Although you might not believe that technology has much to do with your food-related business, whether a restaurant or a home cooking venture, technology can help your company thrive and meet its targets without putting undue stress and pressure on you as an owner, if you are struggling to see how new technology could benefit you, read on for more information.
Buy High-Quality Spices
One of the top ways that technology can benefit your business is that it gives you access to a vast range of suppliers, rather than just ones that are local to you. This means that you are able to source almost any ingredient that your recipes require, no matter how obscure or exotic they are.
Additionally, you will be able to search around until you can find products of the quality you wish them to be. For instance, if you are looking for wholesale spices, you can order these online from companies such as Ofi Spices. This company can provide you with many different spices and herbs that can be added to your dishes and snacks at a wholesale price, allowing you to buy them in bulk and deliver them straight to your door whenever needed. This can help you to cut down the amount of time that you spend sourcing the very specific ingredients that you need,
Market Your Goods to a Wider Audience
It is not just the quality of the food that you create that technology can help with, though. It can also allow you to market your goods beyond your local community and reach a wider audience interested in what you offer. This is especially important if you run a café where you want tourists to come and visit or sell your food online. Technology can allow you to market your goods nationally or globally through platforms such as social media.
These platforms can be incredibly advantageous to you as they give you the opportunity to build up a rapport with your customers and share your knowledge and background while promoting your goods through aesthetic images and enticing copy. As well as using social media, you might also try pay-per-click advertising or even a business blog that can raise your business’s profile and ensure that your company is soon well-known within your industry.
Create a Website
Another way in which technology can help your business is through the creation of a website. A website for your business is important even if you do not want to grow your company that much, as it can provide a platform on which you can share your opening hours, location, and what your business does.
Many people decide to research the cafes and restaurants that they are planning on visiting before they go now, especially if they have allergens. This means that your website can be an opportunity to share your menu with individuals and your pricing and even allow them to book a table.
This can give you some idea of how many people will be coming to your restaurant per evening and can prevent your customers from turning up at your door only to be disappointed if you are full. You can also use your website to share your sustainability and health and safety policy, as well as any awards you have received, and to update your customers about what is happening within your business.
Enable At-Table Ordering
You should also consider using technology to encourage at-table ordering to prevent your staff from having to whizz around picking up orders and to give your customers the freedom to order whenever they like. This also means that your guests can spend as much time as they want to looking through the menu without feeling pressured by staff coming by and asking if they are ready to order every ten minutes, and they might even decide to add more plates to their meal halfway through.
This can also make payment easier as they can do this on their credit or debit card, and easily split the bill with the people that they have come to your restaurant with. This can also reduce the risk of human error and can ensure that plates come quickly by ensuring that orders are sent straight to the kitchen in the order of when they were received. All you have to do to make this a reality is to design a QR code and get customers to enter their table number, before gaining access to your app or ordering system.
Use CRM Software
Both restaurants and home food businesses can benefit from the use of a CRM application. This is because customer relationship management software can enable you to deftly handle the demands of your customers. CRM software will allow you to check that you have responded to customers on multiple platforms at once, ensuring that they are never left hanging without a response from you. This can mean that you are able to sustain positive customer relationships and that you do not get stressed in the process or spend a long time trying to organize the communications that you have had.
Choose a POS System
You should also look around for a great POS, or Point of Sale system, no matter what type of food business you run. This software can allow servers to record the orders that are being made and send them to your chefs. It can also enable you to easily track each order and calculate and receive payment from each customer.
The POS system can also be used to manage tips and to easily accept orders from your website. This means that it is vital that you find a POS system that works for you and that has been developed with your type of food business in mind. You should always make sure that you check the reviews for the software that you are about to install, though, or else you might find that it becomes a hindrance more than a help to you and your business efforts.
