Restaurant technology continues to evolve, bringing increased efficiency, improved labour allocation, tighter inventory management, and a better customer experience. As costs continue to rise and diners watch their spending, some restaurants are looking to make improvements in the dining room, and adding tablets may be the tool that helps operators attract and retain regular guests.
Research indicates that over 70 per cent of restaurant customers appreciate technology like self-service kiosks and tabletop tablets, and they offer some features that can help operators improve operations, along with customer experience:
- This technology can help make menu updating simple by switching out daily specials, seasonal menus or LTOs easily.
- Paying the bill can be more efficient, as a busy server sometimes can hold up table turnover. Bill splitting and tipping can also be simpler through a tablet that calculates everything automatically.
- Having a tablet at the host stand can help guests gauge wait times and preview the menu, helping to manage walk-in guests when it gets busy.
If you are considering adding tablets to your restaurant, there are various factors to consider before making your final choice:
- Choose a model that is restaurant-friendly. During busy periods, it could get dropped, spilled on, and could stay uncharged for several hours at a time. Confirm durability, battery life, and necessary accessories to make it functional for your restaurant before proceeding.
- Evaluate the features like software to ensure that it is compatible with your current system, easy to learn, and that there is technical support and training available if needed.
- While technology can improve the guest experience, it can also cause delays and customer frustration if it isn’t user-friendly. Consider testing it out on some of your customers before committing to ensure that diners can easily use the tablet when they visit.
- Depending on what functionality you are looking for – inventory management, reservations, payment options, table games, and more – test to make sure the tablet does what you need it to do. If you are looking for multiple functions, you may need additional training or set up to be sure they perform as expected.
Operators looking to get ahead of the competition, improve operations, and better their guest experience may want to consider technology adoption, like adding tablets to their restaurant.
