TECH: 5 Things to Ask Yourself Before Getting a Restaurant POS
A cloud-based point of sale system is a modern-day management tool for any type of restaurant, bar, café or even hotel restaurants. Why? Because it helps your staff work more efficiently, it gets your guests their orders faster, and it gives you a better picture of how well your business is doing. Cloud-based is a standard for a modern POS. It means that all your data is stored online in a secure space, and you can access it anytime and from anywhere. Now, how do you pick a POS system? Here are five questions you need to ask yourself before saying goodbye to your notebook or legacy system.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Nude Restaurant Closes
O’Naturel, Paris’s first nudist restaurant, will close next month after only 15 months of operations. Why? They’re not getting enough guests. Apparently, the idea of eating naked in front of strangers isn’t as appetizing as the owners thought. The owners say they’ll remember the good times, though.
America’s Most Dangerous Professions
In total, there were 5,147 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2017, a slight decline on the 5,190 fatalities reported a year earlier. In 2017, fishers and related fishing workers had the highest fatal work injury rate in the country with 99.8 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. Logging is also well-known as a profession where serious mishaps can occur and it came second with a fatal work injury rate of 84.3 per 100,000 while aircraft pilots and flight engineers rounded off the top three with 48.6 occupational deaths per 100,000.
DC United Heads to FloSports
DC United has shunned traditional local TV deals and will be going stream-only. They’ve teamed up with FloSports, a subscription-based online streaming service. DC United joins LAFC (YouTube TV) and Chicago Fire (ESPN+) in airing games exclusively online. Orlando City and Seattle have streaming deals that complement existing TV deals.
IT’S A GENERATIONAL THING
Why it matters to you: Attracting Gen Z’ers requires a new model of social and support.
The generation that follows the Millennials is largely an unknown quantity to most operators. But remain ignorant to them at your own peril. The oldest of them are just about to turn 21 and that means they will shortly be populating your bars, ordering your food to-go, and meeting their friends to celebrate in your restaurants. The challenge is that this generation has never known a world without smartphones, the internet, and 24/7 connectivity. That dictates that you have to think in new terms about how they want to communicate and what they want the message to contain. These four ways to attract Gen Z guests are a solid place to start.
Gen Z’ers report they never go more than a few hours without using the internet and checking their social media. Oh, and by the way, they aren’t on Facebook and don’t prefer email. This generation’s all about Instagram and SnapChat. That means if you want to catch them, you need to be there as well. They expect authenticity, but they also want to be reassured that they can make their own decisions. By keeping your social posts 100% real and not tacky salesy, you will convince them you are like them. Adding customization options enumerated on your menu, you demonstrate you want them to enjoy your food on their own terms. This generation is different than the last and will be different from the next; that’s why it’s up to you to adjust to them and not the other way around.
[Source: FSR Magazine]
GIVE AND TAKE
Why it matters to you: Corporate Social Responsibility is more important than ever to a successful restaurant operation.
We have often discussed employing a purpose-driven business model for your restaurant. This is the concept of defining a cause or purpose in addition to profiting from your commercial efforts. That model is even more relevant today as Millennials, who want to see Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), continue to have an estimated $1.3 trillion in annual buying power. A solid method to demonstrate your CSR is to partner with a local non-profit organization. That collaboration can take many forms and can ultimately build your business in ways you can anticipate.
Your restaurant is in a community that increasingly expects its corporate citizens to give back. By choosing a local charitable organization to support, you are literally supporting your community. This support can come in myriad forms, including simply things like providing meeting space or helping the organization recruit volunteers by introducing their mission to your guests. Goodwill by its nature is hard to acquire and easy to destroy. That’s all the motivation you should need to add a purpose to your operation that will, not only, show you are serious about your CSR, but will likely improve your bottom line as well.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
