There’s a lot of new technology that you, as a restaurant owner, can use to optimize your business. It’s absolutely vital to keep up with restaurant tech trends, like using delivery drones, online and mobile restaurant POS, and more. These will help your restaurant run more efficiently.
But, how can you start benefiting from new technology in your business? In this article, I’ll share the steps you can follow to do it without wasting resources or missing a beat on what your customers want. Let’s begin!
1. Study your customer’s consumption habits.
This step is crucial to know which technologies are part of your customer’s daily activities.
You don’t have to dig too deep to know that most of your customers are using mobile payment options such as the must-have Apple Pay.
That’s part of the good news.
- You don’t have to spend a lot of money, time, or effort to start accepting different payment options.
- Additionally, you don’t have to invest in high-end drones to deliver food for your business to say you’re keeping up with trends, either.
- Transitioning into newer technologies in your restaurant doesn’t have to be harsh, but that it can be gradual.
- That can give you time to find the right tech and implement it properly.
But, what you must keep in mind is that the solutions you apply solve a real problem your customers have.
That way you can avoid applying complex, expensive, and unwanted solutions that will actually chase your customers away.
2. Conduct a few surveys or polls.
Studying your customer’s consumption habits is a rather indirect method — although necessary — to know your customer’s preferences. That’s why creating a survey or a simple Instagram poll can help you know which are the tech options your customers would love to see in your restaurant.
Also, this helps you engage more with your customers, who will instinctively know that their opinions are valuable for your business.
That’s gold if you’re implementing branding and even customer retention strategies in your restaurant.
3. Study your competitors’ technology.
Watching over your competitor’s shoulders can help you narrow down the competitive edge they have over your business.
To be clear, I’m not advising you to go and get exactly the same POS system your competitors are using or something along those lines.
Instead, try implementing new technologies that work well to reinforce the infrastructure that’s already in place at your restaurant.
That way, you can beat your competitors in original ways, that are in line with your restaurants’ brand, and are also useful to satisfy your customers.
4. Create a budget.
Working with budgets is vital in businesses. That’s why you must create a budget that allows you to materialize your plans while helping you limit how much you will spend.
Again, you should take a gradual approach to get new tech for your restaurant. Find complete solutions that help you go from 1 to 2, instead of 1 to 1.5.
You can set monthly or even yearly goals to transition into new technologies. That way, you can take enough time to fully adapt your restaurant.
5. Train your staff to handle the new technology.
A restaurant’s staff is the force behind it — even though there’s been a shortage going on since last year. As a result, you can’t buy new technology without training your staff on how to use it and troubleshoot common problems.
If you skip this step, you will have issues while applying the new system effectively. And this is definitely bad for restaurants since it’s a business based on efficiency and swiftness.
As a result, if your staff can’t handle the new tech, you’ll run into problems with the service, which will negatively affect your restaurant.
6. Create a marketing strategy around the new tech.
Even if you change a single aspect of your business’s technological infrastructure, if it improves its performance, you should let people know.
Especially if it’s something that customers will come into contact with, like a new tablet POS, a new payment method, or a new drone delivery service.
Additionally, creating a marketing strategy around your restaurant’s new technology can be useful to:
- inform your customers about the changes;
- educate your clients on how to use the new system, if they will use it;
- start a conversation with your customers about the changes and get some valuable feedback; and
- let them know how this change improved your restaurant.
You can apply simple marketing strategies that help you achieve any of these objectives.
There are many benefits to adding new tech to your restaurant.
Adding new technology to your restaurant help you improve different aspects:
- The speed of the service.
- The efficiency of your waiting staff.
- Easing the payment process.
- The safety of your restaurant — self-service and QR code menus are especially useful for this.
- The management of your business.
- The inventory system.
- The delivery service.
- Customer engagement and satisfaction.
- And much more!
In an industry as convoluted and competitive as the restaurant industry, having the slightest competitive advantage can push your business to the next level. In conclusion, are you using the latest technology in your restaurant? I hope so!
