9 Must Have Restaurant Technologies That Improve Business

1. 9 Must-Have Restaurant Technologies That Improve Business As new restaurant ordering, delivery and engagement technology is invented and introduced into the public it is creating many challenges for restaurant owners and operators. Restaurants are now having to continually react to the new technology and make decisions on how best to leverage the technology. Many restaurants are simply ignoring the technology for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is lack of experience and understanding on what the technology is and how it may impact the business. Regardless of what new technologies have been introduced, restaurant owners must continue to focus on what brings value to their business in a cost-effective way. This does not mean that they should ignore the new technology as we have all seen what happens to stores that don’t embrace it. The best technology strategies for restaurants is to blend existing or legacy technologies with the new and emerging ones. The list below illustrates the mix of old vs new in terms of what technology priorities a restaurant technology strategy should employee. Legacy Technology Solutions 1 – The Restaurant POS system. This is the most important piece of technology found in a restaurant. It creates data that other systems will use, provides basic sales reporting, increases the efficiencies of the restaurant and increases the speed of servers and order accuracy. It is also the main piece of technology that many new and existing technologies integrate with. 2 – An inventory management system. This is the next most important piece of technology for a restaurant. The two big cost centers that restaurant owners can control are inventory prices and labor costs. A good restaurant inventory managementwill help restaurant owners monitor inventory costs and enable them to detect changes and make decisions on how to lower inventory costs. 3 – Labor Management system. In the US, labor is becoming more and more expensive. It is driving up the cost of the products and should be managed as much as possible. The labor costs should be less than 30% for stores and a good labor management system can help manage these costs. The labor management system is a solution that will create schedules, define how much labor is needed, the type of labor and when the labor is needed. This can be based on sales, menu mix and day of week. 4 – Accounting Systems. The accounting and finance system is also a requirement for any restaurant to be effective. These system when used properly can indicate how much money the store is making or possibly loosing. Accounting and Finance systems will take data from the above three systems along with other costs like rent, insurance and utilities to create a basic profit and loss report. 5 – Loyalty and CRM Solutions. A good loyalty solution when used in conjunction with a robust CRM solutions can lead to increased average check size and increased transactions. The challenge with these solutions is that they need to be used properly. Simply having a buy 9 get one free is generally not very cost effective. Loyalty systems when used with a good campaign strategy can lead to several percentage point gains in sales and transactions. New Technology 6 – Mobile/Web Ordering. Every restaurant should consider a mobile ordering and/or web ordering solution. It is very important to understand that this may not lead to an increase in sales but may prevent a drop in sales. What this means is that the new generation of customers is increasingly using technology to engage with the restaurant. If the restaurant does not have this capability, it may be losing customers. It is wise to think of this technology this way instead of a way to increase sales. Note that in some instances, mobile and web ordering can lead to increased sales and transactions but not always. 7 – Delivery. This is a very interesting set of technology. As of this writing, there are 14 different companies that are offering delivery services for many leading restaurants. Trying to understand which ones to use can be challenging. The technology may not integrate with the POS and could lead to significant operational challenges. This technology segment is not going away so if a restaurant does not have a good delivery strategy, they could be losing out. 8 – Self Ordering and Kiosks. This technology is a good idea for some restaurant but not others. Studies have shown that they can have a positive impact for locations that have large “rushes” of customers all at once. They also work better in areas were the customers are younger and more adept to using technology to place their orders. They can have a negative impact on operations and speed of service so make sure to understand the trade offs. 9 – Tap and Pay payment options. This is becoming the default payment solution for many countries. The US has not adopted this as fast as other regions but it is just a matter of time. Some countries in Europe for example have a 40%-50% tap and pay adoption rate whereas the US is less than a 5%-10%. Implementing this technology is not very expensive and allows customers to have more options to pay.