Technology has changed the way people around the world live their lives, and it’s also changed the way many businesses operate. Today’s restaurant managers are eager for ways that new technology can make any aspect of running their business easier or more efficient. The menu might be unchanged, but behind the scenes restaurants are using new technology to improve their business operations in imaginative and vital ways.
Here are three ways contemporary restaurants are using new technology to their advantage.
1. Employee Scheduling Software
Employee scheduling software is a cloud-based solution that reduces the time it takes to organize a restaurant’s scheduling by as much as 80%. Aside from using predictive technology to make schedules quickly, another reason that so many companies use employee scheduling software is it makes it easy for employees and managers to quickly connect manually when needed.
For example, if there’s an emergency and the manager needs to find an employee to fill in for a shift, they can post a message in a group chat. Everyone will get a notification on their smartphone, and whoever is free to do the shift can let everyone know on the same chat. This solves the problem easily, before it can become a crisis.
Employee scheduling software also makes it easy for staff to let their managers know when they’re available to work — rather than needing to physically write down when they’re free to work in person at the restaurant, staff can let their managers know from wherever they are, by using intuitive drag-and-drop features on their phone. They can request time off just as easily, too.
Both staff and managers will love having their scheduling made this easy, and known so far in advance. Employee scheduling software keeps staff working where they’re truly needed. It also unlocks key data points with manager log books, facilitates team communication, serves an advanced time clocking function, and more. No wonder employee scheduling software is used in so many small- to medium-sized restaurants.
2. Mobile Payment
Much of the new technology in our lives runs through our phone, and the payment process is no different. Paying is the least fun part of a meal, so restaurants are doing everything they can to make this process as seamless and short as possible.
Mobile Payments expanded by 75% in 2017, and are still on the rise.
3. Mobile Rewards Programs
The new increase in phone payments makes it possible to track customer decision-making patterns, which in turn enables restaurants to offer customers deals on food they know they like. This creates loyalty, and draws in continual business. This is part of a broad trend of how data is being used to help restaurants satisfy clientele before they’ve even walked in the door.
New technology is changing all the time, so these trends are constantly evolving. But they’ve already had an incredible impact on the restaurant industry, and will keep doing so in the future; new tech has been so fundamental to the operations of modern restaurants, that a restaurant avoids implementing new technology at their peril.
