Restaurant KPIs are the numbers that tell you whether the business is healthy: sales, costs, labour, table turnover and customer satisfaction. This guide covers which ones to track and how to keep them in front of you.
What restaurant KPIs are
A KPI is a number you check on a schedule to see whether something is going to plan. Sales and costs show the money side. Customer satisfaction and table turnover show how the room is performing. Together they tell you where to look before a problem reaches the bank account.
Choose KPIs that match your restaurant
There is no standard set. The numbers you watch depend on your goals and the kind of restaurant you run.
- Fast food: speed of service, sales per hour, customer churn rate.
- Fine dining: average spend per customer, table turnover rate, online reviews.
Common KPIs worth tracking
- Revenue
- Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
- Labour cost
- Table turnover rate
- Customer satisfaction
How to track them
Pick a small set, decide how often you will look at each one, and keep the source of each number the same so the comparison means something.
Take the FoodMaster (formerly WooFood) food delivery system. This restaurant online ordering plugin for WordPress does more than take online orders. It also tracks your sales, top-selling items and customer behaviour, which gives you data to work with.
Connecting online ordering to your POS system lets you watch these numbers and adjust. You can see which menu items sell and which do not, and change the menu on that basis.
Start with the five common KPIs, add the ones that match your type of restaurant, and review them on a fixed schedule.