How can a Restaurant Business Use Technology to Transform their Food Business in 2021
Technology is known to make our personal as well as professional life easier. In this digital age, the credit for the growth and success of every kind of business goes to none other than the term ‘Technology’. It is a fact that technology has a strong and positive influence on every business and industry and the restaurant industry is no exception. The use of technology in restaurants helps you speed-up your processes and provides a better experience to your customers in this era of the post-Covid 19 periods.
Those who fail to incorporate several technological innovations in their restaurant business are at high risk of staying behind their competitors in the market who are making use of technology to boost their sales and business. Technology is transforming the way businesses are done worldwide in almost every domain.
The restaurant business that was completely dependent on manpower conventionally is also experiencing drastic transformation in its work process and services for availing great technological benefits. Let’s take a look at some of the digital assets restaurants can set-up to digitize their food business:
- Mobile Responsive Website: Nowadays things have changed a lot. Earlier people were using their desktops and laptops to use any services online but with the advent of digital devices such as mobile phones both Android and Smartphones, people browse the web for almost everything by way of their phones without wasting much time. They want to search for nearby restaurants, order food, reserve a table for their family with just a few taps on their phones.
Therefore, what you need to have if you are in a restaurant business is to have a website that is compatible with mobile devices so that your customers can bring-up your website on their mobile phones and view all the information about your restaurant and its services. The main advantage of having a mobile responsive website is that you can showcase all the information about your restaurant such as food menu, opening and closing hours, reviews and ratings of the customers, and so on.
You can also have a 24×7 presence online when you have a website. Apart from that, you will be given preference when it comes to the ranking by search engines if you have a website that is compatible with mobile.
Get the Best Restaurant Website Design Package for your Restaurant. - Table Reservation Restaurant Apps: Online table reservation is also bringing a revolutionary change in the way the tables were booked traditionally. Now, it is so easy for the customers to go online access the website or app, and reserve a table for themselves with the comfort of their home. Gone are the days when customers have to visit the restaurant physically and wait in long queues for their turn or involve in a long telephonic discussion to book a table.
- Food Ordering Apps: It is also a must-have for you if you are in the restaurant business because this feature makes it possible for the customers to order the food of their choice online by using your Food Ordering App. You can show your food menu on the app along with the real images of the food, ingredients used, and a few other relevant details about the dish. The customer can view them and place an order as per their choice and can make payments instantly by the online payment system.
- Food Delivery Apps: Delivering food to your customers in restaurants is not sufficient if you want to gain good profits. The food delivery business is already on the rise and if it is unified with technology it is going to yield never-ending profits. Food Delivery Apps nowadays are very popular in making food delivery services trouble-free for businesses. Therefore, if you want to succeed in the restaurant business then having a food delivery app is the right choice you should make. The customers will be more inclined towards your services if your services will be simple, easy, and fast. People use their smartphones and if you have the right food delivery app for them then they will order food online to get fresh and tasty food delivered at their doorstep rather than visiting a restaurant for the same.
- Order Management Apps: If you are a restaurant owner it is your responsibility to ensure that all the activities run efficiently. You need to manage all the things such as sourcing ingredients, allocating tasks to the employees, maintain a neat and clean kitchen and restaurant area, maintaining records of everything and simultaneously providing good food and services to your customers. All these activities are a lot to be managed by a single individual personally but not to worry thanks to the Order Management Apps that can make your job much easier and convenient and also saves your money and time both. With this app, you can monitor your all activities starting from the placement of the order till its final delivery.
- Self-Service Kiosks: These are nowadays very common in restaurants. Many giant fast-food chains like McDonald’s have adopted using self-service kiosks in their place. The main benefit of self-service kiosks is that they minimize the waiting time making the ordering process much more convenient and faster for the customers. They are also helpful in increasing sales because they are programmed to present additional items to the buyers, which customers opt to purchase thus increasing the sales. Also, as it is a self-ordering process so you can allocate your staff to those tasks which can improve your customer experience rather than involving them in time-taking tasks.
- Digital Inventory Tracking: All the activities of inventory management were handled manually before but time has changed now; restaurants are using a digital inventory tracking system to monitor their inventory. You can keep an eye on the existing stock in your inventory. Also, you can plan for big orders, prepare for food deliveries and manage in-demand items with the help of this system. You can also refer to the order history of inventory and can create data-driven stock predictions to get rid of problems that occur when you have an out-of-stock situation.
- Digital Menu Boards: Digital menu boards can be understood as displaying your restaurant menu electronically. With the use of technology everything is getting digitized and so are the menus. Gone are the days when restaurants provide print menus to their customers; now the trend is of digital menus which are not only cost-effective but are also satisfying to the customers as they can have a look at the whole menu in one sight. The digital menu provides a good experience to your customers as the photos of the menu are displayed on the tablet which appears to be more appealing to the customers. Also, a digital menu can suggest food items to the customers as per their search for food items. Therefore, they will get a more personalized experience while deciding on the food they want to order.
- Order Display LED: Order display LED is a digital device that shows the order number so that customers will know when their order is ready. When a customer’s order is ready the order display LED shows the number of orders given to the customers at the time of placing the order. Then customers can pick their orders from the counter by themselves.
- Delivery Boy Apps: This app helps the delivery boy to get every detail about the order placed by the customers such as the restaurant from which they have to pick the order, the name of the order, the location of the delivery, etc. This app links Admin and delivery boy due to which admin can assign a delivery boy for an order and can do real-time tracking for monitoring his activities while on the way to his delivery. Customers can also see the exact location of the delivery boy and know the time at which their food is about to be delivered.
- Kitchen Receipt Printer: A restaurant’s kitchen is a busy area where a single mistake can cost you a lot in terms of time as well as money. Well not to worry; restaurant kitchen printers are there to help you. These are significant tools for organizing different kitchen operations. A kitchen receipt printer can be understood as an impact printer that prints in a dot matrix. It functions with an ink ribbon for the printing of text. It prints clearly and rapidly so there are fewer chances of mistakes and helps staff to give more time for preparing meals.
Advantages of Using Technology in Restaurant Business
Technology is a need of ours these days. We cannot survive even in our daily lives without making use of technology. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that without technology is an essential part of our personal as well as professional lives. When we talk about the restaurant business, technology is being used for almost all the activities and processes in restaurants. The benefits the technology is offering to the restaurant industry are stated below:
- Drives Sales and Growth: Traditionally, for marketing and sales newspapers, advertisements on television, and various other sources of print media were being used to reach the customers, but now with the advancement of technology, the whole scenario has been changed; now it’s just a matter of few seconds to reach your target audience. You only need to go for a few clicks on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to reach a wide range of audiences. Not only it is time-saving but it costs much less in comparison to the traditional methods of marketing. This is so because everybody uses mobile devices, as soon as you share some information it gets an eye of a lot of people, who can purchase your product and services if they liked it.
- Enhanced Customer Service Efficiency: With the use of technology, you can provide your customers with good customer services. Customers generally do have queries about a lot of things regarding their orders, complaints about the services which need to be addressed instantly if you want to build yourself as a brand in the market. Poor customer service can cost you a lot so, responding to your customers and redressing their issues is critical for the success of your restaurant business. Chatbots can be used to answer the customers’ queries 24×7.
- Improves Workplace Communication: Automation in the restaurant can improve communication among your employees working at different workstations. Apps allow workers to communicate with each other instantly and without the need of talking over the phone, writing textual messages or e-mails. A disorganized workplace and lack of communication can result in dissatisfaction among the employees. A well-organized employee scheduling apps allow managers and staff members to converse updates immediately, making sure that schedules are filled as intended.
- Gain Important Insights from Data Collection: Data collection is very necessary for every business as it gives an insight into the customer’s taste and preferences so that they can be served better. Mobile technology can help restaurant owners to analyze the data and make their services better according to the demand of the customers.
- Helps in Customer Engagement: Visitors who come to restaurants will have a digital experience. When they will be able to access a lot of services using their mobile phones they will feel connected. When they will use self-service kiosks, tablet apps, digital menus, etc, for ordering their food they will become more engaged with your restaurant and its services.
All these benefits will have a positive impact on business in terms of generating revenue, increasing sales, and growth of your restaurant business.
