The Answer to the Ticket Chaos in Restaurants: Here's how to organize them better

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Behind the story of every restaurant is an ongoing challenge of complex ticket chaos that often sends restaurants into a spiral of confusion. From lost orders to wrong tickets to too large quantities, there’s always something new with order challenges that are directly or indirectly caused by errors in tickets.  

Disorganized tickets are one of the biggest reasons for the ticket chaos in restaurants, and this is not something that can be rectified in a day or two. Unlike regular corporates, most restaurants operate every day of the week and staff are allocated to duty on shift basis, making it difficult to identify the root cause of their own challenge, implement a strategy and execute it smoothly.  

We hear your ticket chaos. Here’s how you can organize them better without disrupting your ongoing operations.  

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Automate Ticket Creation with an Order Management System

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By Investing in an order management system, you can significantly reduce manual errors and streamline the ticket creation process. With automated order entry, servers can input orders directly into the system, eliminating the need for handwritten tickets and minimizing the risk of mistakes like repetitive tickets and missed orders.  

There are two most common ways you can get your own order management system. You can build an on-premise system by gathering resources from your organization or a consultant technology firm which will be a complex process and cost you a hefty upfront amount. Additionally, there could be persistent bugs as it’s constantly under QA testing, and it’ll take a lot of time for your staff to learn the way around it.

Or you can employ a customized and secure cloud solution that would meet the immediate needs of your restaurant within a shorter time.  

Avoid Ticket Duplication by Enabling System Notifications

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System notifications are a life saver! Especially when you’re tied up during rush hours and the chance of receiving an already accepted ticket is higher.  

If you’re using an order management system or any restaurant management system, you can easily enable system notifications that would alert staff members on duplicate orders or tickets. This would help prevent confusion and minimize the likelihood of double preparation. This ensures that each order is processed accurately.

Use Ticket Tags to Prioritize and Route Tickets

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Ticket tags are a valuable tool used in restaurants to route tickets. This enables staff to manage orders by assigning specific attributes or information to each Kitchen order ticket (KOT). These tags can include details like order urgency, special requests, order type (e.g., dine-in, takeout), or customer preferences.  

All you need to have is a POS that’s customizable to add in this field of entry. To make the operations even smoother and error free. You can integrate your POS to your Kitchen Display System, so whichever tag that’s entered would make its way to the kitchen.  

By utilizing ticket tags, servers can prioritize orders effectively, ensuring that they are handled promptly and accurately. This system helps streamline the workflow by directing orders to the appropriate station or kitchen area, improving overall efficiency and customer satisfaction.  

Ensure Servers Work in Sync

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In a high demand restaurant, when a server stacks 3 tables that means the first table, they took the order from, has already waited 15-20 minutes before the kitchen even gets the chit. This is why some tables complain about a 40 min wait but you see the printed time on the ticket has only been 10 minutes.  

Has this happened to your restaurant as well? It’s quite common, and it’s often no one’s mistake.  

Coordination among servers is important to prevent unnecessary delays in ticket processing. By staggering table assignments and encouraging timely order entry, servers can ensure that orders reach the kitchen promptly, minimizing wait times for customers.

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Manage Big Groups with Ticket Division

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For large groups, breaking down orders into smaller, manageable tickets is essential to prevent bottlenecks and ensure timely service for all guests. One way restaurants do this is by assigning consecutive ticket numbers to different sections of the same table, enabling kitchen staff to prioritize and process orders effectively.  

You can divide the order tickets into groups of no more than 8-10 guests per ticket. Rather than assign the same table number to each ticket, the server assigns the table number + 1 for the first ticket, 2 for the second, and so on (i.e. table 30 would be numbered 301, 302, 303, etc.) This way the kitchen can process tickets for each table on a timely manner.  

Queue Tickets on Reservation Basis: For High Demand Small Scale Restaurants

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If you still haven’t gotten on this wagon, consider giving it a try.  

For the longest time, small and medium restaurants have been using first-come-first-serve strategies to keep the fairness of service in restaurants addressed. But recent studies have shown the downside of it. Especially if your restaurant is getting an increased demand, keeping people waiting for hours in queue for your food isn’t a pleasant thing to do. Sooner or later, that demand will cease.  

While it may be easy for the order taking point, it will exhaust your kitchen staff, and if they fail to deliver, disappoint customers as well. Instead try an online reservation system – you can easily implement one with your technology provider. A system that can:

• Release the daily number of tickets online for customers.  
• Break the day into service hours (Eg: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. | 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.) and allocate tickets depending on the rush.  
• Capture booking details accurately.  

Implementing a reservation system ensures fairness and efficiency in ticket processing. By prioritizing orders based on their time of entry, restaurants can maintain order accuracy and timely service.

Maintain Clear Communication from Counter to Delivery

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Effective communication between front-of-house and back-of-house staff is crucial to ensuring seamless order fulfillment. By establishing clear protocols for order transmission and delivery, restaurants can minimize errors and ensure that orders are prepared and served accurately and efficiently.

A very crucial point that many tech-savvy restaurants skip is human interaction. In the service industry, communication is key. So don’t let your employees work in the dark. Ensure there's always sync.  

Looking for an integration platform to connect your scattered technology applications? Get in touch with us for a Free demo!  

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