What sets your restaurant apart? Great food and superb service, of course – but doesn’t everyone think that?
The truth is, today’s demanding guests want a whole lot more than that, and there’s stacks of competition out there – not to mention the extra competition that has arisen during lockdown by the popularity of takeaway.
So when trying to put your restaurant ahead of the rest, a good place to start is the customer journey, looking at each step from the decision to eat out, all the way to paying for the meal (and hopefully deciding to return).
The best way to track and improve this journey is by using epos software for restaurants, now the chosen business partner of many of the most successful establishments in the UK.
The technology helps you nurture those customers’ experiences from the minute they start looking for a place to dine, and helps you satisfy their requirements completely.
4 ways epos software for restaurants helps you optimise the customer journey:
1. Handle reservations and walk-ins easily
2. Manage guests in real time
3. Provide convenient tableside ordering and payment
4. Capture the power of data for cost control and great marketing
1. Handle reservations and walk-ins easily
Epos software for restaurants enables your diners to make a reservation quickly and easily via your website or through integration with networks such as OpenTable.
The technology makes it simple to accommodate bookings and assign waiting staff to tables whether they have booked via either of these two methods, or by phoning in.
It means if diners walk in without a reservation, your staff are in a great position to assess table availability and manage their expectations of how long they might have to wait.
2. Manage guests in real time
Today’s demanding diners do not like to be kept waiting, and without good planning this is where the journey can start to go really wrong.
Your epos software for restaurants provides graphical table plans that show availability in real time, and help good decisions to be made on who to seat where, maximising your covers.
3. Provide convenient tableside ordering and payment
This is another area where a smooth customer journey can really be de-railed. If you’ve ever heard the complaint: “We’ve been here for 45 minutes and no-one has even take our order” you’ll know what a chill it can send up a restaurateur’s spine.
Even worse, if unserved guests walk out in frustration, they will share their bad experience via social media – not the kind of review you need.
Epos technology helps by enabling servers to take orders at tableside on tablets or handheld devices (or even lets guests self-service). Service is speeded up because the order goes directly to the kitchen for preparation, and no human error can creep in to cause wrong dishes to be delivered.
The same servers can also take payment at the table on their devices, so guests can just pay and go.
4. Capture the power of data for cost control and great marketing
Instinct is an invaluable part of any restaurateur’s skill set, but it’s good to confirm your feelings with hard data.
By capturing information on everything from busiest times to most popular dishes, epos software for restaurants takes the guesswork out of controlling your operations. It helps you with labour management by matching supply perfectly to requirement, improves stock control and reduces waste.
That data, captured from the minute a guest makes a reservation, reveals their preferences so you can tailor your marketing to create offers that you know will hit the mark. It’s a great way to foster loyalty and bring them back again.
Conclusion
This is no time to miss opportunities to gain new guests, or to lose those you have by letting them down in some way.
Restaurants are such a lifestyle choice that they are easily affected by customer service issues of the kind described above – and once a guest has walked, it’s hard if not impossible to get them back.
Epos software for restaurants can’t create superb food, or do the heavy lifting that truly impressive customer service does – that’s where the expertise of you and your hardworking staff have the complete edge.
But the technology does provide an incredible level of support throughout all your operations that makes it just that bit easier to provide the perfect customer journey that helps you stay ahead of the competition.
If you haven’t already invested, now is the time to do it. As many successful restaurants and chains have already found, epos software is the extra magic ingredient that makes your recipe for success perfect.
Find out more about the power of epos software for restaurants
