Everyone loves automation. Every industry you look at has been experiencing startup booms — from accounting to education to hospitality. Today we wanted to look at restaurants in particular and how a startup approach — automating the things that don’t need your attention and focusing on creativity instead — can enrich them in all kinds of ways.
Online ordering
According to a recent study, 46% of guests find it extremely important that the restaurant has an online delivery option. Online deliveries have skyrocketed in recent years. The rise of technology has reshaped what consumers expect of restaurants and created a new market, currently valued at US$81.56 Bn.
Customers value the convenience, attractive discounts, rewards, cashback offers as well as having various payment options.
Whether you would partner with an existing system, such as UberEats, GrubHub, Deliveroo or Postmates, or build your own app with a delivery option, online ordering will allow you to grow.
Benefits of being present at the delivery scene in a nutshell:
- Be there for clients who are hungry and ready to pay;
- Get business during off-hours and in the low season;
- Reach new customers;
- Free up front-of-house employees;
- Speed up your service and accuracy;
- Securely process payments.
70% of adult diners agree that technology speeds up service and increases order accuracy
Point of Sale
Utilizing a POS, such as Square, allows you to put several things into one place and grow your productivity and revenue. A lot of restaurant owners have started using Square in the last few years. Let’s take a look at what makes it attractive to business owners.
Square is a credit card processing system and one of the most feature-rich free Point of Sales (POS) and and EPOS systems on the market today. Unlike many other point of sale systems, Square does not charge any monthly fees. As a result, this is an extraordinary deal for small business merchants.
You might be already using Square to process your payments — it is easy to set up and costs you 2.75% for in-house transactions or $2.9% +0.30 per online transaction.
But a great thing about Square isn’t just an easy-to-use payment processing system. Many small cafes and restaurants are using their POS, which, as mentioned, does not charge any subscription fees. If your revenue is under 17.5k a year, you do not need to pay anything extra for having this sophisticated software, which manages your inventory, helps you track sales, working hours as well as stock discrepancies.
Loyalty programs
Every business needs returning customers. A key to that is a successful loyalty program. In our research, we stumbled across an interesting platform that can kick start your own loyalty program. It’s Incentivio.com. You can build your own app for your customers to get digital punches into their loyalty cards, collect points, donate food or save rainforest in the Amazon — the creative options it provides are almost limitless.
Not only will this get your customers to come back — an entertaining digital experience has shown to increase the average order value by up to 64% (!). It also allows business owners to understand their clientele better using in-app purchase behavior surveys and digital studies.
Are you a restaurant owner? Share your automation story in the comments below.
