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OpsRefresh
Questions

Asked straight, answered straight.

Everything you were going to ask on the call, in writing — concessions included.

The objections

The ten things operators push back on.

Why wouldn't I just hire an operations manager?

You probably should — to run what gets built, not to build it. Building is a concentrated quarter of system work: tracing every call path, pricing every line on the software bill, rewiring how ordering, reservations, and reporting fit together. Nobody does that while also covering Friday service. A salary is a forever cost aimed at a temporary problem, and when that person leaves, the operation leaves in their head. Hire the ops manager after the rebuild; they'll inherit a working system with a written record instead of a mess with a rumor.

Toast and Square onboard me for free. Why would I pay you?

Take the free onboarding — it's genuinely good at getting their product live. But no vendor will ever tell you their product is the wrong fit for your room, cancel three other things you're paying for, or own the seams between systems, and the seams are where the money falls through. We will, because of how we're paid: by operators, only ever by operators. There is no line on our invoice that a software company pays. And if a vendor's onboarding is running right now, let it finish. Call us in three months.

Do I have to replace everything?

Usually no, and the report is built to tell you what to keep. Most operations have a seam problem, not a tool problem: decent pieces that were never made to work as one. Replacing a POS is the single most disruptive act in this business, and we'll argue against it unless yours is dying. Your software bill comes back priced line by line, with a keep, fix, or cancel case beside each line, so the replacement decisions are yours — made with the arithmetic in front of you.

How disruptive is this while we stay open?

Start with the rule we put in writing: every cutover has a written rollback, and your manager on duty decides to pull it — not us. Now the honest cost, because it isn't zero: a handful of your own hours for the decisions only an owner can make, about two hours a week of your GM's attention, and two or three shifts that run slower while hands learn the new way. Changes land in quiet hours, and the old way keeps running until the new one has survived real shifts. The full set of working rules is published on the how-we-work page.

What if it doesn't work?

You're never more than one phase of money at risk. The assessment carries a completeness guarantee: if anything on the published list isn't in your hands at the readout, you don't pay the balance. The rebuild runs in short fixed-fee phases you can stop after — each with a written acceptance test countersigned before work starts, a set number of days to fix it if it fails, and money back for the part that can't be fixed. Everything is documented weekly and owned by you, so another firm could pick the work up mid-stream. What we won't do is promise a revenue number. Anyone who does is guessing with your money.

Why you, and not a firm that's been doing this for decades?

If you're running a formal procurement — an RFP, a scoring committee, a bench of firms — talk to the big firms, honestly. For one operator with one to ten rooms and a check they sign themselves, three differences you can hold us to in writing before you spend a dollar. First: the person who diagnoses is the person who builds, so no second team arrives after the papers are signed. Second: we're paid by operators only — ask any firm you're considering whether that's true of them. Third: you'll know what the first step costs, in writing, before you sign. Fourth: two things get fixed during the assessment itself, so you have watched us work before you decide whether to buy the build. We won't pretend the tenure gap doesn't exist. We'd rather you test us on the three things you can check.

Can you prove ROI?

Partly, and we'll show you which parts. Out loud, every claim gets sorted three ways — Measured, Assumed, or Not provable — and we say which is which. In the report, every dollar figure carries its own label, with the assumption printed beside the number so you can change the assumption and watch the number change. The baseline is taken during the assessment, before you've bought anything. Measuring after you've spent the money is how everyone gets fooled. You'll get no multiples and no 'typical client' figures from us, because we won't publish a number we can't stand behind. The nearest thing to a number on this site is a formula you can run on your own phone log — the result is yours, not ours.

Can't this wait until after the holidays?

Most of the time, waiting is the right call, and we'll say so. What's worth being honest about is that the leak runs on a schedule: the calls that go unanswered this Friday go unanswered next Friday too, and the difference between starting in January and starting in June isn't the fee — it's five months of the same leak. If you want a fast read, bring your numbers to the fit call and we'll talk through a rough range on the spot. If the number is small, wait. Genuinely.

Shouldn't I spend this money on marketing instead?

Sometimes yes — and we're not marketers, so we have no stake in that answer. There is an order of operations, though. If your phone rings unanswered and direct orders keep losing to the third-party apps, ad spend is subsidizing voicemail and a commission bill: you're paying to fill a bucket you haven't fixed. An answered phone is also what makes marketing measurable at all; you can't judge a campaign when the calls it produces evaporate. Fix the bucket, then pour.

Why isn't the fee on the site?

The suspicion is fair — a pricing page with no number looks like the move every other firm makes. Here's the actual reason: the fee moves with how many separate system stacks and sets of books you run, so any printed number would be wrong for most readers. What's printed instead is what nobody else prints: the payment terms and the adder rule that says exactly how the fee moves, and the promise that you hear the number out loud at the fit call and get it in writing before you sign anything. Ask any firm you're considering to put even that much on a page.

The practical part

Logistics, answered the same way.

How long does the assessment take?

Three weeks, and the clock starts the day the last credential lands — not the day the deposit clears. That rule protects both sides: we can't slow-walk the work, and the timeline can't be stalled by missing logins. The full three-week shape, including the field week on your floor, is laid out on the assessment page.

Where do you work?

Anywhere in the U.S. The fit call and most of the surrounding work are remote; the field week happens in person, on your floor, wherever that is.

What do you need from us before we start?

Before an engagement letter is signed: nothing. No logins, no statements, no exports — a firm that asks for your books before it's accountable to you is doing sales, not diagnosis. After signature, the ask is real: some of your hours in interviews, some of your team's time, access to your systems, and the invoice stack. The exact list is published on the assessment page, so you can size the commitment before you ever call.

Do you sell software or take referral fees?

No, and this is the fact we'd most like you to check: we sell no software, no subscriptions, and no hardware, and we take no referral fee, reseller margin, or commission from any vendor. There is no line on our invoice that a software company pays. When the report says keep the tool you have, nobody pays us less; when it says cancel three, nobody pays us more.

Is OpsRefresh a restaurant operations consultant?

That is the familiar phrase, but it is not the whole shape of the work. OpsRefresh is a restaurant and hospitality operations rebuild firm: the Operations Assessment walks the actual phone, ordering, reservation, reporting, and back-office handoffs; the written plan says what to keep, replace, or cancel; and any rebuild is delivered in fixed-fee phases while you stay open. Technology is what gets built with, not the product you buy from us.

Ask the rest out loud.

Bring whatever wasn't covered here to the fit call and put it to the person who'd do the work. The 'not yet' is free.

Book a fit call30 minutes, free, remote — and 'not yet' is a real answer.