There is no denying the significant impact Covid-19 has had on hospitality businesses. Many are still reeling from its impact and are struggling to remain profitable. In addition to this, businesses also have to contend with overlooked problems, the silent hospitality killers, which are often missed yet have a significant influence on their bottom line.
Below are 3 silent hospitality killers that business owners may be overlooking and how adopting the right technologies can help deal with them.
1. Wasted time
Losing time to complete the little tasks can add up for hospitality retailers. When offering table service to dining in patrons there are several small tasks that must be completed. These include scribbling down orders and answering questions about the menu, communicating with kitchen staff to process the order, and then walking to the till to process the order for payment.
Furthermore, if you just have one fixed till on your premises, you will find that a significant amount of your time is wasted waiting for the till to become available. Many orders and payments will need to be processed on a busy night. This could leave you standing in line at the till and waiting until other members of staff are finished processing their order before you can attend to other customers.
Also, answering questions about the menu can result in you having to walk back and forth between diners and the kitchen to provide the right information. All these tasks build up and eat away at you and your wait staff’s time, lowering the quality of service your business delivers.
Portable EPOS
At motto, our handheld devices allow you to take orders from anywhere, push them through to the bar and kitchen and process the payment on the spot. There is no walking back and forth to the till or kitchen to communicate with staff.
Our solutions can also support picture menus. Why do picture menus make so much of a difference? When we interact with our clients, they notice an immediate difference in the speed with which orders are processed when wait staff has the advantage of using visual menus.
Staff can quickly recognise menu items thanks to our 5-inch bright screen that displays picture-perfect visuals that allow menu products to be immediately recognised. Plus, you can include dietary, allergen, and nutritional information. This eliminates the need to go back and forth to the kitchen to obtain this information from the chef.
With our devices, you can easily streamline your business processes. This means your team will be able to devote more time to customers and provide better service because of the time saved.
2. Staff helping themselves to discounts and freebies
Theft is an issue that affects all businesses. However, nowhere is it worse than at restaurants. Restaurants have the problem that much of their products are consumable. This means stolen items are not retrievable.
While security cameras help to eliminate this problem, another issue is when staff offer discounts or free drinks to friends and family members. Something which they may not even view as stealing.
If you’re a large enterprise, you’ll be more likely able to absorb the cost of stolen items. SMEs will find this much harder to do.
Security codes
Our packages include security codes for staff members. This means when a person processes an order and makes a payment using our systems, they must do so using their own code. This allows for discrepancies to be traced back to individual staff members.
You can also assign multiple levels of access to codes. For instance, only allowing managerial staff members to be able to issue discounts, refunds, or void items.
Furthermore, staff codes can also be changed as often as you want. This can be easily done in the back office providing you with an extra layer of protection.
3. Not realising that to get the benefits of having the correct technology, you must spend a little more
Our CEO made a point that when it comes to approaching clients to purchase our systems, the price can be an obstacle. While all our packages are affordable, business owners still want the cheapest option. This is understandable.
Profit margins are razor-thin in the hospitality industry. Additionally, businesses are grappling with an ongoing pandemic that is affecting their ability to trade. Reducing their business costs is their highest priority.
However, it is because of the capability of our solutions that motto has been able to sign up new hospitality clients despite business owners’ tightening their budgets. When we approach business owners, they initially think about going elsewhere for the cheapest and most basic option.
However, once they see what is included in our features and how beneficial our systems can be it’s not long before we have signed them up as a client.
Our affordable EPOS
Our mission is to provide SMEs with the latest technology and solutions all for an affordable price. Our feature-rich EPOS devices come at an overall cost of just £2 a day. That’s equivalent to the price of their regular coffee.
Our clients gain enhanced efficiency in customer order taking and payment processing for this fee. They also get access to over 160 EPOS functions, such as stock management and reporting features. These reporting functions allow reports to be easily put together, shared, and contain the most relevant information. This includes information about top-selling products and VAT.
Overall, their business operations take less time to complete, allowing them to serve more consumers and improve the quality of service they deliver. It doesn’t take long for them to realise that our product offering is the most cost-effective investment they can make for their business.
You can find out just how happy our clients are with our solutions by checking out some of our case studies. One of our clients, the owner of Pharmacie Café Pizzeria, cited our “service and support” as one of the main reasons for signing with us.
What is your business worth to you?
Wanting the cheapest option available is understandable. However, when it comes to cloud-based payment technologies, the issue with the cheapest price is that you get the lowest quality. This means you’ll get technology that does the bare minimum, isn’t always reliable, can easily break down, and doesn’t provide any value to your company.
Many EPOS companies provide a sign-up-and-ship deal. This means a package that contains your device will arrive at your business and you’ll be told to watch a tutorial on how to set it up. There is no support from experts to help set it up correctly.
In many circumstances, you’ll struggle to set up the device correctly. If you ask for additional support, you’ll find it comes at an additional cost. By the time you realise just how poor the support is you will have squandered your money and will be locked into a long-term contract.
Our solutions are not only cost-effective but also affordable. We offer the free onboarding and training that you will require at no additional cost. Sometimes you must ask yourself, “How much is your business worth to you?” and be willing to invest a little more to reap the larger rewards.
Like what you’ve heard?
If we’ve piqued your interest, then get in touch. Take a look at some of our other blogs and case studies to see how we’ve assisted and supported a variety of businesses.
Please contact one of our friendly and knowledgeable sales reps if you are looking for Online Ordering, EPOS, Payments, or Loyalty systems. If you’re curious about how motto can assist you, fill out our form and get started on your motto journey today.