Consistency is key: successfully managing a multi-site hospitality business

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Whether your business is a chain, franchise or group of hospitality venues, running multiple sites comes with a unique set of challenges.

For hospitality brands with multiple locations, consumers tend to set certain expectations, anticipating the same level of efficiency and quality from every branch they visit. And with the competitive nature of the industry, businesses can’t afford for the real experience to fall short.

There are many factors to consider; the quality and appearance of each dish, the staff training provided to ensure consistent customer service, the cost of food and drink supplies, maintaining operational efficiency, keeping on top of stock levels and balancing admin time for each site. And more!

To uphold your brand’s reputation, consistent customer experience, and quality food and drink are key to keep customers coming back, whatever the location.

So how can hospitality businesses ensure consistency across all their sites?

Here, we discuss the strategies that businesses can implement to achieve maintainable standards, cut admin time and save precious costs in this tough current climate, to keep all their venues thriving.

#1. CPU management and inventory software
Central production units are a cost-effective way to streamline operations for hospitality businesses with multiple outlets. By prepping meals, sides, sauces or ingredients for cooking, from one central kitchen or warehouse, businesses can better ensure food is of a consistent quality and ready to serve.

Take Wagamama’s, for example, their signature dumplings, curry sauces and dipping sauces are produced at the company’s CPU in London, to ensure consistent quality and distinctive flavour. These are then shipped to each site, giving customers the well-known Wagamama experience at every single branch across the country.

Using Kitchen CUT’s unlimited units tool, chefs can prepare food in bulk without compromising the taste or texture by accurately calculating how many ingredients are needed to create larger quantities. Whether it’s grams, cases, slices, spoons, ladles, cups or kegs, the units will enable kitchen staff to develop and customise recipes to suit their needs and ensure consistency.

By saving preparation time at each venue, CPU’s can streamline business production and guarantee that guests know what they are getting, each time they visit one of your branches. CPUs can also help reduce staffing costs by using one central Chef and other business costs, such as commercial rent rates.

With specialist CPU software, businesses can manage operations from one system, from any device, at any time. All cellars, stores, concessions and central units are visible so business owners can keep track of the stock levels at each site, in real time. Automatic tracking updates give insight into which branches have certain items in stock and which need deliveries. This enables businesses to essentially act as their own suppliers, to keep costs down, reduce the risk of stock running out and to maintain operations running smoothly across all sites.

#2. Staff training and management
Customer service is central to the dining experience and memorable wait staff are a sure way to keep customers coming back and trying different branches of your business.

Again, consistency is key. By developing a standardised training programme, hospitality businesses can clearly set out the expectations they have of their staff and the type of experience they wish to provide for their customers. Maintain clear communication between branches to ensure each staff member is informed of any operational changes, thereby maintaining consistent service levels.

Finding a multi-unit manager that you can trust to enforce standardised training at each location will save time and the cost of multiple external trainers. These professionals help multi-site businesses in overseeing operations, maintaining up-to-date training programs, mentoring staff across various branches, troubleshooting and monitoring staff compliance to ensure consistency, keeping customers happy, and driving business profitability.

#3. Ordering and procurement
As well as an added, time-consuming burden for many hospitality professionals, ordering for multiple sites could feel like a minefield, with many individual orders often being sent to the same suppliers on different order sheets.

With specialist hospitality software, like Kitchen CUT, teams can streamline their procurement operations by bringing together multiple orders, from multiple employees, across multiple sites, with the tap of a tablet. With procurement software, numerous purchase orders can be submitted to a single system, which are then simplified into one order per supplier.

Not only will this streamline your business’ ordering processes, but it will also improve supply chain relationships by simplifying the process for your suppliers.

What’s more, with automated replenishment orders, specialist software notifies you when to repeat your regular orders for each site and how often, reducing unnecessary food waste and overspending. Ordering in bulk for your CPU for batch cooking will also save on costs, as suppliers often give notable discounts for larger orders.

#4. Monitoring performance
With more than one site, data insights are more important than ever. It can be challenging to gain a clear understanding of each branch’s true performance from the outside, and business owners must delve deeper to identify areas for improvement.

With data-driven insights, see how each site is performing on profits, COG’s and sales. Uncover what dishes are working, and which need tweaking, across all branches. Allowing you and the teams to make quick, easy and informed decisions to improve profitability and customer satisfaction.

Monitor the waste each branch creates, and see where it is coming from, to tackle the issue before it affects your bottom line and improve the sustainability of your operations.

Data reports can be measured against KPIs to identify your best and worst performing locations and dishes, through easy-to-read menu engineering reports that provide insight into the reasons behind this, to help you create actionable change.

As we’ve explored, establishing a consistent customer experience across multiple sites can be challenging, but the benefits are plenty. By streamlining your operations, customers can visit any of your branches and enjoy a consistent quality meal and the same level of excellent service, strengthening your reputation and boosting profits.

Using hospitality tech will not only simplify your operations but also increase efficiency across the board, helping to keep customers coming back to each of your sites