How to Improve Restaurant Performance Using Innovative Technology

Is your restaurant not performing as well as you’d hoped? Is there a new competitor in town that you’d like to surpass? To improve restaurant performance, you need to focus on optimizing operations and improving the customer experience. How? By implementing effective technology and finding new and creative ways to attract customers.

Below, we teach you how to improve restaurant performance using the latest tools and technologies at your disposal.

A POS system is essential if you want your restaurant to run like a well-oiled machine. It can help you:

• Serve more customers faster by helping your front-of-house employees work faster with quick RFID key card login and color-coded menu categories;
• Accept multiple payment methods;
• Reduce order errors by sending orders directly to designated kitchen stations;
• Streamline communication between front-of-house and back-of-house staff;
• Spark growth with valuable data analytics;
• Optimize your menu by finding out what your best and worst-selling dishes are so you can generate more sales;
• Reduce food waste by keeping track of your inventory;
• and more.

When looking for the right POS that will help you learn how to improve restaurant performance, keep in mind these must-have features:

• Fast payment processing for credit and debit cards and digital wallets;
• Simple printer management (you can assign different printers to different kitchen stations to fulfill orders faster);
• One dashboard where you can make changes to your online and POS menu;
• Restaurant staff training and management features with ability to grant permissions based on employee roles;
• Offline mode so you can open checks and accept payments even when the internet is down;
• Free online ordering integration. No need to manually input online orders into your POS;
• In-store and online analytics that you can use to improve restaurant performance.

To learn how to improve restaurant performance, you need to pair your POS system with an efficient QR code menu that enables customers to place orders and pay directly on their smartphones. With this feature, you can:

• Reduce wait times;
• Serve more tables daily;
• Boost sales;
• Increase staff efficiency;
• Improve the guest experience.

Curious to see how QR code ordering works with GloriaFood? Scan the code below to experience ordering through the eyes of your customers:

The best part of all? You can enable this service for free by signing up for GloriaFood.

Follow the steps in this video tutorial to learn how to improve restaurant performance with on premise dining:

While a POS system and QR code menu can help you improve the customer experience at the restaurant, you also need technology that will attract clients online, starting with an in-house online ordering system.

As opposed to asking your customers to order on third-party apps, ordering directly on your website or social media will ensure you:

• Keep all the profits you make;
• Offer lower fees for customers;
• Control the entire ordering experience, from start to finish;
• Collect valuable customer data;
• Build loyalty and protect your brand.

Find out more about the GloriaFood POS system with online ordering here.

The GloriaFood online ordering system comes with a slew of useful features that will show you how to improve restaurant performance, such as:

• Direct integration with the GloriaFood POS;
• Simple menu editor for both online and in-store orders;
• Pickup, delivery, table reservations & scheduled orders;
• Online payment options;
• Legacy website and Facebook ordering;
• QR code menu ordering;
• Branded mobile app;
• Sales and SEO-optimized website (you can generate one from us in seconds);
• Promotion templates crafted to attract new and returning customers (more info on this below);
• Email marketing automation;
• Reports dashboard with recommendations on how to generate more orders and increase conversions;

Do you want to make it even easier for customers to order your food online? Generate a branded mobile app that they can download on their phones for when they crave food on the move.

You can generate your own app in just a few simple steps. Other GloriaFood customers have already learned how to improve restaurant performance with a branded app:

You can enable online payments in 3 easy steps with GloriaFood:

A simple way to increase restaurant traffic, a table reservation system enables customers to book a table in advance and even pre-order and pay for their food upon booking.

This allows you to:

• Speed up service;
• Increase table turnover;
• Attract a larger variety of customers;
• Increase efficiency;
• Boost daily sales.

Are you just branching out into online ordering and want to learn how to improve restaurant performance? Then your first online clients should be those who visit your restaurant regularly.

With the Kickstarter module from GloriaFood, you can import your existing contacts into our system. Then, send them an irresistible email or SMS featuring a discount for the first order placed online.

You can also add a first-order promo at the top of your menu, so all new customers will spot it immediately.

Do you want to learn more about attracting customers using our Kickstarter module? Check out this video tutorial:

One of the best ways to attract new customers and persuade them to return to your restaurant again and again is to offer discounts, deals, and special offers that are too good to pass up.

To ensure you cover all bases, you should aim to have at least two promotions running at the same time:

• One for new customers: Free delivery on the first order, 15% off the first order, etc.
• One for returning customers: $20 off your fifth order, 5% off when paying with a credit card, etc.

If you use GloriaFood’s ecosystem, including the QR code menu, you can choose if the promotions will apply to online ordering, dine-in, or both.

To find out how you can create your own custom promotions that will help you increase profits, watch the tutorial below:

When you have to deal with countless restaurant systems and procedures every day, it’s easy to let marketing slip through the cracks. But that would be a mistake.

If you’re wondering how to promote your restaurant, marketing is the answer. Marketing can help you attract new business and motivate those who have already dined with you to become repeat clients.

The solution: Let your email marketing campaigns run on Autopilot.

The GloriaFood email marketing campaigns can help you improve restaurant performance by:

• Encouraging second orders with a second-order discount;
• Re-engaging customers who haven’t ordered in a while with a special offer;
• Preventing users from abandoning their cart with a small discount.

All you have to do is set up the campaign (it takes minutes), and it will run in the background, attracting return customers to your restaurant.

To track the success of your menu, business strategies, and marketing ventures, you need access to detailed analytics that can help you improve operations day in and day out.

First, you need to track in-store analytics using your POS reports. Make sure the POS you purchase allows you to run crucial reports such as:

• Menu item sales;
• Property financial report;
• Employee financial report;
• Check journal report;
• Tax summary report;
• and more.

Then, you need access to a restaurant analytics dashboard that can help you track your success online. For example:

• Sales summary and trends;
• Menu analytics;
• Client report;
• Website funnel;
• Online ranking;
• Order density areas;
• etc.

If you’ve been wondering how to improve restaurant performance, our takeaway is that technology is the key.

Look for free or affordable restaurant technology to improve all aspects of your operation and ensure you build a long-standing brand that will last the test of time.

With our free restaurant POS starter kit, you only spend money on the monthly subscription and nothing on the hardware starter kit. So you can focus on running your restaurant and not stress about the budget.