Lucrative data for hospitality: 4 applications on the work floor

Data is a magic word. But many hospitality entrepreneurs don’t know where to start when it comes to analyzing and interpreting data. The good news: you can start step by step. “Monitoring sales data from your POS system or the monthly profit and loss report from your accounting software already provides immediate insights. At first, you compare the development of your revenue across multiple days, locations, or seasons. This already allows you to make forecasts for the coming year. For example, how much staff you need to deploy during the summer season.
 

Weet dat door het ontstaan van systemen waarmee je alle data samenbrengt, je een integraal perspectief krijgt van je bedrijf. Door je kassasysteem te verbinden met je personeelsplanningstool, keukensoftware, voorraadmanagement en boekhoudsoftware kun je processen nog beter begrijpen, verklaren en vertalen naar concrete acties op de werkvloer. Je “probleemgebieden” bepalen waar je inhoudelijk de focus wil leggen.

1) Using data to increase your revenue

Why is my revenue lower than my target? The answer could be: fewer guests or a lower average spend per guest. How many products do you need to upsell to increase that average spend? That’s an example of a question business intelligence software can answer. Then it’s up to you as an entrepreneur. By training your staff in upselling and making sales suggestions, you can sell more drinks or encourage guests to order that sandwich as a starter after all. If you turn it into a game, you’ll notice that employees become intrinsically motivated and really go for it.

2) Using data for your staff

Why is my labor cost percentage higher than your target? The answer could be: lower revenue, possibly combined with too many hours worked and/or a higher average hourly wage. By using data, you can significantly improve how you schedule your staff. Based on your revenue budget and target productivity, you can already see during planning how many hours you can afford to schedule per department. This way, you proactively know that you can deploy two fewer hours, instead of discovering afterward that you misjudged the situation.

Example: between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM, I expect to generate €500 in food revenue. With a target productivity of €100, this means I need 5 kitchen staff members. This scheduling suggestion is then compared with the planned hours from the staff management software. If 6 employees are scheduled, you receive a notification that the target productivity cannot be achieved. In this way, a manager can proactively optimize staff planning. Of course, you shouldn’t rely blindly on this and should take into account factors such as mise en place, opening and closing activities. That said, this data-driven method forces you to critically review your processes and improve them where possible. After all, you can see exactly how much the sixth staff hour between 2:00 PM and 3:00 PM costs you on a weekly basis.

Insights from the data that your POS system collects per employee can also be used to personally coach your staff and improve performance. Think of data such as the average transaction value, best-selling items, and terrace sales.

3) Using data for your purchasing

You often only notice that your purchasing percentage is too high afterward. Why is the purchasing percentage higher than the target? The reasons can vary: too much waste, incorrect portioning, or spoilage. By comparing insights from sales trends (popular products) with the actual consumption per ingredient (starting inventory + purchases – ending inventory), you get indicators of where the problems lie. Often, a 5% purchasing discrepancy is caused by just 5 to 10 ingredients. By monitoring these ingredients as a team and purchasing them more efficiently, you can target and minimize purchasing discrepancies. This not only reduces waste and gives you better control over your margins but also saves time. Your kitchen staff spend less time counting and ordering, allowing them to focus on mise-en-place—the core activities in the kitchen.

You can go as far as you want. If you manage your purchasing in an inventory management system and link it with other systems, you can track everything down to the ingredient level. You can analyze portion sizes by comparing purchased ingredients with sold dishes. Data also helps you make strategic decisions when purchasing doesn’t align with scalability or rapid growth.

4) Using data for your concept

Data encourages you to look at your concept with a different mindset. You can set up experiments to tweak your concept. If your hospitality group includes multiple concepts, you can make decisions based on the audience and level of demand to determine which concept works most successfully at a given location. Data can also guide decisions to adjust your culinary formula if margins aren’t performing well, such as switching from à la carte to shared dining or from all inclusive to paying per round.

One last tip: “If your different systems aren’t properly integrated, it becomes very inconvenient. Reliable integrations are essential to fully leverage the possibilities of data and Business Intelligence. If you use the DISH POS system and DISH Staff Planner software, you’re already on the right track. The data is always valid and complete, which gives confidence!”


 

YourBI ensures that hospitality businesses can make data-driven decisions on a daily basis. Their use of management information, derived from dashboard data analysis, is a proven strategy for achieving growth ambitions.