With the rapid advancement of technology, automation has become a crucial aspect for speeding up operations in various fields and sectors. In the food-and-beverage sector, restaurant automation helps manage and enhance various daily operations.
From transforming routine manual tasks into smart, automated processes, automation saves time and effort, reduces costs, ensuring greater accuracy.
Restaurant automation can also boost operational efficiency, improve customer experience, enhance customer satisfaction, and provide prompt, high-quality, error-free service.
In this article, we will cover the top 5 tasks you can automate to effectively manage your restaurant, giving you a competitive edge in the industry.
Restaurant automation: 5 tasks and operations you can automate right now
Now, let’s look at the top operations you can automate in your restaurant. These automations will make a difference in your daily and overall restaurant operations.
1. Inventory management in restaurants and coffee shops
Automating inventory monitoring is essential for enhancing efficiency in restaurant and cafe management. Various processes can be streamlined using technology, like restaurant management system.
- Automate inventory monitoring and alerts
Using modern inventory management systems allows you to track the quantities of food and other ingredients available in real-time. The software sends alerts when an ingredient is running low or nearing expiration, helping you avoid manual inventory errors, prevent theft, and eliminate sudden stockouts.
- Integrate with suppliers and automatically issue purchase orders
By integrating your inventory management system with suppliers, you can set it up to automatically issue purchase orders when stock reaches a minimum level.
This type of restaurant automation reduces delays in receiving materials from suppliers and saves time compared to traditional purchasing negotiations.
- Prevent overstocking and under-stocking
Restaurant automation, specifically through predictive analytics, uses point-of-sale (POS) data to forecast demand. This includes sales trends during holidays and special occasions. This helps you avoid ingredient shortages, prevent overstocking, and reduce waste, ensuring customers always get their favorite dishes.
Read more: 6 Benefits of Inventory Management Software for Restaurants
2. Receiving and processing customer orders
Automating the process of receiving and processing customer orders can significantly improve restaurant operations. Customers can place their orders using interactive digital menus available on tablets or mobile phones. These orders are automatically sent to the kitchen, reducing errors and allowing restaurant owners to update the menu in real time.
Placing a QR code on each table can enhance the ordering experience. Customers can scan the QR code with their mobile app to access the digital menu, place their orders, review the bill, pay, and even add a tip through the Pay at Table app.
Self-service kiosks are another effective option, allowing customers to browse the menu, place orders, and make payments on their own.
3. Monitor employee performance
It’s important for restaurant owners to continuously monitor their staff’s performance, both front-of-house and back-of-house. Doing so can be streamlined through reports generated by a restaurant management system and POS reports. These reports help identify uncommitted or inefficient employees. Here are some techniques to accurately evaluate employee performance:
- Timekeeping system via cashier software
The restaurant cashier system lets cashier employees log in and out, providing restaurant owners with a clear view of their working hours. It helps track punctuality, calculate wages, and automatically determine overtime using accounting solutions.
- Track actual cooking time
When a customer places an order, it appears on the kitchen display system (KDS) instead of using a traditional paper system. This system tracks the time taken to prepare food from the moment the order is received until it is completed and delivered.
The KDS can also measure and review chef performance, allowing you to assess the speed of preparation. It also helps determine if additional staff are needed due to a labor shortage.
- Use the Waiter App for monitoring and serving tables
The Waiter app is a tablet application that streamlines and automates several restaurant operations. It allows waiters to easily record and send customer orders to the kitchen, track order status, and receive notifications when dishes are ready for pickup.
The app also indicates table availability. For restaurant owners, it’s a valuable tool for measuring waiter response times and identifying service issues and where an error may have occurred.
Read more: Unlocking Efficiency with the All-New Foodics Waiter App
4. Customer loyalty programs
Restaurant loyalty programs encourage customers to visit your restaurant regularly. They can also be used to increase placed orders via a restaurant’s website or mobile app. They help cultivate a lasting and sustainable relationship with your customers.
(Add image of a loyalty program on a mobile app or website)
- Automate points collection and reward redemption
A POS system that integrates with loyalty programs automatically calculates points earned with every purchase, whether made at the cashier, through the restaurant app, or on the website. Customers can easily track their loyalty points balance and redeem their points for discounts, free meals, or other perks.
- Personalized offers based on spending behavior
Using restaurant automation, AI, and loyalty programs, dining concepts can analyze customers’ purchase histories to send personalized offers via various channels, including push notifications, text messages, or emails. This level of personalization enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty, encouraging them to return frequently.
- Integration with Foodics’ CRM platform
Foodics’ POS system includes a customer relationship management (CRM) system that easily integrates with loyalty programs, consolidating customer data into a single display that includes sales, complaints, and the level of customer engagement from the restaurant app.
You can also connect your POS system to external loyalty platforms through the Foodics marketplace.
Further reading: 7 Loyalty Program Benefits for Restaurants & Coffee Shops
5. Restaurant automation for POS, reports, and analytics
Your restaurant POS system is critical for automating various tasks and processes in your venue or across multiple venues. It also helps you make quick and effective strategic decisions in your restaurant or coffee shop.
Modern POS systems offer access to real-time reports and data, along with a range of valuable analytical tools.
- Sales tracking
The interactive dashboard lets you monitor sales performance and financial operations, helping you identify trends and respond swiftly to market changes.
- Profitability reports
These reports compare revenue and costs, including the cost of goods sold (COGS), labor, and utilities, while providing accurate profit margins for each product or branch.
They save time and effort in data compilation and analysis and help identify the most profitable, and least profitable, items or branches for informed decision-making.
- Sending alerts via Foodics BI
The Foodics BI platform lets you set up AI-powered, data-driven alerts, helping you make strategic decisions using precise, real-time data. This platform offers advanced analytical tools such as data mining, intelligent inventory forecasting, and interactive reports, all aimed at improving performance and reducing waste.
Further reading: 5 Ways to Improve Your Cash Flow with Your POS System
Lastly…
Digital transformation is the future of managing restaurants and cafés. Using modern POS systems like Foodics allows you to turn data into actionable analytics, making traditional manual management no longer practical.
These advancements help automate your restaurant operations, reduce waste, and enhance the customer experience, thereby increasing brand loyalty.
We encourage you to think strategically and begin automating your restaurant operations by following the steps outlined above to improve your operational processes and service efficiency. Let Foodics be your partner in this digital transformation.
Discover how Foodics can truly make a difference in automating your restaurant operations by booking a personalized demo today!
