Exceptional dining experience for each customer comes with smooth reservation management, taking orders timely, and answering any queries. Do all these seem simple to handle with a core focus on bringing new dishes, and expanding the restaurant business? If not, then you need to hire a virtual assistant for your restaurant.
A restaurant virtual assistant is a remote expert with restaurant management skills who can handle customers’ online orders, assist them with inquiries and payments, and handle administrative tasks and staff scheduling. Still, these remote assistants do not cost like an on-site worker, but less and are flexible based on your needs.
Especially if you have just started your restaurant business, then an effective solution is a VA.
Let’s talk about an in-depth definition of what a restaurant VA is, how can you know you need one, and all their responsibilities.
What is a Virtual Assistant for Restaurant?
A virtual assistant for restaurants is a remote individual who supports restaurant operations by doing several essential restaurant management tasks based on the owner’s requirements.
Basically, these remote restaurant management experts manage online reservations, process takeout or delivery orders, and respond to customers’ inquiries. A more experienced restaurant VA may help with staff management, managing the restaurant’s online presence, managing inventory, and several other important operations.
Hiring a VA for your restaurants will facilitate better ordering and an exceptional dining experience for your customers while you can enjoy running their restaurants.
When Should I Hire a Virtual Assistant for a Restaurant?
When you want your every online reservation and order handled properly so you do not miss any and customers are giving complaints, it is peak season, and so on, you need a virtual assistant for your restaurant business.
Besides, there are some specific pain points that every restaurant owner faces, and if you are having the same issue, it is time to hire a VA. Here is the checklist,
- Managing staff schedules and shifts
- Managing seasonal fluctuations in business
- Dealing with customer complaints
- Keeping up with changing customer preferences
- Balancing operational costs and profitability
- Juggling dine-in, takeout, and delivery orders simultaneously
- Keeping up with food trends
- Managing social media and online presence
- Handling marketing and promotions
- Handling high-pressure rush hours
- Adapting to new technologies and POS systems
Why Do You Want a Restaurant Virtual Assistant?
You want a restaurant virtual assistant because you do not have an expert to handle online reservations, promote your restaurant business, nor have space or cost to onboard an on-site helper. Most importantly, as we already talked about, the pain points you may face, like knowing about food trends, support in rush hours, etc., only a virtual assistant can dedicatedly solve those.
Enough of talking about your challenges where you actually need a VA; let’s see how widely your VA can handle basic responsibility to complex, every restaurant-related task.
Manage Reservations
Efficient reservation management equals smoother day-to-day restaurant operations, which is every restaurant manager’s dream.
Your virtual assistant for reservation management can record and schedule bookings accurately. There will be no conflict or double booking for the table, and update table availability every day. To confirm the order, they may automate or send personalized messages to customers with exceptional service.
Also, they can handle booking cancelations and related issues according to restaurant terms and rules.
Take Customer Orders
The big advantage of a virtual restaurant assistant is they handle day-to-day operations of taking orders. If some customers have a special request for food, the VA immediately informs the team. They take online orders from customers and deliver them to the kitchen staff timely. So, your every customer gets their food on a plate on time.
To take customer orders, they use communication channels like online ordering systems, chat in messages, or take phone calls. The customer sends a meal request, and the VA takes and confirms the order request.
Provide Menu Information
Before a restaurant VA starts working, they study about the menu information, about the dishes, and the price chart. Then whenever a customer has any inquiry about the food items the VA explains each dish.
Also, sometimes, they provide personalized recommendations for the popular menu items that help increase the restaurant’s sales.
A responsible virtual assistant also keeps knowledge about the specific ingredients and about their allergic reactions or any potential health issues. They pre-alert the customers knowing their, dietary preferences when providing menu information.
Answer FAQs
Most of the time, restaurant owners hire a dedicated customer service virtual assistant who answers all the FAQs that are customer inquiries. For the customer’s highest satisfaction, answering customers’ questions timely and accurately is important. This is also a routine task of a restaurant VA to ensure the best dining customer experience.
Some very common FAQs the VA needs to answer are,
- What are your restaurant’s opening and closing hours?
- Do you offer takeout or delivery?
- Do you have a kids’ menu?
- Do you accommodate dietary restrictions or allergies?
- Can I see your menu online?
- What is the address and route of your restaurant?
Promote Special Offers
Special offers are the best way to attract more customers to your restaurant, and you need someone to notify them about the offers. This is what your virtual assistant can do.
The VA writes exciting captions and eye-catchy banners to highly the offer and publish in the social media pages, websites, or other social media platforms.
Assist with Payment Processing
No one likes to struggle with the payment process, and many potential customers, especially older ones, can find it challenging to pay online. A virtual assistant who knows about technical payment systems can guide customers through personalized assistance. They also make sure every transaction is complete.
They Provide Administrative Aid
Here is a list of administrative support your restaurant virtual assistant can handle to save you time and let you be focused on your restaurant business growth,
- Customer database management.
- Employee records data entry.
- Sales data entry.
- Research other restaurant businesses.
- Organize contracts, & supplier agreements in cloud storage for easy access.
- Compliance management.
A Restaurant Virtual Assistant Can Manage Your Website and Social Media
If you are not getting known in your local area, then it is possible that your restaurant’s online presence is not visible to the customers. For more eyes to know about your restaurant, your expert virtual assistant will manage your website and social media presence.
For a better customer experience, a website with a user-friendly interface is essential. If there is lacking, the VA may ask to fix that. Another crucial point is optimizing GMB profiles; the VA may do it, too.
Besides, for regular website management, they can update the new menu section, publish blog posts for recipes, or write copies. The same digital marketing tactic is applicable to social media management.
For example, if a customer comes to your Facebook page and reads something like this, “Taste of Autumn Special: Enjoy a Complimentary Appetizer with Every Main Course!” Be sure it will definitely attract customers to try the food in your restaurant.
If your strong online presence meets your customers’ expectations, the VA asks for customer feedback and shares it on online platforms. This helps you withstand this competitive restaurant industry and gain customer loyalty.
They Can Handle Bookkeeping
You need help tracking your daily sales, managing invoices, processing payments, and keeping your financial records accurate. Your personal assistant can handle all your bookkeeping management tasks.
Their bookkeeping-related other tasks include expense categorization, financial statement preparation, expense tracking, and bookkeeping software management. Even for your tax preparation, they help with sales tax calculations too.
The core benefit you can get is to reduce the risk of errors and get financial reports regularly.
They can Keep Track of Your Schedule
Virtual assistant for calendar management, schedule, and time management, can undoubtedly help you track your schedules. You may have a B2B sales meeting regarding expanding your restaurant business. You can have a meeting with staff or vendors.
Your virtual assistant will make sure you do not miss any important meetings, and there is no conflict in the dates of appointments.
They Can Handle Your Emails
Your email inbox is overflowing with emails, and you often miss important ones. An email management virtual assistant actively filters out spam emails, manages email subscriptions and informs you about important business emails.
To promote events or new menu updates, the VA sends regular emails to the customers. At the end of the week or month, you will also receive a summary of your email account. You will no longer be bogged down by your email inbox.
They Can Lessen Your Overall Operational Cost
If you require a virtual restaurant assistant to lessen your operational cost, the VA can work on that, too.
Cost-cutting responsibility of a VA focuses on the seasonality of the restaurant business. For instance, in winter there is no need to keep cold coffee on your menu or buy ingredients for that.
Moreover, to market your business, they focus on inbound marketing which is actually free of cost. Like use low-cost platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to market your restaurant.
The last two points are inventory management and negotiating with vendors and suppliers to reduce the budget as much as possible.
Employee Scheduling and Shift Management
In a busy restaurant environment, you may not focus on employee shift management. Using scheduling software, the VA creates employee scheduling reports and automates repetitive tasks. The restaurant staff can follow the report and know when their shift will begin and end.
Again, the VA manages shifts, so for each shift, there is sufficient staff serving the customers. Only then can you ensure full customer satisfaction.
Attendance Tracking and Monitoring
Regularly tracking staff attendance helps in employee management. Also, while payroll processing, you need accurate data about the attendance of the staff.
Virtual assistants for restaurants handle these time-consuming tasks using time-tracking software. They monitor check-in and check-outs and handle leave requests and absenteeism. This reduces the administrative burden on your head.
Overtime Management
When employees do overtime, the VA makes a report on that labor costs in check. When payroll processes, the overtime count is important. If there is any unnecessary overtime, the restaurant virtual assistant prevents that, too.
Time-Off Request Processing
Time-off request processing means keeping track of employee vacation days, sick leave, and other types of absences. A virtual helper makes a balance by approving the leaves without any disruption in daily restaurant management operations. In the meantime, someone else who is available can temporarily fill the position by doing overtime.
All these smooth transitions into time-off requests are possible only with a virtual assistant for the restaurant.
Data Analysis and Reporting
For the food and beverage companies that is restaurant business KPIs are sales per table, customer satisfaction rates, and cost of goods sold (COGS). Having a virtual restaurant assistant means they precisely know these terms. Along with they stay careful about the KPIs, regularly monitor and hand over a report monthly.
This way, you do not need an extra data analyst. Go through the reports and analyze where your restaurant business is scaling up or down.
Who to Hire a Restaurant Virtual Assistant?
When hiring a restaurant virtual assistant, you must look into 5 specific skills and abilities,
- Experience in the restaurant, food, or hospitality industry.
- Excellent communication skills with guests, staff, and suppliers.
- Proficiency in restaurant software, POS systems, reservation platforms (OpenTable), and delivery apps.
- Online marketing, social media marketing, and website maintenance.
- Good organizational skills for staff scheduling and inventory tracking.
When you hire a VA with experience in the hospitality or restaurant industry, they’ll better understand your restaurant’s unique needs and the challenges your customers face.
Secondly, managing staff, especially when there are multiple shifts, can be tricky. Also, communicating with guests means the VA needs to about food industry very well. That’s why looking for strong communication skills is a must.
And, of course, with other skills, the VA must be familiar with restaurant software. Most reservations and orders are placed online these days, so the VA should be able to use the tools.
Where to Find Virtual Assistants for Restaurants?
Let’s be specific and direct! If you want a dedicated virtual assistant for your restaurant, you need to find someone with specific experience and skills. So, the hiring process starts with the first job posting, filtering CVs, interviewing, and onboarding, which will take a huge amount of time. To save you and let you work to grow your restaurant business right now, we have the solution, YesAssistant!
Why YesAssistant? It is simple because we have years of experience working with virtual assistants and have a dedicated team in different niches. So, whenever a client comes to us, we can provide the right VA.
So, to start working right now without any hassle, Book an appointment today.
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