What’s the pacing like at your restaurant? Are you bringing in new diners every half hour — or do you find yourself laden with “campers” who hole up in a booth for three hours? Table turnover has a direct impact on your restaurant’s profitability, which is why it’s so critical to get customers in and out in an efficient fashion.
As a restaurateur, you have a lot of power to boost your bottom line by optimizing your restaurant’s table turnover rate. Let’s look at what table turnover is, how you can calculate it, and five tips to increase the turnover rate in your restaurant.
Table turnover measures how many parties you can expect to seat at a table during a specific meal period. For example, if your table turnover rate during the dinner meal period is 3, you can expect to seat three parties at a table during dinner service.
Your restaurant can hold only so many tables, seats, and patrons at once. If you have a high turnover rate, it means more people are coming in and out over the same time period. Since you’re serving more people in less time, this typically translates into more restaurant revenue.
However, your average table turnover rate will depend on the type of restaurant you have. Fine dining restaurants have a lower table turnover, but the tickets tend to be larger, which makes up for the smaller volume. Because fast-food restaurants are cheaper, they need a high table turnover to make up for smaller ticket sizes.
Table turnover is a helpful metric because it:
Provides a baseline: Know what’s normal for your restaurant by tracking table turnover for every meal service. This way, you can spot downturns more easily.
Indicates efficiency: The higher your table turnover rate, the more people you’re serving. This tells you how efficiently — or inefficiently — you’re serving guests.
Improves the dining experience: High table turnover means you’re serving guests in an efficient way, which typically means diners had a great guest experience. This can translate into better reviews, more tips, and increased profits.
First, pick a particular meal period you want to look at. It could be the breakfast, lunch, or dinner period. If you want, you can also calculate table turnover in a certain area of the restaurant, like the bar, if you want to know your metrics for a specific section.
To calculate table turnover, you divide the number of parties by the number of tables. For example, if you have 20 tables and 60 parties seated in a night:
60 parties / 20 tables = 3
In this case, your table turnover rate is three. That means you can expect to seat three parties at each table during meal service.
It’s also helpful to calculate your table turnover time, too. In this case, you take your table turns and divide them by the total length of the meal service. If you have a turnover rate of 4 and dinner is from 5-9 p.m.:
4 table turns / 4 hours = 1
In this example, you can expect tables to turn once every hour. Since the ideal table turnover time is 45 minutes, that means you need to decrease your average by 15 minutes.
Even if you’re anxious to rush diners out the door, you don’t want to give them a poor experience. Table turnover requires finding a happy balance between bringing in more paying customers and satisfying the ones you’ve already seated.
Regardless of your model or customer base, you can use these tips to increase the table turnover rate in your restaurant.
Do you use a stationary POS system? That means your wait staff has to dash between tables and the POS, which can waste a lot of time and decrease your table turnover rates. To speed things up, switch to a mobile POS. With Square POS, your employees can process payments tableside without long wait times.
Larger menus are not only harder for your team to cook and execute, but they can increase the length of time it takes for diners to place their order too. Streamline your menu by offering fewer options. This makes it easier for your back-of-house staff to prep and cook dishes quickly, even when your dining room is full of hungry customers.
If you have a problem with diners lingering for hours without buying anything, you may need to create seating policies to improve table turnover. Every restaurant is different, but this might mean creating policies like:
No seating for incomplete parties: Incomplete parties can throw off your timing. It also increases the amount of time people spend at a table waiting for the other members of their party, which delays their ordering and eating.
Time limits: If you have a busy restaurant with limited seating, consider implementing a two-hour time limit for each table. Be sure to inform diners of the policy before you seat them so you can manage their expectations.
No reservations: Reservations can hold up available tables, especially if you have no-shows. Instead of taking reservations, offer tables on a first-come, first-serve basis.
If you want to take more orders without the wait, consider adding a self-service kiosk to your restaurant lobby. This convenient option allows diners to order exactly what they want and pay without interacting with a cashier. With options like the Square Kiosk, you can boost your table turnover rate by easily speeding up the ordering process.
Table turnover is tricky. You don’t want to rush diners out the door, but you certainly need them to keep moving. What’s the solution?
Train your staff to improve table turnover without compromising on the guest experience. It’s the responsibility of the front-of-house employees to move diners through the meal, so train your team to follow these best practices:
Seat customers quickly: Greet and seat customers as quickly as possible. If you don’t have tables available for 45 minutes, consider offering diners alternative seating options, like the outdoor patio or the bar. Some restaurants even offer snacks or appetizers while diners wait for a table.
Serve as soon as you seat diners: Train your waiters to take diners’ drink and food orders within 10 minutes of seating the party. This puts orders into the kitchen ASAP, which speeds up the entire process.
Suggest quick-prep meals: Encourage waiters to suggest quick meals, like sandwiches or salads, that your cooks can prepare quickly.
Provide the receipt before the meal ends: Provide diners with the option to pay before they end their meal. This reduces the chances that they will linger once they finish eating.
Ask people to leave, if necessary: This is a delicate situation, so it’s important to train your waiters on how to “evict” diners with grace. You can incentivize diners to free up the table by offering seats at the bar or providing free dessert to-go.
As a restaurant owner, you can boost revenue with the right restaurant operations. Table turnover rate is an essential metric that indicates how well you’re doing. Optimizing this can help you speed up service, boost your bottom line, and improve the guest experience.
Increased table turnover is a win for everyone, but it requires a solid strategy to implement. Follow these tips to increase table turnover:
Use a mobile POS
Streamline your menu
Create seating policies
Use self-service kiosks
Train your waiters
If you want to offer your guests more convenience, add a kiosk to your restaurant. All you need is a tablet, Square payment hardware, and KioskBuddy to get started. Sign up for KioskBuddy today.