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Robust Platforms and Tech Tools Help Independents Boost Online Ordering Business

Our multi-part series focuses on ordering platforms and solutions independent restaurant operators can use to satisfy the red-hot consumer demand for online ordering while avoiding high fees.

July 22, 2022

1 Min Read
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Leveling the Playing Field in Mobile and Online Ordering Technology

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Sponsored by e|tab®

Independent restaurant operations and emerging multi-unit restaurant groups have a tremendous amount to gain by adopting online ordering technology.

In fact, more than eight in 10 operators say using technology in a restaurant provides a competitive advantage, according to the National Restaurant Association 2022 State of the Industry Report. The report finds that many operators are expected to devote resources to online or app ordering, reservations, mobile payment or delivery management in addition to back-of-the-house technology.

The fact is, getting fast, convenient delivery, takeout or curbside pickup food has become an expectation for the millions of consumers who relied upon it when restaurant dining rooms shut down during the pandemic. And even now that on-premises dining has resumed, customers still demand the speed and convenience of ordering food with a mobile or online device – whenever and wherever the mood strikes.

And as much as customers are enjoying warm hospitality and attentive table service in the dining room again, they’ve also grown comfortable with contactless service because of their social distancing experiences during the pandemic. So when they want delivery, takeout or curbside pickup, many prefer digital ordering and payment over interacting in person with restaurant staff, provided the experience is fast and frictionless. In fact, 29% of consumers in a National Restaurant Association survey said they would choose a restaurant that offers contactless or mobile payments over one that did not.

Tech boosts business

Implementing tech options such as mobile, web and kiosk ordering in a restaurant can bring sales boosts. A recent industry survey shows lifts in takeout (43%), delivery (28%) and catering (14%) when operators offer digital ordering options.

However, choosing the right online ordering platform and managing it effectively can be complicated, laborious and expensive. This is especially true for small and mid-sized operators who have yet to build the infrastructure to support online ordering like the big restaurant chains. And as operators well know, some third-party online ordering providers charge fees as high as 30% per order. That is a hefty chunk of profit margin to give away under any circumstances, not to mention in today’s tumultuous foodservice climate.

Fortunately, there is a way to level the playing field in online ordering. Platforms like Priority’s e|tab online ordering system enable an operator to manage contactless ordering for dine-in, carryout, curbside and catering orders through a single platform without paying the margin-killing fees that some third-party providers charge.

With e|tab, customers order directly from the restaurant, not from a third-party platform. There are no commissions or marketing fees, just a flat fee that is substantially lower than what some third-party providers charge. On average, operators using e|tab can save up to 40% on fees compared to some other ordering platforms. And not only can it save your margins, it aligns perfectly with customers’ expectations for their ordering experience. DoorDash’s 2021 Restaurant Online Ordering Trends Report found that 43% of consumers actually prefer to order delivery directly through a restaurant's website or app, versus the 27% who prefer a third party.

"With our complex operations, especially with a ghost concept sharing the same facilities, e|tab has made a significant impact on our ability to take online orders,” says Andrew Ritter, director, IT and operations, for Z’Tejas, a Southwestern grill based in Austin, Texas, which also operates the ghost kitchen concept Woo Woo Burgers.

“Maintaining the branding throughout the process is a key component of why we partnered with e|tab,” explains Ritter. “One of the most difficult parts of taking online orders is efficiently communicating to the team that the order has been placed. However, e|tab has the ability to seamlessly send the order directly into the point-of-sale, which then fires the order directly to the kitchen. This allows the team to prepare and process the order just like any other order, reducing the chance of our team making errors.”

Provides advanced tools at a fraction of the cost

Another capability that independent operators who use e|tab enjoy is access to their customers’ ordering data. Just like the big chains, they can use customer data to drive marketing efforts and improve customer engagement so they can better compete in the online ordering marketplace.

The e|tab platform provides independent restaurant operators many of the tools major restaurant chains typically use, but at a fraction of the cost. Importantly, all the functionalities can be accessed from any web or mobile device for efficient management. e|tab empowers merchants with useful features like analytics dashboard access, website and mobile ordering, complete menu control, order management capabilities and personalized training. Additionally, e|tab’s integration with Priority’s payment platforms provides next-day payment to the operator’s bank account – an important benefit for managing cash flow and staying on top of payables.      

For more information about how the e|tab mobile and online ordering platform can help operators achieve higher sales and profits, visit https://e-tab.com/.

Mobile and Online Ordering Please Customers, Preserve Margins

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Sponsored by e|tab®

A focus on delivery, takeout and curbside service helped restaurant operators large and small maintain profitability when the pandemic shut down their dining rooms.

And even now with tables filling up again, patrons still demand fast, convenient off-premises food whenever the mood strikes. Satisfying convenience cravers is a continuing business opportunity that no restaurant operator can afford to ignore.

In fact, 54% of adults—including 72% of millennials—say purchasing takeout or delivery food is essential to the way they live, according to the National Restaurant Association 2022 State of the Restaurant Industry Report.

In another survey, 52% of consumers said they chose to use online ordering options from their favorite restaurants because they want to avoid waiting in line. And 73% of consumers said they like using technology to order food because they like placing orders quickly.

The desire to attract more convenience-seeking patrons is leading an increasing number of operators to implement fast and frictionless ordering platforms. Research shows that average ticket sales in restaurants that provide mobile and online ordering are 30% higher than in those that do not.

Factors for choosing the right ordering platform

While the case for mobile and online and ordering is clear, an operator needs a robust platform with manageable costs to reap maximum benefit. Choosing the right platform can be complicated and expensive, especially for independent operations and emerging multi-unit restaurant groups that have yet to build the infrastructure of a big restaurant chain. Few operators can afford to pay fees as high as 30% per order—which some third-party ordering platforms charge—as they grapple with rising food and labor costs, supply-chain disruptions and a shallow employee pool.

But what if operators could manage contactless ordering for dine-in, carryout, curbside and catering orders through a single platform without the margin-killing fees that some third-party providers charge? Fortunately, there are ordering platforms with the right technology and support to keep customers happy and the bottom line healthy. The following are some key factors operators should consider when choosing an ordering system.

Value for the money is a vital consideration. With platforms like Priority’s e|tab®, an independent restaurant operator can have many of the tools major restaurant chains typically employ, but at a fraction of the cost. For instance, there is a custom-branded ordering page for the restaurant that provides a seamless ordering experience for customers. Orders go directly to the kitchen via a printer or tablet. Customers may opt to have their order fulfilled by one of e|tab’s third-party delivery partners for a flat fee that is substantially lower than the high percentages some third-party companies charge.

No commissions or marketing fees

Another major concern is a prospective platform’s fee structure. With the systems like e|tab, customers order directly from the restaurant, not from an online platform, and there are no commissions or marketing fees. What’s more, DoorDash’s 2021 Restaurant Online Ordering Trends Report found that 43% of consumers actually prefer to order delivery directly through a restaurant's website or app, versus the 27% who prefer a third party. On average, operators using e|tab can save up to 40% on fees compared to using other ordering platforms.

Operators monitoring their cash flow and profitability during these challenging times will appreciate an operating platform that sends payments to their bank account via next-day funding, as e|tab does. This access to cash means the ability to pay bills, vendors and partners faster and potentially take advantage of early payment discounts.

Having dashboard accessibility improves the management efficiency of an ordering platform. The e|tab dashboard is accessible from any web or mobile device. Operators have full access to their customers’ ordering data to drive marketing efforts that boost satisfaction and loyalty.

Fast, convenient mobile and online ordering with the e|tab platform is helping Z’Tejas, a Southwestern restaurant brand based in Austin, Texas, grow curbside pickup sales and support Woo Woo Burgers, the ghost kitchen concept that it also operates.

“Curbside still has a large demand,” says Andrew Ritter, director, IT and operations, at Z’Tejas. “Curbside and online payment are actually so strong at this point that we developed our entire ghost concept around the curbside service model."

Convenience-craving customers are gravitating to restaurants that use fast and easy-to-use platforms like e|tab. “It is very important to us that a guest who visits our website to place an online order has as easy and seamless an experience as possible,” Ritter says. “All these components working together allows us to give the guest the best experience and product possible, which is key to helping us grow the to-go and online portion of our business."

Independent restaurant owners and operators of smaller chains no longer have to compromise when it comes to their ordering system. Innovative platforms like e|tab have officially leveled the playing field. When evaluating your next technology partner, here are some additional features that distinguish high-functioning ordering platforms like e|tab from the rest: personalized training, menu management tools, saved user accounts, saved payment methods, menu building and uploading, U.S.-based customer support, coupon/discount codes and guest checkout options.

For more information about how the e|tab mobile and online ordering system pleases customers and protects vital profit margins, visit https://e-tab.com/.

Delivering the Digital Restaurant: Why your digital doors must stay open

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I asked my cashier at a pizza place yesterday if the lines were always so bad at 6 p.m. She said, “Yeah, people love our pizza. It’s totally overwhelming, though. We just can’t keep up with everyone coming in. At least we can turn off our online orders, so we don’t have quite as much pressure.”  

Digital players call this practice “throttling.” During peak demand times, restaurant managers, and sometimes even hourly employees, can choose to turn off digital channels to focus on the customers in front of them. Many restaurant chains actually encourage this behavior, training a hierarchy for customer service. If you get busy, the thinking goes, turn off the lowest-margin channels first: Perhaps the third-party marketplace your restaurant does not have a preferred agreement with, then the other third parties. If things get really bad, some go so far as to say, turn off the first-party channel and let the restaurant focus on guests walking in the door.

How does throttling affect consumers?

The biggest challenge with this approach is how it feels from a consumer perspective. When a restaurant gets busy, or the drive-thru line gets long, restaurants don’t lock the doors or put orange cones in the parking lot. Consumers might drive past, see the line, and “balk” at the wait (balk rate is the percent of potential consumers who choose not to enter the line), but that choice is the consumer’s, not the restaurant’s.  

Closing the digital doors prevents the consumer from seeing the digital line. The choice to wait or to balk is no longer the consumer’s. In fact, the consumer does not even know the restaurant exists. A throttled digital restaurant will not come up in a consumer’s third-party marketplace search. If the consumer has never chosen the restaurant before, the restaurant is missing a prime opportunity for awareness-building and that all-important first trial. If the consumer has chosen the restaurant previously, suddenly the restaurant is gone. Did it go out of business? Move? The consumer may not even pause to wonder before choosing another place and building a habit elsewhere.

Imagine a food court at a premium, class A mall. Your restaurant has paid a fortune in rent to be at this mall because traffic counts are high and the demographic matches your target perfectly. It’s expensive, yes, but you see it partially as a marketing cost — getting your brand in front of a large number of the right people for you. Now imagine that every once in a while at lunch during peak hour when you aren’t there, an employee closes the restaurant and takes the sign down. You would never do this in the brick-and-mortar world. So why would you do it in the digital world?

How can throttling affect off-peak demand?

The second challenge with throttling is that employees can get so busy that they forget to turn the digital channels back on. When 2 p.m. rolls around, demand falls off a cliff, hurried consumers are no longer streaming in the physical door, and digital demand would sure fill in the valley right now — but wait: no orders are coming in. Today, most systems require that the employee who made the active decision to shut down digital demand also must make an active decision to turn it back on. Even without meaning to, a well-intentioned employee, following the customer service training, might get so distracted by dinner prep that they completely forget to switch on the third-party channels.  

Don’t believe this happens? Spot check your restaurants on the platforms around 1:15 p.m. and see how many of them are offering third-party delivery.

What long-term effects can throttling have on your digital business?

Every consumer’s session on a third-party platform is different. It’s different from mine, from yours, and from another consumer’s. It’s also different each time an individual consumer goes on the app, depending on time of day, previous orders, geographic location, sponsored listings, promotional offers, click rates, order conversion rates, and — importantly! — availability. Just like no two consumers’ Amazon home pages are alike, so too are no two consumers’ DoorDash sessions.

Turning off your restaurant’s digital storefront, even for 15 minutes once a week, can train the algorithms unproductively for your business. Most obviously, if your restaurant isn’t there, it isn’t getting clicks or orders. The lack of this positive consumer feedback trains the algorithms that your restaurant isn’t as popular as a restaurant that is open and getting clicks. Algorithms are impersonal. They don’t care why something is happening, only that something is (or is not) happening.

Worse, turn off long enough or often enough, and the algorithm’s operational metrics will start to punish your restaurant’s results. The algorithm, again, impersonally, will measure each restaurant’s availability rates, order cancellation rates, late order deliveries, overall order-to-delivery times, and consumer ratings to determine how high the system should prioritize showing a particular brand to a consumer.

What’s a restaurant to do? Is it worse to be unavailable or to be late? Each platform’s algorithms are different, and the platforms are updating them constantly. So while it is obviously better to execute perfectly every time, when a restaurant can’t, the best course of action may change over time. Being available matters. Keep your digital doors open.

What are the alternatives to throttling?

The best alternative to throttling is increasing the capacity and throughput of your restaurant. Through work redesign, a restaurant can handle more orders at peak hour than it ever thought possible. Working with firms like Service Physics to optimize restaurant processes, kitchen equipment layout, and labor allocation can take what looks like a maxed-out kitchen and create the ability to output more meals.

Technology solutions to these challenges are coming. Nextbite’s Ordermark, the online order aggregator, for example, has an “auto-on” feature that turns the platforms back on without employee intervention after the pause period ends.This solution prevents employees from forgetting to turn the online store back on after a rush. UberEats and DoorDash are working on similar features. Ordermark monitors and reports on store-level availability, so that operators can coach these stores on staffing, labor allocation, and the importance of the digital storefront.

Companies like Juicer and Sauce are bringing dynamic pricing to the restaurant industry, an idea borrowed from the travel industry. Dynamic pricing puts the choice back in the hands of the consumer — they can still order at peak, but it might cost more. Just like with air travel, a consumer can decide they value that time enough to pay a higher price, or they can take an alternative time and pay less. DoorDash is already experimenting with similar approaches, offering $ off incentives to consumers who will take a later delivery time when more drivers are available.

Yes, but do I really have to do this?

We often hear a love-hate relationship between restaurants and third parties. We can imagine many readers thinking to themselves, “What’s the big deal if my third-party sales are less than they could be? Maybe that’s a good thing?”

We could write an entire chapter about why this line of thinking is not helpful. (And we have!) Restaurants need first party AND third party sales.

Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes. In fact, imagine the last time you searched for something on Amazon and it was out of stock: What did you do? Maybe you were hoping for a particular brand or color. You needed the item. You didn’t have time to go to the store. You value free 2-day shipping. You just bought a different item. And now you’ve learned that the new brand is actually pretty OK. And it shows up in your order history to buy again. And maybe you’ve even forgotten all about the original brand you were shopping for.

Peak hour can be overwhelming. But don’t let your team close your digital doors to survive. Give them the tools they need to succeed.

Restaurant experience is key to attracting young families

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The increasing degree of digital connectivity between restaurants and their customers is a double-edged sword when it comes to marketing to young millennial and Gen Z parents, according to some industry experts.

While digital channels provide opportunities for marketers to reach families with children, and technology can enhance their overall restaurant experience, many young parents are cautious about digital activities that involve their children, such as electronic games or other platforms that add to children’s “screen time,” said Jennifer Loper, president of Creative Consumer Concepts (C3), an Overland Park, Kan.-based marketing firm that specializes in families with children.

“Millennial parents want experiences,” she said. “Digital can be part of the experience — but it has to be a thoughtful and very deliberate part of that experience, versus saying, ‘Hey parents, here’s an opportunity to stick a screen in front of your child so you don’t have to interact with them.’”

At the same time, today’s millennial and Gen Z parents have grown up using technology themselves, and they expect restaurants to offer tech-driven solutions that take the stress out of their visits. That involves many of the tools that have gained traction during the pandemic, such as the ability to order ahead for pick-up or on-premises dining.

Attracting young families with children is becoming even more challenging amid rising inflation, which may be driving more families to dine at home, according to a recent report from The NPD Group. Traffic from households with kids under age 6 was down 8% in April, compared to April 2021, and traffic from households with kids ages 6-12 was down 9%, the research firm found. Traffic from adults-only groups was up 1% during the month, according to NPD.

Eliminate ‘pain points’ for parents, kids

Restaurants seeking to attract young families need to focus on reducing all of the “pain points” that these customers can experience, Loper said. That could mean providing extra napkins without the customer having to ask, for example, and ensuring that the lids on kids’ drinks are secure when they pass them through the drive-up window. It also means ensuring their kids’ meal toys or other materials have been included.

“Operators need to be thoughtful about who their customers are as a family,” she said.

Restaurants also should ensure that their menu is kid-friendly and that there are activities or entertainment for children, such as crayons, activity books or a play area, Loper said.

“Something that never changes about kids is that they want to have fun, and there are so many ways to manifest that,” said Loper.

Millennial parents are also interested in restaurant brands that are committed to causes and support their communities, and their children often also support these efforts, Loper said.

Texas Roadhouse, which works with C3 on its family marketing, leverages its community connections to help promote the brand to families with kids, said Beth Franklin, manager of digital marketing for the Louisville, Ky.-based casual-dining chain, during a CREATE webinar hosted by NRN earlier this year.

“A lot of things we do are not necessarily within the restaurant,” she said during the webinar, called “How Leading Brands Drive Sales by Winning with Families.”

Each restaurant in the chain has a dedicated local store marketer that forges connections in the surrounding communities, which can often involve the distribution of toys from Texas Roadhouse, Franklin said. The chain can distribute the toys to schools or police and fire departments, for example.

“They turn around and give the toys to kids, so we essentially have a business card for kids in their homes,” she said.

Raising Cane’s is another example of a chain that conducts kid-friendly activities in its communities, said Loper. The Baton Rouge, La.-based chain works with C3 on its Holiday Plush Puppy program, which allows customers to buy a plush toy based on Cane, the chicken-finger chain’s mascot, to support donations to no-kill pet shelters and other local pet welfare causes.

IHOP launches Minions Menu experience

Providing an enjoyable overall experience for families — including inflation-fighting savings — is at the heart of IHOP’s new tie-in with the animated movie “Minions: The Rise of Gru.” The collaboration features a Minions Menu of eight new food and beverage options, offered for a limited time this summer.

“The Minions partnership appeals to millennial families and enhances the in-restaurant experience as it encourages adults and their young children to visit IHOP restaurants,” a spokesperson for IHOP told NRN.

The “Minions” collaboration overlaps with IHOP’s Kids Eat Free promotion, a dine-in only promo offered every day from 4 to 10 p.m., when kids 12 and under receive a free entrée from the kids’ menu with the purchase of an adult entrée.

The national creative campaign features minions mischievously descending on IHOP and trying the limited-time menu items, such as Ba-Ba-Banana Pudding Pancakes. The spot is airing nationally on TV, online and on social media.

“This campaign invites guests to fall in love with the new Minions Menu, in turn inspiring young ‘Minions’ fans and their millennial parents to go to IHOP to try it out for themselves,” the spokeswoman said.

Huey Magoo’s leverages data to reach families

One company that is taking a tech-savvy approach to marketing to families is Huey Magoo’s, the Orlando, Fla.-based chicken tenders concept.

InnoVision Marketing Group, which handles Huey Magoo’s creative advertising, leverages a proprietary solution that allows it to gather the phone IDs of customers who have visited any of Huey Magoo’s competitors in the past year.

“We can move into any market and create an automatic historical database of our competitor's best customers,” said Giselle Campos, senior VP and senior creative director at InnoVision.

InnoVision can then refine this list even further, identifying families with children, for example, and then serving different ads for mothers and fathers.

“Our creative strategy for approaching moms may focus on the convenience of making Huey Magoo’s a quick stop for lunch after sports practice, while the strategy targeting dads may focus on bringing Huey Magoo’s home at the end of a long day for the whole family, and the third strategy for both may focus on the variety of options available for even the pickiest of picky eaters,” said Campos.

Young millennial and Gen Z parents are also interested in experiencing the “fun” of a brand’s personality, just as their kids are, she said.

“We make sure to address the different age demographics of the Huey Magoo’s consumer in a tone that is relatable and aligns with today’s social culture,” said Campos. “Just because both demographics are growing up and beginning to take on more adult roles does not mean that they are letting go of what makes them young at heart.”

InnoVision seeks to ensure that the creative aimed at millennials and Gen Z’ers for Huey Magoo’s is fun, whether that means introducing share-worthy emojis or referencing popular TikTok audio trends, she said.

“We always communicate to them in their language,” Campos said.

Visually, InnoVision takes a lifestyle-driven approach that seeks to depict fun and excitement around eating chicken tenders. The advertising reflects the uniqueness of the brand and the quality of the chicken, using the chain’s newly registered slogan, “The Filet Mignon of Chicken.”

At the store level, the Huey Magoo’s menu has been developed to appeal to consumers of all ages, including tender combos for “Little Magoo’s” and family meals with 20 or 30 tenders, plus sides, Texas toast and dips.

The hidden costs of your data blindspot

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It’s the eleventh hour for many independent restaurateurs. Beaten up by COVID closures, record-high inflation, and persistent staffing shortages, thousands of dedicated owners are just an invoice or two away from turning off the lights permanently. At the best of times, many restaurants are scraping by month to month with very little or no cushion to endure repeated setbacks. So when things go wrong, many businesses can’t survive.

According to the Independent Restaurant Coalition, more than half of independent restaurants and bars that have yet to receive federal grants anticipate they will close within the next six months. Many pegged their hopes on new Restaurant Revitalization Funding. But, even if Congress had agreed, more federal money wouldn’t change how the foodservice industry works or protect independent restaurants from the next unforeseen challenge.

To change the industry and move more restaurants from “just getting by” to thriving, owners and managers must address the core problems: profitability and cash flow. Central to fixing these systemic vulnerabilities is improving access to reliable, actionable cost data and advanced analytics. Large restaurant corporations have benefited from this valuable information for decades, but smaller restaurateurs struggle to compete without it. Unlike large restaurant groups, which retain CFOs, accounting firms, and dedicated financial departments, independent restaurants usually have a single manager juggling all of the front- and back-of-the-house (BOH) responsibilities. And the average independent restaurateur is too strapped for time to devote hours to uncovering hard-to-find data points that might help.

With no relief in sight and with margins tighter than ever, independent restaurateurs need quality analytics like never before. Let’s look at three ways to get what they need.

Collect the right data

For the restaurant BOH to benefit from analytics, they first need to aggregate their cash flow data. The average independent restaurant may deal with more than 10 food suppliers every month, all of which put them on short and differing payment terms. Since the foodservice industry still largely runs on outdated payment processes using paper invoices and physical checks, it’s not surprising that many restaurant managers attempt to track cash flow in a manual ledger. For the average independent restaurant paying 40-60 invoices a month for food costs alone, using a manual ledger creates room for human error and is time-intensive.

Conversely, managers embracing centralized BOH technology to consolidate all food payments find multiple margin-boosting benefits. It not only eliminates “reinventing the wheel” each pay period, but technology can prevent overdrafts and makes more accurate budgeting possible. Cutting down the number of hours spent tracking spending also reduces staff expenses. Perhaps most importantly, aggregating food purchasing data at the SKU level is the critical first step to analyzing it.

Analyze the data

Historical food spending patterns are an important insight restaurants need and can only get if they’ve properly aggregated their cash flow data. If a restaurant knows how many products and supplies it actually uses, it can avoid under- and over-ordering, which are two simple ways to save money.

Under-ordering can lead to a restaurant either running out of a popular menu item or having to buy ingredients from a local market at a much higher cost. Overordering creates waste and thinner margins. Insight into historical spending patterns also cuts down on labor costs by eliminating the time spent manually assessing the number of products and supplies on hand at any given time or scrambling to make last-minute purchases.

Together, reducing product waste and unnecessary labor decreases a restaurant’s “prime cost”: the total cost of goods sold plus total labor costs. The prime labor cost is up to 70 percent of some restaurants’ expenses, so it’s an excellent place to find savings.

Put the analysis to work

One of many studies quantifying the benefits of data analytics found respondents raised profits by 8 percent while cutting total costs by 10 percent (BARC, 2019). Using food spend data analysis can create a better understanding of a restaurant’s market pricing — particularly insight into food price fluctuations.

In this current landscape of food inflation, analysis is critical. Unlike corporate restaurant groups that purchase goods and supplies directly from the end suppliers, independent restaurants typically receive their pricing from the last-mile distributor. In turn, independent restaurants are unknowingly beholden to vague upcharges and prevented from comparing their costs against the wider market. When independent restaurants thoroughly understand their food costs and how they compare to the broader market, they are armed with the information to decrease their food costs and widen their margins. If a mid-tier restaurant spending nearly $100,000 per month in food costs can save even a small percentage, it could equate to an annual salary for a whole staff position.

The right BOH software solution should solve all of these challenges. But restaurant managers should not have to become data scientists or endure a long, complicated onboarding process. They should be empowered to focus on their core competencies: making great food and providing excellent customer service. So, when comparing solutions, restaurateurs need to evaluate BOH technology based on three things:

  • Ease of use and adoption into their workflow

  • Automated collection of relevant data

  • The value of straightforward and applicable insights the technology generates

Combined, these three variables reflect how quickly and easily the time and cost savings will impact their bottom line.

For many restaurants fighting to maintain profitability or free up cash flow, there’s no more time left on the clock. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, small business owners report that inflation, which is now at its highest since 1980, continues to be their greatest problem. With a bleak outlook and optimism at its lowest since April 2020, the time to turn BOH data into real savings is now.

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