If you’re a restaurant owner, this year may have been particularly difficult. Luckily, many businesses are beginning to flourish again, welcoming patrons and customers back through their doors. Whether or not you’re just now opening a new restaurant and are looking to attract a loyal clientele, or you’ve recently re-opened and hope to draw people back to enjoy your food and atmosphere, let’s take a look at some useful things that could help out your restaurant business that you might not have considered.
Proper Restaurant Insurance
Of course, there’s the chance that you’ve done your due diligence earlier and gotten the proper insurance for your business. However, after this past year, it may be a good idea to either reconsider and research your different forms of restaurant insurance. As a restaurant owner, you’ll need a few different types of coverage, each providing the needed security to protect you from many factors. Business expense coverage, fire coverage, and personal property coverage are all necessary prerequisites (and all of which can protect your real estate space and used restaurant equipment). In the era of COVID, however, it’s important that you look into your workers’ compensation insurance and the forms of medical care you offer your employees, not only for accident or injury, but for illness as well.
Mobile Delivery App Account
One of the best ways that restaurants have been able to survive this past year was through food delivery services, many of which were orders placed on mobile devices and apps. Even before COVID, it was estimated that approximately 60 percent of customers in the U.S. ordered takeout and delivery at least once a week, and online or mobile orderings has increased by a staggering 300 percent since 2014.
If you haven’t created a profile for your restaurant on such popular apps as UberEats, DoorDash, Grubhub, or other user-friendly services, now is the best time to take action. Additionally, online restaurant apps aren’t nearly as susceptible to security breaches, which would lead you to worry about removing the Chromium computer virus or other unwanted programs and identity-theft issues regarding your patron’s payment methods. The convenience and safety for your customers will help guarantee your restaurant’s ongoing success.
Beer and Keg Inventory Management
Outside of delivery and takeout options, the first place restaurants tend to make the most profit is on drinks and their bar area. Unfortunately, there’s also a tremendous potential for loss, as even the most skilled bartenders can over pour on a busy night or will hand out free drinks to preferred customers. Unfortunately for the restaurant owner, those few drinks quickly add up.
In order to address that issue, the past few years have seen digital technology solve the problem, with numerous companies selling their beer and keg inventory management systems. Simply install this small digital piece of equipment on the tap itself, and then watch as it accurately measures how many drinks have been served from the spout during a given shift, ultimately displaying the numbers on an LED control panel. From there, your next step in calculating bar inventory becomes effortless. No bar or commercial kitchen should be without one or more, and the easy DYI installation never requires technicians for upkeep.
Tabletop Ordering System
Aside from online ordering for takeout, many restaurants have integrated this state-of-the-art solution to their serving protocols: tabletop ordering systems. These small computers are installed on an equipment stand at every table, allowing your customers to scroll through a pre-installed homepage and default search engine of your establishment’s menu. Although a server will bring the drinks and food, as well as cater to any additional needs throughout your diners’ meal, the ordering system allows the freedom for browsing your menus, placing or changing an order in real-time, then pay the bill (plus tip) right on the search engine’s credit options.