With so many options to choose from, how do you know what's best for your business?
Restaurant technology is evolving faster than most of us can keep up with, making it harder than ever to select and implement the best technology systems for your restaurant.
Stackeo helps restaurant operators make better decisions about their tech. We speak with leading restaurant operators to understand how they select, manage and integrate their technology systems, and we share these valuable insights with our restaurant community. Call it the wisdom of crowds, or a community of peers. Stackeo is here to make information about restaurant technology more accessible and transparent.
Read on to learn how successful restaurant operators choose the right tech for their business
Successful restaurant operators choose technology based on a clear sense of their business needs and goals. Not all restaurants need the same technology to help them succeed. A casual restaurant that does 50% of their order volume in online delivery orders with Uber Eats and Doordash needs a different tech stack than a fine-dining restaurant focused on filling tables with OpenTable, Resy or Tock.
Regardless of your operation, adding the right technology can help you grow faster and more profitably. That’s why the average restaurant is purchasing technology from at least five different technology vendors, and spending more on their tech stack than ever before. It's never been more important to choose your tech wisely and operate it effectively.
The right technology can help supercharge your operation, but you need to choose wisely. That’s because introducing new technology into your operation runs the risk of creating as many new problems as it solves.
Successful operators rely on technology to help their teams operate more efficiently by eliminating unnecessary steps, increasing order accuracy, and providing operational insights through continuous customer feedback. Choosing the right technology is a lot like hiring for a great team -- when you get it right, it makes all the difference.
Easy to use
Look for technology that is easy to use and simple to implement within your existing operation. When choosing new tech for your restaurant, consider how intuitive the user interface is, and how much you will need to invest in training your staff to use it effectively.
Easy to integrate
Before you choose to add a new technology system to your operation, you’ll want to understand how it integrates with the systems you are already using, such as your point-of-sale (POS) system or accounting software. Integration is key to a seamless operation, helping to eliminate manual activities like re-entering delivery orders into a POS, or manually transferring customer email addresses from your waitlist kiosk to your customer marketing database.
Operationally efficient
The operators we speak with regularly refer to their POS system as the one piece of technology they can’t live without. With dozens of leading POS providers to choose from, it is critical to understand how POS systems differ and what they actually cost to operate. Both modern POS systems like Toast, Clover and Square and traditional POS providers like NCR Aloha and Oracle Micros are rapidly expanding their services while also making it easier to integrate with a wide range of other technology providers including online order aggregators like Olo and Chowly, 3rd party delivery services like Uber Direct and Doordash Drive, and email CRM tools like Mail Chimp and Fishbowl.
Measuring the return on your investment
Competition in the food industry has never been higher, so marketing your restaurant effectively can be key to growth. Successful restaurant operators use 3rd party delivery apps like Uber Eats and Doordash, social media apps like Instagram and Tik Tok, as well as review sites like Yelp and Google to reach new customers, and to bring loyal customers back more often. The best marketing technology makes it easy to measure the return on your investments, so you know right away which marketing campaigns are working and which are not.
At Stackeo, we want to make it easier for restaurant operators to use technology to grow sales and increase profits. Learning from other restaurant operators is one of the most effective ways to get up to speed on what works, and what’s new. Stackeo is always free for restaurant operators.