The adoption of restaurant technology is changing the industry at an unprecedented rate. And the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend.
What was always a highly competitive business has become all the more so as reopening outlets struggle to entice customers to return.
Any advantage that can be obtained through the latest technological innovations can be crucial to success and even survival, and restaurants are increasingly turning to emerging cloud technologies as a way of gathering and organizing huge amounts of data that can be turned into actionable strategies for their businesses.
Not only do these strategies enhance customer satisfaction, and thereby increase revenues, the cloud can also be crucial in protecting both business and customers against fraud – something of which diners are increasingly conscious of in this new era of contactless payments.
Enhancing Customer Experience with the Cloud
The Cloud Kitchen
Not perhaps what you first think of when talking about the cloud, but cloud (or “ghost”) kitchens are becoming increasingly popular as spaces where any number of restaurants can rent space to prepare menu items for delivery.
Demand for home-delivered restaurant food has surged during the COVID pandemic and the emergence of cloud kitchens, often in densely populated, high rental areas has enabled many small and start-up businesses to take advantage of the trend.
Passing on to customers the cost savings enabled by cloud kitchens is a significant benefit for them, while at the same time helping their restaurants to maintain healthy profit margins.
Cloud Point of Sale (POS) Systems
A cloud-based POS system enhances customer experience by –
- rapidly dealing with orders from all manner of devices, avoiding the need for separate channels;
- speeding up service by ensuring that when one device is updated with menu or bar changes, all staff and management terminals are simultaneously updated as well;
- largely eliminating human error among serving staff.
Reducing Your Business Costs
A good cloud-based POS system can also have a direct positive impact on your business costs by removing the need to purchase and maintain expensive in-house servers, to hire experts in the event of any technical problems, or to install the latest indispensable software updates.
The combination of video and cloud technology now allows managers to view operations in real-time across numerous departments and outlets. This facility not only reduces costs by minimizing in-house theft and food waste, it can also rationalize inventory management.
Efficiency can also be improved through the ability to compare the operations of different outlets.
Video heat maps, for example, can provide information about the usage of different areas of a restaurant at different times. At what times are the dining area and bar at their busiest? Are the lobby and waiting areas subject to overcrowding at certain times?
A few simple changes based on this kind of data, perhaps using better-performing outlets as models for the less successful, can have a disproportionate impact in improving your customers’ experience – making their repeat business far more likely
The Battle Against Fraud
Some people are still suspicious of the cloud, fearing that their personal and financial data may be more at risk if transmitted and stored in this way.
But these attitudes are changing rapidly as more and more people turn to contactless payment methods in the era of COVID.
And in fact, data stored in the cloud is automatically protected by the latest encryption technology, providing both you and your customers with security against hackers, cyber-attacks, viruses, and malware.
Cloud stored data is also backed up automatically and protected against power outages or system crashes.
The Power of the Cloud
In summary, the latest cloud technology is a powerful tool that can enhance customer experience and boost restaurant profits by enabling them to rationalize their operations, reduce costs and make decisions based on the rapid analysis of huge amounts of real-life data.
