While every restaurant strives to provide impeccable service, sometimes mistakes happen. Perhaps your team accidentally garnished a dairy allergic guest’s meal with grated parmesan. Or they erroneously delivered a turkey burger instead of a veggie burger to a vegetarian customer.

The errors were likely innocent, occurring during a busy shift, by a new employee, or due to a simple misunderstanding about the customer’s modifications. Regardless of why it happened, the mistake could have significant fallout for your restaurant.

Possible scenarios include the disappointed (or angry) customer:

• Vows to never come back to your restaurant.
• Posts scathing reviews online, which could negatively impact future traffic and sales.
• Badmouths your restaurant to everyone they see.
• Gets sick from accidentally eating their food allergen that was in the improperly prepared meal.

Additionally, fallout for your restaurant could include:

• Wasted food, time, and money from remaking (and possibly comping) the wrong meal.
• Decreased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Lowered sales and profits.
• Bad reviews online, in the media, and via word-of-mouth.

It’s your restaurant’s responsibility to properly prepare every meal, whether a customer orders a meal as it’s listed on the menu or requests modifications because of a food allergy, an aversion, a special diet, or because they’re vegetarian or vegan.

These 10 tips can help increase order accuracy:

1. Prioritize customer service. Recognize that customers could go anywhere, so provide exceptional service to keep them coming back to your restaurant. Be accommodating, whether they ask for a certain table, a specific server, or modifications to their meal. Provide an outstanding experience and make sure your guests are happy!
2. Implement the right software. Don’t try to piece together insights from Excel spreadsheets, stacks of paperwork, disjointed tech stacks, and “gut instinct.” Technology is no longer just “nice to have” – but is now a necessity for restaurants of all sizes and budgets. Today’s tech solutions help restaurants elevate safety, quality, accuracy, and transparency. The best tech solutions are integrated, providing comprehensive insights and data to help your leaders make more informed operational decisions.
3. Track order accuracy. You can’t improve key metrics unless you measure them. Determine how often your staff is getting orders correct, aiming for an accuracy rate of 98% or higher. If you aren’t consistently meeting this target, rely on tech tools to determine why. Are the mistakes happening because of lack of training, high turnover, communication problems, or for other reasons? Is one employee responsible for most of the mistakes or is it a more widespread problem throughout your team? Once you identify the problems, you can work to resolve them.
4. Train continuously.Training should be an ongoing effort, not a “one and done” endeavor. Train employees about proper protocols, safety precautions, and accuracy measures. Make sure they understand how to use your tech tools properly. Explain the reasoning behind your protocols, e.g., being careless and garnishing a nut-allergic diner’s meal with chopped nuts could sicken – or even kill – them. Making mistakes could alienate customers and negatively impact future business. Rushing an order – and not triple checking it – could lead to errors. If employees understand why the rules are in place, they’ll be more likely to comply.
5. Improve accuracy drivers. Digital tools can help you identify key components that impact order accuracy. For instance, they can track the number of employees working per shift so you can determine if mistakes are being made when you’re understaffed. Technology can also help you determine if (and when) more training is needed because errors are increasing or becoming more widespread. Rely on technology to pinpoint other possible issues impacting accuracy, such as high employee turnover, a too-complex menu, an inefficient BOH set up, product shortages, etc.
6. Clarify and verify.Make it standard operating procedure to repeat the entire order back to your guests, whether they’re ordering a meal to eat on-prem, or for takeout or delivery. Clarify and verify any special requests, ensuring that the person taking (and making) the order clearly understands the customer’s preferred modifications. Determine whether a special order is a food allergy or a personal preference. Either way, you’ll need to get the order right, but take extra precautions with the food allergy (e.g., change gloves, use a separate prep area, use a clean pan, etc.). Then, verify the order at every production stage, including your restaurant line check, comparing it to the original ticket. Always visually inspect each order before serving it to the guest (or packaging it to go) to ensure it is correct.
7. Reduce “small expenses.” Suppose your staff makes a meal incorrectly. Then, they must throw it out and start over. While one wrong meal may seem insignificant, several wrong meals per shift will add up quickly, and these “small expenses” can cut into your bottom-line. Each incorrect order means wasted food, money, time, and effort. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you’ll also need to appease unhappy customers, which often means comping the meal, giving them free drinks or dessert, or providing a gift certificate for a future visit.
8. Track accountability. Tech tools are essential for tracking employee performance, compliance, and accountability. This way, you can pinpoint where the problems are occurring so you can rectify them with more training, better communication, different systems, etc. The point of tracking performance and compliance data isn’t to punish employees. Instead, it’s to figure out any potential issues that can help them increase accuracy and related metrics.
9. Build predictive models. Predictive analytics can tie directly into your ordering system, decreasing time spent on inventory and increasing order accuracy. When you look at – and analyze – data, you’ll get key information to drive restaurant KPIs, including profitability. Predictive models also provide valuable insights, such as the frequency of special requests, which can help you better plan your menu and inventory. Additionally, evaluating sales metrics, such as revenue per server, can help determine staffing issues that could impact everything from order accuracy to customer service (and more).
10. Create a collaborative culture.You’ll experience more successes if you create a collaborative culture instead of a punitive one. Encourage an open dialogue with employees about issues that need to be addressed and fixed. Ask for their input about the systems in place, and how they can be improved to elevate accuracy. Reassure your team members that they won’t “get in trouble” for speaking up when they see something wrong or point out an area that could use improvement. When you make employees feel more engaged and responsible, they’ll feel empowered to solve problems.

Your staff works hard to provide a wonderful experience to every guest. Give them the proper tools, knowledge, and support to do their jobs well, and it will boost order accuracy, safety, and quality.