4 Tips on How Restaurant Tech Makes Manual Systems More Efficient

Updating restaurant technology isn't always about fixing a process that's broken. Instead, adding technology is ideally done when you have a manual process to provide a good foundation for your tasks, but you want to make these efforts easier, more effective, and more accurate. The best tech implementations don't replace good manual processes, but makes them more efficient.

Here are four tips for restaurants to consider:

1. Be consistent with tech across the enterprise. As some pieces of the tech stack progress, like the POS and online ordering, others have been left behind. When one part of your operations has great technology and another doesn't, you create a disparity where the less sophisticated areas of your operation are more difficult to understand, more time consuming, and potentially more neglected. This leaves you open to higher risk around things like poor food safety, employee theft, violating labor laws, etc.
2. Recognize tech is critical for restaurants of all sizes. Tech solutions are not just appropriate for larger organizations; they’re critical for enterprise and growing brands, as well. Today’s tech solutions are affordable, attainable, user-friendly, and scalable to meet the needs of any restaurant, whether you have one or two locations or you're a large chain. Remember: just because restaurants have been "getting away with" their manual processes doesn't mean these systems were working well.
3. Avoid the Frankenstein approach. Many brands have haphazard integrations from multiple software solutions they bought separately and "pieced together" as they grew. This patchwork approach may not be the most effective method. Ideally, brands will invest in a scalable, integrated tech solution that can grow with them and adapt with their evolving needs.
4. Minimize financial losses. Say you've been using a manual inventory process. Your system technically works, but it may take 2-3 weeks to get a full report, and it's impossible to get an accurate, real-time view. Or perhaps you avoid doing regular inventory because the manual process is so cumbersome and time-consuming, so you're missing critical information about your operation. Without fast, accurate reporting, you may lose thousands of dollars per location per year, which adds up to significant financial losses over time.

Greg Staley is the CEO of SynergySuite, a back-of-house restaurant management platform. Greg focuses on facilitating better visibility and increased profitability for restaurant chains through the use of intelligent, integrated back-of-house technology. For more information or to discuss SynergySuite's solutions, please contact Greg at greg@synergysuite.comg.