Taking a break from your business to renovate and redecorate your restaurant is a big decision. While it can often bring about long-term success, there’s no denying that it can be expensive and stressful in the short term. If you’re planning to overhaul your restaurant, here are some of the factors you’ll need to consider before reopening.
Kitchen
Renovating your restaurant gives you the rare opportunity to entirely redesign the kitchen without the fear of not being able to cook for your customers. You should consider which, if any, of your kitchen appliances is due for an upgrade and whether your existing kitchen layout works well for your staff or could be improved. You could also take this chance to upgrade all your frying pans, stock pots, braisers, woks and any other cookware that is looking tired and in need of replacement.
Dining Area
Another important area for consideration is the customer dining area. Think about the atmosphere you want to create in your restaurant and the type of customers you want to attract to help you choose the perfect dining area design. If you’re struggling to visualise the finished result then you could create a mood board to help you narrow down the kind of vibe you’re going for and the colours and textures you’ll need to use to create it. You may want to hire an interior designer who has worked on similar projects to help you bring your vision to life.
Staff
Since your staff won’t be working for an extended period while renovations are underway, you could make use of this downtime to have them undergo specialist training or take part in team-building events to keep them motivated and improve their knowledge and skills ready for when your restaurant reopens.
If your renovations are lengthy, you may be tempted to let staff go and rehire for your grand opening but this will add significantly to your stress and financial outlay if you’re hiring and training up new staff alongside relaunching your restaurant so it’s far better to keep on your existing staff who you already know work well together and will be an asset to your restaurant when it eventually reopens.
Technology
As much as you might like paper menus and the traditional way of doing things, there’s no denying that modern technology can be harnessed to improve customer service and harness useful data that can benefit your business. Online booking and reservation systems are valued highly by customers who want the flexibility of seeing what times and tables are available so they can choose the perfect option to suit their needs. You might also want to consider utilising QR codes, contactless payment and automated inventory management to help your restaurant run more smoothly when you reopen.
Spread the Word
It’s crucial to effectively market and advertise your restaurant’s grand reopening widely. Utilise your existing social media channels and traditional word-of-mouth to make sure that everyone knows that your restaurant is due to reopen and will be better than ever before. You should also update the Google listing for your business with your new opening times and photographs of your restaurant’s exterior and interior to entice people to pay you a visit. You could even get in touch with other local businesses to see if they’d be happy for you to leave flyers or hang a poster. You may also want to hold a grand reopening event to welcome back old customers and encourage new customers to give you a try.
