Is your restaurant’s version of a task management tool really just a bunch of sticky notes stuck all over the place? You’re better than that! You’re the pro at managing your staff and making your restaurant the best it can be. You’re a busy person with tons of responsibilities, but you can’t overlook them just because your week is swamped. We all know how things can pile up and become major issues when forgotten for too long. So, don’t rely on sticky notes to remind you about your important responsibilities. It’s about time you’ve considered using a real task management tool to help keep your restaurant looking and operating its best.
There are thousands of possibilities for using task management software in a restaurant, so we’ve outlined a handful here for your inspiration. Here are 12 ways you can make your job a little easier by using the best task management software:
1. Opening & Closing Checklists
We’ve all experienced this frustrating situation… You come in for an opening shift, hoping for smooth sailing. That’s not going to happen though, because whoever the heck closed last night really goofed. They totally missed several things on their list and now you’re behind before you even started. There’s more than plenty of work to go around during the day without worrying about forgetting something or that the new guy isn’t gonna know what he’s supposed to be doing. Save your team pain and strife. Use a task management tool with customizable checklists that make it easy for your team to collaborate and stay organized, so every close is awesome and your restaurant can open on the best foot possible every day.
By the way, did you know that TimeForge offers a task management tool? It allows you to create custom checklists and track tasks in real time!
2. Daily vs. Deep Cleaning
One great use of task management software is creating checklists to keep your restaurant looking brand new. These checklists let you plan out what to clean and how often it needs to happen. For instance, your floors and tables probably get cleaned multiple times a day, but your windows might only need attention once a week. Don’t forget your ceiling fans! No one likes to look up and see dust bunnies hanging out right above their food. Add it to a deep clean list that your staff takes care of at least once a month.
Setting up a checklist on a schedule is easy with TimeForge, which allows you to set a custom cadence whenever you create a new checklist or edit an existing one. Go a little crazy with your cleaning checklists, because your restaurant can never be too clean.
3. Routine Kitchen Maintenance
The gadgets in your kitchen are so important to your restaurant. You’ve got to stay on top of their maintenance and cleaning if you want them to stick around for long. Servicing your kitchen appliances is another fantastic way to utilize a task management tool in your restaurant. Make a schedule of what appliances need maintenance and how often, so you can rest assured that your appliances will stay clean and functional for as long as possible.
4. Routine Building Maintenance
All businesses need some extra TLC from time to time. Unfortunately, it’s really easy to accidentally let that TLC slip through the cracks when you’re going through a busy season. You can only ignore things for so long before they become unattractive or problematic. Customers don’t like broken paper towel dispensers and toilets that don’t flush so well. Things that are insignificant at first should also be addressed ASAP. Only so much pain can chip off the windowsills before it causes real damage. It’s impossible to predict everything that will break in the next 3 months, but it’s wise to employ a task management tool to perform checkups on a routine basis.
5. Inventory
Doing inventory at a restaurant is a never ending process. Anyone who’s ever had to do it knows that it’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. You have to take stock of what you have and how much, when you’re going to need more, what you’re expecting to need, and you have to be careful to waste as little as possible. Use task management and checklists to organize and bring structure to your restaurant’s ordering and inventory. You might not be able to eliminate all chaos from the process, but a consistent checklist on a regular schedule can help break it into smaller chunks.
6. Safety & Compliance
One of the best ways you can use task management in your restaurant is to create safety and compliance checklists. This way, you can always stay 100% on top of everything concerning safety and compliance in your workplace. This can include checking your fire extinguishers, emergency exits, eyewash stations, regulatory signage, and anything else you can think of. There’s so much to keep up with! Restaurants aren’t usually thought of as dangerous places, but safety standards and compliance exist for a good reason. Hopefully yours will never experience any serious situations, but being proactive will pay off if it ever does.
7. Inspections
Take charge of your health inspection scores by performing your own inspections on a regular basis. Yes, a lot of this will be taken care of during daily cleaning and other tasks. However, it never hurts to make sure all of your bases are covered! If you think like your health inspector does and check everything they can think of to inspect, you can make it so they’re unlikely to ever find anything negative about your restaurant.
It’s simple to create a health inspection checklist with TimeForge. Your scores are so important that there’s really no reason not to add this task to your regular routine.
8. Prepare for Events
Events can be great for a small business’s image, but it can definitely pile extra worries on top of the daily stress of running a restaurant. Hosting or participating in events requires a great amount of project planning skills. Tackling a whole new task list while also performing daily restaurant operations isn’t going to be a breeze. Using a task management tool to help organize your project makes it easy to prioritize tasks and track progress and due dates, so you can make the best impression you can with as little stress as possible.
9. Holiday & Seasonal Decorating
If your restaurant really goes all out for holiday or seasonal decorations, it can be quite an undertaking to transition into each new theme. It’s totally possible to make the job easier on your staff and still have the place decorated to your standards. You just need to make good use of a task management tool. If you have a clear vision of how you want your restaurant to look, the rest can be easy. All you have to do next is give specific instructions in a checklist. Do you have pictures of your awesome decorations from last year? Make it super simple to recreate exactly what you want and attach those pictures to this year’s checklist!
TimeForge can save you the embarrassment of accidentally leaving your decorations up for too long, too. Just set up a one-time checklist to specify when you want decorations set up and taken down.
10. Staff Training Standards
The best task management software can help you out with things you might not expect. Getting your staff trained to a certain standard is one of them. TimeForge’s task management features a rating system that allows you or a supervisor to give each task on a checklist a 1 through 5 star rating based on how it was performed and set up a follow up if needed. For example, if a shift leader is double checking the closing checklist and finds incomplete or poorly-performed tasks on the checklist, they can give the tasks an appropriate rating and set up a follow up so a manager can address the issue.
11. Better Accountability & Recognition
A good task management tool helps your team succeed in everything they do. It also helps them gain the recognition they deserve for great contributions. Success is much more attainable when your staff know exactly what you expect of them and they can be confident and consistent in their quality of work each shift. A good task management tool clearly defines expectations and whether they’re being met with each task.
In case you didn’t know, TimeForge features a one-click rating system to ensure tasks get done right, right on time.
12. Social Media Management
Social media presence is an important part of marketing for your restaurant and helps your business maintain its reputation. Regularly advertising specials and offers brings more business through your doors. It’s also wise to keep a close eye on reviews and respond as soon as possible so your customers know you care. A good strategy is to use a task management tool to split up tasks based on what they are and how often they should be done. Set up a daily checklist to monitor customer reviews on all platforms. Then, make a weekly checklist to prepare routine marketing posts. When the time comes, use one-time checklists for when you’re winding up for an event or a bigger campaign than usual.
Does all this task management software stuff sound like something you should be using in your restaurant? We agree! It’s free and easy to give TimeForge a try!
