Before a food truck vendor can begin the process of controlling food costs, it’s important to understand how your mobile food business is losing money. You’ll quickly see just how vulnerable your food truck operation is. You’ll also learn how weaknesses in any area of the food production process can add up to significant losses quickly. In today’s article we’ll be discussing how food trucks can prevent service window profit losses.
Today, we’ll point out three ways vendors lose money at their service window. We’ll also provide some tips to use to plug these holes. Ultimately, the goal is to maximize your food truck profits while maintaining great customer service.
Food Truck Service Window Profit Losses
Taking Incorrect Orders
The first of our list is a common mistake made by service window staff members. No matter how many staff members you running your daily operations, there can be miscommunication between the server and the customer or miscommunication between the server and the kitchen staff. Either way a wrong order will end up with something being returned that will probably end up in the trash. Stop it today.
RELATED: Verify Food Truck Orders For Increased Customer Satisfaction
Customer Returns
This next area of service window profit losses is directly related to our first point. While some customer returns can occur because the food was cold the most likely reason will be that the order is incorrect. Again, it’s most likely to end up in the trash.
Your food truck customers literally pay to get what they want. That is the food truck business, and it’s also why any food truck server will hear a range of complaints during the course almost every shift. But a food truck that comps every order sent back by dissatisfied customers will eventually go out of business.
RELATED: Times When You Shouldn’t Provide A Comp Meal
Unrecorded Sales
The final area where a food truck can lose profits at their service window is when sales transactions are not properly recorded. When orders aren’t tracked, it’s easy to either have customers receiving their orders without paying or the server fails to ring up the sale and pockets the money.
The easiest way to avoid this issue is to put this simple system in place. Provide each customer should receive a receipt. One way to assure this is to put a sign on the register saying the meal will be free if the cashier fails to give a receipt. Giving a receipt to a customer assures that the transaction goes through the register and is recorded.
The Bottom Line
It may seem impossible to control all of these profit leaks in your food truck. Be encouraged in knowing that it is possible. There are many food truck owners that do a great job of plugging these service window profit losses in their businesses.
How have you stopped service window profit losses in your food truck? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment section or social media. Facebook | Twitter
