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Are you ready to deliver Vegan and Vegetarian food?

vegan delivery on the rise

Delivery and Vegan Food are the fastest growing restaurant trends

According to Grubhub and Yelp vegan and vegetarian options are trending like never before. The fastest growing item overall was cauliflower crust pizza. According to the “Year in Food” report cauliflower popularity grew by 650%.  After several years of growth in meat alternatives can this really be called trendy any longer? I would suggest this is far from a trend. Americans are looking for comfort food without the animal protein.

Dine in, Delivery or in home Meal replacement that is the question

Whether you are catering to the meat alternative crowd or still serving meat and potatoes how and where are the next frontier. Diners are voting with their wallets and they are choosing in home meal replacement and delivery. Several restaurant publications have recently featured restaurants that have closed their dining rooms to expand delivery and take out ops. What this tells me is people want fresh not frozen and quality made meals. If it were just wanting to eat at home we would just nuke a frozen dinner right? Well, that ain’t happening.

Do you have to respond to trends in order to make it today?

Well that answer to that is above my pay grade. I do think if you are just starting in business and catering to younger diners you probably do. There is still room for the classic steak house and hopefully there always will be but the young guest are growing up in an alternative protein reality. The next generation will have never lived in a world where fast food did not offer a plant based alternative. At what point is it no longer an alternative? These same consumers will also grow up with every restaurant having online ordering and delivery options. So regardless of the concept you operate it may be time to dip your toe into the technology pool and see what happens. No need to do a cannon ball into the deep end, start slow with an iPad POS system and go with the flow. Let your guest tell you how they want to order and respond! While we can’t help you with plant based alternatives we can assist with the modern technology for your restaurant. Call us at 800-863-2274 or online at Restaurant POS including online ordering.

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Is your restaurant ready for the holidays?

ready for the holidays?

Promote your gift cards

Americans go to present is the gift card. Start stocking up now before it’s too late. Don’t rely on only hard plastic gift cards, get geared up with e-gift cards also known as a virtual gift card.  Industry experts agree that e-gift cards are the next big thing for POS and gift giving. You should be ordering your gift card stock before Thanksgiving in order to be prepared.

Start working your email list

Around daylight savings or sooner you should be sending out holiday themed emails. It’s about this time of year businesses start planning their holiday parties. Send your customer list updates on catering and private dining options. Many businesses cater events in the office, however in this strong economy parties have made strong come back. While your emailing about holiday parties don’t forget to mention gift cards especially if you offer a virtual gift card that can be ordered from you website.

Make sure your equipment and technology is ready for the rush

Whether you have a point of sale system like Digital Dining, Dinerware or a cloud based tablet system ensure you are compliant with payment requirements. Double check your other mission critical equipment as well. If something has a nagging issue get it repaired or you are just inviting trouble. Find out if your POS provider offers surge licensing in case you need to stand up an extra POS terminal for a few days during the rush.

Take care of staffing issues now

Head off staffing issues by thinking ahead. Get your vacancies filled now. After filling in your roster hire some seasonal help as well.   Don’t forget to get floaters lined up in case a regular or seasonal hire call in sick or get stuck in bad weather. Don’t leave anything to chance because we all know what Murphy says “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. If POS is one of those items you need to address call us at 800-863-2274 or on the web at Restaurant POS.

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Ipad POS or proprietary tablet?

 

restaurant pos system

Do you want a multi use iPad or a throwaway locked down tablet.

Thinking about the future would you rather have an iPad POS or use a tablet that has no other purpose?  You probably have not thought about this yet, have you? Most of the popular tablet POS systems on the market use hardware that can’t be re-used. Therefore, don’t waste your money on proprietary hardware with no other purpose. Systems like Clover and Toast both use custom tablets that can’t be used for anything else, ever. That really is not cutting edge, that’s more old school thinking. Because of that what happens when you need new hardware? Can you order a new Toast terminal up on Amazon from a variety of sellers? Of course you can’t, they have you trapped in hardware you may not want or need in a few years. Toast and Clover equipment is pretty expensive for something unusable elsewhere.

iPads can be re-purposed and are very affordable

Using an iPad POS system you have the flexibility of an open market iconic piece of equipment. You maybe asking what is flexible about that, right?  Well for starters it can be re-purposed when you are done with it.  You can purchase them worldwide. Your staff will already know how to use them and much more. They are so inexpensive you might even keep an extra for peak times in your restaurant. Even in five years when there are next generations available, old iPads will still have a function elsewhere. You could even donate them when you no longer need them.

Bottom line is don’t paint yourself into a corner.

An iPad POS system does not trap you into things. Proprietary tablets like Clover and Toast among others do. With both Toast and Clover you have to use a specific processor, with Heartland’s iPad POS you don’t. For more information about the freedom a complete iPad POS system affords you call us at 800-863-2274

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Heartland POS Online Ordering Table Tents now available

Heartland POS Online Ordering Table Tents

Heartland POS Online Ordering Table Tents allow you to market to you dine in guest.

You asked and we listened leading us to create customized marketing material. Now we can easily create Heartland POS Online Ordering table tents to let you guest know they can order from anywhere.  If you are already using this complete iPad POS system you are already aware that online ordering is included. These attractive marketing pieces are the perfect way to let you loyal guest know. Simply add you logo, URL and QR code and print, that’s all there is to it. Just like the  POS system the marketing is smart phone ready too.

Table Tents work so get them working for you.

We have all been there right, we sit down at the table and grab the table tent to check it out. With this table tent you can add a QR code and make it very easy to send the guest to your site. Once they are there they can bookmark your online ordering site for future orders. Your guest already like your restaurant which is why they are there in the first place. Adding simple tools like a table tent is just another layer of engaging your guest. An engaged guest become repeat customers which is what we all want. The next time they are inclined to order out who do you think they will order from? Probably you since they have your online ordering site bookmarked already!

More marketing material will be released soon.

We have some other examples of ways to engage with your guest like window clings, posters and promo cards. Now all of these tools can be easily customized for your business. You can print many of these items on your own office color printer or use a local printer perhaps. Contact us to get your Heartland POS marketing material today.