Indicative of what restaurants are enduring at the moment, signs hang in store windows that declare messages like “be kind to those who showed up.” The operators who hang these signs ostensibly want to protect their employees from unnecessary scrutiny resulting from longer wait times and slower service that are the result of being short staffed. 

But are those same operators seeking to make their employees’ lives easier by implementing labor-saving solutions? Corey Chao, director of product management at HungerRush, says that different technologies can help save brands up to 21 percent on labor costs by streamlining efficiencies and helping restaurants adapt to the ever-changing digital world. Ultimately, these solutions can help both the top line and bottom line, by adding revenue while also keeping employees happy. 

“Gone are the days of the point-of-sale system and restaurant management system being a cash register and a couple of manual buttons,” Chao says. “Tech has gotten to the point where we’ve been able to bundle and streamline a variety of functions into a consolidated package. It also allows for a variety of ways to digitally engage customers without having to add more labor into the mix. And while I don’t think a point-of-sale system is ever going to help recruit employees, I do think it will make a restaurant more efficient and ultimately a better place to work.” 

Here is an incomplete list of how Chao believes HungerRush 360—a suite of cloud-based restaurant management software that includes a point-of-sale platform along with a host of other features—can help brands cut labor costs and better serve their customers. 

Empower Independent Ordering 

There has been no bigger change in the restaurant industry over the past two years than the sudden ubiquity of digital ordering. With unprecedented demand for online ordering and off-premises options, brands are finding they need a point-of-sale system that is capable of uniting all of the channels, orders, and data onto one dashboard. 

“We’ve been in the online space for many years,” Chao says. “Long before the pandemic, we recognized the value of things like online ordering and how it can allow a restaurant to tap into a channel that doesn’t require any additional labor. We’ve created a number of different ways for customers to order the way they prefer to order without adding complexity on the restaurant’s end.” 

Implement Text Ordering

One of those newest modes of digital ordering is through text messaging, which brands like Sbarro, Dairy Queen, and many others have begun to implement. HungerRush recently acquired OrderAI, a platform that helps brands pivot away from traditional phone-call ordering and toward text ordering. 

The technology has grown up a lot in the past decade, Chao says, to the point where customers can seamlessly text their order while the AI-powered platform can help confirm certain details if necessary. The platform can even suggestively sell other items to increase check size, bolstering revenue for the restaurant. 

“This is yet another channel restaurants can tap into that doesn’t require any extra labor,” Chao says. “And think about what it’s automating—somebody answering the phone and taking orders which is really a cumbersome process that costs brands a lot of money.” 

Optimize Third-Party Delivery 

Many operators have come to have a tenuous relationship with third-party delivery thanks to the high fees associated with orders that make it hard to turn a profit. There’s also the matter of restaurants missing out on critical insights about where their loyal customers are located, what their preferences are, and more. 

Via a partnership with DoorDash, HungerRush gives brands the best of both worlds: They can control their own delivery operation without paying delivery drivers to sit around and wait for orders to come in. An added bonus? The precious customer data that would otherwise be going to a third-party delivery service is consolidated on the HungerRush platform, enabling restaurants to capitalize on this trove of information. 

“Our partnership with DoorDash allows our clients to maintain that direct relationship with their customers without having to employ delivery drivers during slower times of day,” Chao says. “It’s another way that we’re helping consolidate efficiencies with an innovative use of technology.” 

Partner With HungerRush 

These are just a handful of the capabilities offered by HungerRush 360, says Chao. The system helps with scheduling, shift swaps, internal communication, customer engagement, and gathers analytics that can be leveraged to make data-driven decisions when it comes to nearly every facet of managing a restaurant. It’s a platform that operators will use into the future, no matter how digital transformation continues to change the way business is done, long after the labor crisis has—hopefully, mercifully—come to an end. 

“Again, tech has its limits,” Chao says. “But it also gives so much opportunity to make things more efficient and for you to manage your restaurant better. I really believe HungerRush is the most complete system when it comes to the needs of our restaurant partners.” 

For more on HungerRush’s capabilities, visit the company’s website.