Want to Treat Your Customers Well? Start Treating Your Employees Better!

Monica Raju comes from an IT background. After completing her studies, she joined her sister in the F&B industry. Monica helped her sister conceptualize her restaurant venture called Nau Se Barah –The Movie Bar. It offers an extensive range of food and drinks and lets patrons experience Bollywood like never before. The yearning to devise a movie fantasy destination for the Mumbaikars led them to start Nau Se Barah. The delicious and refreshing menu here offers an all-day dining experience!

In Conversation With Monica Raju of Nau Se Barah 9/12

In an exclusive conversation with The Restaurant Times, Monica Raju talks of her journey in the industry, the story behind Nau Se Barah 9/12, leveraging technology, and a lot more.

The Story Behind Nau Se Barah-The Movie Bar

Movie lovers’ paradise, Nau Se Barah, is established inside a multiplex in Navi Mumbai’s Koparkhairne suburb. Nau Se Barah strives to bring out the nostalgia related to the movies. The presentation at Nau Se Barah is not that of a regular movie-themed restaurant. At Nau Se Barah, patrons dive into the essence of enjoying their favorite cult movie characters. The menu items are named after movies, which are carefully chosen. Monica says that the key to repeat business is consistency in both what you offer and how you deliver it. At Nau Se Barah, they provide supreme quality of food and drinks to the patrons. It transports you into a movie fantasy world that gives you an unparalleled experience!

Leveraging Technology 

Monica says that maintaining consistency is the biggest challenge in the restaurant industry. Sometimes the staff members get bored with doing the same job regularly. There are times when the cooks go on leave or new cooks are onboarded, which hampers the process of delivering consistent quality of food.

Patrons want the same quality and presentation every time they walk into the restaurant. Having a consistent experience builds trust with the patrons and creates a positive reputation for your restaurant. At Nau Se Barah, they have optimally utilized technology to automate all the processes to maintain consistency throughout. 

The brand has standardized the processes for everything, whether it is cooking, building food alignment or standard presentation. The kitchen is one of the most active places in a restaurant, where everyone is hurrying to finish their job. When a recipe is computed or edited, it will be updated from one centralized location. This assures that recipe information is uniform across all sites. Leveraging technology to standardize processes across outlets has helped in nailing the consistency and quality of each dish, every time.

3 To-Dos While Opening A Casual-Dine Restaurant

• Having The Right People: Monica says that the key to a successful restaurant lies in its vetting process to hire the best restaurant staff. It doesn’t matter how passionate and supporting the restaurant owners maybe if they’re represented by inefficient employees with negative attitudes. One needs quality staff who are knowledgeable in their trade, adhere to all laws and regulations and aspire to deliver high-quality service.

• Maintaining Quality and Sanitation: Monica says that the price you pay for not taking care of hygiene and sanitation in your hospitality facility can be very high. Consumers want to dine at a clean restaurant that serves hygienic food. Not to mention that reports of lack of sanitation in a restaurant are the most damaging sort of publicity a restaurateur can invite on himself. Along with the kitchen area, which should be adequately cleaned to ensure safe food preparation and hygienic handling, the staff members should also take care of their personal hygiene.
• Take Care Of Customer Feedback: To have a prosperous restaurant business, you have to keep your consumers satisfied. Consumers want to be heard, whether they are saying something positive, negative or in between. So listen to your consumers on social media or while they are on your premises and be quick to respond to feedback.

3  Not To-Dos While Opening A Casual-Dine Restaurant

• Do Not Imitate Someone Else’s Concept: Monica says that envisioning a unique restaurant concept for your new restaurant business is no easy task. But copying someone else’s concept is not a solution. The most thriving restaurant concepts are ones that provide an unforgettable experience for the guests, yet market saturation is making it more challenging to deliver an experience that is truly unique.

• Do Not Get Distracted By The Glamour Of The Industry: Opening a restaurant may be everyone’s dream because they get swayed away by the glamour associated with it. Entrepreneurs think that it is easy to survive in the industry. The reality is much more complicated. Its seasonality, dependency on local markets and local tastes, intense competition and consistent involvement required from owners are just some constituents that add to an absurdly great mortality rate.
• Do Not Mistreat Your Employees: Your employees are the face of your business, says Monica. Despite the availability of human resources, the restaurant industry has a high turnover rate. Restaurateurs must cultivate an environment such that your employees stay loyal and dedicated. Acknowledging them, rewarding them and treating them as a family should be a part of the culture. Restaurant owners must not misbehave with or mistreat their employees.
  

Role Of Point Of Sale At Nau Se Barah

 Restaurants need to track inventory, handle employees, and be informed of all the expenses and revenues coming in. A strong Point Of Sale system for restaurants will provide the capability to do all of that and more. Restaurant POS systems streamline business reports to review inventory, expenses, and gains. Also, such systems retain valuable customer data and purchase history, all while ensuring a fast transaction process.

Nau Se Barah has been using Posist at their outlet. Monica says that managing inventory used to be a challenge at her restaurant until she implemented Posist.

“With Posist, tracking my inventory has become very smooth. From expenses to wastage, I have control over everything. It helps me in monitoring the wastage, the actual consumption, variance, inventory left, etc. The pool of real-time reports and data provided by the POS keeps me informed about what is going on in my restaurant,” says Monica.

Restaurant owners have to regularly look after what is happening at their restaurant for prolonged success. Choosing the right POS assists in streamlining all the operations at your restaurant, cutting down manual labor.