It’s no secret that the restaurant industry is grappling with several key challenges that are making operations more difficult and negatively affecting the guest experience. These challenges can have a snowball effect and ultimately lead to a diminished restaurant reputation.
The main challenges facing the restaurant industry today include labor shortage issues, which leads to training shortcomings amid a record high for employee turnover. What’s more, increasing revenue and controlling costs during concerns of recession, high inflation, and skyrocketing labor costs has become more difficult than ever.
Offering cocktails is a great way to grow revenue at restaurants. For casual dining outlets, cocktails make up a significant portion of revenue. In 2019 alone, revenue from spirits topped $29 billion for the industry, according to Statista. On average, the revenue from selling alcohol is 20 to 25 percent of restaurant income.
However, cocktails can be tricky to execute correctly – especially if a restaurant is short-staffed or the bar team is a revolving door or new faces. Batching cocktails is one way to combat these problems. The batching process for cocktails has been around forever. But batching is often complicated and in itself won’t solve the main challenges the restaurant industry is experiencing today.
Fortunately, there is a solution that can help restaurant owners and operators streamline processes and increase revenue: integrate a batch &draft cocktail program. Such a system can hook up to an existing draft beer system to streamline the batching process with no need for measuring cups, whisks, batching containers, etc.
Below, you’ll learn:
- the three biggest problems for the restaurant industry;
- more about what a Batch cocktail program is; and
- how Craft Standard’s batch & draft cocktails can solve your biggest challenges and be a significant driver of a great guest experience.
Challenge 1: Labor Shortage Strain
The restaurant industry is experiencing the most severe labor shortage of its history. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the accommodation and food services sector has a 9.5% job open rate. That’s the highest rate on record out of any industry the BLS measures.
Lack of staff can negatively affect the guest dining experience as wait times increase and food and service quality decreases. Simply put, the team you have needs to be able to do more with fewer resources. A Craft Standard cocktail program can boost the guest experience. That’s because it’s easy to batch a recipe and it’s even easier to pour that cocktail from a beer tap.
Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to batch a classic margarita. In a Craft Standard Margarita keg, simply attach the patented Spiker to the top of the keg and pour in your choice of tequila and triple sec. Give the keg a proper shake and connect to a clean draft beer line, and you’re ready to pour. The most difficult part of the whole process? Cutting up limes for garnish.
There’s no question about the time savings with Craft Standard cocktails. The average time it takes to prepare a cocktail from scratch the traditional way and close out the transaction is 210 seconds versus 90 seconds to serve a pre-batched cocktail and close the transaction. That’s almost a 60% reduction in time when serving batched cocktails by Craft Standard.
Challenge 2: Training Amid High Employee Turnover
The employee turnover rate in the restaurant industry is about 75% every year compared to 49% in other industries, according to National Restaurant Association.
With the batch & draft cocktails by Craft Standard, a novice or brand new bar staff can be trained in 5 to 10 minutes and serve premium cocktails consistently every time. Because batch & draft cocktails by Craft Standard come with easy-to-mix batch recipe cards, you don’t need to be a bartender to mix and pour. If you can operate a keg tap, you can pour a premium cocktail.
Compliance is another risk when a bar staff is new. With Craft Standard’s easy-to-follow recipe cards, restaurant owners and operators can rest assured that each drink is poured with the right amount of alcohol every time.
Lastly, a Craft Standard cocktail program solves consistency issues. Even in the best training program with a full and seasoned staff, cocktail consistency is still a problem. For example, every casual dining restaurant has a house margarita. The drink is designed to deliver a consistent guest experience. However, if you go to five different restaurants within the chain, chances are you’re going to get five different interpretations of the house margarita recipe depending on who’s making it. A Craft Standard cocktail program can batch your house recipes so that they are poured the same (within seconds) every time. That means less training, more consistency and a better guest experience.
Challenge 3: Increasing Revenue & Controlling Costs
For those restaurants without a cocktail program, premium cocktails on the menu may seem like a daunting undertaking – especially if you’re working with a skeleton crew. However, Craft Standard cocktails empower restaurant owners and operators to implement a successful revenue-generating program.
Let’s look at the house margarita example, which is also important when it comes to controlling costs. House drinks are typically lower priced with lower margins. That means there’s no room to make mistakes in the recipe. Overpouring, while certainly a compliance issue, is also costly and eats away at the already-low margins of house drinks – especially as costs continue to rise. Food costs were up 7.9 percent last year alone, and hourly labor costs were up 8.6 percent for the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. As inflation continues to affect the bottom line, restaurant owners and operators need to control costs anywhere they can.
One of the best things about batch & draft cocktails by Craft Standard? It doesn’t require any new capital investment because it can hook up to your existing draft beer system. And because recipes are easy to execute and even easier to pour, there’s no risk of overpouring. The system takes the guesswork out of it completely. It’s the same cocktail no matter who pours it.
Conclusion