If you own a restaurant, you must know how hard it is to handle one with multiple operations. With a single outlet, you aim to open more branches to achieve your dream of expansion. But, if handling a single outlet comes with many problems, how about running several ones?

Imagine doing the work of one outlet for several outlets. The idea by itself is challenging but of course, it’s worth the hard work because it means that people love your food and the service that you are providing. It also means that they cherish the moments and the experience they live at your restaurant.

That’s why you must be careful when opening a new branch. It should deliver the same experience and be up to expectations.

How many times have you heard that the staff of a certain location is way better and more welcoming than the other branch? Or you might hear that the food is served quicker or tastes better. I bet you heard these statements from your friends or families several times because with multiple locations the restaurants usually end up with different services or food.

What are some common challenges for running multiple restaurant outlets and how to avoid them?

Create a consistent customer experience

 Creating a consistent experience is an important part of your brand reputation. If you are opening your second location, then customers already have set expectations for the service and the food served. Remember that all your different branches share the same mission and vision. Start with this concept and work on applying it with the same spirit and goals in all the other branches.

For this purpose, you need to have identical operations so establishing standard operating procedures for all the tasks is essential from answering the phone, welcoming guests, the cleanliness and set up of tables, serving guests, and of course the food preparation and recipes.

You should use the same suppliers or at least the same quality of your food and have a recipe management tool to deliver an identical taste for your platters.

Manage overall performance

When you own a single branch, you will be focusing more on day-to-day tasks and outcomes. Once you start running different locations, you will shift your focus to the bigger picture and to the various factors that impact your sales and revenues at all your locations.

You could only achieve management for the overall performance by having the ability to analyze and manage all your branches from a central location.

BIM Syncher is a software that consolidates and exchanges your data across various outlets for more effective reporting and analysis and therefore more efficient management.

To successfully manage different locations, you also need to ask yourself if you are ready to delegate authority to excellent performers.

Why?

Because each location has certain different specifications when it comes to the target market, marketing tools, or any other issue, you need to hire trusted employees to handle decision-making and problem-solving on the spot.

Avoid supply chain disruption

Supply chain management is an essential part of the well-being of any business whether you have single or multiple outlets.

So, keeping a record of real-time inventory count through an inventory management system that shows you items that need to be ordered is crucial.  Bear in mind that popular items might differ across outlets, hence ordering raw materials might as well differ depending on the consumption.

A restaurant POS will get you timely alerts from all the outlets about the inventory with aligned data from all locations.

Any disruption in the raw material that supplies restaurants disrupts the service but also shortages cause a price increase.

Maintain proper communication

You need a good flow of information and ideas between different locations. One location might come up with an interesting idea to increase sales and this idea needs to be shared across other locations.

Experiences must also be shared on how to deal with difficult customers or unhappy guests for example. Training videos on cost-saving techniques and up-selling strategies must be shared with all employees of different locations.

You can hold virtual meetings with your staff on a monthly or bi-weekly basis but remember that despite the need for unifying procedures, your staff should feel some flexibility in decision-making for better engagement.

You need this cohesion across different outlets for a healthy work environment that has its return on the revenues.

Having poor communication within one restaurant’s outlet will cause staffing, scheduling, inventory, and service problems. Imagine having this poor communication across different outlets. It will affect your performance and damage your reputation.

Running a multi-chain restaurant is a goal every restaurateur aims to achieve as part of their expansion plans. It has big outcomes but comes with challenging problems that risk your image if not properly managed.