Software is a must in the modern-day restaurant. It helps simplify a large number of activities. It helps automate everyday tasks and reduces dependency on manual labor.
A restaurant’s core activity list can be broken down by function. Restaurant software has made inroads in each of these functions and in this article, we will briefly highlight how technology has now become an indispensable part of the end to end restaurant management.
Contents
Operations
Restaurant operations entail a wide range of activities. Billing, ticketing, invoicing, KOT printing, inventory management are all part of a restaurant’s operations. Previously cash registers were responsible for keeping track of transactions. A POS system, replete with a plethora of cutting edge features, has redefined how restaurants look at operations. In other words, a POS system is not just a billing and transactional machine. It forms the base for a complete and holistic restaurant management system.
Here is a break up of the key operational functions of a restaurant.
Transactions
POS forms a part of the restaurant’s front-end and helps take care of everyday transactions of billing, invoice generation, KOT generation, receipt printing and more.
Data Management and Analytics
POS system is a warehouse of data and has all customer information across outlets. This database provides restaurant owners knowledge about the customers’ buying preferences – the kind of orders, poorly performing food items, enterprise-wide performance, etc.
Integrates with third-party order aggregators.
Companies like Ubereats, Zomato, Foodpanda, Swiggy orders are now synced in with ease with a POS system.
Integrates with CRM
Push Marketing (SMS + Email + In-app marketing) to customers is now all the more easy with the POS. The moment data hits the POS, the CRM is activated and restaurants are able to engage their customers with ease.
Inventory Management
Keeping track of restaurant inventory helps owners/managers to plan out purchases. They can feed in the inventory requirement for each of the menu items so that the stock updates can happen automatically.
Inventory management software helps in:
- Keeping track of stock levels.
- Setting up custom alerts when raw materials hit critical levels.
- Analyzing data and make critical decisions.
Cloud VS Legacy restaurant POS systems
Restaurants nowadays are going in for cloud POS systems. They prefer it over the legacy POS system. A modern-day cloud POS is an obvious choice as it offers a large number of benefits (when compared with the traditional POS system).
- Data stored on reliable servers, low threat of losing data.
- Mobile and hence menu changes can be made on the go.
- Low risk of data theft.
- No heavy, immobile machinery.
- Monthly payment plans for POS software instead of one large down payment in case of legacy POS machines.
Marketing
Marketing activities are important as they promote your brand and help you engage your customers. Marketing and CRM software help automate the customer engagement process. Campaigns can be segregated on the basis of the type of order, size of the order, demographics and so forth.
CRM Marketing channels include:
- SMS
- In-app notifications.
All these channels help you drive traffic onto your online order platforms and get direct business CRM software automate this whole process, giving you an additional channel of direct sales.
What’s in store for restaurants in the future?
This is an exciting phase for restaurants and customers alike as technology has really helped ease the working of critical functions. Customers have benefited through excellent and timely food service, low wait-times, online food ordering and multiple options of payments and quick checkouts. Restaurants have benefited through lower cost of operations and integrations of software to provide a single platform for all their needs.
New technologies are promising to make inroads as well – this includes AI technology at the restaurant premises for customer profiling, drone delivery for a faster turnaround time of orders, hyper-local food delivery, robotics to help enhance the dining experience and more.
We hope you liked the read. Do let us know what you feel in the comments section below!
