. Depending on the equipment’s age, warranties available, number of items that need repair, etc. an estimate of the repair costs can be made. A detailed list of all these items should be in place, along with the maintenance requirement against each of them. Some of these items would be under warranty; some covered under maintenance contracts while the rest would need one-time repairs. After that, a regular analysis of the expenses incurred and noticing deviations between budgeted and actual costs ensure prompt identification of unexpected expenses. The expertise of service providers like Pulse comes handy in such workflow management and helps increase the business’s profitability.

MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS

Repairs in a restaurant may be required for kitchen equipment, refrigeration, plumbing, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment. By entering into maintenance contracts for these items, you can successfully reduce your long-term operating costs. Inking annual maintenance contracts puts various scheduled maintenance in place, which prevents breakdowns and subsequent losses. These contracts help you avoid large expenses that you would otherwise have to incur. In order to manage these contracts, you can use Pulse’s “Track and Assign Actions” feature.

INDUSTRY STANDARDS

As a thumb rule, repairs of 1-3% of the overall budget is considered tolerable. However, depending on your location and industry, you should find out how your peers are doing for repair costs. This acts as a useful benchmark in understanding and budgeting your restaurant expenses. Probing into industry standards will also enlighten you about the restaurant’s best practices that can further streamline your day-to-day operations.

STAFF AWARENESS

It is not practical to remind employees of rising expenses without doing your homework. But with an updated budget in your hand, maintenance contracts in place, and knowledge of the industry, you are better equipped. The next step would be to sensitize your staff about the various practices that can reduce the need for repair. It could be by encouraging simple daily practices like avoiding unnecessary use of equipment, following standard operating procedures (SOP) while using them, and educating them about early warning signs of malfunctioning equipment. Notably, Pulse provides checklist-based inspection processes that can be customized and put in place in your restaurant operations.

OPTIMIZING LAYOUT

In a customer-facing service like a restaurant, the layout is important for various reasons. An attractive layout can woo more customers, improve the ambiance, simplify operations, and minimize expenses. Smart layouts can minimize air-conditioning, reduce the preparation time in the kitchen, and even reduce breakages. A congested layout, on the other hand, generally leads to more cutlery breakages, while a haphazard seating arrangement can increase the consumption of utilities and their wear and tear. Similarly, improving the kitchen set up can reduce the pressure on equipment and the workforce and improve efficiency.

CONCLUSION

With a focused approach towards your restaurant’s repair costs, you can keep better control over your restaurant expenses. And by adopting standardized processes and regularly monitoring and auditing the spending patterns, you can be better prepared to meet your restaurant’s repair and maintenance needs.

The BARE-IFY Audit App is an advanced safety compliance and auditing tool is an audit and inspection platform with robust incident reporting mechanisms and super user-centric UI. By making your company’s incident reporting process more straightforward, you’ll reduce the time your employees spend in reporting incidents and automatically cut back on opportunistic mistakes.

Pulse also offers ready-to-use checklists for multiple industries so that you can stay on the top of your compliance game and reduce the chances of incidents.

THE NOT SO HIDDEN COSTS OF IGNORING QUALITY CONTROL

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All organizations, irrespective of their industry, have a vision. This vision is often fueled by the organizations’ financial position. An effective quality control system ensures  that a company’s financial position is strong and helps it ascend the trajectory of success. This also assists businesses ensure customer satisfaction, build a strong brand image, and improve their processes.

 

If a business is content with its financial position, and is least bothered whether its product will be viable 50 years down the line, then the quality management system in this scenario is redundant. It is rendered useless if the organization does not have an aim to leave a legacy behind, or to create a long-lasting brand.

However, in the scenario where an organization aims to grow its market share, and create an impression on its customers as well as investors, then a quality management system becomes a vital tool in its arsenal. Experts advise that once you are aware of the quality management system, do not spend a day without it. Take advantage of this system to be a step ahead of your competition.

An effective system of quality management has 8 important principles:

  1. Strong leadership
  2. Customer focus
  3. Process approach
  4. Involvement of people
  5. Continuous improvement
  6. System approach
  7. Creating value for suppliers, clients, and the company
  8. Decision-making based on actionable insights

In the absence of a formal quality management system, a majority of the organizations lack most of these key principles or elements. Unless these 8 principles are employed in unison, organizations will not be able to realize the entire benefits of the quality management system. Employing a few of these principles, and ignoring the rest will not assist an organization bring about efficiency in its processes.

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH IGNORANCE OF QUALITY CONTROL

Here are a few examples of partial engagement of the quality management process, and the risks faced by organizations:

  • The absence of a continuous improvement system hinders the growth of a product, and causes it to lag behind its competitors who continue to improve and enhance the functionality, and quality of their products. An effective quality management system identifies deficiencies in a product, and, at the same time, ensures that the products delivered to customers are defect-free. A continuous improvement system can alleviate the manufacturing costs of an organization by reducing the number of defective products. It can also assist in increasing the production via refinement and continuous analysis of the manufacturing process.
  • The absence of a customer satisfaction system will encourage customers to look out for other options, and organizations which value their needs and requirements. An effective quality management system needs to have a continuously improving customer satisfaction program at its core. An organization that does not value customer satisfaction is liable to lose customers to its competitors who respond positively to the demands of customers.

In today’s hyper-competitive world, the  products that will win the hearts of consumers will be the ones that continuously improve their quality. Such products will continue to garner a larger audience, thus reducing the market share of its competitors.

  • The absence of a document control and management program will hinder the growth of an organization, as it will lack a formal point of initiation. An effective quality management system lays down the requirements of periodic review, approval, and development of procedures that govern the organization’s operations and processes. In the absence of detailed documentation, the workforce has to operate as it deems fit, with a not recognized method of product control, and no accountability.

Employees who leave the organization after working for long terms take vital information with them, which leaves other employees clueless, and the business in jeopardy. Without documentation, it becomes impossible to pinpoint the cause of defects in the processes, thus making it highly difficult to employ corrective actions. This incurs the company extra costs, as they may  have to scrap the entire process anytime.

CONCLUSION

An organization can be affected adversely in the absence of a formal quality management system. It can also prevent a business from attaining new contracts, and collaborating with top-tier companies. An effective quality management system requires the suppliers of a certain business to have a defined quality control system of their own. When companies adhere to the guideline mentioned in the quality management system, they expect their suppliers to comply with the same.