Restaurants – How to Create a Successful Strategy Utilizing Technology
For restaurants, technology is extremely useful and they have become more important as time has gone on. As with any other business, restaurants are always looking to become more efficient and save money; for example, taking orders is now nearly always technology rather than the old paper and pencil. However, many smaller restaurants still worry about technology because they find it hard to utilize the benefits without worrying about the many challenges.
Over the years, we have gained an understanding of the main concerns and want to address them in a brief guide here today. With technology, you do need to be careful or else face a costly experience trying to repair mistakes so we have compiled some useful tips down below.
Find the Balance – As you may have seen, new analytics systems allow you to review your business and customers in greater depth than ever before. With Big Data, you can schedule staff, look after stock, streamline the purchasing process, optimize your marketing, and complete other tasks in a more efficient manner.
However, sometimes this can also be a negative because restaurant owners can see nearly everything they could ever want and need within a couple of clicks or touches. Once you get hooked on the percentages and various numbers, it becomes harder to make sense of it all so you need to find the right balance. Rather than staying up all night looking at different numbers, you need to focus on the most important factors and data sets that you can control.
Help the Customers – Often, restaurants employ new technology at the cost of the customer experience but, it should go without saying, this is detrimental. As a restaurant owner, you know that your customers are perhaps the most important factor so technology should only ever be introduced if it improves their experience. For example, mobile ordering, an app, or a digital printing device will all make your service faster and more accessible so these would be a good addition. If you find something that does not benefit the customer, put it to one side and move on to technology that does offer this help.
Remember Compatibility – At all times, technology seems to be moving forward and this seems great at first. This being said, you still need to remember your current systems and keep in mind that not all technology has been built to work alongside other hardware of software. If you are researching new technology, make sure you check what you have currently so you aren’t left disappointed. When compatibility is an issue, it either leads to more purchases to make it right or trying to get a refund and neither of these are fun.
Data Security – For marketing purposes, collecting the data of customers is fantastic news because you can assess purchasing behaviors and send out targeted leaflets or emails. In terms of challenges, the biggest seems to be the fine line between looking after customer information and being silly and neglectful with it. If there is a data compromise in your systems, your business will lose money possibly in compensation but the biggest issue comes with the damage to your reputation. Once people learn that the information of customers has been leaked, you will lose trust and credibility for a long time moving forward.
Set Goals – Finally, you need to have goals with the introduction of technology and we have already seen one of the biggest with ‘enhancing the customer experience’. After this, it might be to improve scheduling or to cut costs. As long as you bear the customers in mind at all times, you can create a successful implementation plan so it all goes smoothly.
Ultimately, technology has been seen as something to support restaurants for many years. Now, however, we know that it can be a strategy and you can ensure smooth transition with these five tips. As long as you keep this information at the forefront of your thinking when looking for new technology, there is no reason why you can’t rise past the many challenges and concerns!