Can restaurant technology help combat rising labor and rent cost.

Can you balance the struggle between menu prices, labor cost and rent with restaurant technology? Many industry experts report the upcoming struggle most restaurants will face is the increasing cost of labor and rent. Of course this is nothing new right, restaurants have battled this forever. The difference is now there is so much more pressure coming at you from all directions. Competition is emerging from concepts that were never seen as a threat before.  What is an independent restaurateur to do?

That is where restaurant technology comes in. Did you know with the right cloud based iPad restaurant POS system you can start to compete with the big boys. First let’s examine what they do that you don’t. They engage with the modern foodie in many different ways. You can’t rely on just word of mouth or expensive ad campaigns to market your restaurant. The modern diner wants to use their phone for everything including dining. Yes, you heard that right, they want to find your restaurant, order from your restaurant and pay the bill all with their phone. Can your legacy technology do that?

The trend is to deploy technology to empower your business to do more with less or maybe the same amount of staff. Let’s look at one example where this is easy to do. Carry out ordering is booming today because people are replacing home cooked meals with carryout. This is great of course, however how to you manage this growth? The easiest way, is to use online ordering that is part of your POS. The reason to use a native online ordering system is cost and management.  What good is an online ordering site if it is costing you hundreds of dollars a month and cumbersome to manage.  Use a system like Heartland Restaurant Point of Sale where online ordering is included in your system at no additional cost. Ok, your’e asking how does this help? Well we have all gone in to pick up our carryout only to find one server taking an order over the phone while trying to ring up customers at the same time. That order taking over the phone gets replaced with your online ordering site. Not only does this free up your server it also stops you from getting stiffed for orders not picked up. When you use online ordering guest pay for their meal before it ever prints in the kitchen. If they don’t pick it up its on them not you.

So can you do more than just online ordering with the new restaurant technology? Let’s take this to the next level. A good system will also allow you to simply press an order on a kitchen display that shows your take out orders and send a text to the guest that their food is ready.  That is engaging with your guest! That is what the modern customer wants. Do you think that this may encourage them to return to your restaurant? Of course it will because we all want simplicity and efficiency

To find out more about modern restaurant technology in the Seattle Tacoma area reach out to your Heartland Restaurant POS dealer National Business Systems. We have been installing restaurant systems across Western Washington for thirty years now.  This complete iPad POS system is one of the biggest developments in restaurant technology we have seen in many years.