.svg)
If you’re a restaurant manager, or other hospitality sector leader already using Trail to manage operations, you’ve probably got your tried and tested festive season plan well underway and are merrily humming Fairytale of New York as you work.
If you don’t yet have Trail software, or are a new business in the early stages of planning your establishment’s first Christmas, you may be mulling over questions such as:
Trail hospitality checklist app is here to support your business throughout the year, but during the festive season, we can help take some of the pressure off by bringing daily checks, tasks, compliance needs and records into one place – no extra paper, no fuss, just clean, effective digital planning. And, when you’re safe in the knowledge that your restaurant’s needs are in good hands, you can focus more time on giving your customers the very best Christmas experience.
So, whether you’re well versed at getting your establishment ready for corporate Christmas parties, smaller office-dos and cosy family gatherings, or new to the whole experience and keen to get it right, in this blog we’re going to share with you ten tips to help businesses of all sizes plan ahead for festive success.
December is the busiest month in the hospitality calendar, and you can expect to see more than double the number of covers on any given day compared to the rest of the year. But, when covers go up, your spare time goes down, and essential elements of running a safe, effective operation may be put at risk if you don’t keep them in check. That’s when a good checklist can help to keep you on track:
Check bookings, covers and sales from last year to help forecast covers for this year and use this information to formulate your marketing plan. Are there repeat customers you can target with a gentle reminder to plan holiday parties sooner rather than later? Pay attention to the most popular days and think what you could do to build numbers on the quieter days.
Costing and pricing your festive menus and packages should be one of your top priorities so that you can get your Christmas promotions out there and begin booking covers. Whether you’re going traditional, or a little more high-end, rolling out a festive menu doesn’t need to be a stressful exercise. With Trail, you can implement a new menu launch within two weeks. The system allows you to schedule actions and reminds your team to complete them on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. By using real-time reports, you can check back to see which sites have completed their tasks, and who still has actions outstanding.
As we’ve already mentioned, your menu and marketing plan go hand-in-hand and there’s little point having an awesome Christmas offering if nobody knows about it.
Plan how you are going to promote your Christmas menus and packages. Update your website and social media and do this early to reach repeat customers and entice new ones.
Remember to print festive menus and ensure they’re delivered well in advance of your festive launch. And don’t forget to make sure your seasonal POS is on site.
Plan your rotas and hire-in additional staff for the festive season – how else will you serve all those extra covers? It’s important for new starters to feel engaged and part of the team. Essential daily routines should be non-negotiable, and establishing these as habits will help create a brand standard and company culture that is easy for all team members to adopt.
Of course, having more people in your venue over the festive period poses higher risks but keeping on top of compliance and legislation is a year-round priority. Don’t be tempted to go over the maximum capacity for your establishment as this could lead to discomfort for customers and potentially impact fire safety regulations. Food safety, health and safety, accident reporting and procedure can take up a lot of valuable time and can usually be avoided by creating a culture of best practice.
What better way to celebrate Christmas than with a glass of something fizzy or festive? Going back to your bookings diary, you may need to hire additional glasses, cutlery and tableware to cater for extra drinks, courses and customers. Plan your stock deliveries to cater for your busiest days – there’s no excuse for running out of food or drink at this time of year.
Also, pay attention to the small things such as making sure you have enough condiments. You’re competing with the ghosts of Christmas dinners past and don’t want to disappoint customers with missing essentials such as cranberry sauce and stuffing.
Whether you’re going for over-the-top opulence, Dickensian cosiness, or something a little more pared back, setting the scene with your decorations is key to showing customers that you are willing to go that extra mile to give them the best experience. It’s likely that many pictures will be taken by your guests so make sure the images they share project your brand and the vision set out in your marketing plan - it could help to generate repeat business for next year.
Any increase in customer numbers places pressure on hospitality venues to keep floors and facilities clean. Many people judge the quality of their experience and likelihood of a return visit on an establishment’s standard of cleanliness. A digital checklist like Trail helps you to keep on top of your restaurant cleaning schedule and allows you to share checklists of duties with your teams to ensure nothing is missed.
Is there anything else you could add to your festive menu and packages for extra sparkle and to drive profits? A Christmas cocktail, hot drink or festive appetiser could be a high volume and cost-effective addition to make customers feel welcome and valued.
After Christmas, when all the decorations have been taken down and the new year brings a calm, quieter pace, sit down with your team to debrief. These are great team building opportunities to discuss what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what can be improved for next year.
In this article, we’ve looked at the most important ways to stay on top of everything this Christmas. Hopefully you’re now festive-season ready and in a great position to deliver a fantastic festive experience to your customers.
In January, when you’ve come through the other side, all the valuable data, experience and feedback you’ve gathered can be added to your Christmas planner to give you a checklist and timeline of best practice for planning the party season next year. Just don’t forget to have a system in place for bringing out the planner in plenty of time to implement all the actions you need to get done.
Trail app can help you stay ahead of the holiday season with smart systems that benefit you all year round. Let’s talk.
.png){kind=logo}
