Upper value issues rely on keeping up an increased enjoy, cautions veteran HFA hospitality govern Steven Baker

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — As hasty informal operators an increasing number of flip their consideration to the “fast” facet of the equation, they want to keep “casual,” too, advises a veteran hospitality architect from HFA Architecture + Engineering.

In an October 8 advisory column, hospitality govern Steven Baker (AIA, NCARB) notes that lead fast-casual manufacturers struggle to help their virtual gross sales channels via experimenting with the likes of virtual makelines, rationalized menus, ramped-up drive-thrus and geofence-enabled curbside carrier.

However Baker underscores the utility of continuous to do business in the hallmarks that prepared hasty informal eating places aside from their QSR opposite numbers—particularly, “a greater environment, extra made-to-order choices, superb meals detail and a lovely and at ease dine-in enjoy.

“Push efficiency too hard and you risk becoming indistinguishable from value-based QSRs, thereby losing your ability to command higher price points,” Baker observes. “Plan poorly and your attempts to better serve multiple channels can backfire, frustrating customers and crew members alike.”

The architect, whose purchasers have incorporated one of the most society’s greatest and highest-volume eating place operators, notes that additions reminiscent of unused drive-thru lanes or pickup farmlands generally call for some corresponding subtractions. Another way, prices may just mushroom.

He issues to a hypothetical fast-casual operator the place too many dine-in consumers really feel annoyed as they get up in layout and attend to workforce contributors build on-line orders. One imaginable resolution can be a distant queue, meeting layout and pickup station devoted only for app-driven gross sales. However the eating place would want to consider carefully about questions reminiscent of:

• The place precisely would the unused elements move?
• Would the construction want to be expanded, or may just it simply be reconfigured?
• May just the specified apparatus be sized to paintings optimally within the sq. photos to be had? How a lot wouldn’t it value?
• Would unused importance connections be a part of the combination?
• How a lot exertions can be had to retain the unused strains buzzing?

Petite steps will also be helpful, Baker observes.

At one high-volume QSR location in Maryland, portable stanchions allowed the eating place to roll out transient queues and take a look at more than one layouts. “Instead of immediately adding a double drive-thru, a fast-casual restaurant might start with more modest building and site-layout changes—for example, a pickup window with a small queue lane—that improve efficiency at lower cost,” Baker notes.

As fast-casual manufacturers search to optimize their websites and shops, “there is no substitute for imagining in great detail where patrons and team members would go and what they would do,” advises the architect, who has spearheaded masses of transform and prototype-development initiatives aimed at redefining restaurant-industry gross sales channels.

For instance, HFA’s workforce will actually draw strains appearing issues reminiscent of:

• The likeliest pathway for a workforce member in order a pickup surrounding to a visitor or supply motive force
• The place dine-in and pickup consumers are likeliest to ground and the way the places of doorways, drive-thru lanes and pickup home windows may have an effect on those pathways
• How other consumers will queue and the place they’ll move then they get their orders

“The goal is to reduce or eliminate dead ends, overlapping lines, redundant steps, and illogically spaced work stations,” Baker explains. “The experiential dimension is critical: Will guests need to cut in line to get to the restrooms? What will they see and hear in the dining room? Will the crew feel safe from vehicular traffic when running orders out to the parking lot?”

Potency-oriented imperatives will vary from emblem to emblem, however regardless of the place the needle falls between “fast” and “casual,” Baker concludes, the function must be to saving and fortify what units you aside from value-based QSRs. “Good fast-casual restaurants are lifestyle-oriented destinations where people are happy to pay a bit more for the experience. Make sure your customers continue to see it that way.”

The entire article is to be had at: https://www.hfa-ae.com/blog/get-fast-but-stay-casual

About HFA Structure + Engineering: HFA is a national structure and engineering company with workplaces in Bentonville, AR, Citadel Importance, TX, Franklin, MA, Springfield, MO, and Mexico Town. With over 30 years of enjoy, HFA has grow to be a relied on spouse for a various area of purchasers, offering complete products and services that mix design innovation and challenge supply excellence. The studio’s portfolio comprises business initiatives in retail, business, mixed-use/workplace, eating places, healthcare, hospitality and leisure areas. To be informed extra about HFA and their paintings, discuss with https://www.hfa-ae.com/  

Media Contacts: At Jaffe Communications, Elisa Krantz, (908) 789-0700, [email protected] 

SOURCE HFA Structure + Engineering

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