Moving from Wait-Staff to Quick Service

Recently, I have come across more and more people and their restaurants looking to move from a fast casual, wait-staff approach to a traditional quick service location.  The reasons I have been told range, however, given the right circumstances, this may certainly be a profitable move to make.  Before making a haphazard switch there are areas you should consider.  Should you feel comfortable beyond that point there are key aspects to a quick service restaurant that you’ll want to address as well.

In this posting, I will first highlight the considerations you should make beforehand and the areas that need addressing should you move forward.

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How to Determine How Many Menu Boards You’ll Need

When the time has come for you to address your menu board needs there are a number of factors for you to consider.  Some may read this and think to themselves, “isn’t it just one big board?”  Well it could be, although we wouldn’t recommend that.  Having separate menu boards serves two purposes: 1- You are able to more easily categorize your menu items, and 2- It makes it much easier on your customers to find what they are looking for, thus getting them through your line quicker.  Another reason for avoiding one large board is because of the initial shipping costs and ongoing maintenance.  Unlike smaller, modular menu boards, a larger panel would have to be shipped via freight carrier.  Inevitably the cost is greater.  Now consider if you had to make changes to your menu items or pricing in the future.  Would you rather replace the entire, large board or a small piece of a menu system?

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Menu Insights from Quick Serve to Sit-Down

Today we are going to borrow some great information from my home and native land and the great white north. Our friends at Restaurant Central are  Canada’s version of QSR Magazine, Fast Casual Magazine, etc. They offer news and trends for all verticals of the restaurant industry. I spent some time on the blog section of their site and found four submissions that are particularly relevant to our customers. Everyone’s goal in business is to make money. The following four blog posts will help you address your menu and offer ways to increase profitability. These posts also make suggestions that will help you avoid the pitfalls that many owners find themselves in. Whether you own a quick service restaurant, fast casual or dine-in, the development of an optimal menu is equally important.

Should you not have the time to read all of these in one sitting, I would suggest bookmarking this blog. My hope is that me telling you that these entries will help you make/save money will be enough to catch your attention.

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4 Lived and Learned Menu Board Experiences

Living and learning from experiences are a part of everyone’s life.  Even my father who “jokingly” claims that he is right 90% of the time allows himself 10% room for error. It is simply a fact of life - no matter how much or how little thought you put into something, there is always that possibility that it doesn’t work out the way you expect.  Shed in another light, there are instances when people choose to duplicate actions they have done in the past because the result was exactly what they had hoped and expected. This is usually done in blind faith without considering what other options may be available to them.  In each scenario, we have come across instances that we have been able to rectify and/or guide in a more effective way. The purpose of this blog isn’t to pound our chests but to point out goings-on that we see all the time goings-on that you would probably like to avoid.  The following four situations have come up in the last 2 months.

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Random Menu Board Thoughts

As I sit here on a crisp Friday morning trying to collect and organize my thoughts for this very blog I have quickly realized that I can’t.  I have some random thoughts going through my head about menu boards, drive-thrus, digital menu boards, and design but I cannot seem to put together enough about any one of them to write an entire blog about it.  So what is a guy to do?  (Insert light bulb over my head.)  I have decided that this week I am going to touch on an array of unrelated topics.  I think this should turn out to be useful information, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.  Here goes nothing…

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10 Ways to Increase Your Bottom Line in 2013

2013 is upon us; the time of year where people analyze their lives and make resolutions.  People become reinvigorated and a sense of motivation fills the air… for about a week.  As for businesses, many take the New Year to take a look at the past and plan for the future.  Here at Origin Displays we have our own laundry list of items to tackle in hopes of reaching that allusive “next level.”  One of our habits that we agreed to continue was our blogging.  Not only do we enjoy passing along our knowledge to our readers but it also forces us to stay on top of the industry, keeping us keenly aware.

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Year End Industry News

With us all but ready to tie the bow on another year, I thought I would scour the Internet looking for interesting articles to get the expert’s take on 2012 and what they expect in 2013.  In fairness, it didn’t take too long to find four articles that I found compelling and definitely worth the read.  If you have read any of my blogs by now then you already know they are very opinion based (what a blog is in its essence).  Anyways, we all form our opinions in a variety of ways and I challenge you to read these articles and take a stance on what the “experts” are projecting.  Do you agree? Disagree? Do you have something to add?  Let us know!

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What We Saw In 2012

For the second year in a row our team here at Origin Displays sat down last week and talked about 2012.  What trends did we see?  Where did we make our biggest strides?  Where can we improve?  What markets are we missing out on?  What products can we develop?  What other markets can we penetrate?  These are just a small sampling of the questions we addressed during our full-day, off-campus meeting.  We had a couple members of our sales team, a representative of Operations, our Administrator and general leadership as part of the conversation to make it as well rounded as possible.  The result was similar to last year; eye opening for some, some differing in opinion, but the most overwhelming feeling was a sense of excitement as we stare down 2013.  Many of the details of the meeting are business related and would be of no interest to you, but some of the trends we saw were interesting and are worth keeping an eye on.

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Ways to Improve Your Drive-thru – Part 4

Today we wrap up our installments addressing Daniel P. Smith’s “100 Ways to Improve Your Drive Thru.”  Last week the entire list was focused on technology. Reading it back, it did seem to get a little bit repetitive. There was a lot of talk about speakers and timers. This week we take a look at Daniel’s thoughts on the operations and design side of the drive-thru. These are two much more general categories that should offer a greater deal of interest (for both me and you).

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Ways to Improve Your Drive-thru – Part 3

This week takes us through 51-75 of Daniel P. Smith’s “100 Ways to Improve Your Drive Thru.”  If you have read the first couple of installments then you know that our opinion differs with Mr. Smith on a number of issues.  However, for the most part, we agreed with the majority and simply offered some additional insights on some of his points.  Let’s see what this week has in store.

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