The challenges in the catering industry are great. Staff shortages, high costs and increasingly complex decisions. It is essential to have a clear overview of the company's own data in order to quickly identify potential. Find out in this article how Alexander Müller from Alex Kitchen optimized his personnel planning thanks to sell & pick and thus achieved 5%P less personnel costs and secured the basis for the successful growth of his business. Thanks to clear data analyses and regular communication with his permanent contact, the company was able to increase productivity and sustainably improve its operational success.
The customer
Alexander Müller is the founder and owner ofAlex Kitchen with two locations. He is responsible for all essential core tasks. Decision-making has become more complex over the years compared to the situation 10 years ago when the company was founded, Alex recalls.
Staff scheduling is the responsibility of the restaurant managers and is carried out in close consultation with Alex, as this often presents a particular challenge. Since the beginning of the year, there has been a new restaurant manager who will attend all future Jour Fixe meetings with our Customer Success Team in order to benefit from numerous ideas, knowledge and tips from the field, just like Alex himself.
The challenge
The previous personnel planning solution presented Alex with considerable difficulties. Data was difficult to access and the costs were not transparent. He first heard about sell & pick during a presentation by our customerNENI at a catering workshop in Vienna. Alex recognized the urgent need to bring clarity to his data. Despite the lack of time, he tried to coordinate his various digital construction sites with Excel spreadsheets. He was aware that standardization and a clear framework were needed before he could open more sites.
With technical, data-driven and AI-based things, you always think you have a Jarvis like in Iron Man who somehow solves everything - but that's not the case. You have a clear idea of how everything should look and how things should work automatically, but during the process you realize that not everything works as desired. The process itself doesn't yet work so that it can be mapped digitally. You first have to solve this problem.
- Alex Müller | Owner of Alex Kitchen
The solution
The main goal of the project was to build a digital infrastructure that basically covers everything that happens behind the guest and can then be transferred to other locations. This basis makes it possible to compare locations with each other as long as the processes are clear and standardized. The integration of different software systems and their seamless communication were also of great importance. A solid database is essential for using AI and automating processes. This corresponds to the clear mindset of Alex and us.
I particularly liked your modular system approach. It allows me to add, replace or remove a building block - in this case a software system - at any time if it doesn't work for us. It's not an all-in-one solution that I have to choose, but it always adapts to our needs.
- Alex Müller | Owner of Alex Kitchen
Alex's current focus is on performance and personnel analysis, as we realized during the joint analysis in the regular Jour Fixe meetings that this is where the greatest leverage for a better operating result lies. Particularly interesting is the daily comparison to find out on which day of the week less turnover is generated and where more staff is needed to achieve the optimum.
Alex also admits that it was quite challenging at first to decide between his own learned gut feeling and what the data really says. It's not always easy to make the right decision and admit to yourself that the business doesn't always run the way you think it does.
Alex also came toe2n through sell & pick and theCosmonomics project. He found the idea exciting right from the start, as there was already a good partnership. He is now extremely satisfied with this personnel management tool.
There are few who have Alex's mindset. Many restaurateurs start with different systems and after 5 or 10 establishments think to themselves: 'Shit, something has to be done now, the data has to be compiled'. Then comes the rush to make the systems talk to each other and they're more like Playmobil and not Lego, where you can connect everything together wonderfully. That's Alex's big advantage: he won't even realize how much pain he would actually have been in.
- Sebastian Hirsch | Customer Success employee at sell & pick
The result
By recognizing that there is great potential for improving the operating result in personnel planning, a clear focus was placed on this in the joint Jour Fixe meetings. The sales data from theLightspeed POS is matched with the personnel data frome2n in the personnel analysis of the sell & pick platform and can be compared across all locations, days of the week and previous year's data.
The first test came in summer 2023: The gut feeling was always, in summer there is super productivity as Alex Kitchen Husum is located in a strong vacation spot. Whether productivity was good or not was always an individual assessment by the restaurant staff. For the first time, the data could now be viewed in sell & pick. By working together, it is now possible to create a basis for healthy productivity for everyone involved, in which employees are neither under- nor overworked.
"Thanks to sell & pick, we now have clarity about the potential in our personnel planning. In the meantime, we have been able to generate 5 percentage points less personnel costs and the store is running great."
- Alex Müller | Owner of Alex Kitchen
"If we look at the data from Alex Kitchen, we can see in comparison that we have achieved an average of €10 more productivity per month. That's almost too good to be true."
- Sebastian Hirsch | Customer Success employee at sell & pick
On this basis, a new restaurant manager can now be given a productivity figure that has proven to be good and targets can also be formulated for a success-based model.
"Without sell & pick, we would be groping in the dark. Now we have clarity."
- Alex Müller | Owner of Alex Kitchen
The collaboration
Even if the creation of new interfaces takes time from time to time, Alex was able to use the sell & pick platform within a few weeks.
"The exchange in the jour fixe meetings every two weeks helps me immensely. I think that's a great USP, mega added value! You develop ideas together and have someone at your side who has a different perspective on things. I don't think we would be where we are now without that."
- Alex Müller | Owner of Alex Kitchen
Conclusion
The success story of Alex Kitchen and sell & pick shows how an end-to-end digital infrastructure and data-based decision-making can take a restaurant business to the next level. With a clear focus on people management and performance analysis, not only can costs be saved in the long term, but productivity can also be increased and a healthy working environment created for the team. Alex's recommendation to take a step-by-step approach and systematically exploit potential underlines the importance of a strategic approach to digital transformation in the hospitality industry.
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