If it may seem like the restaurant industry is more or less the same as it’s always been, that’s an illusion. While the fundamentals of customer service and quality performance remain the cornerstones of the industry, the past few years have seen drastic changes in how restaurateurs use technology to engage with their customers and sustain a higher level of quality care. If you own your own restaurant, these are the technological trends you need to know about to stay competitive.
Keeping Up with Point of Sale Changes
A quality point of sale system is like the heart of a well-run modern restaurant, but it can be easy to grow complacent and fall out of touch with the changes in the industry. The rise of cloud-based POS systems has created a glut of competitors, and that’s a benefit to restaurant owners. Since these systems are typically compatible on any modern device, and since they make use of a subscription-based model, there’s little risk for restaurant owners to move to a new provider. This ensures that developers of the latest POS technology don’t grow complacent, and the result is a boom in new innovations that include everything from the integration of large data analytics to reservation systems baked in.
Soundless Communications Systems
Restaurants are hectic places. It can be hard to communicate with other members of the staff over all the noise, and during peak hours, remembering all the time sensitive tasks can be nearly impossible. Since restaurants have existed, restaurant workers have put together systems for staying ahead of things in both the front and back of house, but some truly interesting things have been happening recently. The same sort of technology used in smart homes, when connected to LEDs, can create sight-based cues for kitchen tasks like freezer rotation, dishwasher usage, and fryer timers. Meanwhile, some restaurants are experimenting with ways diners can flag down servers, either through the use of booth lights or more advanced functions like call signals tied directly to a customer phone app.
Marketing
The days of counting primarily on pedestrian traffic to keep your restaurant alive may be behind us for good, and even the trusted marketing policy of word of mouth has moved to social media platforms. A marketing strategy can be a great propellant for your restaurant’s success, especially when you’re first starting off. Much of that can be integrated directly into your software infrastructure. Much of the latest POS technology allows diners to pay their tab through a server’s tablet, and that allows enterprising restaurants to expand their outreach. The option to sign up for special offers or a loyalty program can expand your repeat business, and many of these systems also offer big data analysis for your guests and prospective leads. An automated mail marketing campaign is affordable even for more humble restaurants, and they can expand your reach in the community significantly. Many of these email marketing platforms can even integrate directly with your existing POS platform.
Reservation Placements
It can be difficult trying to decide how to balance the possibility of walk-in service versus the promise of reserved tables, but a good reservation software platform can help you crunch the numbers and even more efficiently organize your seating placement in house. It can also take the stress off of your employees and relieve the need to have a dedicated host on shift.
