A restaurant's biggest saving may not be on the staff rota

Restaurant profitability is under pressure. Ingredients are expensive, guests think twice before spending, and fixed costs run even when the dining room is half empty. When the result turns negative, it is easy to look at the staff rota first. Before you cut shifts, check your bills, routines and systems. They often hold savings that guests never notice.

Why restaurant profitability is under pressure

Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland interviewed 25 restaurant owners across Finland. In the study, the biggest challenges were costs and profitability, consumer behaviour and bureaucracy. Profitability is eaten away by expensive ingredients, the high staff costs of a labour-intensive sector and a small operating margin.

According to the researchers, a restaurant's worst competitor is the sofa at home. The problem is not that guests are unhappy with the service, but that people do not go out at all. That is exactly why saving on service is risky. Once a guest has decided to eat out, they need a reason to come back.

Cutting staff has a price

Staff costs are among a restaurant's largest costs, so cutting them feels natural. Fewer people on shift, however, often means longer waits, busier service and lost sales.

Picture a Friday night with one waiter fewer on the floor. Second rounds of drinks are never ordered because nobody has time to ask. A party waits ten minutes for the bill and decides to skip dessert. At worst, the saving weakens the very experience that brings guests back.

Go through the bills before the rota

Many restaurants pay for several services every month: the till system, payment terminals, card fees, reporting tools, table bookings, a loyalty programme and various add-ons. A single bill does not feel large, but together the total can be significant.

Put one month's bills on the table and ask about each one:

• Do we still use this? An add-on may have been switched on as a trial and forgotten.
• Are we paying for the same thing twice? Reporting, online orders and gift cards may sit both in the till and in a separate service.
• When was the agreement last put out to tender? The price list may be years old, even though the market has changed.
• What does cancelling take? The commitment and notice periods decide when the saving starts.

For card fees, work out the effective percentage: all of the month's card costs divided by card sales. Our card payment fees guide explains where to find the figures.

Efficiency does not have to come out of your staff's backs

Lowering the bills does not solve everything. It is just as important to look at where working time goes. If a waiter walks an order to the till, keys it in and walks back to the table, time goes on something guests never see.

Typical time thieves are:

• recording orders twice, for example on a notepad and then at the till
• copying online orders into the till by hand
• splitting the bill between a party with a calculator
• pulling the day's sales together from several reports for the accountant
• queues at the counter during the peak.

When these steps run smoothly, the same team has more time to serve. Efficiency does not mean doing the same work with fewer people. It can mean the current team has time to sell more.

With QR ordering, for example, guests order and pay on their own phones, and the paid order goes straight to the kitchen. Staff time moves from keying in orders to looking after guests.

The till system may be the easiest place to save

A till system is often seen as a fixed cost not worth thinking about. Its effect on daily work is still large. The right system can lower monthly software and service costs, remove overlapping tasks and give a clearer view of what sells and when.

An illustrative example:

The figures are made up and do not include switching costs. Work out your own comparison from your own bills.

So compare more than the monthly price. Ask how much time the system saves on a shift and what it costs as a whole. Include the cost of switching and the time it takes to get started. The guide to switching till systems shows what a switch needs.

Save on costs, not on the guest experience

A restaurant's most important edge is its ability to bring guests back. Skilled staff, smooth service and a good atmosphere are things guests pay for even in harder times.

So before the next round of staff cuts, ask one question: could we save the same amount by working smarter instead of working with fewer people?

The answer may be closer than you think, for example in your current till system. Solmio's prices are public, so you can compare your current costs with the pricing page before the first call. If you want help with the comparison, tell us about your current till and we will go through the figures with you.