You love your best customers, and you hope they love you back. But what are the signs that the most loyal diners are starting to fall out of love with you?
Most successful restaurants have a well-designed loyalty programme is essential for any brand’s engagement strategy. But it’s true that any programme can get a little tired from time to time – and revamping your loyalty programme with the latest best practices shows your commitment to customers and can result in increased visits, spend and retention.
So how do you know it’s time to revamp your loyalty programme? Here are the 4 signs:
Your hit-rate for enrolment is dropping
Discounts are being over-used.
You’re not offering more than discounts
Your scheme is conflicting with your corporate objectives
1. Your hit-rate for enrolment is dropping
Does this sound familiar? You’re just not enrolling as many loyalty members as you once did, and the share of transactions are dropping it may indicate that members are no longer motivated to visit. low enrolment could mean new customers aren’t interested, or promotion efforts have decreased. Your programme should aim for a minimum of 15% penetration.
2. Discounts are being over-used.
Generic one-size-fits-all marketing campaigns are no longer effective. Customers want personalised rewards that show a brand understands their needs. Over using discounts can also hurt your bottom line and damage customer relations. Segmenting your audience is key to delivering relevant rewards and maximising revenue.
3. You’re not offering more than discounts.
Your loyalty programme should provide a compelling return on investment and enable targeted promotions to drive sales and solidify your brand identity. If it’s not doing so, it may need to be revised.
4. Your scheme is conflicting with your corporate objectives
.As products, concepts, and priorities change, it’s vital that your loyalty programme aligns with corporate goals. If your programme isn’t rewarding the behaviour you’re trying to encourage, it may require modifications.
If you notice these symptoms, you need to review your programme design to make sure it’s fit for purpose and can do the job you want it to do.
The ideal situation is to combine your epos software system with a customer experience platform to enable a deeper knowledge about your guests and their behaviours. This enables your restaurant to encourage them to join your community and reward them for loyalty, and helps you enhance a customer’s lifetime value.
Using restaurant technology to encourage loyalty
With the latest restaurant epos software and a customer experience platform at your fingertips, you can combine data and marketing automation to provide the satisfying personalised journey for your guests that drives up repeat business and ambassadorship.
It means you can tailor your digital marketing to the customer’s behaviour and spend, and omnichannel marketing campaigns that will reach them effectively can be devised and implemented quickly.
Combining the power of epos and customer experience is powerful, and makes loyalty an enticing prospect for customers, giving them more ways to enrol with more promotion types. Many restaurants who do this say their guest participation is an impressive 50 – 70%.
In addition, your restaurant epos software will be hard at work enhancing your customer service with tableside ordering and payment, kitchen automation integration and better stock and labour control. It all adds up to a superb customer experience – and makes sure they love you back.
Customer segmentation has been with us for a while – but this crucial marketing tool for hospitality businesses has been given a huge boost by the arrival of AI.
It’s a well-aired fact that marketing campaigns are at their most effective when they actually mean something to the customer. For example, it’s no good pushing cheesy chips to a vegan.
So you segment your customer base.
It’s absolutely vital that you need to know about the behaviour and preferences of the people you are trying to market to. Historically, though, segmentation tools only looked at a single factor, such as their visit frequency, average spend, or items they often order.
That’s fine, and far better than sending out scattershot email offers, but it gives restaurateurs a one-dimensional view of clients. In addition, it provides next to no insight into the areas where your segments might overlap.
But with AI added to the mix…
Artificial intelligence is creating a step change in the way hospitality businesses segment their clientele and engage with them.
It does this by taking multiple factors into account simultaneously to provide a full picture of what customers need and want from you. It means you can respond accordingly and reward customers to build that relationship and loyalty.
NFS Technology, providers of the leading restaurant epos system Aloha, has recently partnered with top customer experience platform Paytronix to put advanced segmentation with AI at their clients’ disposal.
Catch them when you can
Chris Cartmell, NFS chief commercial officer for restaurant technology, says: “The algorithm used in this AI-supported segmentation has been trained using 20 years’ worth of data.”
When drawing up its segments – 12 recalculated every week – the AI looks four factors for each guest:
Number of visits
Average check size
Average days between visits
Likelihood of lapsing
“Assessing how likely they are to lapse gives you the opportunity to catch them before they go – the other factors mean you can re-engage by reaching out with appropriate offers that you know will appeal to them,” said Chris.
The segmentation, integrated with the restaurant epos system, creates hyper-specific segments from the data captured, and provides tips on how to target them. For example, customers who are ‘High Risk” or “Sleeping Valued Members” can be drawn back with a rich reward, while new members can be coaxed into joining loyalty schemes with a nurturing campaign.
“Absolutely it is,” said Chris. “Just look at these statistics on the power of great customer engagement:
• 18-30% – increase in spend and visits that can be attributed to loyalty programmes
• 6% – the average difference between loyalty and non-loyalty checks
• 5-17% – percentage of revenue driven by the most loyal 2-17% of customers.
Discover more about integrating your AI and restaurant epos system
“AI provides fantastic insight to encourage loyalty. When it’s combined with a leading restaurant epos system such as Aloha that creates unsurpassed customer experiences, it’s a powerful toolkit for restaurateurs seeking to grow guest relationships and revenues,” said Chris.
“It’s now time to take an in-depth look at how your restaurant incentivises its most valuable customers – and turn the latest arrivals into loyal diners who will return again and again. Integrating AI and epos make that happen.”
Using a tablet-based restaurant management system is an increasingly popular option for restaurateurs.
Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of going mobile.
A great customer experience
– Orders can be taken and entered directly into the device. Unlike the paper pads of old there is no room for error. Thanks to integration with kitchen delivery systems orders can be processed in seconds.
The wait staff never need to leave the floor. They can therefore serve more tables at once. Ultimately, this means that wait times are significantly shorter, orders are accurately taken and you have will achieve greater customer satisfaction.
Affordability
– there is no denying that restaurant POS software can be a significant investment. As mobile restaurant management systems typically use low-cost tablet hardware and cloud-based software on a rental basis they are an attractive and affordable option. With a fully integrated payment solution, fees are minimal.
Mobile restaurant management systems represent the best value for money as all you need is an iPad, a cash drawer, a receipt printer and a payment terminal.
Generate more revenue
– once you have and effective restaurant management system in place you can begin to take advantage of many additional revenue opportunities:
Offering gift cards
Email marketing
Loyalty schemes
Modern mobile restaurant management systems enable you to reach your customers in a personalised and effective manner. Advanced analytics enable restaurateurs to gauge immediately how their loyalty and marketing campaigns are performing.
Saves valuable space
– unlike the bulky terminals of the past, tablets have an elegant and space saving footprint. In addition, being mobile means that you can take the terminal to the table side for payments and for taking orders.
The space saved can be used for more tables and, therefore, more customers. More customers equals more revenue.
Reliable
– mobile restaurant management systems are designed to be reliable. They are designed to work even on those rare occasions that you don’t have a Wi-Fi signal. You can still continue to take orders and process payments even without wireless connectivity.
Designed for growth
– of course you want more than reliability. You want to be able to have a solution that will grow with your business.
Based on an affordable monthly subscription basis once you are ready to expand you simply purchase more licences. The solution can be scaled up as and when you require in minutes.
Easy to maintain
– there is minimal software installation and support from a 24/7 manned helpdesk ensures that your questions are answered immediately.
As a mobile restaurant management solution is cloud-based you can rest assured that any new features will be automatically added so you can always keep one step ahead.
Time saving
– the new breed of restaurant management systems is designed with efficiency in mind. Time consuming tasks, such as changing menus, can be done in a few minutes.
You can run your business from anywhere. Log in to your mobile device at home and you can see immediately how your business is performing. All KPIs at a local or estate level are there at the touch of a button:
Inventory
Food costs
Sales
Payroll
And much more.
Control in the power of your hand
– the best mobile solutions offer managers a handy and dynamic command centre. Managers can flexibly assign roles to staff and even send company-wide and individualised messaging – straight from the device.
What NFS offers – at a glance
We offer a fully-integrated restaurant management system including:
Order processing
Inventory
PCI Compliant Payment Solutions
Kitchen automation
Online delivery
Pay at table
Advanced analytics
And much more! All backed by our friendly and knowledgeable 24/7 helpdesk.
Act Now
At first glance, mobile restaurant management systems offer a sleek, affordable and easy to use platform for staff to take orders.
Under the hood, though, they represent an affordable fully-featured and integrated platform which can manage your business now and in the future.
From guest experience to analytics to payment processing to sales and marketing – they really represent a great investment for your operation.
Many restaurateurs are using legacy restaurant EPOS software systems designed for yesterday’s guest experience.
For operators looking to grow their operation now is a good time to reconsider your restaurant technology.
Let’s look at some of the ways that cloud technology can improve your operation, drive growth and offer a great guest experience.
Getting ahead of the competition
A key advantage of cloud-based restaurant EPOS software is that is constantly being enhanced. Progressive providers roll out new features – for free – on a monthly basis. With no software to install those enhancements are instantly available.
These more forward-thinking restaurant EPOS software providers are offering a tightly integrated all-in-one solution that includes all the tools an ambitious restaurateur needs to create a great guest experience, process mobile payments, improve kitchen performance, manage labour and increase loyalty.
Built to scale fast and cost effectively
Speaking of ambition, a cloud-based solution is the way to go for scalability. No need to install new software on each device – simply purchase more licences, sign in online and you are good to go. With no complex hardware to maintain it is more cost-effective too.
Using a cloud-based solution you can easily manage loyalty and marketing for your whole estate. Making changes becomes a breeze – for example all your sites’ menus can be updated in seconds – a process that would take hours if done manually.
Real-time Reporting
With a cloud-based reporting solution you gain visibility of your business across multiple sites in one place. Consolidate and compare data wherever you are.
Key sales and labour information is available at your fingertips in graphical dashboards and as it’s in the cloud it’s real-time accurate data too.
You can go beyond analysing data – you can quickly act upon it too. Managers can set alerts so they are always up to speed on critical KPIs. For example, armed with real-time data on guest numbers they can proactively gauge whether they have enough staff for the optimum guest experience.
Enhanced Security and Data
As we have seen with high profile incidences such as the Marriott data breach, hospitality data is a gold mine for hackers.
Holding sensitive unencrypted client data such as credit card details on physical back-office servers is an easy target for hackers to exploit.
Cloud technology is more secure as the data is already encrypted and is held offsite at secure data centres.
Eliminating on-premise data points ensures that there are no points of weakness – all your transactional and client data is captured in one place in streamlined and secure process.
Armed with this accurate and clean data you can supercharge your marketing and loyalty programmes with a far higher response rate.
Enhanced guest experience
With the new breed of cloud systems, you can easily provide an efficient and fast service and with seamless integration between the restaurant EPOS software and kitchen delivery system orders are processed in seconds.
For today’s customers, cloud-based solutions simplify the process of processing mobile and contactless payments and are ideal for new customer requirements such as QR-based menus and paperless receipts.
Conclusion
Cloud-based restaurant EPOS software solutions offers many benefits ranging from low cost scalability to reduced IT footprint to better data security.
Thanks to their real-time data processing they are ideal for making informed and dynamic management decisions. They are also ideal for providing a great digitally driven experience for today’s guests who value speed and efficiency.
There is no time like the present to evaluate how cloud-based solutions offer the best possible return on your investment and will give you a competitive edge that today’s restaurateur needs.
Whether you have one site or one thousand sites, you need to have a technology stack which helps you thrive.
The new breed of cloud-based EPOS delivers the power of a fully blown restaurant management system. Available for Android tablet or iPad or Windows, it is also easy to use and inexpensive to implement.
Let’s explore the features and benefits of such a system and the ways it can positively impact your business.
Ease of implementation and rock-solid reliability
With a low cost of ownership, ease of use, automatic updates, and reliability means cloud-based EPOS systems are the first choice for today’s restaurateur.
With no software installation, they are ideal for both the first-time restaurateur and the more established operator looking to scale their business.
Built-in redundancy ensures that even if the wi-fi drops your servers can still process payments. Great for peace of mind.
Delivers a great guest experience
The restaurant world is changing and guests expect a great experience dining in or out.
Restaurateurs need to be flexible and a restaurant management system can help here too:
Waitlist and reservation management – easily manage reservations and waitlists by time and size
Keep control of the floor – delegate tables, split checks and keep track of table turns
Manage table-side payments – convenient for guests and speeds table turns
Online ordering – a branded mobile app makes it convenient for guests and you’ll save on third party commissions
Integration with kitchen display systems – orders are sent immediately to the kitchen and changes can be seen instantly on the display
Create profitable loyalty programs – built-in loyalty to keep them spending more
Efficient payment processing
Technologies such as contactless and mobile payments have come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years.
Support all the major payment processors including the new breed of mobile-based payment systems such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and PayPal
Support new delivery methods such as kerbside pick-up – the post-pandemic consumer will likely never leave the car!
Manage online ordering with ease – offer your delivery customers a seamless and fast payment experience
Offer QR-based menus – diners can order and pay quickly just by scanning the code using their phone
Support pay at table – convenient for your guests. It increases table turns and order accuracy
Reduce payment fees and charges – look for a restaurant management system which is payment processor agnostic
Actionable information
One major advantage of a cloud-based solution is that reporting is accessible from any location and across all sites. You can easily manage your whole operation from anywhere.
With real-time information at your fingertips you can really get to grips with:
Inventory
Food cost analysis
Payroll
Labour reports
Look for a solution with a customised mobile dashboard for the most convenient user experience and which enables managers to quickly send messages to their staff – a proactive and actionable approach.
Optimise stock and increase profits
Maintaining the correct stock levels is key to the success of your operation- too little and you risk disappointing guests and too much and you risk expensive wastage. With a restaurant management system you can maintain the right balance and keep control of costs.
Automated alerts on low stock ensure that you never run out and you never miss a sales opportunity because the item is “off the menu”. Features such as cost analysis help you keep costs down and help you to order more efficiently.
Look for a solution that will track costs down to the ingredient and dish level – the system will also forecast how much you can save on each ingredient – take charge of the kitchen and your profits will flow.
Drives growth
Today’s EPOS is more than a till. Once you have got present operation thriving you will no doubt have your eye on expansion. Whether you are looking to expand organically or looking to franchise your operation your technology needs to drive that growth.
When you are ready to expand, with a cloud-based restaurant management system you can:
Manage a whole franchise operation from one central location and it is flexible – you can manage regional chains, scale the business and streamline operations
Access features designed for growth – payment security, consolidated reporting and centralised management
Take advantage of a fully integrated set of features designed specifically for growth such as loyalty programs, CRM and online ordering
Support when you need it – round the clock!
Having a support team that you can call day and night with a question or for advice will enable you to get the best return on your investment. Our advice is to look for a company which has a support team that is skilled in both IT and has relatable hospitality industry experience.
Support needs to be proactive not just reactive. With growth in mind you need to find a supplier that will work with you with regular client review meetings where they ensure that you are getting the best service and that you are utilising the solution to its fullest.
Look for a partnership with a supplier with your best interests at heart and that offers unbiased consultancy.
Conclusion
With the right restaurant management technology it is possible to manage, improve and grow in the key areas:
Guest experience
Online ordering
Loyalty
Labour
Payment processing
Stock control
All supported by actionable real-time reporting to drive continuous improvement. A cloud-based solution offers the scalability and reliability to support your growth.
Speaking of support, look for a supplier that is authentic, well-regarded and has a long-term vision for working with you.
Selecting a solution that offers all this out of the box is a smart investment with an immediate and long-term return.
Hospitality operators are still reeling at last week’s news that they must shut by 10pm each day. So when your trading hours are restricted, what can you do to maintain revenue?
1. Takeaway and online ordering
2. Good reservations and timeslot management
3. Ordering and payment at tableside
4. Upselling opportunities
5. Stock control/waste management
6. Customer engagement.
Takeaway and online ordering
These are already providing a lifeline for many operators who had never before considered them, with even fine dining establishments taking part.
But if you feel your takeout operation could be doing better, Aloha Now restaurant software helps you establish your own takeaway website and connects it to your restaurant epos so you can import your dishes easily.
It connects you directly with the delivery platforms you select – and it enables demanding diners to place their order quickly and easily. There’s also evidence that customers ordering by mobile spend more, simply because it’s easy.
Good reservations and timeslot management
With time shortened, you can’t afford inefficient handling of guests, particularly with table service now mandated at a lot of outlets.
Aloha Now streamlines your reservation process and manages timeslots so that table turn is maximised at all times. Customer service benefits too – guests are seated quickly and served rapidly, which creates a satisfying experience.
Ordering and payment at tableside
Guest safety is paramount, and giving diners with the ability to place orders and pay via their mobile at their table not only promotes wellbeing, but also improves speed of delivery.
With guests placing their own orders, human error is minimised and the order goes straight to the kitchen for preparation, where it can integrate with kitchen automation. No dashing back and forth for your serving staff, either, which helps with labour management.
Staff are complaining that it’s difficult to engage properly with diners because of the restrictions – and that also has an impact on how well they can upsell.
But with table service now mandated at licensed premises, they will need to be at tableside. And if they are taking orders on their handheld restaurant epos software devices, they can be offered upselling opportunities that complement guest choices and boost revenue into the bargain.
Stock control/waste management
This is always major issue, and even more so now.
Aloha restaurant epos software’s stock control capability captures comprehensive data to provide a daily sales mix analysis and to empower you to view actual v. theoretical stock, helping you control your procurement and deal properly with suppliers.
Customer engagement
Become their favourite restaurant and help them support you – use the customer data captured by your restaurant epos software to offer them targeted offers that will definitely hit the mark.
The latest technology also helps you manage social media, so you can create an interactive community that your customers can enjoy, with valuable two-way engagement.
Restaurant and bar owners remain torn between anger, hope and optimism, and are arguing for the restrictions to be eased.
But in the meantime, hospitality operators across the UK are doing what they always do best – getting on with things, and making the best of what they have at their disposal.
Restaurant epos software is already helping operators thrive in these troubled times – and now’s the time for you to find out more.
Britons grabbed more than 100m discounted meals during the August Eat Out to Help Out scheme – but how can you capitalise on the scheme now it’s over?
Some operators – Gaucho, for instance – are carrying on the initiative at their own expense for a while, thanks to the droves of customers it brings in.
But if that’s not your option, now that customers have made the psychologically-important move back to your restaurant, it’s a great opportunity to keep on engaging with them to encourage them back again and again.
Different hospitality operations have different levels of marketing support, and not everyone has a whole marketing department to fall back on.
So today we launch a new NFS series, written by an award-winning PR professional, to pass on best practice tips on how to promote your business and engage well with your customers.
Last week’s best tips – how to reach your customer’s heart
Start considering who your customers are. Where do they come from? What age group are they? Singles, couples, families? Socio-economic type? Typical spend? Group them into three or four typical ‘personas’.
Now you have identified the ‘segments’ of your client base, consider what each group really wants. What do they order? When do they come in? Do they book and order online? Eat in or takeaway?
Now, based on preferences you have identified, think about what incentives you can offer each persona. Couples might like a romantic free glass of prosecco with their next meal; families not so much – but complimentary soft drinks for the kids could work.
Avoid sending the same generic offer to everyone, as you stand a chance of missing your target – or even of causing offence.
For example, if a customer has never ordered alcohol, it’s a possibility that they do not drink. Again, your restaurant management technology’s loyalty functions can provide this level of detail.
Send out your best offer. This is important, though: you may have taken someone’s email address as part of the fight against coronavirus, but under data protection rules, you MUST have permission from your customer to contact them. Why not ask them to tick a box to give this permission at the same time as you take their details?
Your emailed offer doesn’t need to be complicated, but should be short, friendly and to the point. Address your customer, and outline the offer straight away.
Watch this space for more in this NFS guide to marketing your hospitality business.
We’ll help you:
Understand your customers better
Create targeted offers to appeal to them
Use different channels including email, SMS and Facebook
Use your restaurant management technology to drive successful loyalty programmes
Create long-term strategies for customer loyalty and rewards
Use social media to build a community of engaged customers
Send fraud-proof voucher campaigns
We’ll even provide you with sample emails and social media posts that you can adapt to your own operation.
Next blog: Hello, friends! Sample emailers to appeal to different types of customer
* Learn how to use your restaurant management technology to build customer loyalty:
As the government’s Eat Out to Help Out discount scheme kicked in at the start of August, many restaurant and bar operators were delighted to report an uplift in business.
James Brown of BrewDog, for example, shared a spreadsheet of his branches’ rising sales on LinkedIn, and passed on his thanks for the initiative.
Meanwhile, The Times reported that business was doing well at Dishoom, the Indian streetfood operators – and the newspaper also provided a national list of Michelin-starred restaurants taking part in the initiative, including Hawksmoor.
We’re delighted that all the great businesses named use Aloha restaurant management software by NFS – and they are showing the kind of robust initiative that’s helping the best establishments ride out the coronavirus storm.
So what else has been working, both for our clients and for others across the industry?
Dishoom, during the lockdown, pioneered a highly successful takeaway model using the Deliveroo service to deliver to customers’ homes and businesses.
With home cookery one of the nation’s new hobbies, food kits to prepare in your own kitchen were a smash hit for operators including MyLahore – theirs ranged from BBQ boxes to kits for the end of Ramadan.
With guest safety top of the agenda, many restaurants and bars used tableside ordering and payment to maintain confidence-building social distancing between diners and staff.
Some national operators including Oakman Inns and Stonegate Pub Company set up their own discount schemes before the government version.
Coca Cola launched the Open Like Never Before marketing campaign on 1 August to run for a whole year, donating a budget and advertising space to hospitality venues to advertise they are open for business.
Pub group JD Wetherspoon used Eat Out to Help Out to offer meals at less than the price of a supermarket meal deal.
Increased outdoor seating is proving a huge hit in London’s Soho, with restaurant operators pressing for it to be made permanent.
Chris Cartmell, NFS Head of Sales for Aloha, says: “Times are still very challenging for all hospitality businesses, but these success stories are rays of hope.
“Now is the time for restaurants and bars to use everything at their disposal in the fight to survive and thrive – and it’s great to see so many responding with innovation, courage and action.
“Many establishments are trying business-boosting techniques including discounting, takeaway, online ordering, and loyalty programmes to encourage customers to get back to eating out.
“We’ve enhanced our Aloha restaurant management software to respond to these changing needs, and we’ll continue to do so as the situation develops, providing our clients with 24/7 helpdesk support and the technology to support all of their efforts.”
Learn how Aloha restaurant management software can help you now:
Now restaurants are going full speed ahead for re-opening date in July, with social distancing and lots of regulations to meet, one big concern is: will diners be too scared to return to eating in?
So a new software package that keeps guests safe thanks contactless ordering and payment right from their tableside is being welcomed across the industry.
Aloha Now is the new mobile-ready solution for guest ordering, launched by leading restaurant technology company NFS.
NFS Aloha head of sales Chris Cartmell said: “Aloha Now is designed to give restaurants safe, simple ordering and payment for their guests.
“In these post-pandemic times, with tough restrictions to meet, restaurants are working hard to recreate the enjoyable, satisfying experience their guests are accustomed to.
“The new platform helps achieve that in several ways, supporting seamless restaurant management all the way from mobile ordering, click and collect and delivery to order and pay at table free of contact.
“It adds up to a safe, secure and improved experience that encourages customer loyalty and gives diners plenty of reasons to come back to you.”
Benefits of Aloha Now restaurant technology include:
No need for guests to install an app
Staff costs are reduced because guests self-service
Table turn is faster because ordering and payment are quicker
Opens up new revenue streams
As a cloud platform, Aloha Now restaurant technology integrates with food aggregators so orders are injected directly into the Aloha Takeout module.
“The software draws menus from Aloha so you can manage and change them easily across multiple platforms,” says Chris.
Restaurants can choose either a mobile website or native app, and the integration with Aloha Loyalty means targeted loyalty campaigns can be created, plus geo-location offers.
Chris said: “Aloha restaurant technology is already a market-leading restaurant epos technology used by customers including Hawksmoor, Dishoom, BrewDog and M Restaurants.
“Aloha Now draws together cutting edge technology designed to meet the evolving needs of restaurants now – and it’s also designed to create new revenue streams that will continue long after the corona crisis is over.”
UK restaurants have been given a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, with potential to reopen from July – but in the meantime, hospitality businesses are dreaming up some innovative ways to keep going.
For many, providing takeaway and delivery has proved a partial solution – ranging from wine ‘milk’ rounds to cask ale in cartons and pub puddings.*
However, it’s not a simple answer if your business is not already set up for offering takeaway, and if you’re not used to dealing with services such as Deliveroo and Ubereats.
But NFS Technology have now worked at full speed with a technology partner to offer an easy way to takeaway.
“As hospitality technology specialists, we know speed is crucial to help UK hospitality businesses to survive – so we’ve gone ahead and made it happen,” says Chris Cartmell, head of sales for Aloha restaurant EPOS software by NFS.
The result is Aloha NOW, a new software package that makes it easy to set up and run a takeaway offering online – and which works with ALL of the key delivery services.
“Aloha NOW helps you set up your own takeaway website easily, and connects to your restaurant EPOS software so you can import your products onto the site with the click of a button.
“You choose which platform – or platforms – are allowed to deliver your dishes, and you can update everything with a single click.”
How it works for you
Once a diner places an order via your website, they choose whether they want delivery or would rather come and pick it up (which means your restaurant doesn’t pay a fee to a delivery service). Payment is taken automatically.
The order is immediately placed with your kitchen – Aloha NOW is able to link with kitchen automation so your kitchen screens can hold the order until it’s the correct time to display them and start preparation.
“The different delivery services all require a different type of packaging, and the screens even show which of those is required,” says Chris.
The new software package takes advantage of the benefits that have made Aloha restaurant EPOS software one of the leading hospitality technologies in the world.
Benefits include:
Making cost and stock control easy
Reducing kitchen waste
Highlighting the most popular dishes
Capturing diner data and enabling targeted offers and marketing
Providing a pleasing customer experience where the right order is delivered swiftly and efficiently.
Many NFS customers are taking advantage of dishing up takeaways to stay busy, including MyLahore and BrewDog.*
Chris said: “Many restaurants have staff on furlough, and have negotiated temporary rent reductions and loans that are tiding them over for now.
“But it restaurants, pubs and venues are likely to be among the last businesses to be allowed to begin operating normally again. Even then, social distancing may mean covers need to be reduced.
“So the industry is doing a lot of creative thinking about what comes next and making innovative plans to make sure they stay in business.
“We feel our new package, combined with restaurant EPOS software, can not only help in the short term but will also provide restaurants, pubs and bars with a new way to bring in income that will prove valuable as we move towards a new normal.”
