How to increase restaurant profits

In fact, today’s intelligent hospitality EPOS software is so advanced that it can integrate with all aspects of the business – from stock management to loyalty programmes and reservation systems – creating a seamless experience for customers, making life easier for staff and ultimately increasing profits. 

Here are five ways restaurants can use the latest technology to their advantage:

1. Personalise the guest experience to improve customer loyalty

When an EPOS system is integrated across loyalty, delivery, pre-ordering, reservations and customer feedback, operators can capitalise on the wealth of data collected through these various systems on customers’ individual preferences.

When operators have oversight of this transactional data, they can analyse patterns of customer behaviour, which in turn enables them to deliver accurate marketing campaigns specifically aimed at the target customer.

For example, using transactional data, hospitality operators can identify which customers opt to buy a coffee and muffin at 8am on a Tuesday and push an offer to entice them in at that time.

The option to adopt beacon technology is also available, alerting customers by mobile to relevant offers nearby at a time the operator knows would be attractive to the individual. Such personalisation is gaining increased levels of engagement as customers want to cut through the noise and only receive offers directly of interest to them. 

2. Upselling

With a smart EPOS system with product information built in, front of house teams can become brand experts in a matter of minutes, offering advice on which drinks or menu items go well with dishes and where products come from as well as answering questions on ingredients and allergens.

It’s also possible to build in a function that allows customers to ‘re-order’ their last round quickly and easily, increasing the average spend per head and driving customer satisfaction. 

Best of all, you can directly track the influence of these prompts and upsells on business performance. Managers can monitor which members of the team engage most with customers to achieve the highest proportion of upsells and incorporate this information into staff incentive programmes.

3. Save time with automated reservation and ordering systems

With consumers eating out less, driving customer loyalty is key to make a restaurant more profitable. According to a survey that Access carried out with The Caterer in 2019, almost half of operators felt that ease of booking had a direct influence on loyalty. 

Installing a reservations system that can integrate with EPOS is one way of achieving this. The most advanced systems allow guests to view availability and confirm their desired time and party size simply and quickly. They also enable guests to peruse the menu, filter by allergens and pre-order, making the experience even more seamless.

Ordering in the restaurant, too, can be made much quicker when EPOS integrates with kitchen management processes. Orders taken from a tablet send information straight through to the kitchen, maintaining speed of service and guaranteeing accurate orders.

4. Identify your most profitable menu items

Preparing a dish with fully costed specifications is never at the top of a chef’s to do list, but it’s the only way for a business to be able to identify their most profitable menu items and focus on promoting them.

Recipe and menu engineering software makes it easy for chefs to create a dynamic dish spec with no calculators or spreadsheets. They don’t even need to manually update product or price information as the system integrates with supplier catalogues, which means live pricing and up-to-date product information including allergens is automatically reflected across menus and recipes.

It’s also possible to predict your gross profit margin based on the sales mix of the menu, giving you confidence that your new menu has the right combination of dishes to produce the margin you are targeting.

5. Hire the right people and ensure they’re trained well

People are the most important asset any business has. In a customer-facing environment like hospitality, this is magnified several times over. A happy employee who feels engaged and recognised creates a better customer experience, increasing loyalty.

Step one is hiring the right people. Hospitality operators need to help young people see the industry as a realistic and desirable option, giving them a career path that isn’t just stop-gap on the way to a ‘better’ job.

Generation Z in particular are looking for training and mentoring opportunities and companies that use technology to automate the more mundane parts of the job, allowing them to focus on the most rewarding parts of working in hospitality: creating personalised experiences for customers, which will drive loyalty and ultimately increase restaurant profits.