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How Restaurant Owners Can Use Tech To Improve Their Service
Running a restaurant means putting yourself in the firing line – at least, that’s often how it can feel. Starting up a brand new restaurant brand means establishing a small business, proving you’re a viable choice for the dining market, and elevating your company to a level which can turn it into a chain one day.
But to get there, you’re going to need a deep insight into what’s working and what isn’t. That’s hard to do when you don’t have the right tech on your side, and even then, you need to use it properly.
If you’re interested in using tech to your best advantage, the guide below is a good place to start. The tips we’ve included will help you use digital tools to evaluate and improve, as they’re the most cost effective way to get a new small restaurant off the ground.
Start Using Social Media Tools
Social media doesn’t need to be played by ear. It’s something you can plan for, and have posts ready to go when you need them. It’s also something you can take a deeper look into, to gain insights into your audience, their typical behaviors, and how you can bring more interested views your way.
Most restaurants will post about their menu, their current deals, any events they’re hosting, etc., and stick to this formula in an ongoing manner. Use social media tools to keep these bread and butter posts of your online feed consistent.
To start with, download a content calendar tool that will allow you to plan posts in advance. If you know when your posts are going out, where there’s space in the calendar, and are able to track how well this schedule is working, you’ll have a lot more power in reaching the kind of audience you really want.
In terms of audience insight, even just using the Meta Business Suite can help. This is Meta’s own tool for their various social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram often go hand in hand in a marketer’s toolkit, and a restaurant can find a lot of success by posting to both at the same time. That’s something this suite will allow you to do, as well as let you know what time these posts should go out to get the maximum engagement.
Let a Program Take Care of the Schedule
Do you find it takes a lot of time and effort on your part to schedule your restaurant’s staff correctly? Obviously this will depend on how many staff members you have, but the more there are on the rota, the more attention you’ll need for this task.
Various factors are involved with creating a schedule. For one, you’ll need to account for the age of the staff members, to ensure you’re not breaking labor laws when putting them on certain shifts. You’ll also need to double check the time between shifts, and if someone’s had enough of a rest period before you call them back into work.
Similarly, only certain staff members may have certain skills. Take something like first aid; usually you cannot run your workplace without at least one person trained in first aid being present. This may even be a requirement of your liability insurance, so you’ll also have to keep in mind what staffing you’ll need in order for this coverage to apply.
All in all, creating the schedule can be an admin nightmare! But with the right scheduling software on your side, you can automate this job and make it much simpler for you. Let the program itself make the schedule, then just go over it to check everything has been applied.
Offer Online Booking
Do your customers have to call you to reserve a table? While that’s a tried and tested method of getting regular bookings, it’s also a less convenient system than simply allowing your diners to book a table online.
You can offer telephone reservations, but it’s best to offer them alongside an online booking form that’s linked in with your management software. This will ensure it’s kept updated, and anyone using your form won’t run into double booking issues that you then have to cancel their booking over.
Plus, if someone wants to book a table within the hour, they won’t have to waste time on calling and waiting for you to pick up. They can just hop onto the web, check your website, and see if there’s availability. Your phone number will then be there for them to use if they want to double check.
Make Payment as Convenient as Possible
When diners have to trust wait staff to take their card away with them, the level of satisfaction of their visit can dip. This is especially true for any tourists who have come from overseas to visit the area, which can take a toll on your earnings if you’re situated in a tourist hot spot.
Instead, look to make payment as convenient as possible by offering a ‘pay at table’ service. Invest in portable POS handsets, let your diners pay the moment they want to without having to leave the table, and curate a more satisfactory dining experience for all.
This will also make it easier to allow for tips for your staff, as it simplifies the process of adding that little extra percentage to the overall bill. This can also lead to better transparency with your staff.
Run an Internal Audit
Auditing your restaurant from the inside out is the kind of step that’ll take you a lot closer to offering a premium dining service. If thinking about audits sets you on edge, it’s important to note that audits aren’t a thing to be scared of – especially when you’re the one doing them. They’re simply a tool to find out how you’re currently operating and if that’s best for you. And once again, you can use tech to make an audit much simpler.
You can use your regular management software to do this, as it’s already providing an overview of how your service is working. You’re likely to find an insight into factors like the most popular dishes and drinks, how often ingredients are being used and need to be resupplied, and how many customer complaints are being brought back to the kitchen.
Having this information is one thing, but being able to use it to improve what you do is another. Thankfully, there’s a guide to internal audits out there that restaurant owners like you can use during this process. Use it when you’re keen to find out where waste is occurring, where waste can be cut and disposed of, and where you could squeeze some money back into the budget.
Using Tech to Improve Your Restaurant Service
It’s a simpler process than you might think, and you don’t need to be a computer expert to make it happen. The digital world has a lot of help to offer, and making use of it can help you to put certain improvements in place.
Start with the customer. Focus on how you can make improvements to their happiness, in terms of access, convenience, and how they can curate an enjoyable meal experience within your restaurant.
Then, get to work on what goes on behind the scenes. Make it easier to create high quality social media posts, and save time on keeping staff in the right place. And if accomplishing all that means you need to run an audit of your own, so be it!
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