QSR Loss Prevention: 4 Ways To Prevent & React

Anyone in the restaurant business knows that a certain amount of “restaurant loss” comes with the territory. “Restaurant loss prevention” refers to the involuntary separation between you and your hard-earned cash — and the steps you take to keep that from happening. From inventory mistakes to on-the-job accidents to all-out theft, you’ll never be able to eliminate loss completely, but you can find ways to limit the bleeding.

Surprisingly, many QSR or fast food franchises don’t have any sort of plan for loss prevention, and those that do may not be focusing on the right places. Here, we’ll take a closer look at one of the more exasperating drags on profit: theft.

An inside job

First, let’s dispense with the most feared form of criminal activity: being held up. Fortunately, this is not likely to happen, and unfortunately, aside from cameras and alarms, there’s little in the way of actionable steps you can take to prevent it. All you can do is create a protocol for your employees to follow so they know how to handle the situation if it ever occurs. That said, a much greater potential for loss is both less dramatic and often more detrimental to your bottom line: employee theft.

The vast majority of theft comes from right under your nose. Because your employees know your security systems, they know ways around them. A register that comes up short is an obvious red flag, so a more clever employee might zero out an order that was paid in cash—pocketing the money while keeping the register even. And if you think that employee will pose for the security camera while doing this, think again.

Picture it: $400 worth of receipts are found missing from your restaurant’s drive-thru drawer. Or perhaps you notice a pattern of voided (or “zero-ed out” or deleted) items. Hmm… Something fishy is going on here.   

As a restaurant franchisee, owner, or operator, you have budgets to balance, inventory to assess, employees to manage, and restaurants to run. Long story short, you’re busy. Being a detective isn’t part of your job description and loss is a moving target. It’s hard to pin down and sometimes it feels like it’s just easier to avoid.  

But according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, nearly 75% of employees steal from their employer at least once. Unfortunately, no matter the amount of vetting or screening you do, restaurant employee theft is likely happening in your store.  

So, what can you do about the case of the missing receipts? And how do you prevent these situations from happening in the first place? Let’s dive in…   

1. Ensure your cameras are working and placed appropriately to detect loss. 

LP 101: Cameras. Ask yourself the following questions:   

• Do you have reliable cameras set up in your BOH and above your registers?  
• Are there any “blind spots”?  
• Do you have the necessary number of cameras for the size of your restaurant?  
• Is your camera system integrated with your loss prevention software, so that it can take video recordings at the same time loss is identified by the tool?  

If your answer to any of these questions is “I don’t know” or “Umm…. no”, it may be time to beef up your security camera system. A 2014 study from Washington University found camera surveillance reduced employee theft on average by 22% (equaling $24 per week saved). 

2. Include LP and cash handling procedures in your onboarding/training.  

The best way to prevent loss is to educate your employees on your procedures, and most  importantly, hold them to those standards after training. Ensure that training includes LP  and cash handling procedures that follow best practices, like only allowing managers to have  access to the safe, and ensuring employees are counting cash in view of security cameras.   

3. Use your loss prevention tool – like Delaget Detect – be alerted and quickly identify the issue.  

Delaget Detect can cross-reference the Point of Sale (POS) exceptions from the business day that the loss occurred. The tool allows you to see all the details of any instances of asset loss – the time, register, or specific PoS it happened on, and the employee that was responsible.    

4. Learn from yours and your employees mistakes.  

Act fast when you identify any loss stemming from employee mistakes or theft. Schedule a time to sit down with the responsible employee and take the time to educate them on how you know they stole and how it affects your business. Follow through with the employee appropriately, and then create a new detector alert for that loss situation, so you can be alerted the next time the same scenario occurs. 

You may not be able to combat every instance of loss, but there are many ways to prevent and react to loss that keep our businesses healthy and profitable. Keep these best practices in mind and stay up to date on loss prevention tactics each month.   

The little losses add up! For more information about how Delaget Detect can alert you to loss quickly, check out Delaget Detect.