Chipotle has made significant investments in technology. Photo by Chipotle.

customer data allowing you to send them future emails and offers. A number of DC area restaurants have been using pop-up boxes on their websites’ home pages to steer customers easily into ordering mode. Restaurant-branded packaging and/or menus that appear inside third-party orders, with a URL or phone number for that restaurant, are a great method to redirect customers to your website for future orders.

Delegation and consultation What tasks can you delegate to certain employees? In the type of downturn restaurant operators are experiencing these days, it’s increasingly difficult to maintain the staffing levels that give operators confidence that they can delegate. On the other hand, it’s critically important: consider having valuable employees that are not scheduled for full-time hours start training to take important tasks off the hands of owners and managers. Tasks that will immediately pay off are related to food cost: taking inventory, receiving orders, calling in vendor orders, overseeing prep work in the kitchen. Having another set of eyes on 22 District Restaurant News

activities that measure depletion and the use of food can help reduce waste, spoilage and pilferage, thereby lowering food cost. Consulting with and including staff is another approach to tapping resources you already have to improve your sales. Fine-dining restaurants have benefited from pre-dinner meetings for years. Meetings and one-onone sessions with staff can help you develop bigger and bolder ideas to drive sales. Daily short meetings can boost morale and center all associates and owners. Casual-dining and other limited-service restaurants can hold short meetings throughout the day when specific shifts arrive. Here are some of the benefits: • Provide a chance to reset • Allow staff to provide ideas and give feedback to management • Incentivize staff to upsell and suggestive sell (even when dining rooms are closed and orders are taken on the phone and in the drive-thru)