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

[jenni]

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?

[sugarbowl]

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!

[BrewnChew]

• 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.

[barrylouie]

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.

[LH]

• 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!

[pizzaplacesf]

• 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.