How Entegra's MarginSmart Advisory Service Can Support Your Hotel

For hospitality businesses, balancing profitability with high-quality service is essential. Entegra’s MarginSmart program transforms bottom lines through a focused three-step process to boost profit margins and streamline operations.

Entegra’s Director of Client Operations, Wayne James-Green, details how our advisory services can benefit hoteliers. With over 30 years in hospitality, Wayne leads Entegra’s consulting team, drawing on his extensive experience in operations management, strategic planning, and project delivery to drive exceptional results across the UK and Ireland.

1. Could you elaborate on the three-step process that MarginSmart employs to enhance profitability?

We work hand in hand with our clients’ onsite team to gain a solid understanding of how their business currently operates and select dates and timings that suit their availability and allow us to see their business in full flow. We gain an understanding of any brand standards and specific challenges they may have from allocations to being short staffed and keep these in mind as we complete our review.

We make an information request in advance of our visit, giving us the opportunity to review and plan. This allows us to gain a clear understanding of the gap between actual and potential performance and the makeup of the business's sales mix, which will support us in focusing on the areas where we can make a difference during the visit.

Onsite, we start the day by holding a meeting with key stakeholders where we outline the process of our visit and when we need their time and input. That said, we are very self-proficient. Throughout the day we observe and document where we see opportunities to make efficiency and savings, collating all relevant back up analysis completed by our team.

We then lay out our findings in an action plan, that is presented at the end of our visit, talking through the detail and the make-up of the savings, while gaining agreement, ownership, and deadlines to complete any of the initiatives.

 

2. What specific role does your team play in each step of MarginSmart, and how does their expertise contribute to achieving the best results for the client?

At Entegra we have a team of experts from the hospitality industry who are specifically trained to engage with our clients, forming trusted relationships and helping us become an extension of the client’s businesses. Our team will liaise with clients to ensure their business goals and customer expectations are met at every corner of the process.

Tailor made solutions are produced by our team to ensure our clients’ margins are maximised to their full potential.

 

3. What are the tangible benefits that this service delivers? 

Our solution has a proven track record of enhancing profit performance by 3 to 4 percentage points without impacting quality and service. We are also keen to support the training and development of key client personnel for their future career journeys.

Hospitality businesses are renowned for providing great service cultures, but we often see our clients struggle to take full advantage of sales opportunities. We address this by identifying simple opportunities for upselling and additional revenue generation.  

4. How do you tailor this process to meet the unique needs of different clients?

We recognise that each of our clients are different and so we take care to tailor our service to each one. We conduct an in-depth review of our client’s financial information to understand the causes of their margin gap and decide what steps are most appropriate for them.

We communicate with our clients through each step of our process to ensure that our outputs have continued business justification and offer desirable benefits to their key stakeholders.

 

5. How do you handle client relationships during the engagement to ensure a smooth and effective process?

There is a misconception that we are there to audit the process and deliver bad news, where our true aim is to build a healthy mutual partnership, this is at the centre of everything we do. Starting from the initial meeting where we discuss the objectives and right through the process, we give the client total transparency every step of the way. Our aim is to be seen as one of their team, build a program to support our client’s business profitability, and deliver success.

 

6. What role does technology play in the MarginSmart service? Are there specific tools that you use for data analysis or tracking improvements?

Data naturally plays a key part in supporting our program. Using data, we can quickly identify your purchasing habits, menu performance, supplier accreditations, and ensure governance around current legislation.

We have inhouse systems to support data such as menu costing tools, calorie and allergen management, along with EDI data from suppliers. However, our team is also proficient with many cost management systems and have the adaptability to work using your current systems.   

 

7. After the strategic report and recommendations are delivered, what kind of follow-up support do you offer to ensure implementation success?

The journey has only just begun with the initial onsite visit, we work hand in hand with your team with continual onsite and remote support. Therefore, ensuring that the recommendations are delivered with success and sustainability.

 

8. How do you track and measure the impact of your recommendations post-engagement?

We track your profit and loss results on a continual basis to ensure the identified potential margin is delivered to bottom-line. This involves regularly reviewing the provided action plan to ensure that identified opportunities have been realised and that there are robust procedures in-place to ensure that benefits are sustained.

If you’re interested in learning more about how MarginSmart can benefit your business, reach out to Wayne today at wayne.jamesgreen@entegraps.uk or find out more here.