Tips on How to Read and Understand Your Restaurant Data Analytics

To manage any small business, you must analyze data, observe patterns, and make improvements. For success and growth, it’s critical to assess your company’s strengths and shortcomings and devise a strategy to address them. So, how do you go about doing this? Collecting and analyzing data is the most effective approach to precisely determining what your small business needs. This strategy applies to any small business, but it is particularly beneficial in the food industry. If you want to expand your restaurant, collecting and analyzing data during business hours will provide you with all you need to succeed.

Types of Data Collected

When collecting data at a restaurant, there are several factors to consider. For starters, you can track which hours and seasons are the busiest. When you follow the busiest hours and seasons, you can figure out when to put out seasonal favorites, what customers are ordering, and bring your staff’s A-game during those times. You will also need to ensure there are enough waiters and waitresses on those specific hours and seasons. If not, customers will get impatient to be seated and eventually walk out of your restaurant. Consider using a point-of-sale system to track how many bookings are made and inventory. Make sure to order enough produce before business hours, since you’ll need to keep track of how much you have and how much you’ll need in the future. That way, you can be prepared for the next day and have enough to feed your customers.

How to Make Sense of the Data

As previously said, using a POS system may save you a lot of time when it comes to managing busy hours, staff clock-in times, reservations, and inventory. National Retail Solutions, the world leader in POS systems, offers a POS system that makes tracking your sales and inventory easier than ever before. With the NRS POS system, the merchant can collect data from the POS about a customer’s spending habits, and you will be able to see what dishes are selling and which are not as popular. The POS system offers notifications on your phone and the POS screen when running low on inventory. Along with the inventory tracking, NRS also offers an NRS Pay Credit Card Processing system that makes payment fast and easy and ensures that charges are going through seamlessly. NRS Pay accepts all major credit cards, Google and Apple pay, and even government assistance payments like EBT! To learn more about the NRS POS system and NRS Pay, check out nrsplus.com.

How to Use Data to Improve Performance & Sales

If you run a restaurant chain or in several locations, analytics can provide you with the bigger picture you need to flourish. By combining all of the data, you will be able to see where to focus your efforts. A restaurant owner can see what elements of their business require improvement and what hours are most reasonable to make a profit. A new restaurant might take up to a year to properly establish seasonal trends and patterns. There will be a trial and error period when examining the data, but do not give up. Analyzing data in your restaurant takes a lot of effort and patience, but if you figure out how to read it, you’ll be well on your way to being a great restaurateur.

Start with NRS Pay today!

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By Marko Georgiev