Multi-Unit Restaurant Data Analytics: Everywhere at Once

Restaurants generate streams upon streams of data. For any operator, learning how to harness this data is crucial to success. Now, think about how much data a single restaurant creates, and consider the goal of the multi-site restaurant manager: making sense of these huge data streams multiplied by all of their sites.   Multi-site restaurant operators must examine the small picture analytics of their sites. They check metrics like a site’s speed of service numbers to determine performance in the kitchen and wait/ticket times to look at things in the front. They consider the revenues and inventories of each of their sites, analyze analytics, and plan their staff. These operators must also examine the “big picture” data of their restaurants, though. How are all of these sites contributing to the overall whole? A multi-site operator must be able to track and monitor data which gives them granular site details, as well as a well-rounded “birds-eye” view of their business.   For Lisa, maintaining as much consistency across her sites sat forefront in her mind. A recipe viewer in her KDS helped with this effort, as well as keeping training and onboarding costs low. With a clear picture and video display, every restaurant received the same recipes. With branded content, easily accessible on the spot, no site ever experienced a downgrade in quality control.   Lisa uses restaurant data to determine her “rockstar sites” and which ones need more attention. She cannot feasibly visit them all! Through enterprise functionality, she can obtain her multi-unit restaurant data analytics from anywhere, be it a desktop computer or even an app. Despite her goal of consistency, Lisa knows that every restaurant is slightly different, and has unique environmental factors that help or hinder it. As such, she can customize her analytics to make suitable decisions for individual stores.  She can set thresholds for her speed of service data which alert her every time a ticket time exceeds the established benchmarks. So, if a plate of food sits in the window between the kitchen and the floor for longer than, say, 2 minutes, it’ll trigger an alert. When Lisa sees multiple alarms for the same issue, she can investigate further to determine the cause.   Some of her sites naturally get more traffic, so their thresholds are slightly different than her lower-traffic stores. She can analyze every one of her restaurants using the most relevant real-time metrics for that store. While she depends on consistent output from her stores, she also knows that from a data perspective, what’s right for one might not be ideal for another.   In this restaurant segment, intuitive and connected technology gives Lisa the tools she needs to examine her operation. She can see how all the different parts of her operation contribute to the whole. She can dig down deep into the granular factors that keep each operation running, as well as the big picture statistics that add to the restaurant’s bottom line. This versatility and ease remain crucial in staying on top of a multi-site restaurant operation. It helps Lisa be, at least in spirit, everywhere at once.   Subscribe to the blog for more interesting restaurant content!

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About the Author

Brian leads the Implementation, Project Management, Training, and Support Services groups at QSR Automations. He has dual degrees in Information Systems and Operations Management and is a big baseball fan. He’s visited most of the Major League Baseball parks! Outside of that, he loves spending summer evenings with his family, especially at Louisville Bats games.