Technology has taken over a major part of our lives. Every now and then we find ourselves using such developments to make our life easier. And, like us who use technology for their daily life routine, restaurant owners have also turned their gaze towards technology to magnify the level of their business.
Over more than 80% of restaurant owners now have turned to technology to sustain and expand their business efficiently and successfully. People are open to any type of information that they are looking for and it has been made possible by using mobile apps, Artificial Intelligence (AI), smart devices, analytics, etc.
So, were you already familiar with the fact that almost 90% of people look up the internet to find the right spot to satisfy their cravings? Or,
Did you know that before selecting a restaurant to dine at, nearly 57% of people think about it over and over again?
That’s right your restaurant’s every action/step is being analyzed by your customers as well, thus, you need to have a keen knowledge of adopting and implementing the best ways to use technology for your business to generate maximum revenue with minimal wastage.
With the help of the boons of technology, customers can order food online from your restaurant, add/read reviews in the feedback section, book and reserve their favorite spots in your restaurant, place home deliveries and takeaway orders easily from your app/website/direct calls. From having personalized branded apps, to contactless payments, easy order-ins, etc, technological advantages have been highly beneficial to the restaurant owners in more than just one way.
The two major factors that hook your customers at your restaurant are none other than the food and the staff. People prefer eating in familiar places where they feel warm and welcomed and can experience a personal sense of belonging. The restaurant’s ambiance plays the first part in catching their attention. If it catches their vibe, then they will enjoy their sweet time there and keep coming back.
But, it is easier said than done as each and every customer is unique in their own ways and also have different behavorial and nature patterns. Some might prefer a loud and bright-themed restaurant with a chatty crowd, while some might be looking for someplace with a more of a vintage touch with a soft and quiet atmosphere.
Thus, the more you interact with your customers, the more you get to know about their tastes and preferences to serve them the way they like it. Technology comes to rescue your business here by offering Social Media Analytics and reports.
Social Media Analytics gives you a direct and deep customer insight that helps you strengthen your customer relationships better. The maximum amount of data generated from social media and other mobile apps. These customer insight data can help you leverage your business by learning about them.
When anyone tags your restaurant or places orders, or comes by every weekend, or access your restaurant’s service/data from your restaurant’s app, you get updated. This helps you build a perspective and gives you a deep insight of who they are, what they prefer and what they dislike, how often to check your restaurant out, how they feel about your restaurant or how they refer your restaurant to others, etc.
There are plenty of restaurants that are now also present on social media platforms and have built an active account where they readily respond and interact with their customers. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, bring an instant place for boosting engagement. It also helps you to keep an eye on your competitor’s performance.
Thus, it is important to address and engage with the customers and especially the negative ones shouldn’t be overlooked or ignored as it might help you point out the places you need to improve, or need to pay more attention to. With the help of these analytics, one can easily determine their current status and the measures they should take to improvise their efforts.
With the introduction of a personalized restaurant app, restaurants get a chance to enhance their own brand awareness among their targeted group of customers. Having your own customized app brings in a lot of growth aspects and opportunities as it allows the customers to experience your brand touch while reducing the necessity of relying on third-party aggregator apps.
Building an easily navigable app helps you to digitalize your presence by establishing a sense of familiarity among your customer user base. Your app represents your overall restaurant by providing your present and prospective customers with all the information they are seeking at one place.
It gives all the details such as your customers' data, their order history, their preferences of cuisine, what kind of menu are they expecting, etc.
Also, you can add features to your app to send a welcome notification to your customers whenever they walk through your restaurant’s door.
Having your own restaurant app helps you grow your business by offering opportunities such as:
This has become a newfound yet highly reliable trend as it gives the business an impression of being capable and easily accessible. By creating an app, the users can easily experience a valuable premium brand service thus, giving you the upper hand of being ahead of your competitors and in between your customers.
The majority of food orders come through digital channels hence, restaurant owners are now focusing on online ordering platforms.
Though ordering food online isn’t a new technology, but the way the orders are being placed, delivered, paid, and picked up are surely evolving. As the entire process is online, there are very few instances or chances of committing errors. This also leads to a fewer occurrence of errors due to miscommunication.
As all the information is available on the apps, customers can from their end recheck their orders, add or remove food from the cart, make payments accordingly.
Being easily available over smartphones and tablets, a restaurant’s branded app serves as a convenient channel for a customer to order, these accounts are already linked to the reward programs, that in turn helps to apply points or savings, and also has a history of the previous orders, thereby making the entire process of placing orders and delivery easier.
Apart from this, these online platforms handle orders in bulk digitally allowing a highly convenient environment the restaurant owners.
You can keep a check on your restaurant’s inventory and maintain the stock level accuracy. You can get a quick overview of your past and present inventory levels along with the cash and order intake.
Once you determine your current status of inventory, you can place required orders accordingly or further replace the non-used stuff with the frequently used ones. It will also help manage and minimize food wastage.
In the long run, it proves to be beneficial to your business as it is cost,-effective and boosts your revenue, and increases your profits. Not only it offers great visibility and transparency to the restaurant owners, but also it has offered an efficient and accurate way to determine the needs and requirements.
With the growing and advancing technological benefits, consumers can now purchase their food on a whim. As technology allows restaurants with new and better technological advancements, restaurants and fast-food parlors can store data about their guests’ preferences beforehand and arrange it in a similar manner. As a result, meals are delivered quickly based on the preferences of the customers that perfectly fit the needs of each customer.
The order data and history allows a smart interface that mitigates the pain of having to choose from dozens of other options.
This positively affects the ratings and reviews of the restaurant. Receiving dozens of marks on reviews sites can lead to an increase in establishing recognition. Your potential customers will find their way to your restaurant.
Also, an impressive feature that technology offers with minimal waiting time is the convenience of payment. Customers can in an instant order food from your restaurant and make payments as per their choice (mostly cashless), also with the existing offers available (if any) they can get special discounts too.
Thus, the world of technology and the internet is indeed a great place to help your business flourish. If used and implemented correctly, technology can bring about a huge change in your business by helping it grow and expand.
So, do you still belong to the category that depends on the brick and mortar techniques for your business? Or are you ready to take new steps towards growing changes of technology for your restaurant?
Website With Admin
Application
POS System
Feedback system
KDS System 
Table ordering system 
