How to Dodge the Chaos and Prepare for the Holiday Rush

With the holiday season upon us, franchise leaders know they can anticipate larger crowds and, potentially, stressed-out customers who arrive in a hurry and with high expectations. It’s easy to imagine days of unrelenting chaos.

But for restaurant franchises, the holidays are chaotic only if you allow them to be. Good planning can ease the strain for employees and customers alike.

Preparation for this annual rush starts by understanding your customers and their behavior patterns. What have you and your franchise experienced historically when these roughly two months of holiday frenzy arrive? Customer journey maps are helpful here, potentially revealing the changes in customer behavior over the holiday season as opposed to their behaviors during other times of the year.

Ultimately, you must understand your customers’ dynamics so you can anticipate what to expect and meet their demands. You want to dance with the customer, but you also want them to lead.

When to Expect a Crowd

A good part of the preparation comes down to staffing decisions. How much do you need to beef up your staff to meet the demands? As you study those historical trends, are there particular days of the week — or hours of the day — in which customers pour into your restaurant or your drive-thru? And are there periods when there is a lull?

Making sure you have the staff to handle the higher volume at the right times will make a big difference in whether you look back on the holidays as something you embraced or that you found overwhelming.

Although it didn’t happen during the holidays, when I was with Sonic, we experienced something that illustrated the importance of understanding when to expect a crowd and prepare for it.

Generally, in the late hours of the evening, many of the restaurants had skeleton crews because the number of customers was small. But then we offered a special promotion of half-price milkshakes after 8 p.m. Franchisees reacted to this in two ways. Some understood that they would need more employees on hand after 8 p.m. and adjusted their staffing accordingly. Other franchisees made no staffing changes at all, counting on their traditional skeleton crews to take care of the situation.

Those who made no staffing adjustments were not thrilled with the promotion and considered it a failure. For them, the promotion proved to be a headache because they and their employees were not equipped to handle the rush in activity.

Those franchisees who increased staff in anticipation of the customer overload viewed the promotion as a success. They were ready for the spike in business and welcomed it. 

Making certain you have the appropriate staff on the job is more than a numbers game. You also need the right employees. It does you no good to have too many cashiers and too few people working the grill. Or vice versa. 

Inadequate staffing causes more than temporary frustrations for customers and employees. Because of the resulting poor service, customers may decide never to return — or at least not anytime soon. Staff members themselves, overwhelmed by the work, may seek employment elsewhere.

With appropriate staffing, the opposite happens. Customers are satisfied, and so are employees.

In a Rush

Of course, many restaurants offer holiday promotions, such as pushing their gift cards, since they know people are looking for gift ideas for their friends and families. They also sometimes promote specific products, such as holiday drinks, that find their way onto the menu exclusively at this time of year. 

That can help draw in traffic because, even though this is a busy time of year and people are out shopping, that doesn’t mean eating out is their primary goal. It may be a secondary goal, though, and your promotional efforts could be the difference between the harried shopper choosing you or a competitor.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many people, with so many tasks to accomplish on their holiday list, may be in a rush when they stop to eat. If that’s the case, be prepared to accommodate them, getting them in and out quickly.

Lessons from Other Sectors

Restaurants aren’t the only businesses adapting to the holiday season. Other industries can offer lessons and ideas on how to approach this time of year.

When I did some work for Planet Fitness, I learned that one recurring holiday problem the company had was that the website would crash on New Year’s Eve. This was because of the increased traffic to the site caused by so many people making resolutions to get more active in the New Year.

So, we beefed up the website’s capacity. We projected the anticipated volume for New Year’s Eve, and we multiplied that by 50 so the site could easily handle the crush.  

Likewise, make sure your website and apps are ready to handle the potential rush this time of year. 

Ultimately, getting the most out of the holiday season comes back to one thing: understanding your customers and making your decisions based on their needs and behaviors.