As we’ve seen the pandemic come and go, something has become more and more common in our industry — restaurant technologies. These can range from a common POS system to full-blown setups that allow complete control over every aspect of your kitchen. While not everyone has hopped on the restaurant tech bandwagon, the simple truth is that technology for restaurants will change the industry; realistically, it already is changing the industry.
So, what can you do to get ahead of the curve?
Essential Restaurant Technologies
Below, you’ll find a collection of the most useful restaurant technologies that can help streamline inventory, sales, and service (among other things). While these can be a bit confusing from the outside, we’re here to help clarify things a bit so you can act with confidence. Now — what are the essential restaurant technology solutions for your business?
Point of Sale (POS) Systems
Perhaps the most well-known and widespread instance of restaurant technology is the Point of Sale (POS) system. These suckers have been around for a long time — the 1970s, to be specific — and they always seem to change with the times. At first, they simply helped cashiers convert currency, track sales, and do daily math with less chance of mistakes.
But as the turn of the century came, along with the internet and modern computers, POS systems changed. They started to offer more and more, until they eventually became what we know today. Systems like Toast and Square started as an “all-in-one” solution for small businesses to process payments and track transactions, ultimately leading to an expansion into payroll and inventory management.
Online Ordering Systems
Online ordering systems are another instance of restaurant technologies that are designed to make your life easier rather than to replace a position in your business. Just as a POS isn’t a replacement for a cashier, online ordering systems generally won’t be able to fully replace someone in the shop. However, they’ve become increasingly popular with the advent of services like GrubHub and DoorDash, as they allow small and large restaurants alike to tap into the delivery market.
More importantly, though, a high-quality online ordering system will allow your restaurant to bring in more orders, find new customers, and establish yourself in your community. By setting up an online ordering system (especially one that’s tied to a third-party or in-house delivery service), you’ll be able to catch the attention of people that otherwise may have never known that you existed.
And that is where the value of online ordering systems really shines; sure, you may get a few new orders every day, but their largest offering is the ability to reach out of your normal market and find new regulars.
Reservation and Table Management Systems
Reservation and table management systems are a type of restaurant tech that you’ll often find in restaurants that offer table service. These systems are intended to assist your host with seating and timing tables to ensure a smooth service. Generally, they accomplish this by tracking each of your tables' wait times, when reservations are scheduled, and plotting out where (and when) to seat new tables for maximum coverage.
This ensures several things: first and foremost, this type of restaurant technology allows you to confidently take reservations and seat parties without the fear of overbooking. Beyond that, though, reservation and table management systems allow your host to do the other parts of their job that require a bit more of a hands-on approach — namely, interacting with guests and ensuring they’re happy and content.
Inventory Management Systems
Inventory management systems are an excellent example of modern restaurant technologies that are seemingly tailor-built for the Back of House (BoH). Every chef knows the pain of inventory day: standing in the walk-in freezer for hours, only to realize that you forgot a single piece of produce that’s crucial to half the menu. Then you’re stuck scrambling with the corporate card in Kroger or Safeway on a Friday night, desperately trying to find two gallons of heavy cream and a pound of fresh garlic.
That’s a bad place to be, and that’s precisely why inventory management systems exist. They’re designed to help track what you use for various dishes, how much is sold, and automatically mark down the need (or lack thereof) for each ordering period.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are a simple instance of restaurant technology that offer quite a bit to those who invest the time and effort to learn how to properly use them. Put simply, CRM systems allow you to keep an eye on any data that you may collect for marketing and put it to good use.
Whether that means that you keep track of sales and learn to upsell specific items or that you integrate a CRM into your social media and marketing spaces, they can do quite a bit to help nail down a strong sales and marketing campaign.
Kitchen Display Systems (KDS)
Kitchen Display Systems (KDS) are a technology that is pretty straightforward while being one of the best restaurant technology solutions out there. Put simply, it’s a screen or monitor in your kitchen that displays orders. Rather than having to fight piles of physical tickets, worry about running out of paper in the printer, or missing modifications because of a dying ink cartridge, you can simply look up and have them all displayed on a screen.
Employee Management and Scheduling Systems
While employee management and scheduling systems aren’t a new concept, nor are they inherently a restaurant technology, they’re incredibly useful nonetheless. Their name rather says it all, but to clarify, these types of restaurant tech are intended to help with scheduling, staffing, and (sometimes) payroll.
Rather than that musty old Excel spreadsheet, you can easily (and, crucially, quickly) schedule your employees in one consolidated — and often automated — piece of software. It’s an incredibly useful piece of technology that is so simple, yet will be missed dearly once you’re forced to go without.
Payment Processing Solutions
Payment processing solutions are often (but not always) tied into most modern POS systems. They allow you to, process payments; namely, they let you process card payments. And in our modern cashless world, that is a very important piece of restaurant tech to have up your sleeve.
Self-Service Kiosks
While self-service kiosks aren’t going to be something that works for every type of restaurant, they’re one of the handiest restaurant technology solutions on the market for those that can use them. We’ve all seen the big names like McDonald’s moving more toward these already, and it’s only a matter of time before they’re in more and more small businesses.
The primary benefit of self-service kiosks is twofold: firstly, you’re able to schedule servers and cashiers to handle other, more time-sensitive (or more hands-on) tasks while leaving ordering to the kiosk. Second, they allow a secondary route for guests to order when lines get long, ensuring your kitchen can be ahead of the curve and keep pumping out food.
Digital Menu Boards
Digital menu boards are an incredibly common sight in recent times, and for good reason. They allow the freedom of a chalk board with the ease of use that comes with modern technology. Rather than having to painstakingly paint or draw new specials and drinks as they occur, you can quickly and effortlessly pull up an app and replace items on your menu.
This is especially handy for joints who offer rotating specials or that use seasonal, regularly changing menus, as they cut out the need for reprinting and redesigning menus. Additionally, I’ve personally seen them used to great success in bars, cafes, distilleries, and breweries that take orders at the counter.
Third Party Delivery App Aggregators
Third party delivery apps such as Uber Eats or DoorDash are a pain to manage when you’re using multiple, the tablets pile up and it’s hard to keep track of orders. Cuboh allows you to consolidate all of your 3rd party delivery apps into one tablet. Cuboh's tablet consolidation helps you take care of order adjustments, see driver information, 86ing, and more in one place so you can easily run multiple 3rd party delivery apps at once.
Analytics and Reporting Tools
For our next bit of restaurant technology, we need to touch on restaurant analytics and reporting tools. Analytics are crucial to a restaurant's success. Simply because, while it may seem boring, the information that we collect through marketing, sales, and general day-to-day interaction can be incredibly useful for optimizing further sales. You should have analytics and reporting tools within most of the restaurant software you use.
Marketing and Social Media Management Tools
Finally, we reach our last piece of restaurant tech — marketing and social media management tools. These are a type of tech that need to be adopted once you’re fully set on inventory, scheduling, payroll, etc. Rather than needing to carefully plot out marketing campaigns the old-school way, you can use a whole host of varied types of restaurant tech to quickly and efficiently figure out the most cost-effective way to use your marketing budget.
Whether this means social media campaigns, paid ads, or in-house promotions, marketing and social media management tools are an excellent tool to have in your omnibelt of restaurant technology solutions.
Choosing the Right Restaurant Technology Partners
No matter what you end up opting to invest in, picking restaurant technology solutions isn’t a thing that you can do without planning. You need to know who you’re partnering with, why, and most importantly, you need to know that you can trust them. While there are a lot of options out there, it’s always best to do your research.
So — look into which restaurant technology solutions are best for you, who will integrate the best with your pre-existing tech, and join us in the modern restaurant industry.
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