5 Restaurant Management Tools To Hack Workplace Efficiency

Since 2009 the number of digital tools designed and developed has been steadily on the rise and the use of them has been ever increasing. Whether it’s the latest game or a way to chat to staff within your business, there’s most likely one, if not more, tools for it.

Restaurant Managmant Tools: The Cloud Advantage

When it comes to the restaurant and hospitality industry, it’s no brainer that there are some great tools to help managers with their day-to-day. Finding the right tools to help you regain control of your time will not only allow you to spend more time on important things but help your business to function quicker and smarter.

Here are 5 digital tools that combine real-time operational data with always-on cloud technology to give innovative restaurant managers a leg-up on their competition.

1. Typsy

One of the many issues facing the hospitality industry is staff retention. In fact, 39% of front of house employees^[1] and 42% of back of house employees^[2] leave within their first 90 days of employment. There are many reasons behind this, but one is staff training - 87% of millennials say training and development are crucial to a job.

This is where Typsy^[3] comes in.

This tool is a training platform for hospitality businesses that makes staff training easy. How? It specializes in providing online video training from the world’s best hospitality instructors, who teach essential hospitality skills in culinary, beverage, service, marketing, management, and compliance.

There are more than 450 short skills videos available, which can easily be assigned by hospitality managers on the go and watched and accessed by staff on mobile anytime. On completion, staff can gain certificates and skill credits which help to strengthen their CVs and their prospective hospitality career paths. Plus, managers have a handy Dashboard to help them keep track of how their staff are progressing with their training, what training has been completed and who has overdue training.

2. Flyt

We’ve all heard about automation and bringing technology into your business. With Flyt^[4] you can take it a step further and allow your guests to take control of their experience.

Customers can select their restaurant or bar location, enter their table number and order their meals and drinks via the tools app. They don’t need to find a server, so your team can save time and work on other tasks. Orders are then instantly relayed to the kitchen, meaning that chefs will receive and can prepare orders more quickly.

Once the meal has been enjoyed, customers can then have their bill instantly retrieved. Bills can be paid either by one person or split (equally or choosing to pay for exactly what each person had). Payment is made via PayPal, Apple Pay or a credit/debit card and the receipt will be emailed to them. This means that your bills are more accurate, and efficiency is improved.

3. Tap My Back

Your staff work hard so ensuring that you provide them with the recognition they deserve won’t just help drive productivity, it will ensure your staff continue to work hard and achieve goals. In fact, statistics show that 69% of employees would work harder^[5] if they felt their efforts were better appreciated.

Tap My Back^[6] allows you to provide employee feedback through the use of recognition messages, points and badges. Feedback can be open to all staff members or individual which allows you to really hear how your team is feeling without the fear of being singled out or scrutinized.

The tool also provides in-depth reporting on staff engagement and mood to allow you to keep up-to-date on how your staff are feeling while at work.

4. FoodOps

A 2016 study found that 80% of restaurant operators rely on digital analytics tools^[7] to achieve operational efficiency and high profits. But when the industry is so fast-paced, it can difficult to sit down and thoroughly analyze reports.

FoodOps allows managers to analyze data from individual branches or compare metrics across multiple stores all the way down to specific transactions. You can use this from event to event.

The tool can help managers better oversee their venues by generating real-time financial reports, managing facilities, create task checklists and more, enabling managers to ensure their profit and loss^[8] statement is up-to-date and correct.

Recommended: Nurture Great Customer Service in Your Restaurant With These Tech Tools

5. 7shifts

Keeping track of your staff roster and keeping it up to date can often be a task that gets put on the backbench until the last minute. It takes time and a lot of coordination, which can be a struggle when you run more than one venue.

With 7 Shifts you have the option of creating and publishing schedules from anywhere right to your staff’s mobile device. You can view your shifts by time, role, employee and department to get an in-depth view of how each employee and section of your business is running.

The tool allows you to approve staff availability and requests from anywhere, make changes to your roster quick and easy and be able to communicate with staff about those changes through messages and announcements.

The resulting operational effeciencies of adopting smart scheduling software saved this restaurant $2000 a month. How much cash are you leaving on the table with 'good enough' scheduling habits?

The Bottom Line

There are a multitude of digital restaurant managment tools available that cater to just about every want or need. While using them within your business isn’t always necessary, it can help improve efficiency, ease workload and boost your customer experience.

If you find yourself in a position where you need help in staff training or scheduling, or are finding a need for more operational effeciency, one of these five tools, and a move to the could, might be right for you.

Emily Marr

Emily Marr is the Global Marketing Manager at Typsy, the world’s fastest growing hospitality training and learning experience platform.