How to Choose the Right Restaurant Technology

With the fast-paced shift towards digital transformation in the restaurant industry, many businesses are leaving behind traditional systems to meet their needs and customer demands. But with numerous technology options at your fingertips, it's crucial to weigh your options and pick the best technology for your restaurant.

Let's dive in and explore how to make the best decision for your restaurant's growth, efficiency, and success.

Consider your restaurant's needs and how technology can satisfy them

Every business has unique needs, and technology plays an integral role in satisfying them. Different technologies and features address various requirements, such as inventory management or customer reservations. Before you begin buying restaurant technology, consider a few things:

Customer habits and preferences

Customer demands are constantly changing. For example, when dining or ordering from restaurants, they don't just want good food; they also want a seamless experience. Whether dining in, ordering to-go, or opting for delivery, customers want convenient and secure payment options on the menu. 

Understanding their preferences goes a long way when choosing technology and payment methods. Offering options such as contactless and QR code payments and platforms that enable them to pay for orders easily can create a loyal customer base.  

Labor and staffing shortages

Building a helpful and reliable tech stack can help combat challenges related to labor and staffing shortages. With fewer people to manage orders, inventory, and other restaurant tasks, cloud-based tools, automation, and other technology can help take the burden off you and your employees. If you find your restaurant struggling to have enough employees on the clock to keep things running smoothly, identify where you need help, how you need it, and what technology can ease the burden. 

For example, it might be time to update your technology with an online or self-service system for placing orders. Or maybe you don't have enough wait staff, and customers wait too long to receive their checks; tableside QR codes or URL payments can eliminate that issue.

How and where you do business

If you're operating a food truck or serving up good eats on the go, you need the ability to take payments and orders wherever you are. Mobile and cloud-based restaurant technologies help you stay up to speed on service and payments. When shopping around for restaurant technology, think about how you can use it to increase efficiencies, support sales, and expand your mobile operations. 

Back-office tasks

Keeping the front of house and back offices in order can be a hassle. Streamlining your back-office processes is necessary to create schedules, manage inventory, and crunch numbers. These are all things that specific restaurant technology features can streamline to help keep your business afloat and in order. You need solutions that give you peace of mind and enable efficiency and profitability. 

Restaurant technology to consider

We've given you the rundown on which of your business needs to consider; now it's time to learn more about your options! Restaurant technology has evolved far beyond your average POS system. To meet your customers' and operations' constantly changing demands, you should invest in new and up-to-date technologies that improve customer experience and front-end and back-end operations, such as:

Cloud-based POS

Cloud-based technology transforms restaurant management tasks by enabling you to access important information in one place. You can easily analyze sales, review costs, and make data-driven decisions.

VersiCloud offers an intuitive tool that supports easy staff scheduling, provides greater visibility into operations with reliable data collection and reporting, and helps you better manage inventory. At any given time, you'll know your total sales and item mix for the day, who's working or running late, and how to boost your bottom line. It also integrates with other solutions to provide you with a complete picture of your business’s sales and revenue data.

Payments straight from the phone

Contactless and mobile payment options have become highly important to dining experiences. QR codes and payment URLs don't just give customers peace of mind; they also provide them with the convenience of quickly paying and leaving when they're ready.

VersiPay Quick Receipt (VPQR) offers your customers a contactless payment method using their mobile devices. They can simply scan a QR code or input the URL and unique code from their receipt to view and securely pay their checks. 

Mobile POS

Mobile POS systems add speed and convenience to your operations, whether at the restaurant or on the go. For example, you can quickly run credit cards at the table for faster turnarounds. 

VersiPOS makes it easy to accept orders on the go and collect helpful information like customer vehicle descriptions and food pickup times for efficient ordering. In addition, staff can do everything a traditional POS system can do, but from a tablet.

Order up the best restaurant technology

Finding the right combination of restaurant technology can be difficult, but it doesn't have to be. VersiTech offers a menu of solutions to help you navigate your business with ease. Whether you're a brick and mortar, on the go, or short-staffed, our solutions speak to each other and connect with other technologies to create one unified system.

If you're looking for the best restaurant technology, we're ready to deliver. Contact us to learn more about how VersiTech can streamline your business.