They say the customer is always right — and most operators in customer-facing roles still take that approach. But how do you balance ensuring the customer is always right with changing consumer expectations? After all, most business owners would agree that customer expectations are soaring. They expect what they want, how they want it, and as fast as possible. This is why speed of service is so key for customer-facing businesses.
The concept of Speed of Service (SOS) is not foreign to most business owners. It’s a critical aspect of their operation. Today’s business owners are savvy professionals looking for new and improved methods of driving revenue, and SOS is a necessity in all environments.
However, improving your speed of service is no easy feat. Let’s dive into what it is and — more importantly — methods to improve it.
> Download Speed of Service overview guide <
Summary
Speed of service is the time it takes for a business to serve its customers. Speed of service is especially critical in the restaurant space as people want to feel like their orders are being efficiently served. From fine dining to quick service, speed of service matters.
Increasing your speed of service is a challenge as you balance everything else the customers expect. You don’t want to risk getting meals wrong, making things incorrectly, or serving dishes that aren’t up to standard. After all, this can lead to unhappy customers. You must be fast and get the orders right.
Some ways to improve your speed of service include:
- Measure your speed of service. You can’t improve what you aren’t measuring.
- Optimize your staff schedule. Ensure you’re scheduling the right amount of people for peak times so that you aren’t slowed down by a routine rush. You can go as far as to schedule those top performers during busy hours to keep things flowing.
- Leverage reporting tools to forecast popular items, rush times, and more. Especially in the quick service restaurant space, you need to be prepped. See where you can prepare food ahead of time without compromising on quality or waste (more on this later).
Want more information on speed of service and dive deeper into ways to improve it? Keep reading.
Want a copy of our speed of service guide with quick wins included? Click here.
What is speed of service?
Simply put, speed of service is the measurement of time for how long it takes for a business to serve its customers.
But measuring your speed of service isn’t as simple. It’s not as black and white as “get your guests out the door as soon as possible”. Depending on your industry, the goals around speed of service can and should look completely different. This means evaluating your space and what your customers expect is important before setting any measurements around speed of service.
Think of the difference between a quick service restaurant and a fine dining experience. In a quick service restaurant, speed of service is everything — after all, going quick is literally in the name of your business. Diners coming to a quick service restaurant want to get in and get out. A high speed of service is going to be detrimental.
In a fine dining restaurant, however, people are paying for an experience. You need to pace the meal, absolutely, but rushing them out the door is going to result in unhappy guests who feel like they paid too much to dine with you.
Why is speed of service important?
So you may be asking yourself “why do I care about speed of service?”
Okay, we’ll give you more credit than that. You know why you care about the speed of service, both from the perspective of a diner and a business owner or operator.
As a business owner, happy customers are everything. They give you repeat business, leave positive reviews that encourage other guests to come, and (frankly) keep your doors open. You need customers to be happy! For some industries, speed of service is the cornerstone to keeping your customers happy. Think how quickly your morning coffee rush would be empty lines if you couldn’t keep up with the commuters.
As a diner, you’ve likely been on the other side of a slow speed of service. That could be a slow morning coffee, like our example above. It could be a drive-thru that you feel is not moving as you itch to make it to soccer practice or get back on the road for a long road trip. It could be stopping in for a quick meal on your hour lunch break, and you have to scarf down the meal because it comes to your table at the 53rd minute of 60.
So, how do you improve your speed of service?
1. Measure it
Simply put, you can’t improve what you can’t measure. After all, what are you improving against?
If your speed of service is noticeably bad, maybe you’ll see an improvement. But is that a five second improvement? Five minutes? Are you staffing adequately for the rush and quiet times? Properly measuring is the key to improving your speed of service.
Businesses can improve their speed of service through various strategies and approaches, depending on the nature of the business and its operations. Here are some general techniques.
You should also be looking at SOS outside of just your general performance. You can review smaller areas of speed of service, including:
- Time spent ordering
- Time spend prepping food
- Time to pay
2. Streamline processes
Now that you’re measuring everything, you can see what processes are not optimal or are taking up too much time.
Use that data-driven information to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your current processes and work to improve those. Streamlining operations can help reduce unnecessary steps and delays and therefore, boost your speed of service.
3. Provide adequate training
Ensure that employees are well-trained and empowered to make decisions quickly. This includes providing them with the necessary tools, resources, and authority to address customer needs promptly.
It’s also not fair on you as a store manager or business owner to think your team can work efficiently if they aren’t trained to do so. It’s on you to arm them with the skills they need to work quickly without compromising quality. Without that training, their poor performance is your fault.
Pro tip: Make sure you aren’t training people by throwing them into the fire. It’s better to take time during slow periods of the day to get your team up to speed, versus letting them learn by putting them in the front line at the busiest time of day. This helps them feel confident AND keeps your guest experience protected — because you know all of your guests won’t be the patient and understanding types when it comes to staff training.
4. Leverage technology
In today’s day and age, there’s a technological solution for everything.
Leveraging technology to improve speed of service is two-fold. You can implement technology solutions such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, order management systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) software to automate tasks and improve efficiency.
You can also use technology to measure your speed of service. An intelligent video provider has offerings that help you measure your speed of service, therefore giving you a baseline to work against and improve upon.
5. Self-service options
Self-service options are becoming standard across more industries than ever before — from C-stores to retail, to QSR and beyond.
A self-service option is a great way to empower your diners, shoppers, or guests to take control of aspects of speed of service and minimize the responsibility being solely on your team. Kiosks or other self-checkouts speed up your service without increasing your labor costs.
Pro tip: Self-service doesn’t mean this is sans staff. You need staff ready to jump in where needed and minimize frustration if something goes wrong with the self-serve option, keep lines moving when people prefer to order in person, and more. You also need to staff your kitchen accordingly to cope with an influx of orders when adding a method of ordering to a busy location.
Improve your speed of service with ease
There’s no doubt that speed of service is something that has crossed your mind at some point, whether as a business owner or as the person on the other end struggling when receiving slow service at your favorite establishment. That’s why, on both sides, you know how important a measured and actively worked speed of service can be.
These tips can arm you with actions to take to boost the guest experience — after all, nobody is happier than a person receiving their morning coffee quickly and correctly!
Want to see how DTiQ's cutting-edge solutions can revolutionize your speed of service? Book a demo today or contact us and see how we help you measure and improve your speed of service. Unlock happy customers and happier management!
FAQ around speed of service
Still have questions about speed of service? Check out our high-level questions and answers.
1. What is speed of service?
Speed of service is a measurement of how fast you serve guests at your business from start to finish.
2. What is an example of speed of service?
An example of speed of service is how long it takes for a quick service restaurant to serve somebody their morning coffee. The “measurement” time start varies. It can start when somebody pulls into the drive-thru and you measure their time in line to receive the coffee, or it can start when they step into the store to place an order.
3. Why is speed of service important?
The importance of speed of service varies between industries. As we talked about before, you don’t want a super high speed of service at a fine dining restaurant, but your speed of service should be fast at a quick service restaurant.
Speed of service is important because when guests expect something fast, they want it fast. It can make or break the customer experience if their expectations aren’t being met, and speed of service is arguably the biggest part of this. This is especially true with a quick service restaurant, where the level of speed is in the name.
3. What industries or areas does speed of service matter?
Some of the industries where speed of service matters the most include the quick service restaurant space, drive-thru restaurants, fast casual restaurants, just to name a few.
4. How do I improve speed of service at my quick service restaurant?
The number one thing to do when looking to improve speed of service is finding a way to measure it. If you can’t measure speed of service, you can’t improve it as you have nothing to measure this improvement against. If you need a tool to measure with, explore dtiq.com.
5. How do I improve drive-thru speed of service?
Just like a quick service restaurant, the first thing to do is measure your drive-thru performance. Not only does this give you something to compare against, but it shows you the areas you need to improve.
6. What’s more important — quality or speed of service?
Unfortunately, the answer is both are equally important. Consider your own morning coffee. If it’s slow but made correctly, you’ll remember it’s slow. If it’s made fast but they get your order wrong, it’s going to either slow you down to get a new one made or you leave disappointed in your order and less likely to come back. It boils down to the fact that quality and speed of service must be achieved without compromising on the other.
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They say the customer is always right — and most operators in customer-facing roles still take that approach. But how do you balance ensuring the customer is always right with changing consumer expectations? After all, most business owners would agree that customer expectations are soaring. They expect what they want, how they want it, and as fast as possible. This is why speed of service is so key for customer-facing businesses.
The concept of Speed of Service (SOS) is not foreign to most business owners. It’s a critical aspect of their operation. Today’s business owners are savvy professionals looking for new and improved methods of driving revenue, and SOS is a necessity in all environments.
However, improving your speed of service is no easy feat. Let’s dive into what it is and — more importantly — methods to improve it.
> Download Speed of Service overview guide <
Summary
Speed of service is the time it takes for a business to serve its customers. Speed of service is especially critical in the restaurant space as people want to feel like their orders are being efficiently served. From fine dining to quick service, speed of service matters.
Increasing your speed of service is a challenge as you balance everything else the customers expect. You don’t want to risk getting meals wrong, making things incorrectly, or serving dishes that aren’t up to standard. After all, this can lead to unhappy customers. You must be fast and get the orders right.
Some ways to improve your speed of service include:
- Measure your speed of service. You can’t improve what you aren’t measuring.
- Optimize your staff schedule. Ensure you’re scheduling the right amount of people for peak times so that you aren’t slowed down by a routine rush. You can go as far as to schedule those top performers during busy hours to keep things flowing.
- Leverage reporting tools to forecast popular items, rush times, and more. Especially in the quick service restaurant space, you need to be prepped. See where you can prepare food ahead of time without compromising on quality or waste (more on this later).
Want more information on speed of service and dive deeper into ways to improve it? Keep reading.
Want a copy of our speed of service guide with quick wins included? Click here.
What is speed of service?
Simply put, speed of service is the measurement of time for how long it takes for a business to serve its customers.
But measuring your speed of service isn’t as simple. It’s not as black and white as “get your guests out the door as soon as possible”. Depending on your industry, the goals around speed of service can and should look completely different. This means evaluating your space and what your customers expect is important before setting any measurements around speed of service.
Think of the difference between a quick service restaurant and a fine dining experience. In a quick service restaurant, speed of service is everything — after all, going quick is literally in the name of your business. Diners coming to a quick service restaurant want to get in and get out. A high speed of service is going to be detrimental.
In a fine dining restaurant, however, people are paying for an experience. You need to pace the meal, absolutely, but rushing them out the door is going to result in unhappy guests who feel like they paid too much to dine with you.
Why is speed of service important?
So you may be asking yourself “why do I care about speed of service?”
Okay, we’ll give you more credit than that. You know why you care about the speed of service, both from the perspective of a diner and a business owner or operator.
As a business owner, happy customers are everything. They give you repeat business, leave positive reviews that encourage other guests to come, and (frankly) keep your doors open. You need customers to be happy! For some industries, speed of service is the cornerstone to keeping your customers happy. Think how quickly your morning coffee rush would be empty lines if you couldn’t keep up with the commuters.
As a diner, you’ve likely been on the other side of a slow speed of service. That could be a slow morning coffee, like our example above. It could be a drive-thru that you feel is not moving as you itch to make it to soccer practice or get back on the road for a long road trip. It could be stopping in for a quick meal on your hour lunch break, and you have to scarf down the meal because it comes to your table at the 53rd minute of 60.
So, how do you improve your speed of service?
1. Measure it
Simply put, you can’t improve what you can’t measure. After all, what are you improving against?
If your speed of service is noticeably bad, maybe you’ll see an improvement. But is that a five second improvement? Five minutes? Are you staffing adequately for the rush and quiet times? Properly measuring is the key to improving your speed of service.
Businesses can improve their speed of service through various strategies and approaches, depending on the nature of the business and its operations. Here are some general techniques.
You should also be looking at SOS outside of just your general performance. You can review smaller areas of speed of service, including:
- Time spent ordering
- Time spend prepping food
- Time to pay
2. Streamline processes
Now that you’re measuring everything, you can see what processes are not optimal or are taking up too much time.
Use that data-driven information to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your current processes and work to improve those. Streamlining operations can help reduce unnecessary steps and delays and therefore, boost your speed of service.
3. Provide adequate training
Ensure that employees are well-trained and empowered to make decisions quickly. This includes providing them with the necessary tools, resources, and authority to address customer needs promptly.
It’s also not fair on you as a store manager or business owner to think your team can work efficiently if they aren’t trained to do so. It’s on you to arm them with the skills they need to work quickly without compromising quality. Without that training, their poor performance is your fault.
Pro tip: Make sure you aren’t training people by throwing them into the fire. It’s better to take time during slow periods of the day to get your team up to speed, versus letting them learn by putting them in the front line at the busiest time of day. This helps them feel confident AND keeps your guest experience protected — because you know all of your guests won’t be the patient and understanding types when it comes to staff training.
4. Leverage technology
In today’s day and age, there’s a technological solution for everything.
Leveraging technology to improve speed of service is two-fold. You can implement technology solutions such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, order management systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) software to automate tasks and improve efficiency.
You can also use technology to measure your speed of service. An intelligent video provider has offerings that help you measure your speed of service, therefore giving you a baseline to work against and improve upon.
5. Self-service options
Self-service options are becoming standard across more industries than ever before — from C-stores to retail, to QSR and beyond.
A self-service option is a great way to empower your diners, shoppers, or guests to take control of aspects of speed of service and minimize the responsibility being solely on your team. Kiosks or other self-checkouts speed up your service without increasing your labor costs.
Pro tip: Self-service doesn’t mean this is sans staff. You need staff ready to jump in where needed and minimize frustration if something goes wrong with the self-serve option, keep lines moving when people prefer to order in person, and more. You also need to staff your kitchen accordingly to cope with an influx of orders when adding a method of ordering to a busy location.
Improve your speed of service with ease
There’s no doubt that speed of service is something that has crossed your mind at some point, whether as a business owner or as the person on the other end struggling when receiving slow service at your favorite establishment. That’s why, on both sides, you know how important a measured and actively worked speed of service can be.
These tips can arm you with actions to take to boost the guest experience — after all, nobody is happier than a person receiving their morning coffee quickly and correctly!
Want to see how DTiQ's cutting-edge solutions can revolutionize your speed of service? Book a demo today or contact us and see how we help you measure and improve your speed of service. Unlock happy customers and happier management!
FAQ around speed of service
Still have questions about speed of service? Check out our high-level questions and answers.
1. What is speed of service?
Speed of service is a measurement of how fast you serve guests at your business from start to finish.
2. What is an example of speed of service?
An example of speed of service is how long it takes for a quick service restaurant to serve somebody their morning coffee. The “measurement” time start varies. It can start when somebody pulls into the drive-thru and you measure their time in line to receive the coffee, or it can start when they step into the store to place an order.
3. Why is speed of service important?
The importance of speed of service varies between industries. As we talked about before, you don’t want a super high speed of service at a fine dining restaurant, but your speed of service should be fast at a quick service restaurant.
Speed of service is important because when guests expect something fast, they want it fast. It can make or break the customer experience if their expectations aren’t being met, and speed of service is arguably the biggest part of this. This is especially true with a quick service restaurant, where the level of speed is in the name.
3. What industries or areas does speed of service matter?
Some of the industries where speed of service matters the most include the quick service restaurant space, drive-thru restaurants, fast casual restaurants, just to name a few.
4. How do I improve speed of service at my quick service restaurant?
The number one thing to do when looking to improve speed of service is finding a way to measure it. If you can’t measure speed of service, you can’t improve it as you have nothing to measure this improvement against. If you need a tool to measure with, explore dtiq.com.
5. How do I improve drive-thru speed of service?
Just like a quick service restaurant, the first thing to do is measure your drive-thru performance. Not only does this give you something to compare against, but it shows you the areas you need to improve.
6. What’s more important — quality or speed of service?
Unfortunately, the answer is both are equally important. Consider your own morning coffee. If it’s slow but made correctly, you’ll remember it’s slow. If it’s made fast but they get your order wrong, it’s going to either slow you down to get a new one made or you leave disappointed in your order and less likely to come back. It boils down to the fact that quality and speed of service must be achieved without compromising on the other.
They say the customer is always right — and most operators in customer-facing roles still take that approach. But how do you balance ensuring the customer is always right with changing consumer expectations? After all, most business owners would agree that customer expectations are soaring. They expect what they want, how they want it, and as fast as possible. This is why speed of service is so key for customer-facing businesses.
The concept of Speed of Service (SOS) is not foreign to most business owners. It’s a critical aspect of their operation. Today’s business owners are savvy professionals looking for new and improved methods of driving revenue, and SOS is a necessity in all environments.
However, improving your speed of service is no easy feat. Let’s dive into what it is and — more importantly — methods to improve it.
> Download Speed of Service overview guide <
Summary
Speed of service is the time it takes for a business to serve its customers. Speed of service is especially critical in the restaurant space as people want to feel like their orders are being efficiently served. From fine dining to quick service, speed of service matters.
Increasing your speed of service is a challenge as you balance everything else the customers expect. You don’t want to risk getting meals wrong, making things incorrectly, or serving dishes that aren’t up to standard. After all, this can lead to unhappy customers. You must be fast and get the orders right.
Some ways to improve your speed of service include:
- Measure your speed of service. You can’t improve what you aren’t measuring.
- Optimize your staff schedule. Ensure you’re scheduling the right amount of people for peak times so that you aren’t slowed down by a routine rush. You can go as far as to schedule those top performers during busy hours to keep things flowing.
- Leverage reporting tools to forecast popular items, rush times, and more. Especially in the quick service restaurant space, you need to be prepped. See where you can prepare food ahead of time without compromising on quality or waste (more on this later).
Want more information on speed of service and dive deeper into ways to improve it? Keep reading.
Want a copy of our speed of service guide with quick wins included? Click here.
What is speed of service?
Simply put, speed of service is the measurement of time for how long it takes for a business to serve its customers.
But measuring your speed of service isn’t as simple. It’s not as black and white as “get your guests out the door as soon as possible”. Depending on your industry, the goals around speed of service can and should look completely different. This means evaluating your space and what your customers expect is important before setting any measurements around speed of service.
Think of the difference between a quick service restaurant and a fine dining experience. In a quick service restaurant, speed of service is everything — after all, going quick is literally in the name of your business. Diners coming to a quick service restaurant want to get in and get out. A high speed of service is going to be detrimental.
In a fine dining restaurant, however, people are paying for an experience. You need to pace the meal, absolutely, but rushing them out the door is going to result in unhappy guests who feel like they paid too much to dine with you.
Why is speed of service important?
So you may be asking yourself “why do I care about speed of service?”
Okay, we’ll give you more credit than that. You know why you care about the speed of service, both from the perspective of a diner and a business owner or operator.
As a business owner, happy customers are everything. They give you repeat business, leave positive reviews that encourage other guests to come, and (frankly) keep your doors open. You need customers to be happy! For some industries, speed of service is the cornerstone to keeping your customers happy. Think how quickly your morning coffee rush would be empty lines if you couldn’t keep up with the commuters.
As a diner, you’ve likely been on the other side of a slow speed of service. That could be a slow morning coffee, like our example above. It could be a drive-thru that you feel is not moving as you itch to make it to soccer practice or get back on the road for a long road trip. It could be stopping in for a quick meal on your hour lunch break, and you have to scarf down the meal because it comes to your table at the 53rd minute of 60.
So, how do you improve your speed of service?
1. Measure it
Simply put, you can’t improve what you can’t measure. After all, what are you improving against?
If your speed of service is noticeably bad, maybe you’ll see an improvement. But is that a five second improvement? Five minutes? Are you staffing adequately for the rush and quiet times? Properly measuring is the key to improving your speed of service.
Businesses can improve their speed of service through various strategies and approaches, depending on the nature of the business and its operations. Here are some general techniques.
You should also be looking at SOS outside of just your general performance. You can review smaller areas of speed of service, including:
- Time spent ordering
- Time spend prepping food
- Time to pay
2. Streamline processes
Now that you’re measuring everything, you can see what processes are not optimal or are taking up too much time.
Use that data-driven information to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your current processes and work to improve those. Streamlining operations can help reduce unnecessary steps and delays and therefore, boost your speed of service.
3. Provide adequate training
Ensure that employees are well-trained and empowered to make decisions quickly. This includes providing them with the necessary tools, resources, and authority to address customer needs promptly.
It’s also not fair on you as a store manager or business owner to think your team can work efficiently if they aren’t trained to do so. It’s on you to arm them with the skills they need to work quickly without compromising quality. Without that training, their poor performance is your fault.
Pro tip: Make sure you aren’t training people by throwing them into the fire. It’s better to take time during slow periods of the day to get your team up to speed, versus letting them learn by putting them in the front line at the busiest time of day. This helps them feel confident AND keeps your guest experience protected — because you know all of your guests won’t be the patient and understanding types when it comes to staff training.
4. Leverage technology
In today’s day and age, there’s a technological solution for everything.
Leveraging technology to improve speed of service is two-fold. You can implement technology solutions such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, order management systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) software to automate tasks and improve efficiency.
You can also use technology to measure your speed of service. An intelligent video provider has offerings that help you measure your speed of service, therefore giving you a baseline to work against and improve upon.
5. Self-service options
Self-service options are becoming standard across more industries than ever before — from C-stores to retail, to QSR and beyond.
A self-service option is a great way to empower your diners, shoppers, or guests to take control of aspects of speed of service and minimize the responsibility being solely on your team. Kiosks or other self-checkouts speed up your service without increasing your labor costs.
Pro tip: Self-service doesn’t mean this is sans staff. You need staff ready to jump in where needed and minimize frustration if something goes wrong with the self-serve option, keep lines moving when people prefer to order in person, and more. You also need to staff your kitchen accordingly to cope with an influx of orders when adding a method of ordering to a busy location.
Improve your speed of service with ease
There’s no doubt that speed of service is something that has crossed your mind at some point, whether as a business owner or as the person on the other end struggling when receiving slow service at your favorite establishment. That’s why, on both sides, you know how important a measured and actively worked speed of service can be.
These tips can arm you with actions to take to boost the guest experience — after all, nobody is happier than a person receiving their morning coffee quickly and correctly!
Want to see how DTiQ's cutting-edge solutions can revolutionize your speed of service? Book a demo today or contact us and see how we help you measure and improve your speed of service. Unlock happy customers and happier management!
FAQ around speed of service
Still have questions about speed of service? Check out our high-level questions and answers.
1. What is speed of service?
Speed of service is a measurement of how fast you serve guests at your business from start to finish.
2. What is an example of speed of service?
An example of speed of service is how long it takes for a quick service restaurant to serve somebody their morning coffee. The “measurement” time start varies. It can start when somebody pulls into the drive-thru and you measure their time in line to receive the coffee, or it can start when they step into the store to place an order.
3. Why is speed of service important?
The importance of speed of service varies between industries. As we talked about before, you don’t want a super high speed of service at a fine dining restaurant, but your speed of service should be fast at a quick service restaurant.
Speed of service is important because when guests expect something fast, they want it fast. It can make or break the customer experience if their expectations aren’t being met, and speed of service is arguably the biggest part of this. This is especially true with a quick service restaurant, where the level of speed is in the name.
3. What industries or areas does speed of service matter?
Some of the industries where speed of service matters the most include the quick service restaurant space, drive-thru restaurants, fast casual restaurants, just to name a few.
4. How do I improve speed of service at my quick service restaurant?
The number one thing to do when looking to improve speed of service is finding a way to measure it. If you can’t measure speed of service, you can’t improve it as you have nothing to measure this improvement against. If you need a tool to measure with, explore dtiq.com.
5. How do I improve drive-thru speed of service?
Just like a quick service restaurant, the first thing to do is measure your drive-thru performance. Not only does this give you something to compare against, but it shows you the areas you need to improve.
6. What’s more important — quality or speed of service?
Unfortunately, the answer is both are equally important. Consider your own morning coffee. If it’s slow but made correctly, you’ll remember it’s slow. If it’s made fast but they get your order wrong, it’s going to either slow you down to get a new one made or you leave disappointed in your order and less likely to come back. It boils down to the fact that quality and speed of service must be achieved without compromising on the other.
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