If you operate a restaurant, you’ll know that the only way to please your customers is to have fabulous relationships with your suppliers and service providers. You rely on these businesses to keep your enterprise equipped with everything it needs to provide a world-beating service.
But which suppliers do you need to keep close to your chest at all times? And how do you build fabulous and lasting relationships with them? Let’s take a look.
Fresh Produce Suppliers
Fresh produce is right at the core of your offering. You need items delivered daily, preferably only recently harvested from the farm. Finding suppliers that fit the bill, however, can be challenging. So many major brands keep fruits and veggies in cold stores for up to a week before distributing it to customers. And by that point, it’s lost a lot of its lustre.
The trick here is to build preferential relationships with your produce suppliers. Get them on board with the idea that your restaurant is all about providing customers with a freshly-picked taste experience. If the supplier doesn’t want to play ball, look for alternatives. For instance, you could build a relationship with a local organic farm where they provide you with daily deliveries of food.
Pest Control Specialists
As a restaurant, pest infiltrations can actually lead to the shutdown of your business and the destruction of your brand. To put it bluntly, they are just about the worst thing that any restaurant business can go through.
It’s a good idea, therefore, to forge a close relationship with an experienced restaurant exterminator. These professionals work discreetly in the background to remove any pests that might have infiltrated your premises and prevent them from getting back in in the future. Often they can clear up problems without the need to stop your service. Plus, they work quickly to the point where customers never realize that there was a problem in the first place.
Ordering Software Providers
Modern restaurants rely more on apps and management software more than at any time in the past, particularly since the onset of the pandemic. However, these systems aren’t perfect. Occasionally, they will encounter bugs and errors. And when that happens, restaurants need to be able to contact their suppliers for quick fixes.
Good suppliers provide around-the-clock support while mediocre ones don’t. If you can, find out in advance the level of support that your supplier offers and learn more about how they can help you in a crisis.
Cleaning Providers
Lastly, it helps to have an excellent relationship with your cleaning provider (if you have one). Unlike offices and retailers, restaurants have very specific cleaning requirements because of the need to maintain food hygiene. The trick here is to find a cleaner that has experience working in the sector. You need a provider that knows how to clean ovens, extractor fans and sinks without the use of potentially toxic cleaning products that could affect the taste of your food and your customers’ health.
So, are you keeping the right suppliers close by?
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