Aloha News

Welcome to the latest edition of Aloha News, timed to inform and support restaurants on what NFS have been doing in the last few months and shine a light on the positive steps that operators can take.

While the last three months has been the most challenging period in the hospitality market, we’ve seen clients making 3 positive developments:

Developing a new revenue stream based on Click and Collect
Revisiting operational efficiency to deliver a great guest experience safely, quickly and efficiently
Building client engagement through loyalty, social media and other channels

What’s new with the Aloha solution?

Nothing drives new product innovation like a major event such as the pandemic.

We’re delighted to announce new Aloha product enhancements that focus on 3 main areas:

Welcoming guests safely
Improving operating efficiency
Driving new revenue streams

Aloha Kitchen

Speed of service metrics can now be reported through the Pulse Realtime App, which tracks the order from being placed to being sent out from the kitchen. It provides vital information on performance at the time you need it to make improvements.

Aloha Engage

A fully featured online consumer experience offering click and collect, order to table, loyalty, gift card, feedback all in a customised app.

This solution is a great fit for larger chains of restaurants or bars and its architecture can be heavily customised during the consultation process with our professional services team.

Aloha Table Service

An information feature behind each product button on the Aloha point of sale can now display a text box and a graphic or video file. It’s great for controlling allergens, ingredients, method of production, cocktail recipes or wine pairing recommendations.

Client Success Stories

We’re delighted to welcome some new clients, and share stories about NFS customers who have innovated superbly during lockdown. They include:

BrewDog
The famously innovative company responded quickly to the pandemic by launching a Drive Thru service as their branches had to close, and then reopened some sites for draft beer delivery. BrewDog also expanded its food offering, and is installing Aloha Takeout to deliver a seamless takeaway service to customers.

We’ve seen real leadership here. CEO Martin Williams went for a win-win for staff, clients and the local community, and the operator’s presence on social media has been excellent.

Gaucho have introduced QuickPAY, which allows the guest to scan a QR code on the table to pay the bill. As of early September, most Gaucho/M Restaurants sites are open and trading well.

We’re proud of our association with Dishoom, one of the shining stars of the casual dining sector. They’ve been efficient movers on the delivery and click and collect model, and this has contributed to their trading resilience in very challenging market conditions. All of their restaurants are now open for business and we understand that revenues are doing well.

We salute the decisive action and innovation in growing their business and this places them in a unique category.

Looking Ahead

We realise that getting valued clients back into to our restaurants is a top priority for the second half of 2020. So to support our clients, we’re continuing the series of popular webinars that started during the lockdown which will continue on the following topics:

Kitchen Automation
Menu Management

Click here to register an interest

Food aggregators

We’re delighted to say we now integrate with all the major food aggregators websites using our partnership with Deliverect.

Aloha is the ‘injection’ point of these order into the Aloha ecosystem, the system processes the order as if it was added in the store, while highlighting the source so the expo and kitchen know the packaging and any other customer requirements.

The streamlining results in better ranking on aggregator websites thanks to speed of acceptance, less mistakes and faster overall customer delivery.

Tableside payment

We now integrate with QuikPAY that so guests can scan a QR code and pay the bill from the table.

This can be split and a tip applied, and the transaction also sits outside the contactless £45 limit, providing contact-free payment with no limits. It’s an effortless way for customers to check out without having to wait for the bill to be brought over by a staff member.

Order & pay at table

Like buses we had several solutions turn up all at once in response to restaurateurs’ needs for a contact-free way for guests to order and pay for food and drink from their own mobile phone.

Our Aloha Now suite of solutions – some native and others third party – can now be accessed via QR Code to mobile websites or apps. We recommend discussing the options with an Aloha Business Consultant who can recommend the best solution for your needs.

Top tips for your immediate action

Here’s a checklist of the significant things you can do to improve operational efficiency, target existing clients better and take full advantage of Aloha, the best platform for restaurant management.

Launch mobile restaurant ordering for customer convenience and safety
Grow revenue – customers ordering on their mobile device often spend more
Enable contactless, limitless payment – make it easy and safe for customers to check out
Offer seamless online ordering
Drive a loyalty programme that really gets used – capture customer data to create targeted offers
Improve staff efficiency and quick delivery – with orders that go straight to the kitchen, so they can spend more time upselling

New Installs

We have been pleased to give a big NFS welcome to some exiting new customers over the past few months. These include:

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Exciting New Project

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Founded over two decades ago, Rhubarb are ranked as one of the top catering operators in London and New York – and we’re thrilled to welcome it as one of the latest Aloha customers.

We’re installing Aloha at its new site in London, The Market at 22 Bishopsgate, an exciting space for the Bishopsgate community – a 20,000 square feet hub of good food and great conversation.

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The Market has been created by award winning designers from New York and London. With open kitchens, changing food kiosks, a restaurant and terrace bar, people will have multiple options to dine in or take out, meet up and unwind. There’s also a ‘Speak-easy’, an intimate venue for those in the know.