topic Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season? in Toast Community Hub

Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

jenni — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 15:02:29 GMT

Hi everyone! 👋

I wanted to share some great news! From March 15-31, we want you to reply and share how you and your team get ready for the busy season in this post. By doing so, you’re automatically entered for the chance to win $1,000 to support your restaurant's busy season preparations! Terms Apply.

We'd love to get to know you and hear how your restaurant team prepares for the busy season. Reply and tell us more about you below!

Name
Restaurant Name
Location
How long have you been a Toast customer?
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season?

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

NuCrepes — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:07:25 GMT

My name is Niall Martin and I own/operate Nu Crepes in Elmhurst, IL. We do a fast casual fare, served in crepe form! Warmer and busier months means we get to play with fun seasonal creations to help support our main menu.

We've been with Toast since Q3 of 2019, and honestly were glad we were up and running prior to 2020. The inclusive suite(s) that Toast had to offer really helped us when we were running lean and mean during the early Covid stages and it was supremely helpful. They continue to be an aid in our day to day business.

In today's climate, both macro and micro, we look 2 months ahead of where we want to be. This means we start our Spring/Summer early projects to complete. This may include building infrastructure or testing new product ideas. We also start work-shopping our social media content guide. What videos, images, vibes are we trying to display for the warmer months. This helps us get ready for what we call the start of busy season; Mother's Day. We consider this our stress test for the upcoming months, so we like to have new staff hired in before this so everyone is on the same page of operation and promotions.

I've learned along the way that you should always be ahead 2-3 months, even if you're a sole proprietor! Nothing like teasing upcoming ideas and products to your customer group. This season we are looking to engage our customer base more by offering polls and voting which Crepe of the Month we should bring back for one month only in the summer!

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

TallJay — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:21:02 GMT

The busy season for Chinese food is the traditional holiday season and in general the winter months.

Being prepared means being ready for most eventualities across the entire business.

Premises - all safety checks.

Equipment- running, fully operational and maintained.

Human resources- having backups if the need arises due to sickness, etc.

Food supplies- talking with all major suppliers. Finding out their delivery schedules and if any product slow downs are developing.

Marketing- contacting customers who placed large orders in previous years.

The key to successful marketing is knowing your customers.

Best,

Jay Hirschhorn

On Tue, Mar 14, 2023, 7:41 PM Jenni from Toast <communityupdates@toasttab.com> wrote:

Show quoted text

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

princepuckler — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 20:07:02 GMT

Name: Laura Robertson
Restaurant Name: Prince Puckler's Ice Cream
Location: Eugene, OR
How long have you been a Toast customer?: Since 2020
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season?: Hire early and get ahead of inventory! As an ice cream store, we are our most busy in the summer months, and so the sooner we can prepare, the better we are at handling the unexpected and not falling behind.

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

Erin — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 20:54:57 GMT

Name: Erin
Restaurant Name: Boss Lady Pizza
Location: Superior, CO
How long have you been a Toast customer? October 2015
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? We are incredibly excited for our first summer with the new Taphouse next door (Pat's Tap!), so we wanted to make our business as inviting as possible for new (and repeat) customers. We added some new colorful solar-powered string lights to our large patio, and provided Pat's with laminated QR codes that direct to our ToastOO to make it as easy as possible for their customers to order pizza as they enjoy a beer. We also added some indoor seating to our small lobby so customers have a place to sit & relax while they are waiting for their Take-out. We can't wait for warmer weather and busy season to arrive!

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

DCoffeebar — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 01:03:34 GMT

Name: Mike
Restaurant Name: Detour Coffeebar
Location: Charlotte
How long have you been a Toast customer? Summer 2019
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? We are a coffee truck who, when not serving the public, are often booked for Private events. We've used Toast Catering for most of these booking inquiries. It eliminates the guesswork, helps us screen event types, prepare stock & labor and market ourselves better.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

NealPamsbar — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 21:34:03 GMT

Greetings from the Beach!

My name is Zach Baker and I own the best beach bar in Surfside Beach, South Carolina!
We are located at 20 South Ocean Boulevard, Surfside Beach, SC 29575
843-238-1013
Find us on facebook at Neal and Pam's in Surfside Beach, SC #nealandpams
shop@nealandpamsbarandgrill.com
www.nealandpamsbarandgrill.com

Our company has been a Toast user since reopening after the unfortunate Covid shutdown of March 2020. We have increased functionality, speed, & deliverance with this equipment & updated technology. Our staff enjoys the user friendly design as well as the handheld devices that we purchased to help make all orders and payments easier for the worker, manager and/or our guests--especially since we have an inside bar and dining area as well as a huge deck on the front of the building that allows for servers to use the handhelds table side. The kitchen will also agree that they are able to read food tickets easier since everything is spelled out simplistically for them to complete all food orders. This increases accuracy and speed, and at the end of the day-Sales & Profit. It's a win win for all of us!

Unfortunately our bar had to unexpectedly close its doors July 22, 2022 as we suffered a fire. The original prediction and goal was to have the popular spot reopened, latest by Thanksgiving of 2022; however, due to circumstances out of our control we were not so lucky. For every step forward that we made getting closer to a reopening date, we experienced push back with city and town regulations & codes that have pushed a reopening to still happen. (We hope by April 1st 2023!). We are finally bringing back the former staff and a large number of new employees to refamiliarize themselves with the Toast equipment and to relearn its easy functionality to make their shifts headache free with all orders and payments. Also, to get hyped up and trained for an amazing season that is about to happen for our establishment!

I have used a lot of different computer systems (digital dining, clover, aloha, POS just to name a few) but Toast is by far the best! If I ever have an issue that I can't figure out using their online website and/chat, I can make a quick call to be talked through individually by a person on the other end.

As I took a break from updating our new menu changes in anticipation of our reopen that should happen in the next few weeks, its time to get back to work.

May you all continue to thrive in your individual businesses for 2023!!

And as I always sign off with any daily announcements or updates to my patrons & staff, "Go Gamecocks!!"

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

Isaacm — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 15:34:53 GMT

Name: Isaac melton
Restaurant Name: Khepri Cafe
Location: Albany Park neighborhood, Chicago, IL
How long have you been a Toast customer?2021
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? Make sure you have a full staff who are fully trained and reliable. Hopefully, some of the slow time has been used to clean and do maintenance which will be more difficult over the busy season.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

Tunruh13 — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 15:35:36 GMT

My name is Tiffany I own Billy Goat Coffee Cafe in TN. We have been using Toast since 1 week before covid hit . Before going into the busy season we always pull out the two month calendar. We find it helpful to put personal items on that calendar first so nothing outside of the business gets missed. From doctors appointments, to birthdays, to family commitments. We always put our teams important items in the calendar as well. Its just as important to prioritize what they will need and be able to celebrate their wins as well. We find this very helpful to keep our minds focused on big things at work when personal items are front center.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

rudedog_ginger — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 16:01:31 GMT

Hi! I'm Ginger from Toucan Taco in Laurel, Maryland. We're a family run business for over 50 years as I took over from my parents 15 years ago. We added Toast at least 5 years ago, and we don't miss our old system one bit. We serve spicy Tex-Mex food. Since Cinco de Mayo is our big day, we are gearing up by hiring more staff, getting them trained up, and slowly beefing up our non perishable supplies.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

EriW — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 16:35:40 GMT

Eric W
Watermark
Dayton, OH (USA)
Toast for 3 years

Busy seasons (such as Summer Patio Weather or year-end Holiday Season) can be some of the most profitable periods of the year for any business - and also a recipe for mayhem, if you don't take steps to help ensure success! To prepare for busy season(s), our process involves several key steps:

1. Check-up

a. Equipment & Facilities (Example - is any maintenance or upkeep due that might cause issues?)
b. Staff Numbers and Readiness (Example - do we need to hire? Is staff current with training?)
c. Supply (Example - check with vendors to anticipate potential hiccups with key products)

2. Inform

a. Ensure staff are aware of the challenges and changes that are a part of a busy season.
b. Make sure that any increases to hours/schedules are both understood and accepted.
c. If there are special products or offerings, ensure everyone is trained-up!

3. Encourage

a. Busy seasons are stressful! Use plenty of positive reinforcement to let staff know they are appreciated.
b. Consider spot-bonuses, good-natured competitions, and other incentives.
c. Plan a team-building event at the end of the busy season, and remind staff of that coming reward.

Good preparation and a focus on team-level execution can make your next busy season your best! And if the train goes off the tracks - don't panic! Remember to keep the focus on positive elements, and you can succeed!

Good luck!

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

BrewnChew — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 17:26:44 GMT

Name: Sylvia
Restaurant Name: Route No.73 Brew & Chew
Location: Pearl City, IL
How long have you been a Toast customer?: Happily since 2018!
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? The best tips for preparing for the busy season for us is ensuring our staff is on board with our vision by continuing communication and training to ensure our guests receive the best service, food and dining experience consistently! We also start reaching out to our local produce farmers to see what fresh produce will be available and to our local breweries to see what brews they are developing in order to start creating creative menu items to feature as specials.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

barrylouie — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 18:09:16 GMT

Name - Barry Louie

Restaurant Name - Nippon Curry

Location - San Francisco

How long have you been a Toast customer? - Two years. We opened in February 2021 in the middle of the pandemic. We looked at Square, SpotOn, and a few other POS systems, but finally decided to go with Toast.

What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? - Our busy season is late spring through the late summer, early autumn. The way we prepare for the busy season is to always have potential employees in the hopper and to always be interviewing and hiring. These days, employees will jump ship for a dollar more per hour. We also hire a photographer 2 months in advance to add new menu items.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

LH — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 18:25:22 GMT

Name: Lisa H
Restaurant Name: Breakside Brewery
Location: Portland, OR
How long have you been a Toast customer?: Summer 2020!
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? We've started really hammering home/ setting a standard of SOP's with our current staff. This includes fine-tuning our opening/ closing checklists, and curating our true expecation for all levels of service. Once we start hiring for summer season- our new employees will have a much easier time navigating their new tenure because our current staff will be such great, knowlegable examples.
Addtionally, I created a helpful tool to utilize with the mass influx of Tourists our location recieves. Being a well-known brewery in Oregon, we are a hot spot for folks coming through town. We are consistently asked "where to go next for......." in some shape or form. I can see my staff going blank on how to repsond, or spending 15 mins writing on a little scrap sheet of paper places that pop into their head. To mitigate this- I created 6 different local suggestion cards- each reflecting different theme. (Other local breweries, local pizza places, cocktail places, Places to drink wine, Our neighborhood specfically, + things to do in Portland.) They are meant to be a tool for staff, so they can hand out these cards and highlight their favorite spots on the business sized card, while supplying the guest with something tangible. They have already been a huge hit, and I think it will be especially helpful in the busy months!

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

TBGVegasBBQ — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 01:47:58 GMT

Super SMART to align with the tap house next door. We're doing likewise with a brewery in the next town over. We're going there once a week to start and they've offered to have our QR code in the window and at the bar. EXCITED to start this journey!

Re: How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

TBGVegasBBQ — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 01:49:37 GMT

LOVE the polling and voting ideas! Thanks for the suggestions! We'll have to do that with some of our specialty items like brisket and the Sunday Dinner Sundae--mac-n-cheese, greens, and the smoked meat of your choice served on a baked potato (regular or sweet potato)--it's so yummy!

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

pizzaplacesf — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 03:14:55 GMT

Name CINDY
Restaurant Name THE PIZZA PLACE ON NORIEGA
Location SAN FRANCISCO
How long have you been a Toast customer? 1 YEAR
What are your best tips on preparing for the busy season? MAKE SURE YOUR SCHEDULE IS TIGHT AND YOUR STAFF IS TRAINED AND READY, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH PLATES, GLASSWARE, SILVERWARE, ETC.

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

sugarbowl — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 12:17:19 GMT

Love that you included positive reinforcement in your list! That is KEY to employee retention and keep the vibe among staff and customers a positive one all season long! Cheers!

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

PLASWEET33 — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 13:43:50 GMT

Lisa
Kuma’s Catering
Chicago, IL
3 Years
2023 Weddings are booked and menus are being finalized. I prepare for Wedding season by increasing my staff, take inventory in storage of all rental items, purchase any additional items needed and give myself a motivational pep talk ; )

Re: Community Contest - How do you prepare for the Busy Season?

sdcgrund — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 15:42:07 GMT

My name is Shiree and I manage Sweet Things--a quick service froyo/smoothie style shop. We are located in sunny San Diego, CA. We have been with toast for about two and a half years now. This is my first post in the toast community!

My best tips on preparing for our busy season (especially summer since we are proprietors of frozen treats) are probably different than your average preparation tips. We are a small family business, uniquely located on the bottom floor of a convention hotel on the bayfront of San Diego. Most businesses (including our previous location) are able to predict sales based on time of year, day, weather, etc. Our business comes from mostly events in the downtown area, conventions in the hotel or at the convention center, or vacationers.

I prepare for our busy season by staying on my toes! Our business is never steady. It is dead, or it is slammed. There really isn't anything in between. This means my staff has to be ready to roll at a moment's notice. Toast has helped with this prep work by making it easier for me to track which items and modifiers are our best sellers. I am better able to adjust our inventory to prepare for unexpected surges of business. This way we can be prepared while also doing what we can to limit waste. Gotta make up for those slower winter months and get ahead enough to sustain us through next winter!