Looking to create, track, and achieve your restaurant goals this year? This article will help you do it.
Goal-setting and tracking provide the direction. Focus and motivation are the things your restaurant business needs to stay afloat and thrive.
But goal-setting doesn’t come easily to every restaurant owner. You might find it difficult to decide what’s next for your business, whether it is achievable or not, and how to keep tabs on your progress.
We’ll cover:
- What restaurant goals are.
- How to set achievable goals for your restaurant business.
- How to measure the success of your restaurant goals.
To begin, let’s first understand what restaurant goals are.
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What are restaurant goals?
Restaurant goals are targets your restaurant business wants to achieve usually over a given period.
They are a makeshift roadmap to success, answering important questions like:
- Where would you like to take your restaurant business?
- How would it take you to get there?
- How will you track your progress towards these targets?
Restaurant goals can be general, for instance, improving your customer’s overall dining experience. Or you can get specific and set out to reduce average wait times by 10% during peak hours. In this guide, we’ll focus on the specific goals because we want to track them.
The different types of restaurant goals
As someone who’s been in the restaurant industry or just getting started, you might think restaurant goals are all about boosting sales and revenue. But these are only the financial goals. There are other types of goals, including marketing, customer service, kitchen, and employee goals.
We can broadly break up restaurant goals into short-term and long-term goals (more on this later). Regardless of the type, the goals you set reflect where you want to take your business and set you up to work toward them.
Now that we have a pretty good idea of what restaurant goals are, let’s go over why you should set them for your restaurant.
Why should I set goals for my restaurant?
Setting goals for your restaurant is a best practice. This is because it drives it in the right direction in the following ways.
Goals improve your staff members’ performance
According to research, setting challenging but achievable goals boosts performance by 90%.
This cuts across all businesses, including restaurants. Goals demand more from your staff, which improves their performance. Let’s say you’ve set out to increase your sales by 5% for the next month. Your staff will have to put in a better shift to achieve this goal.
Your restaurant business goals also keep your team motivated. When they accomplish a milestone, for instance, increasing sales by 5%, they will be motivated to achieve the next one (for example, increasing sales by 10%).
They allow you to define your restaurant’s success clearly
As a restaurant manager, you know that success looks different for different restaurants and other businesses. Your restaurant’s goals will clarify what success looks like to you. For instance, you might want to increase sales by selling more food to your current customers, while another restaurateur might want to do this by acquiring new customers.
So here, you can achieve your goal without increasing your customer base. When you have a clear goal, you can focus better on accomplishing it.
They inform decision-making
Decision-making isn’t easy for most businesses. A McKinsey study found that only 20% of businesses excel at decision-making.
Fortunately, goal-setting can help you with it. You are more likely to make the right decisions if they’re aligned with your goals.
They help establish accountability across all levels of your restaurant business
When setting your business goals, you can break them down and assign them to different teams in your restaurant. You can have separate goals for the team that sources food, other goals for the one that prepares it, and others for the sales and marketing team. You can also set goals for yourself as the restaurant manager.
As a result, individual teams will be responsible for achieving your goals and the success of your restaurant business.
So, we’ve looked at what restaurant goals are and why they’re important. Let’s make it practical and look at how to set achievable goals for your restaurant business.
How to set achievable goals for your restaurant business
Now, let’s talk about setting goals for your restaurant, and not just any goals but achievable ones. Remember that restaurant goals are meant to push your employees a little harder without overwhelming them. With that in mind, here’s how to set these goals for your restaurant business.
1. Understand your vision and mission
The first step to setting achievable goals is to understand your vision and mission. This will enable you to set goals that align with them.
So when setting your goals, remind yourself what your mission and vision are:
- Vision: What is the long-term impact you want your restaurant to make?
- Mission: What are the core values and purpose of your restaurant?
So that if your long-term vision is to become the go-to restaurant for diners in your local community, you can set goals such as:
- Increasing locally sourced ingredients by 20% in the next 3 months.
- Hosting 3+ local community events (bar mitzvahs, local events, etc.) in the next month.
The bottom line is that the goals you set should directly contribute to your mission as a restaurant and your long-term vision.
2. Use the SMART Criteria
The best way to set goals for your restaurant is to do it the SMART way. The SMART criteria is a widely used framework for effectively setting business goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, which represents the qualities your goals should have.
To set SMART goals for your restaurant, ensure they’re:
- Specific. Clearly define what you want to achieve. Instead of simply saying ‘increase sales’, make it more specific and say “Increase daily net restaurant sales by 10% through upselling by the end of the third quarter”. This will minimize the chances of miscommunication in your team.
- Measurable. Attach a number (for instance, 10% like above) to the goals to ensure they can be measured. This way, you can track your progress. We’ll be looking at how to track these goals later in this guide.
- Achievable. Goals are supposed to motivate your employees but not overwhelm them. So setting an unrealistic goal, such as increasing total daily sales by 1000% in the next month, will do more harm than good. Your team will be deflated when they, inevitably, fail to accomplish this goal. So, depending on your resources, set goals that are challenging but attainable.
- Relevant. Your goals should align with your overall business objectives. For instance, if you run a family-friendly restaurant, setting a goal to open a liquor section might not be the best idea. But adding more healthy menu items to the kids’ menu is in sync with your overall objectives.
- Time-bound. Set deadlines to meet these goals. After all, a goal without a deadline is simply a dream. Whether it is days, weeks, months, or years, a deadline will create urgency and motivate your staff to work towards achieving the goal. It also allows you to measure your progress.
3. Short-term vs. long-term goals
You should also balance goal setting by combining both short-term and long-term goals.
Short-term goals
You can achieve these goals within a few months to a year.
For example:
- Increasing monthly net restaurant sales by 10%.
- Reducing food waste by 20% in six months.
- Improving customer satisfaction scores by 15% in three months.
The value of short-term goals is immeasurable if you’re running a small-scale restaurant. Studies show that 70% of successful small businesses consistently set short-term goals.
They provide your team with quick and easy wins that motivate them to work towards achieving long-term goals. As such, they should be set up to contribute to this.
Long-term restaurant goals
You can achieve these in years to come.
For example:
- Opening a second location within five years.
- Achieving a 30% market share in your area within three years.
- Becoming a top-rated restaurant in your city within five years.
- Adding new revenue streams, such as selling gift cards in the next two years.
Long-term goals focus on growing your restaurant business successfully and realizing your long-term vision.
4. Focus on key areas
When setting your goals, focus on the key areas which will enable you to achieve them. This includes marketing, finances (revenue, profit, etc.), operations, and customer experience. You can set different types of goals for each of these key areas but align them with your restaurant’s long-term vision.
Focusing on your restaurant’s key areas, here are the different types of goals you can set.
Financial goals
These are the most common goals all types of businesses set for themselves. It isn’t just about increasing sales alone. You’ll have to do it while remaining profitable. So, you need to set goals that boost your revenue without your expenses going up.
You can do this by setting goals to cut down on food costs, acquire new customers, etc.
To be specific, here are some financial goals you can set:
- Increase annual revenue by 30%.
- Reduce operational costs by 20% through optimizing inventory and staffing.
Operational goals
This involves setting goals to streamline your restaurant operations. It has two sides: the employees’ and the customers’ sides. In essence, you’ll want to set goals that improve how you handle your customers and employees.
For instance:
- Reducing wait times during peak hours by 10% by improving kitchen efficiency within 1 month.
- Retraining 80% of your employees on kitchen efficiency in the next 2 weeks.
Customer experience goals
These goals should be pretty straightforward.
Apart from reducing the wait times, you can also set out to:
- Invest in customer feedback and attain a 4.5-star rating on review platforms like Tripadvisor or Yelp in the next 6 months.
- Develop a customer loyalty program within the next quarter.
Fun fact: Customer loyalty programs make 41% of customers more likely to keep buying from a business.
Marketing goals
There are so many different marketing goals you can set depending on your target market, their demographics, and how you want to reach them.
For example, if you want to target a youthful market, you can:
- Focus your marketing strategy to grow your social media following by 30% in 6 months.
- Host at 3+ events (like Jazz Nights) for the next 3 months.
Otherwise, you can still set general goals, like aiming to launch a new marketing campaign every quarter. Remember to use the SMART Criteria we’ve covered above to set these goals as well.
5. Break down goals into actionable steps
After setting your goals, list the steps you’ll need to take to achieve them. Let’s say your goal is to increase monthly sales by 10% you might do the following things to accomplish it.
Introduce a new menu item
New menu items pique the interest of potential customers, especially if they’re unique or follow current food trends. For example, adding eggnog to the menu during the festive season. The regulars will also appreciate something out of the ordinary. New menu items keep your menu fresh and exciting for them.
This is such a common sales-boosting tactic, as 31% of restaurateurs update their menus monthly. You can go further and offer incentives such as discounts on new items to entice customers.
Host special events or promotions
This includes themed nights like Taco Tuesday, live entertainment like Karaoke, or food and drink specials such as happy hour. These events and promotions will attract customers most interested in them. You will likely make a lot of sales during these promotions.
Improve your online ordering system
Online ordering is the go-to option for most restaurant customers.
Studies show that 70% of customers prefer to order food online and want it delivered. Online ordering platform is a convenient option for your customers.
They can order fresh, hot meals and enjoy them from the comfort of their homes and workplaces. You can take advantage of this and optimize your online ordering and food delivery services to increase your sales.
With WordPress and WooCommerce as your ecommerce platforms, you can set this up easily using the WordPress plugin.
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- Delivery and local pickup time slots. Allow customers to pick up when it is convenient for them to receive their orders or pick them up from your premises.
- Mobile-friendly menus. This makes the ordering experience a breeze for customers ordering on their mobile phones.
- Order notifications. Keep customers in the loop about the status of their orders from order confirmation, preparation, packaging, and out for delivery/local pickup.
- Product labels. Are you offering special diet food such as veggie burgers, or do you have promotions for specific foods? You can let customers know quickly by labeling these foods on your menu.
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How can I measure the success of my restaurant’s goals?
You can measure the success of your restaurant goals by establishing the KPIs aligning with your goals. These metrics will inform you if your strategies are working effectively or falling short of meeting your goals. You can then decide whether to adjust them or not.
Tracking these metrics is also a great way to motivate your team. You’ll present them with the small wins that encourage them to keep working to achieve long-term goals.
Straight to it, here are the metrics you can track to measure the success of your restaurant goals.
Financial metrics
Financial goals center around increasing your revenue and profit margins and reducing costs. Several financial metrics provide a clear way to measure your progress toward these goals. We can broadly split them into revenue and profit margin metrics and cost evaluation metrics.
Revenue and profit margin metrics
If you’ve set goals to increase your sales, revenue, and profits, these are some of the metrics you should keep an eye on:
- Monthly and annual revenue. Get the total income you generate from selling food and other services over the month or year. You can then compare this to the previous year or month and see if you’re progressing towards your goal.
- Profit margins. Subtract the costs such as your employee salaries (labor costs), packaging materials, and delivery service charges and get the net profit.
- Average order value (AOV). Take the total number of orders and divide it by the number of customers over the month. This will help you know if you’re making more sales per order with order bumps, product add-ons, etc.
Cost management metrics
It would be difficult to achieve your financial goals if you’re generating more revenue, but your costs are also going up.
To keep your costs low, look at these metrics:
- Food cost percentage. Simply put, this is how the cost of the ingredients stacks up against food sales. It should be as low as possible.
- Overhead costs. Evaluate if overhead costs like rent, utilities (electricity or waste disposal), etc., have gone down.
There are many more metrics you can monitor, which we’ve covered in our Restaurant KPIs guide.
Customer metrics
If you’ve set goals to retain more customers, keep them happy, and get them to spend more on your restaurant, you’ll need to measure certain customer metrics. You can evaluate if you’re meeting your customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty goals by tracking the following metrics.
Customer satisfaction
You can determine how effective your restaurant is at providing high-quality customer service by collecting your customer’s feedback via:
- Surveys and feedback forms. Ask customers to leave feedback after completing their order. In these surveys, you can ask them how satisfied they were with your service and how likely they are to recommend your business to other customers.
- Online reviews and ratings. Track your reviews and ratings on Google.
What if you find negative reviews? Learn how to handle negative customer reviews in our How to Handle Customer Complaints guide.
Customer retention and loyalty
For customer loyalty and retention, look at your repeat customer rates. Are more customers making repeat purchases than when you previously measured this metric? Alternatively, if you’ve accomplished your goal of setting up a loyalty program, check how many customers have signed up after a month or two to evaluate its success.
Learn more about how to get loyal customers in your restaurant in our Customer Loyalty Guide for Restaurants.
Operational metrics
As the name suggests, operational metrics provide insights into how well your restaurant operates regarding your goals. This includes how efficiently your staff prepares and delivers orders and if they manage inventory properly.
Operational efficiency
This involves evaluating the efficiency of your operations from top to bottom, including kitchen operations, customer service, and deliveries. Here’s what you can monitor:
- The average order preparation and delivery times. Check if these processes have become faster compared to the previous month or week. Remember, this also affects customer satisfaction as it reduces wait times.
- Kitchen and service staff performance. Look at how often your staff gets and prepare orders correctly.
Inventory management
Here, you can measure the inventory turnover rate. This is the number of times you sell all your food and replace it with new ingredients, ready to prepare and sell it again. You can also track food wastage and see how well your team limits food wastage.
Marketing metrics
Actionable steps, such as improving your social media presence, launching marketing campaigns, etc., will help you meet your marketing goals. But you’ll need to keep an eye on them periodically (monthly or annually) to track your progress.
Depending on your marketing efforts, here are some metrics to keep an eye on.
Social media and online presence
Check the number of followers your social media account has gained since you launched your social media campaign. In addition, look at the impressions your posts get to understand the potential reach of your content. Also, check whether your social media posts’ shares, likes, and comments have increased.
Moving away from social media, you should pay close attention to your restaurant website. You can use tools like Google Analytics to analyze its traffic. You’ll also need to look at the conversions, which, in our case, are the purchases or reservations you get.
Campaign success
Track the increase in sales during promotions. Are customers buying more of the products on sale, for instance, if you have a large deluxe pizza at 30% off? Also, assess how customers engage with your ads by looking at click-through rates, impressions, etc.
Staff metrics
You can also monitor the steps you take to retain your employees and ensure they have great working conditions. Let’s say you’ve set up an employee training program or created a supportive and appreciation culture (employee of the month).
There are metrics you can keep an eye on to see if these actions are moving you closer to your goals.
Employee satisfaction and turnover
You can administer employee surveys or feedback forms to collect information on employee satisfaction just as you would for customer satisfaction. You can ask them to rate their level of satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 10.
Alternatively, you can take matters into your own hands and track the employee turnover rate. This refers to the number of employees who stop working with you over a given period. Instead of looking at it as a whole, you can get specific and find out the departments with the highest turnover rates.
Training and development
Find out how many employees complete your training programs. Then see if this translates to a better performance. Do the trained employees serve customers faster? Have they got better at inventory management and limiting food wastage?
Answering these questions will give you a clear insight into how effective your training program is.
Get to grips with your restaurant goals today
In such a competitive restaurant industry, you need to set goals to keep your business afloat and enable it to thrive. After setting your goals, you also need to track your progress towards meeting them.
In this guide, we’ve covered several different ways to do this to make goal-setting and tracking easier for you as a restaurant manager. If you’ve set out to increase sales, improving your online ordering platform experience is the best way to do it.
With digitalmall.pk you can add a robust online ordering platform to your restaurant website. It takes care of everything from creating menus and order management to adding delivery and local pickup timeslots – all without charging you any commission.
It also has powerful sales-boosting tools, such as product add-ons and order bumps, that will help you achieve your sales goals.
Conclusion
In today’s digital age, when every restaurant requires a food ordering app, there’s no better place to start than online. Our platform provides everything you need to create a professional ordering website, share it with the world, and you can reach even more customers by sharing your website across social media or emailing it directly to potential diners. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and see how easy it is to market your restaurant online with digitalmall.pk!
