The food service business is a challenge, even at the best of times. And so, this Thanksgiving season, it’s good to reflect on all the miracles of technology that allow our restaurants to provide such excellent service to our customers.
Refrigeration Technology
We’ve come a long way from storing meat in a literal icebox. Refrigeration technology has improved to the point that we can take food that has a shelf life measured in hours and still ship it halfway across the world.
Modern restaurants are able to stock up on enough perishables to last for weeks — and when that runs out, simply pick up the phone (or tap a tablet) and restock. All without putting diners at risk of food poisoning.
Technology even alerts you when your refrigerator breaks, thanks to temperature monitoring equipment.
Inventory Management Software
Restaurant owners all over the world are breathing a sigh of relief at no longer having to track inventory by hand. Counting by hand is slow, labor-intensive, and as error-prone as a third-grade essay.
Inventory management software eases the burden of inventory tracking through easier count input (no more paper!) and backups of previous inventory counts. The more advanced inventory tools even link to your POS and update your inventory as orders come in, and restock items for you once they hit a threshold.
Digital POS System
And speaking of POS, how about digital point-of-sale systems? Tapping the order on a tablet sends it straight to the kitchen, which gives the back of the house a great head start if that’s the first order of a ten-person table.
As mentioned above, that POS can also link straight to your inventory system so that your stock counts are always up to date. If that’s not something to be thankful for, I don’t know what is!
Reservation Management Software
Anyone who has seated patrons on a busy Friday night will be grateful for a proper digital reservation system. No more juggling crowds, no more confusion about who is next in line and no more bulky reservation books.
Front of house staff can more easily track who sits where, and even accept mobile reservations and pre-payments. This speeds things along and helps restaurants turn over more tables in a night, which means more profits for you.
Digitized Equipment Service
Broken kitchen equipment used to mean an hour on the phone trying to contact a repairman or a DIY fix with only a clunky user’s manual for assistance. Not a great way to spend time.
But those days are over, and restaurant managers couldn’t be happier. Digitized equipment service apps can send maintenance and service requests to service providers for easy and instant communication.
The best part? The benefits go both ways. Service providers can also use it to pick up and manage their own queue of service requests, which means faster response time for restaurants.
Summary
Your customers aren’t the only ones with things to celebrate! Remember that as you use a tool, app or device to serve a customer having a Thanksgiving dinner. Technology is there, in the background, helping you work smarter!