Last Updated: May 10th, 2019
Technology is not only changing our lives but also the Restaurant industry for better. Gone are the days when we had to depend on recommendations from our friends and family to find a good restaurant to dine. Today, before visiting a particular restaurant we make sure to go through its online reviews, Facebook and Instagram pages. People are using mobile apps to order food, reserve a table, and make payments. The Restaurant industry is booming with consumers interested in quality food and service. The competition in Restaurant industry is getting aggressive, to stand out of others you need to offer not only great food but also a high standard of service with efficiency. If you are planning to start your own restaurant, here is a list of useful restaurant technology and hardware solutions to stand out in competition and enhance your guest experience.
Restaurant Industry: Useful Restaurant Technology And Hardware Solutions
1. Point-of-Sale Technology (POS)
POS technology is simply an advanced cash register. Depending on your specifications there are many mobile apps and POS software available which allows your customers to use a tablet or an iPad to order and make payment. Having a POS technology reduces labor cost by reducing server trips and also enhances the guest experience. Guests can complete the transaction on an iPad themselves rather than waiting for a waiter to pick up their Credit Card and manually pay the bill.
A POS technology allows restaurant owners to keep a track of inventory, manage staffs, monitor sales and cost incurred and guest counts.
2. Pole Display
A Pole Display is integrated with the POS technology in a restaurant. A Pole Display shows an itemized price of food items ordered by the customers along with the total cost of the food which they can easily follow.
3. Guest Management
Over the years restaurants are becoming tech-savvy which is leading to the improved guest experience and higher profits. A Guest Management System or a restaurant reservation system manages reservations, waitlist, create personalized customer experiences and more.
Some Guest Management Software can be integrated with the mobile app of a customer so that they can reserve a table, check waitlist and get an alert when the table is ready. The software helps the restaurant staffs in tracking the seats and helps servers turn table faster and in turn increasing profit. These Guest Management Software can help in building a relationship with the customers by collecting important information like anniversaries, birthday, favorite drinks and allergies and using them to create a personalized customer experience. Mobile booking helps restaurant staffs to focus on serving customers and being found by more and more diners.
4. Kitchen Display System
Kitchen Display System or KDS is a digital viewer which replaces traditional paper tickets and kitchen printer which helps the kitchen staffs in managing menu orders more effectively and reduce cost.
A Kitchen Display System is mounted to the wall of a kitchen helps to view the open tickets and track how long it takes to complete an order, route orders, view recipe and more. It reduces ticket time, organizes the back of your house and reduces cost.
The restaurant industry is not easy, its tough. You need to have a great business plan, a dedicated and efficient staff, a good marketing team along with the above-mentioned restaurant technology and hardware to successfully run a restaurant.