Since the emergency of COVID19, restaurants have had to get creative with their business model and explore new ways to simply stay in business. From contactless payments to pivoting into new areas of business, restaurant owners are hungry for ideas that make their lives easier, more efficient, and elevate their customer service. Here are a few easy ways to improve your overall restaurant operations.
INVEST IN THE PROPER RESTAURANT POS TECHNOLOGY
The right POS system will relieve even the simplest of day-to-day tasks, freeing time to spend on other important aspects of your business.
Benefits of Restaurant POS Systems include:
- The ease of processing all types of payments such as cash, credit card, and NFC payments
- Providing owners and employees with the tools they need to do their job efficiently
- Streamlining the communication between staff and the kitchen
- Keep track of sales, inventory, cash flow, employees, and customer preferences
- Customers want contactless payment options that make them feel safe and improve efficiency. Typical forms of payments include tap-and-pay options through Samsung, Google, or Apple Pay
- Investing in a mobile POS or self-service kiosk can help streamline the customer experience, improve accuracy, and order times
- Kitchen display systems can help improve the accuracy of orders and reduce common mistakes
EMPLOYEE TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
Managing employees can be a messy process. However, with the right POS, you’ll be able to invest and train your employees with ease. Reduced errors, improved customer service, and increased working efficiencies are just a few of the benefits you’ll enjoy from a happy and well-trained staff.
A POS will benefit you and your staff in the following ways:
- Easily update training procedures
- Hold monthly staff meetings and training sessions
- Track employee performance
- Having a way to track employee performance can also lead to increased retention rates if the proper work/reward structure is in place.
OPTIMIZE YOUR MENU
A restaurant’s menu is a critical cog in the wheel of success. Your menu should be organized to be at most one page so a customer can easily scan it. A large menu can often mean a significant overhead, so you want to strike a balance of providing enough enticing options vs. being too limited. A POS can help you achieve that. If you have a delivery component to your business, you’ll want to further optimize your menu as all dine-in options may not be a good fit for delivery.
KEEP TRACK OF INVENTORY
Effectively managing inventory is a critical component of restaurant operations. When food goes bad, it’s money wasted. The right inventory management system can help you find your inventory sweet spot, so you’re reducing waste but not at a high risk of running out of food.
Other ways a POS can help with inventory operations include:
- Reduce food waste by analyzing previous reports while fine-tuning future predictions
- Automatic reordering thresholds for low stock items
- Ways to predict employee theft
- Optimize foods that are best-sellers and identify foods that are low ROI
- Better menu planning due to food tracking
CREATE CUSTOMER LOYALTY
Attracting new while engaging with current customers is a recipe for success. The right POS system will track customer engagement across multiple platforms and create new ways to further elevate their experience. With these valuable insights, you’ll be able to benefit in the following ways:
- Ability to create user-generated content such as incentives for online reviews and posting photos of their experiences on social media
- Gain customer feedback through surveys. This can help improve customer service, leading to a better experience.
- Develop a rewards program for a customer who frequently dines with you. Providing incentives or discounts is a great way to keep customers coming back.
We hope we’ve provided you with a few valuable tips to improve your restaurant operations. It may seem like a daunting task, but with proper knowledge and understanding, you’ll be able to secure the perfect system to fit your business needs that will streamline operations further. If you have questions about what POS system would be best for your unique needs, feel free to give us a call at 210-926-5677 or schedule an onsite visit HERE. To stay up-to-date on the latest POS systems available and industry news, please follow us on Facebook.
