Restaurant Management Systems – A Full Checklist

Restaurant Management Systems help restaurants aggregate all their functions under one system – it is a term coined to encapsulate all the functions that matter at a restaurant, Well, atleast most of the functions.

Think of it this way. A single but complete stack of all your restaurant functions needed, under one system. Be it online ordering systems, table booking mechanisms, reservation system, POS and billing softwares, Analytics dashboard. Restaurants need to be quick on their feet to ensure the operations, table bookings, online orders, marketing are happening in a fast or automated fashion.

Here we will be listing a few points that our a must in a Restaurant management system

1.

Cloud POS: Legacy POS systems have. A major drawback of being hosted on local servers and they work like hard drives. In hese systems, it is not easy to make changes to the menu, you have to be physically present in the restaurant to make any change. On the other hand, in a cloud POS you can operate the POS from the convenience of your tablets or mobiles.

As the cloud POS is hosted on remote servers, data storage and safety is also taken care of.

Also, when it comes to updates, a legacy POS must be upgraded manually whereas that on a Cloud POS the updates happen automatically (seen your iPhone updating in the wee hours of the morning?).And the cost effectiveness of a Cloud POS makes it a better bet (Cloud POS needs small monthly payments whereas a traditional POS has heavy set-up costs)

2. Modern POS system: POS is no more the old POS which only does the billing and ticketing, it involves a wide array of functions and thus acts as the central point for all your restaurant's operations.The POS integrates excellently with your CRM modules and analytics softwares giving you a single dashboard across all your outlets, allowing you easy monitoring and managing of your entire restaurant.

A restaurant management system is a collective term for software that helps streamline restaurant operations.

We will go a step further and define it is a software stack that helps restaurants grow. By helping restaurants get online orders, manage table bookings, manage incoming orders from various sources, reducing the order processing time, manage inventory, send marketing campaigns, get loyal customers & automate redundant work.

And a good one lets you focus on the things that matter – your creativity, the food, and your customer experience.

Marketing & CRM modules – The modern day restaurant management tools ensures that customers are engaged at all times. Once a customer punches in at the restaurant he is auto-entered into a CRM system which segregates various categories of customers basis their behaviour, demographics and other details.

this post allows a data driven precision in targeting your campaigns and increases the possibility of repeat visits and conversions. Besides the data point, all your promotions – loyalty points for repeat visits, event based promotions can now happen a lot more easily.

All the various promotions you run can be run in an automated fashion once the POS assimilates the data. Your SMS and email campaigns start running from then on.

Centralization – Managing everything from a single interface allows you to be mobile.

You could then look at your most important performance metrics (by outlet) to know if something requires your urgent attention.This keeps becoming. a bigger merit as and when your outlets keep increasing as now you'll benefit from a central system and makes it easier to man your operations and data.

Scalability – With data being tracked centrally, it is now a lot easier to scale up – which would require low costs of mobility (given less hardware and low probabilities of breakage)

Integrations – The beauty of a RMS is definitely in the integrations – All systems – POS, CRM modules, Inventory, Analytics allows an intelligent unit to provide you operational excellence and data intelligence which in turn results in a successful business.Third party integrating such as those with Swiggy, Zomato allows you to track orders from 3rd party as well.

Analytics – Analytics is driven by data and the data which comes in through your POS is then passed through your Analytics dashboards where the numbers are thrown up against your defined metrics – these metrics could be orders per day, order size of a single individual, Inventory Turnover and so on.

Online Ordering – Online food ordering platforms allow you to save on costs of third party commissions which you need to pay for orders coming in through aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy.Also, online orders syncing with loyalty points further incentivizes your customers to reorder from your website. With your own platform, you can do things your way and have more control over the online ordering channel.

All these components in a nutshell comprise of the modern day restaurant management system.Having all the operations and marketing handled via a single software stack makes the life of the restaurant managers/owners way easier, and allows them to concentrate more on the food quality and customer experience.