Create a Seamless Customer Experience With Integrations

As a restaurant owner, you rely on a lot of software that does different things. One program for scheduling, one for accounting, one for tip management, one for your mobile app, and one for the kitchen display systems.

That’s a lot of separate systems. If they aren’t talking to each other it will cause problems. And while any issues in your backend processes can be resolved in time, issues in your ordering systems will lead to unhappy customers.

Why Your Restaurant Tech Should Be Integrated

Isn’t it nice when things work? If you feel that way, then you can guarantee your customers do too. Integrating your front-of-house systems with your point of sale ensures that information flows from one system to the next.

That means that when a customer places an order through your mobile app, the order is then sent to your point of sale. Then, it goes through it to your kitchen display system or kitchen printers. Your employees don’t need to re-enter orders, and there’s no opportunity for manual mistakes.

Now think of it from your customer’s perspective. If your customer orders through your app, and you’ve marked something as out of stock in your POS, your customers can see that it’s out of stock. Which in turn, saves their time, and saves them from being disappointed.

Challenges

As important as it is to get all your systems talking to each other, it’s not always a simple process. Not every restaurant tech solution integrates with others. You will have to select each solution and ensure it integrates together.

In most cases, the point of sale in your restaurant is the central hub of your restaurant tech. All your other systems, like your online ordering site or accounting software, sends and pulls information from it. That means when choosing a POS system, you need to look for one that allows for many integrations. If they don’t, you’ll only be able to use their systems and add-ons.

Your Customer Data & Analytics

One of the main benefits of integrated systems is better insight into your customers. If all your systems are integrated, it’s easier to pull all your information into one place for reporting. That gives you a full overview of your restaurant operations. From your customer’s first order, to how quickly your kitchen can get orders out the door. You can use that information to make improvements to your business.

Creating Seamless Ordering Experience

Creating a seamless ordering experience boils down to creating an experience that your customers don’t need to think about. Any hiccups in the process that your end customer notices is an issue.

1. Automate Tasks

To ensure a seamless experience, start by flagging anywhere that can potentially cause mistakes or errors. That means anywhere your staff manually enters information or performs a task. Humans are fallible, and any time there’s a high order volume mistakes will happen.

A few tasks that can be automated with integrations are:

2. Create a Consistent Experience

The next step, after automating processes, is to ensure the experience is the same every time a customer orders. Start by trying to order from your restaurant multiple ways, and comparing the experiences.

For instance, check that you ask the same questions, regardless of how a customer orders. If they order online or in person, they should be offered the same options for customizing their order. Your team and your online ordering site should try to upsell the same things each time someone orders.

Go through the entire order process, see how your customers order, and pick up their orders. Is there anywhere that creates confusion? Is the process the same for customers regardless of how they place their orders?

If there is, make changes to your systems to make ordering and picking up orders simple for your customers.

At the end of the day, having all your systems communicating with each other makes your restaurant run more efficiently. With integrated systems, you can automate tasks, reports, and create a more consistent experience for your customer.

If you have questions about what mobile ordering apps will integrate with your existing restaurant tech solutions, reach out. Our team would be happy to help.