“Where have all the servers gone?” restaurant owners ask. This sentiment rings out from restaurant owners as this next Covid-driven issue hits the hospitality industry. Owners are now scrambling to get the staff they need to open their doors back up and cover tables in their restaurants. This shortage has initially led owners to raise pay. But when that didn’t work, signing bonuses and referral programs were put to use with mixed results. With lackluster results, this problem might not be solved by just throwing money at it anymore. If the workforce just isn’t there, then a change to the restaurant needs to be made. So how do you serve more customers with less employees… with self-ordering kiosks!
Kiosk Checkouts
Kiosks can do most things a server can do. With a few changes in front of house procedures and the restaurant entrance layout, any server-based restaurant can transition to a fast casual restaurant. Let’s walk through how this could work. Typically a hostess behind a host stand is often the first thing a customer sees when first entering a restaurant. That’s where the Kiosks stands can go. One of the ordering kiosk benefits is that customers can then enter their entire order and pay right then and there. Your host can then complete any cash transactions and answer any menu questions the customers might have. After the transaction is complete the host can seat the party at the appropriately sized table. The Kiosk will ask for a table tent number, the host can enter a table tent number and leave it behind at the table when sitting the guests. A food runner will bring the food to the table by course. A busboy can refill water/soda as well as clean tables. Customers can go up to the bar to buy more alcoholic drinks. Once the customer is done eating they can just leave since they have already paid. The table can be cleaned and reset again. With these changes to front of house procedures and the benefits of ordering kiosks, a whole restaurant’s dining area can be run with just 4-5 employees.
How to get started
Total Restaurant POS has the features and flexibility needed to turn any fine dining or server based restaurant into a fast casual restaurant. It has a built-in Kiosk mode, so it can be implemented into any size restaurant. With it also being a non-proprietary software, a restaurant owner won’t need to purchase special Kiosk hardware. The same server computers can be reconfigured to work as the customer facing Kiosks. Total Restaurant POS subscription pricing means no big upfront investment to do the switch over. With just the implementation of Kiosks, worrying about having enough servers will be a thing of the past with Total Restaurant POS. Call 704-523-6244 for more info.
As always, we are here to help. Let us know if you have any questions.
Total Merchant Supply is a POS dealer based in NC & SC