How Technology has Changed the Restaurant Industry

Last updated on September 20, 2019

Technology has many changes in the restaurant industry all over the world. Hence, embracing technology can be beneficial to your business in some ways. Here is how technology has changed the restaurant industry:

1. Point of Sale Systems

Restaurants are now adjusting from the fixed cash counter software to mobile POS systems. By using these systems, restaurants can provide flexibility, accurate order placements, clear sales data, and faster service. Mobile point of sale systems are able to offer excellent customer care, sales tracking, inventory management, and more. They are the future.

2. Automating lengthy Tasks

The restaurant industry includes time-consuming tasks that have to be carried out for smooth operations. However, a manager could make better use of their time by doing other tasks that will boost the business. Functions such as communicating with the staff and scheduling can be a distraction from the essential work of marketing effectively and offering excellent customer experience. New restaurant technologies automate these tasks to reduce the period taken to accomplish them. This gives managers extra time to concentrate on more vital matters that face the restaurant daily.

Apps such as Sling can help reduce the time taken in scheduling. Such apps aid you to confirm time-off requests, handle shift-trade requests, deal with unexpected changes, confirm availability, and set up shifts. They also provide alerts to help in avoiding double bookings, overtime issues, and scheduling conflicts.

3. Recruiting Great Employees

For a long time, hiring excellent employees has been reliant on the local talent pool. If your local market is small, then you will have a few outstanding employees to pick. If your local market is large, you will have numerous excellent employees to pick. But technology is changing all this.

Job boards such as Recruiter and Snag job have helped to level the playing field. Restaurants from anyplace can recruit from every available market. If your restaurant is in a small market such as Fort Wayne in Indiana, you can hire from a large market such as Los Angeles or New York. Additionally, candidates do not need to travel all the way for an interview; you can interview them via Skype.

4. Better Experience for Guests

The restaurant sector is all about customer experience. But people put too much effort into the food served, the image displayed, and the appearance of the restaurant and forget the guest experience. A great guest experience requires one to know their guest by name, being up to date with their essential data like allergies, dietary restrictions, and birthdays, and making the dining experience as enjoyable and smooth as possible.

This process frequently needed numerous guest visits and depended on the flawed memory of people. However, new technologies such as Resy enable storing of data on the cloud and make it available anytime the client visits again. Even when they visit a different location of the same restaurant, their data will be available on demand, enhancing their guest experience.

5. Coming Up with Better Decisions

Previously, coming up with great business decisions was frequently a gamble. Restaurant management used to rely on their intuition or experience to make decisions. Now, technology has removed trial and error from the process of making vital decisions.

Restaurants have a lot of information available on demand, and it only needs a manager to skim through and analyze during the decision-making process. For instance, Avero’s technology assists restaurant managers in analyzing finances and marketing. By harnessing their information, it assists managers to improve customer experience by tracking promotions, past visits, and customer preferences. This 360-degree view of your restaurant aids in better decision making. 

Whether you are a small restaurant or a national chain, embracing technology will benefit your business and improve your profits.