Starfleet Research revealed that, according to its latest industry research, nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of restaurant owners and operators who have not upgraded their core restaurant management and POS system within the past three years plan to do so in the next 12 months. The research is based on a Q3 2017 survey of 179 restaurant executives.
The research findings are highlighted in the latest edition of its Smart Decision Guide to restaurant management and POS systems, which is currently available for complimentary access.
This new research speaks to the fact that restaurant owners and operators today are looking to create greater efficiencies for their back-of-house operations. They also need to find new, creative ways to bolster guest satisfaction.
With the advent of next-generation solutions ranging from predictive order management software (for projecting demand and reducing waste) to loyalty management programs (wherein guests can manage their own reward accounts), restaurants are better able to achieve both objectives.
Today technology solution providers are unveiling countless additional technologies, some perhaps more useful than others, as well as enhancements to existing platform capabilities, all at an accelerated pace. And increasingly, restaurant operators are seeking to leverage the benefits of these solutions to their advantage.
According to the new research (click here to access), 79 percent of restaurant operators believe that advanced technologies are key to not only addressing many of their current challenges, but also to catapulting their businesses to ever-higher levels of operational performance and guest satisfaction on an ongoing basis.
At the forefront of these technologies are next-generation restaurant management and point-of-sale (POS) systems. These systems have recently evolved by leaps and bounds in terms of functionality, and, as the research reveals, there are compelling reasons for wanting to migrate from a legacy system that may be lacking in multiple performance areas to a state-of-the-art system designed to meet an operator’s needs now and into the future.
Mobility, flexibility and customizability—along with some impressive improvements in user interfaces—are the hallmarks of next-generation restaurant POS and management solutions.
For most restaurants, the return on investment can be measured in terms of cost reduction, which is largely a function of increased staff productivity and resource utilization. It can also be measured in terms of revenue growth. This is largely a function of improved guest satisfaction and, in some cases, faster table turn times—and again, in certain venues, the ability to reach and serve a larger number of guests simultaneously. Additional selling points include the ability to improve financial performance with advanced inventory and labor management tools and better performance reporting capabilities.
Given the environment in which today’s restaurant businesses compete, having all the right technology solutions in place has become a strategic imperative. And being able to access all of the different platform capabilities in an integrated fashion, from a single, unified interface, speaks to the future of technology-enabled restaurant management.
