Mellow Mushroom redefines the employee scheduling process and improves restaurant operations with Schedulefly.

CHALLENGE:
Mellow Mushroom’s primary challenge was keeping track of employee schedules on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. On what should have been a light responsibility, the business owner and scheduling manager were both devoting several hours out of their workday to chronic scheduling pains.

Scheduling errors cost the company money in over and under-staffed shifts, not to mention valuable time that could be spent on other restaurant activities. “We were inundated on a daily basis with phone calls, voicemails and emails from our employees asking to reschedule their shifts for various reasons,” said Karen Busick, Mellow Mushroom scheduling manager. “Since we relied on one master scheduling book, every schedule change was an exhausting and tedious correction. All it took was one employee missing a shift for us to waste hours trying to find a replacement.”

Mellow Mushroom needed an easy-to-use solution to streamline the scheduling process. They needed an effective system to communicate instantly with the entire staff about scheduling or restaurant news. Mellow Mushroom could not afford to waste time and money manually correcting the scheduling book – this valuable time needed to be spent better serving their customers.

SOLUTION:
Fox discovered Schedulefly after looking for a new system to rid his business of their scheduling dilemmas. He immediately recognized that Schedulefly aligned with the restaurant’s needs. “Before Schedulefly, we relied on one scheduling book in the back office,” said Fox. “The book was borderline illegible with eraser marks and sticky notes added each time there was a schedule change. We knew we needed a solution that was user-friendly and could be accessed anywhere at anytime.”

Schedulefly delivered a complete scheduling solution that immediately satisfied that need. Soon, all of Mellow Mushroom’s staff had web access to Schedulefly. They could log-in and post shift change and time off requests. In addition they could customize their communication settings to receive emails or text messages with schedule updates. “I rely heavily on the Internet and my cell phone for communicating, as do most of my co-workers,” said David Focault, Mellow Mushroom server. “I used to waste a ton of time driving to the restaurant just to check my schedule – now it’s as simple as checking email right online.”

RESULTS:
Mellow Mushroom management now enjoys more flexibility. They no longer sort through heaps of information – all of the scheduling data is cleanly organized online. Even the historical data is saved to reference at any time. In addition, they connect with the whole work staff quickly and easily on the message boards. “If we have a 70 degree day in January we can open our patio for business,” said Fox. “In that scenario we need more staff – we simply post a message on Schedulefly and we schedule available staff effortlessly”.

Using instant communication functions like text messaging and online message boards has made scheduling simple – in addition to creating a sense of community among the restaurant staff. “I check out Schedulefly to stay informed about social gatherings with my co-workers,” said Focault. “If my co-worker’s dog is sick, I know about it. It is really great how connected we have become as a staff since instituting Schedulefly.”

However, the greatest value is freeing time to better serve the customer. “Schedulefly has saved me more than 5 hours a week, which translates to nearly 960 extra hours over a year,” said Busick. “That’s huge.” And with more than half of Busick’s work day freed up to focus on the customer experience, Mellow Mushroom continues to thrive as a popular dining destination. “When you consider the low subscription fee, time savings and improved operating efficiency – Schedulefly really is a no-brainer,” concluded Busick.

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The Schedulefly Team