TECHNOLOGY: 5 Ways to Increase Productivity with Restaurant Software
Restaurant owners who think technology is a fad are missing out. Today’s digital have the power to change how you run your restaurant and increase your productivity. Almost 75% of diners and 95% of restaurateurs say technology makes their restaurant more efficient, which results in happier guests and more guests served. Digital investment doesn’t need to be expensive or complex, though. Check out these five ways to use restaurant software to streamline your operations.
DID YOU KNOWS…
Video Game Harassment
Globally, video games are a $152 billion industry and today, 53% of U.S. adults play them. Over the past three decades, they have also evolved into social platforms where interactions can be both enriching and harmful. While many players made friends and felt part of a team, the study found that 65% of online gamers experienced severe harassment. The highest rate was reported among those playing Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2).
The World is Not Enough
July 29 marked the second time Earth Overshoot Day, which marks the time at which humanity has used up its allotment of natural planetary resources for the year, occurred in that month. It had occurred in August between 2010 and 2017. The day, whose existence is highlighted by the NGO Global Footprint Network, means that all humans on Earth for this year have already used up more natural resources than mother nature can reproduce annually.
Fox RSNs Go Dark
After a temporary extension on Sunday, Fox RSNs have done dark on Dish and Sling TV and with no new deal on the horizon. YES was also pulled from Sling and wasn’t carried by Dish. This could cause trouble for fans and sports bars looking to show MLB.
PARENT TRAP
Why it matters to you: Raising a family while working in our industry presents real challenges.
Our industry has a reputation for being a terrible place to work if you are also raising a family. This may or may not be a justifiable perception, but there are some realities that certainly the notion fairly easy to accept. Start with the crazy hours required by most operations and that managers are expected to be there ALL the time, and you have a recipe for difficulties in work/family balance. Our industry is certainly lagging behind when it comes to benefits specifically designed to support a healthy balance. For example, most restaurant operations offer no additional benefits for post-birth transitions, like paid family leave. This means in our industry, if you want to take time to bond with your family, you’re doing it on your own dime. This is complicated by what we referred to earlier as pertains to the schedule requirements of most managers.
These requirements focus on the restaurant operational tasks and not who has to pick up their son or daughter from soccer. Variable, multi-revenue, and long are the best descriptions for what the typical manager’s schedule looks like and again, just not a great aid to parents trying to build consistency for their children. Of course, there are some advantages that the schedule can also deliver if your partner is not in the biz. Because of the flexibility of schedules, a manager could work opposite shift of their spouse and be with their children when their spouse’s job precludes it. The point here is that if you are thinking about raising a family, you might also be thinking about leaving our industry. We hope you don’t, but we also wish our industry was a little more forgiving of the requirements for parenting. Our entire society would benefit, if it were.
[Source: Toast POS]
PLAY THE GAME
Why it matters to you: Increasing sales through server sales contests is your recipe for growth.
Growth is one of those things we all aspire to in our industry, but we often fall flat. Whether you are pushing traffic with your marketing or expanding your facility to facilitate growth, these efforts cost money and can return mixed results. However, there is one way to grow that costs little and is incredibly trackable: Gamification. Let’s start with the fact that humans have this competitive streak that works well when given an incentive. By tapping into this inherent desire to win, managers can simultaneously drive growth and engage your staff in the success of the restaurant. By gamifying your sales competitions, staff are not only connected to your goals, but they are also perfectly aligned with their own goals to maximize their income.
Whether you design, deploy ,and execute your own version of sales competitions or employ a partner like Springzy to organize and run your contests, it does require some organization. However, that shouldn’t slow any of you down. If you aren’t sold on the need or value of driving competition among your staff, then try something simple. Post their shift sales or check averages for a week. See how they respond without any incentive and just the desire to be on the top of the list. When you are sufficiently impressed with that, then begin working on creating internal contests that will engage them without distracting them from their overall service responsibilities. No matter how you go about it, your only challenge will be counting all the sales growth it delivers.
[Source: Modern Restaurant Management]
