Food Apps Blog - 2022

Digitalization of Restaurant Business during COVID 19

Digitalization has changed all facets of life, the way we used to travel, the way we used to buy things, the way we use to stay informed, and many other things. Digitalization comes with great opportunities and the food and restaurant industry also leveraging digitalization in their operations and processes for the growth and success of their businesses. 

During this Corona period, digitalization helps not only restaurant business but almost every kind of business.

Customers look forward to using technology more in the food and service sector because of its convenience & less human touch. Nowadays They don’t want to go out and want to book a table, order food online, view the food menu on their mobile screens. Restaurants on the other hand also want to serve their customers better, give them good customer experience as well as earn and increase their profits.

How Technology Helps in Growth of Restaurants in Corona period?

We all know that technology has made the life of everyone easier and when it comes to restaurant & food businesses things such as mobile apps, analytics, artificial intelligence, smart devices have transformed the way restaurants used to operate. Restaurants are able to deliver a convenient, enjoyable, and flawless experience to its customers. Technology helps to speed-up the restaurant operations and achieve the goals of the restaurant by following ways:

1. Makes Order Taking Easy: To improve your restaurant operations you should take advantage of cloud technology. The customer wants to place orders with safety and less human interactions. that’s why a contactless food ordering system comes in role to scale restaurant sales.
   
   Contactless food ordering system not only automates communication between the dining room and kitchen, scale your order quantity too, reduces mistakes in ordering, reduces the wait time of customers, reduces the workload of staff, and gives clients the convenience of placing orders and ordering food the way they like. 
   
   Using a contactless food ordering system based on QR based technology can take orders from in house customers, from the parking bay, or from home too.

2. Make Front-End Operations of Restaurant Easier: There are a variety of front-end tasks that technology can make more efficient. Technology can streamline your front-end operations in a restaurant in the following ways: 

1. Digital menu boards are being used to display your menu items quickly. 
2. Self-ordering kiosks allow customers to place food orders for themselves unlike traditional methods of food order in which a waiter comes to the diner table and asks what they would like to eat.
3. The use of technology has made it possible to know about the order history of the customers. Food ordering app, online food ordering, and delivery provide the history that can be used by the staff to suggest and upsell items in order to increase the sales. 

3. Improves Kitchen Operations: The food is the main thing for which customers visit your restaurant. The kitchen is the heart of your restaurant as everything that goes to the customer’s table is made in it, so proper and seamless working is essential in your kitchen. The preparation time of a dish, the menu, inventory, etc. can be made more comfortable with the use of technology:  

1. Kitchen Display System is an important part of the restaurant kitchen because the kitchen display system goes to the respective food preparation place directly and the estimated delivery time becomes more accurate. Also, proper communication helps in improving the customer’s experience and minimize the errors that happen on the part of the staff working in the kitchen.
2. Restaurants can keep a check on inventory by using restaurant management POS. Whenever any item is about to finish the software sends alerts about the items that have reached the re-order level. This helps ensure that a shortage of essential items is not going to happen in a busy hour of the day. 
3. Kitchen managers and chefs can easily organize menus and can decide the food cost for standard or special items.

4. Restaurant Management Software: This is one of the most important digital transformations that has been used in restaurants. This helps restaurants to carry-out a variety of tasks for managing their business. It is not wrong to say that it is an extra staff member capable to perform lot of functions such as:

1. Managing reservations digitally.
2. Record the preferences and information of the customers. 
3. Helps in boosting profits by doubling the table reservations by providing real-time management and picture of table turnover. 
4. Helps to attain maximum capacity with the waiting list function. 
5. Ensures minimum profits by allowing clients to pay online who do not show up without prior information. 

5. Helps in Better Marketing and Customer Engagement: Promoting your restaurant is very important. Unless and until you are not visible to your customers you will not be able to sell. Communicating with your prospective customers and existing customers is also indispensable. 
   
   Offline modes of promotions are helpful but they are expensive and time-consuming in comparison to online channels as they have more extensive reach as well as they are affordable.  

Look at the below points: 

1. You can create your own website or social media pages so that you can keep your customers informed and updated about the new things happening in your restaurant. 
2. If you want your potential customers to reach you easily, you can list your restaurant on Google. 
3. You can have your own restaurant mobile app or integrate your restaurant with online delivery platforms so that you can deliver orders of your customers at their doorstep. 
4. If you have a customer database, then you can also launch SMS marketing or email marketing to reach your customers and initiate conversing with them. 
5. Customers also post reviews online which helps you to understand your customer’s opinion about your restaurant in a better way. 

The restaurant industry is extremely competitive, with thin profit margins. Becoming accustomed to new technology is vital for businesses to be successful and satisfied for a generation that’s grown up online, and this technology should be applied in various departments from operations to marketing. 

This concludes that restaurant operations can work effectively by leveraging technology. So, if you are the one who is not making use of technology in your restaurant and food business then you must consider doing it as soon as possible.