Running a pub can be a challenging and daunting profession and certainly not always the fun job it can seem from the other side of the bar.
Not only can it involve very long hours but also a great deal of business strains for landlords. So here are our top 5 tips to running a pub efficiently to help you make the most of your establishment and keep your customers happy.
Get with the now
Gone are the days of old school tills and cash registers, where you could be stood for moments trying to work out the right change to give your customer. Advanced POS systems are the way to go. With quick and varied functionality and also extremely friendly interfaces these intelligent systems can save you time and money. All your products and stock can be easily logged onto these systems meaning your staff can serve customers quickly and efficiently. Helping you to organise, these systems can paint a good picture of your evenings work after busy nights, saving you the most valuable resource of all, time! A good POS system is a must for running an efficient pub.
Knowing your customers
Hopefully your pub is, or will be, a roaring success and you’ll have the joys of a large array of different customers frequenting your establishment for a drink or a bite to eat. It’s important that you get to know your customers and also establish any potential troublemakers that may be on your radar. The most efficient and cost effective way to run a pub is to make sure your customers are happy, and no one likes someone who’s had too much. Make sure you’re aware of your patrons and what impact they are having on your other customers, a happy pub will be a profitable one.
Keep a good kitchen
A good kitchen with a decent chef and a great menu can be a real money spinner for many pubs, so much so that British pubs on the whole make more money from food than drink. So utilise this channel of income to boost your customer base and broaden the potential horizons for your establishment. But however good your food or drink may be, it needs to be efficient to make money. Make sure your kitchen equipment is kept in good working order and up to date, as this can become costly in time and money if failings start to creep in. Most importantly keep your food offering consistent in price and choice, this is what your customers come for and will come back for, what they know. Of course variation can be a great weapon when well utilised, so look to drive more business to your restaurant with local offerings. Customers love to eat good seasonal and local produce, knowing that what’s in front of them has been grown or raised a stone’s throw away. Utilise this great produce with minimal wastage and you’re on to a real winner.
Staff, second to none.
Your staff will act as the face of your establishment, within a matter of seconds they can turn on or turn off a customer to your pub. Poor service is something customers remember, and that’s the last thing you need. Staff can be invaluable to running a pub efficiently; if you can keep your staff happy and motivated then their passion and enthusiasm will rub off on your customers and make your pub a place to remember. A fantastic way to make sure you are running efficiently is to involve your staff in training sessions, making sure they are trained across different roles. Don’t get it wrong, you still need your specialists as much as ever. But helping staff to understand more of the processes allows them to be more involved and knowledgeable. The more they know, the more they can pass onto your customers when asked for a perfect recommendation.
Solid suppliers
Be sure to regularly look into your suppliers and what they are offering you. It’s great to have a good long standing relationship with a supplier, as this can often drive down price. However on occasions you may find you could be getting a better deal elsewhere, everyone wants a better deal! So make sure you shop around for the perfect price, you’d do it for yourself so make sure you’re doing it for your business. Ultimately your supplier’s prices will impact your prices and could make you less profitable, efficient and even reduce your custom.
These tips can help you to run a pub efficiently and effectively by saving time and money. Another great tip for efficiently running your pub is to install a Beer Piper beer line cleaning system. Selling beer that is in the line and reducing wastage is a sure fire way to increase efficiency, so make sure you look at the benefits of a Beer Piper system now.
