Find success with food ordering apps spite of labor shortage

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According to the National Restaurant Association(NRA), 78% of restaurant owners across the U.S. report that they do not have enough staffing to support their current consumer demand. In February 2020, the number of restaurant workers were more than 650,000. It plummeted to a little more than 200,000 two months later. A year-long steady increase slowed down in recent months. Restaurant staffing is currently still down by 21%.

The good news is that Labor shortages are not impossible to resolve. It requires the right tools and tactics to navigate through this time.

You will need to work on retaining your staff. At this moment your existing staff is never more valuable! Get staffs feedback and start working on solving problems. Make sure you appreciate the hard work employees. Show employees you care about them and their career.

Take advantage of technology. A restaurant food ordering app is the perfect starting point. Your customers can place their takeout and delivery orders via your app and you will not need a phone operator. It’s important you re-assign your staff’s roles, first by eliminating roles that do not need human assistance. A phone operator is no ymore required so that is already one role crossed off the list!

Food ordering apps can be used in-house as well. When customers are seated, they can browse your menu at their fingertips and place their orders through your app. Payment is made through the app when they confirm their order. Staff is relieved of the burden of waiting tables, taking orders and clearing checks, your wait staff can serve more tables. You can increase the size of service sections, lowering the number of front-of-house staff you will need to roster per shift.

Many restaurant owners have had to take some drastic measures to continue functioning despite the labor shortage. The most common have been shorter opening hours and fewer operating days. Some of the few eating and drinking places have scaled down their seating capacity so that their smaller staff base can cope with the demand. These kinds of reductions have taken a severe toll on restaurant profits and, for some, the financial impact has been so overwhelming that they have had to close down altogether.

With a food ordering app, your restaurant can function the regular operations with fewer front-of-house staff. You can continue to rake in the revenue, even though you may not have as many staff working the floor as you previously did. Moreover, a food ordering app can help you save money. Simply by making your restaurant more efficient, you can run with a smaller staff base. You will no longer need to keep hunting for staffing. Because you will not be needing as much staff, as usual, you will not have to fork out inordinate sums of money for hiring bonuses or treats for interviewees.

An Applova custom food ordering app is your restaurant’s solution to the combat the current labor crisis. With Applova, you can fortify your restaurant against the vagaries of the market and stabilize your business.

Find out how Applova can help you drive new customers