About the firm
RK iNNOVATION is a 360-degree collaborative restaurant and food consultancy that helps brands better engage their staff and guests, grow their business, and adapt to evolving environments.
Focus area
Individual restaurants, large international chains, startups and emerging growth brands
Year founded
2003
About the founder
Roger Kaplan has more than 40 years of hospitality experience, including roles as an executive chef, restaurant owner, concept developer and Fortune 500 VP of Operations.
“It’s a tight labor market. What are you doing to compete with other employers? Giving people instant access to their money — not making them come back in and pick up cash the next day, or make bank deposits, or wait for payroll…that’s important.”
Roger Kaplan
Founder, RK iNNOVATON
Meet Roger, founder of RK iNNOVATION.
Before establishing RK iNNOVATION in 2003, Roger was involved in every aspect of the restaurant industry. His diverse background includes working as a nationally acclaimed chef, launching his own restaurant brands, leading concept development for Boston Market and serving as VP of Operations for Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
Now, Roger uses his experience to help other restaurant teams improve their operations, ergonomics, and ultimately, their profitability and margins. His past and current client roster includes restaurant brands like Wendy’s, Friday’s, and Einstein Bagels, as well as large-scale food manufacturers like Heinz and Campbell’s.
A key focus of Roger’s consultancy work is bringing innovation to restaurant teams. That is, helping them to identify the right technology (and weed out the tools they don’t need), so they can build out a modern tech stack that delivers meaningful ROI.
Why RK Innovation recommends Kickfin
Roger says cash has become a major liability for restaurants.
“Cash is an incredible waste of resources,” Roger says. “It’s hugely time consuming. At this point, for many restaurants, cash represents somewhere around 5% of their total transactions. But managers end up spending 20% of their time dealing with cash.”
Kickfin solves for the cash challenges that Roger’s clients face on a daily basis — the same challenges that he himself struggled with for years as a restaurant owner and operator.
- Safety: “After one of my GMs got mugged, I immediately put armored cars into my restaurants. But most teams aren’t doing that. It’s expensive. They’ll send someone to a bank, and that’s a risk. Kickfin eliminates that risk: your employees are safer, and you’ve also got less cash on the premises.”
- Productivity: “When your managers are running to the bank, that means they’re not managing their team, they’re not taking care of guests. Kickfin keeps them where they should be — on the floor.”
- Employee retention: “It’s a tight labor market. What are you doing to compete with other employers? It’s not just about the money; it’s the perks and benefits, too. Giving people instant access to their money — not making them come back in and pick up cash the next day, or make bank deposits, or wait for payroll…that’s important. If you’re doing it, and your competitors aren’t, why would your employees leave you? ”
“As a consultant, my priority is improving profitability for my clients. Using Kickfin to digitize tip payouts can have a huge impact on operations, productivity and employee satisfaction.”
Roger Kaplan
Founder, RK iNNOVATON
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- Restaurant Management
No matter what industry you work in, there’s always a risk for shrinkage and theft. Ninety-five percent of all businesses experience theft in the workplace, and up to 75% of employees have admitted to stealing from their employer.
Most of the time, it’s not intentional or malicious. For restaurants, it could be something as innocent as giving your friends a free drink or asking the kitchen for food and neglecting to ring it in.
But when you have a lot of employees handling cash day in and day out, it can be very tempting for someone to take advantage of systems and pocket extra money at your expense. To make matters worse: because cash is hard to track, it can be tricky for operators to put their finger on exactly what’s happening — at least, before it starts to impact your bottom line.
While cash shrinkage can jeopardize your business, operators do have the power to protect their restaurants. Ultimately, it comes down to having the right processes, systems and partners in place.
Here are 4 things you can start doing today to protect your restaurant from cash shrinkage.
1. Create a culture of trust with employees
Most people want to come to work, do their best, and make an honest living. Creating an environment where your employees trust you with their earnings should encourage them to also be responsible with company assets, including cash.
Of course, it starts with doing your due diligence when building out your team. That means interviewing new hires in person, asking the right questions, and always checking references.
But the fact of the matter is that even good people can make poor decisions, especially when they’re struggling. As an employer, there are things you can do to keep your staff from ever getting to a place where they feel the urge or need to steal. That includes:
- Paying a fair and competitive wage
- Paying wages on time, in full
- Giving people instant access to their earnings
- Offering employee benefits and perks if possible
- Adhering to federal, state and local labor/wage regulations, especially as they relate to tips
Bottom line: If you show that employees you take their financial well being seriously, it can foster an environment of mutual respect, making employees less likely to consider theft as a reasonable (or justifiable) option.
2. Minimize cash touchpoints
It’s simple. Less cash on hand = less opportunity for cash shrinkage.
In the unfortunate case that a high-ranking employee is stealing from your restaurant, cash tip outs make it much more difficult to catch and trace. Anyone with access to cash registers and safes has the opportunity to take a few extra bills — and you may not notice until well after the cash is pocketed and spent.
Instead of locking up cash and making only a few employees responsible for the massive task of paying out tips, take advantage of new technology that eliminates cash from the tip out process. Fewer people will need to manage cash, which adds one extra layer of security against theft.
Bonus: cashless tipping vendors like Kickfin give your employees more flexibility with their earnings. They can opt for tips to be sent directly to their bank or to have them put on their payroll check, empowering employees to make their own financial decisions.
3. Create a digital paper trail
The trouble with cash is the inability to track it. Half the battle is realizing that the cash is missing; and once you know it’s gone — well, now what?
Digital gratuity management software makes it easy for restaurant operators to create a digital paper trail for all tip payouts. You’ll be able to identify any improper payments, who they went to, and who authorized the payout — removing a major security soft spot.
Not only will you feel more secure, but your loyal employees will thank you for making tip outs much easier.
4. Select a secure tip management partner
Removing cash-on-hand is a great first step, and it should make any potential theft traceable back to the person responsible. But wouldn’t you rather prevent theft before it happens?
If you’re ready to bring your gratuity management into the future, make sure to thoroughly vet your options — because not every digital tip out software has strong protections against theft.
That’s why Kickfin has optional guardrails that can mitigate your risk of employee theft.
- Maximum tip amounts: Limit the amount that can be issued in any individual payout.
- Role policies: Create policies to limit who can receive payments by role type, and limit who can send payments to themselves.
- Multi-factor authentication: Set your own rules to require MFA at any point, whether at every login or once a month.
- Payment interval approval: Trigger a requirement for second approval for an employee’s first payment or their first payment in a determined number of days.
- Payment velocity approval: Trigger a requirement for second approval when an employee receives a determined number of payments within a certain interval.
For our POS integration partners, Kickfin can also put guardrails around your tip calculation policies to prevent fraud. While we offer the ability to send payments through manual entry, spreadsheet upload, or using our tip calculation software, integration users can disallow manual and upload payments to prevent any ad hoc payouts.
Integration users can also lock in their tip calculation rules, so that only certain users can make changes to the calculation policy.
How Kickfin helps in the event of fraud
Even without the temptation of cash in the safe, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
If you find yourself in a regrettable situation with an employee, your tip management partner should be there to back you up. Thankfully, our platform tracks each payout which will help you identify irregularities and the source of the problem.
The Kickfin team will always be there to support our partners who experience security breaches.
Check your Kickfin security settings
Do you want to make sure you have the most up-to-date protections on your Kickfin account? We’ve got you covered. Reach out to your Kickfin customer support team to ask about a free security audit, where we’ll go over your current settings and offer guidance on how to minimize your risk.
Not yet a Kickfin user? Find out more about our platform and security settings with a demo today.
- Restaurant Management
In the restaurant industry, profit margins have always been tight — and these days, they’re only getting tighter.
Running a restaurant is a labor intensive business. You need a strong back of house team to push out food, front of house workers to greet and care for guests, and managers to keep everyone in check. Naturally, labor is one of the most significant expenses for restaurant operators. In order to keep costs reasonable for customers, even a slight overage on labor can break your budget — but thankfully there are levers you can pull to reduce labor costs.
If you want to secure your business’s financial future, you’re going to need to streamline scheduling practices and keep a close eye on labor costs… without frustrating employees who want more shifts.
Don’t worry: you can turn to traditional wisdom, sales forecasting, and emerging restaurant technology to make sure that you stay on budget.
Here are a few ways you can save on labor costs at your restaurant:
1. Rethink the schedule
Obviously, the most straight-forward way to cut labor costs is to reduce the number of people you schedule on a given night.
We get it — you don’t want to see hour-long ticket times and poor guest experiences. But you might not need as many folks on the line or servers on the floor as you think — at least, not all the time.
Staffing and scheduling isn’t a perfect science, but there are some tactics operators should test if they’d like to “right size” every shift — including:
- Analyze your daily schedule. Don’t make assumptions about your peak times and slow periods. Analyze sales trends and let the data be your guide.
- Anticipate seasonal trends. If you’re in a college town, don’t wait until your servers are twiddling their thumbs in July to implement a new summer schedule.
- Let your seasoned staff shine. Your veteran employees likely thrive on those super busy nights when they’re running on pure adrenaline (and earning way more in tips). Consider giving more experienced workers more responsibility — assuming they’re willing and able — and you might be able to get away with fewer people on a shift here and there.
>> Learn about scheduling software that helps you manage labor and engage with employees
2. Assess and address productivity
Are you making the most of the team that you already have? There are a few ways you can identify your highest-producing employees and make the most of their success:
- Evaluate employee performance. Most employees want to be successful; observe your team and analyzes things like sales per labor hour, table turnover rate, and tip volume to get a sense of your strongest players and those who could use more training (and bonus: this can reduce turnover and boost team morale)
- Provide incentives. Create a fun bonus system that rewards strong performance and high levels of productivity. You can use data from the previous data point to set goals.
- Cross-train employees. Training your staff to handle multiple roles – or hiring folks with vast service experience – offers flexibility for scheduling and can reduce your need for additional hires.
3. Don’t pay employees to wait for their tips
No, we’re not saying to cut all of your servers early (no matter how much they ask).
But, you can send your servers on their way much quicker when they don’t have to wait around for managers to count out cash tips. Once they’ve finished their sidework, servers can clock out and see their digital tips sent directly to their bank account, instead of hanging around on the clock waiting for the shift manager to do their check outs.
4. Prevent labor overages before they happen
Most restaurants simply can’t afford to pay overtime for staff. But sometimes your full-time staff creep toward 40 hours of work without anyone noticing…and suddenly you’re paying 1.5x what you expected for a single worker.
This, too, goes back to proper scheduling policies. Give yourself a bit of wiggle room for the employee who clocks in 10 minutes early or often takes a long time on sidework by never scheduling anyone for more than 38 hours each week.
5. Pay close attention to clock-outs
People make mistakes, and tired servers often leave their long double shift without clocking out for the night. Usually, they’ll realize their mistake and call the store to have someone clock them out (still adding extra time to their shift).
But sometimes, the clock keeps running all night, and no one notices until it’s time to process payroll. Two weeks later, your admin team is spending way too much time correcting clock-outs so that you don’t end up paying for 8 extra hours of work.
Try using technology that puts guardrails in place to prevent any clock-out mistakes before they happen. Kickfin doesn’t allow you to process and pay out tips until an employee is clocked out, so managers can make sure everyone is clocked out at the proper time.
(We also have some other exciting new features that can make your life easier!)
Not only can Kickfin help you reduce labor costs, but we’re ready to simplify your entire tip management process. Reach out to us to learn more about our instant tip calculations, integrations, and smarter tipping solutions.
- Restaurant Management
Football is back! Whether you’re rooting for your alma mater or just hoping to see massive sales at your restaurant, it’s an exciting — but often stressful — time of year.
If your restaurant has at least one TV, you’re going to have some customers asking you to switch it to ESPN. And if you’re running a sports bar … it’s officially crunch time. Expect your tables to be full (and harder to turn) and your staff to be running on pure adrenaline as the restaurant fills up with fans hoping for a bite to eat.
You probably know the drill: hire more staff, add more servers to game day schedules, and manage your inventory with hungry fans in mind. But if you want to get the most out of football season, get game-ready for some of the busiest weekends of the year with our tips for a successful season.
Consider a game day menu
When your restaurant is at full capacity with hungry football fans, you might want to consider a limited menu for the weekends in order to keep wait times down. Shorten the food menu down to shareable apps, best sellers, and items with the simplest prep so that your kitchen isn’t lined with tickets at halftime.
At the bar, don’t limit your customers to certain cocktails — but consider the power of suggestion and list out some easy-to-batch cocktails that will keep your service bar out of the weeds.
Make sure they can watch their game
Is there anything worse than a group of die-hard fans walking in to see their team play — only to realize you don’t have the right subscription service to stream it? Next thing you know, some guy has commandeered the remote to sign into his YouTubeTV account.
Before that embarrassing situation arises, check your cable listings and subscription services to see if you’re missing any important channels. You’re probably going to need to upgrade in order to show games that aren’t carried in your market. Here are just a few channels you might need:
- ESPN+
- Hulu + Live TV
- Peacock
- NFL Sunday Ticket
- YouTubeTV or cable
- Netflix (yep — Netflix will be streaming a few NFL games this year)
If viewing options are limited, or you don’t have enough screens to air multiple games at once, make sure you’ve got a strong wifi connection (free, of course) so that your guests can watch on their phones — or more importantly, talk smack to their fantasy league.
Offer game day deals
Now that you’re logistically ready for the season, it’s time to draw in the customers. Make your restaurant the place for fans to gather by offering drink specials and deals on appetizers.
Leverage social media to get the word out about your game day deals. Consider paying to boost a post or running a giveaway for people who share a post about your game day specials.
Plan for Post-Game
You don’t want the restaurant to empty out as the clock runs down. Entice fans to stay and celebrate (or lick their wounds) once the game ends by extending deals. That could mean a discount for fans of the winning team or an extra-long happy hour.
Pay out your employees — quickly.
After a long game-day shift, your servers and managers are going to be more tired than usual. Let them head home early by using Kickfin to pay out tips instantly. We take care of all of the tip calculations and send tips directly to servers’ bank accounts in seconds, so your exhausted team members don’t have to wait to put their feet up and rest.
Want to see our instant digital tip outs in action? Get a demo of Kickfin today.
- Hiring, Training and Retention, Restaurant Management
You want to make more profit. Your servers want to make more tips. A crash course on upselling is a win-win for everyone.
Your servers might not realize it, but their words have a lot of power. Knowing how to present a higher shelf vodka or a premium side could make a world of difference for their wallets.
And beyond the increased checks, pro servers who are able to successfully upsell are also recommending your restaurant’s very best for guests. Those bigger ticket items are often your best dishes or most unique cocktails that will stand out in guests’ minds and make for an elevated dining experience.
Here are a few ways your servers can gently suggest some pricier upgrades that will boost their average check size, making everyone a few extra dollars.
1. Consider your memorable dining experiences
Before you dive into our upselling go-tos, take a minute to reflect on your last really good experience at a restaurant and how your server’s language, attitude, and knowledge affected your experience.
Did your server walk right up and ask if you want an appetizer? Or did they take the time to talk through specials, field questions about menu items, and give you the space you needed to make a decision?
Was your server’s demeanor generally excited and upbeat? Or did they actually look a bit disappointed when you said you’d just be having water?
These small, unspoken cues are what make or break a server’s night. Leading with confidence, positive energy, and genuine concern for your guests’ experience is what will build trust between server and customer, so they’ll be more open to suggested upgrades.
2. Value authenticity
Upselling just for the sake of a higher tip is not a successful strategy.
Remind your servers that while upselling can improve guest experience and your tip, it’s important to flex to the needs of your guests. Don’t continue to push higher priced items if guests are starting to look uncomfortable.
They say the most successful salespeople believe in what they are selling — and the same goes for servers. Your servers should have tasted all of the higher priced menu options and be able to explain to guests why this upgrade brings their dining experience to the next level.
3. Start with the drinks
Alcohol sales are restaurants’ bread and butter. So when a table orders the first round, servers should make it count.
Scenario #1: A customer orders a simple spirit + mixer drink
If a guest asks for a vodka soda, this is an opportunity to turn a $10 drink to $15 or even $20 — which will add up after a few rounds.
Naturally, most servers would ask what vodka the guest prefers. Teach your servers to resist that urge! Instead, servers should offer them a selection of higher-shelf options. For example, a server could respond with, “Vodka soda? Sure, would you like that with Tito’s, Ketel One, Grey Goose…?” And keep listing options until one resonates with the guest. That gives the guest the impression that they have a seasoned, well-informed server, but this framing also leads the customer to choose from the higher-shelf suggestions, rather than just asking for the house vodka.
Scenario #2: Ordering a glass of wine
We’re not suggesting you hire a sommelier, but getting more familiar with common flavor profiles and notes in wine can be a game-changer for servers’ nightly tip income.
Customers often ask for something similar to pinot grigio, cabernet sauvignon, or a pinot noir, and if their server can give a detailed description that makes a wine sound irresistible, they’re probably going to splurge for the higher-end wine. Bonus points for servers who can successfully suggest splitting a bottle (because once they taste it, they’ll want more than one glass!).
Consider hosting a weekly wine training to help your servers get more familiar with what your bar has to offer. Another pro-tip: Teach your servers about beer and wine pairings! When servers let guests know which entrees pair well with the drink they’ve ordered, guests may opt for a higher-priced entree to match their favorite beverage.
Don’t skip over the apps
Not everyone is going to order an app — but there are a few small changes servers can make to their dialogue with customers to convince those who wouldn’t normally spring for a first course.
For one, servers shouldn’t just ask if they’d like anything to start. Instead, teach your servers to approach tables with a suggestion for a specific menu item. For example, they could say, “Would you like a charcuterie board to start? We just added a really delicious local cheddar to our rotation.”
Offering patrons a specific menu item and talking up the details makes it a lot easier to add that extra course to their meal — increasing their check size and making it more likely that they’ll order a second beverage.
Taking the order
When it’s time to take the entree order, this is your servers’ time to shine. Just like the previous courses, they should know how to create opportunities to upsell guests by making entree upgrades too enticing to pass up.
From fine dining to fast casual, many American restaurants offer a burger on their menu. Rather than simply asking, “Great, are fries ok with that?” task your servers with turning a simple cheeseburger into a deluxe meal with several upsells.
First, make sure your staff knows your menu options well, so they can pass along those options to customers. Here are a few common upgrades that servers should be asking guests if they would like:
- Pretzel or gluten-free bun
- Added cheese
- Premium toppings, like bacon, egg, avocado, etc.
- A premium patty, like bison or imitation beef
Rather than asking if fries are okay, instruct servers to say, “What side would you like? We have french fries, macaroni and cheese, caesar salad…” and continue with options until one piques the guest’s interest. If they succeed in getting at least one upgrade to a customer’s burger and a premium side, the check can increase by around $4 per person, depending on the pricing at your restaurant.
Higher-end restaurants should follow the same formula, subbing in an option for steak oscar rather than a bacon cheeseburger. The goal is for servers to provide options for guests who may not realize that their favorite accoutrement is on the menu — and will gladly pay for the upgrade.
The grand finale
“Did you save room for dessert?”
Servers often bring out this line while pre-bussing tables, usually expecting guests to say that they’re far too full to even think about dessert. If you want to convince more guests to stick around for a final course, ask your staff to remove that phrase from their vocabulary.
Dessert is a rich treat for the senses that most of us crave at the end of the night, so servers shouldn’t treat it like an afterthought in front of customers. As they’re clearing away dishes, servers can tap into their senses by talking about your pastry chef’s perfect chocolate cake with buttery layers of icing, or the warm peach cobbler served with house-made vanilla ice cream on the side.
Even if guests seem like they’re truly full, your team can still offer them a slice to-go, since they’ll surely be wishing for something sweet in about an hour anyway.
Reap the rewards
After putting on their best smiles, connecting with guests, and using these upselling tricks, your servers should ring in above-average size checks — and an above-average amount of tips.
Once your servers see their huge tip out for the night, they’ll want access to those funds ASAP. At Kickfin, we provide instant digital tip payouts, so managers don’t have to waste time counting cash and servers can clock out of their shifts sooner.
Check out a demo of Kickfin today.
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