Can fintech help restaurants navigate the labor shortage?
The restaurant industry is facing a severe staffing crisis. With many workers leaving during COVID shutdowns, restaurants are now struggling to re-hire enough staff to operate smoothly. This has forced many establishments to cut back hours and streamline menus. Technology offers solutions that can help restaurants bridge the labor gap and improve efficiency. This article outlines key fintech innovations that managers can leverage to keep serving customers despite short-handed teams.
Streamline Inventory Management
Inventory software gives restaurants real-time visibility and control over stock levels. Manual counting and spreadsheet tracking is hugely time-consuming for employees. Software automation of these crucial but labour-intensive processes enables staff to focus on revenue-generating tasks. For example, waiters can spend more time-serving patrons rather than counting ketchup bottles in the storeroom. Managers have on-demand insights to optimize re-ordering, too.
“Inventory management software will give you complete visibility and control of your restaurant inventory while automating and simplifying the processes around it. That frees up time for your employees to focus on other tasks.”
Boost Productivity with Mobile POS
Handheld point-of-sale (POS) devices allow floor staff to take orders and payments tableside. This eliminates them repeatedly walking to and from a fixed till location. Instead, the POS stays with the server allowing them to cover more tables and handle more orders simultaneously. This makes each staff member markedly more productive. Having the system in their pocket also reduces ordering errors that waste kitchen resources.
Encourage Contactless Ordering
Digital menus, online ordering platforms, and contactless payment solutions give guests more control. This reduces front-of-house staffing requirements in two ways. Firstly, customers can browse, customize orders, and pay on their own terms without employee assistance. Secondly, staff spared from that routine engagement can prioritize more value-adding tasks. For example, focusing solely on food and drink delivery while managers handle customer experience issues.
Key Benefits:
- Requires fewer staff
- Enables better customer service
Optimize Kitchen Operations
Cloud-based kitchen display systems have revolutionized how orders reach the cooking team. Screens stationed at preparation stations detail each dish, while software orchestrates cooking sequence and priorities. This brings structure to the madness of a busy kitchen, especially with limited staff. It allows each chef to work smarter, faster and minimize errors. If steaks are about to burn, the system will flash urgently to avoid waste. This efficiency gets food out on time, even when understaffed, ensuring no lost revenue from walkouts.
Ease Employee Onboarding
Intuitive technology that new hires can quickly grasp is crucial with limited staffing. Complex solutions require longer and more expensive training, which keeps employees off the floor. Seek restaurant tech with familiar interfaces or dedicated onboarding content like video tutorials. This simplifies picking up new systems, allowing faster ramp up to full productivity. For example, POS solutions modeled on common consumer apps staff already use daily. The easier the rollout, the sooner understaffing pains will ease.
Leverage Workforce Analytics
Sophisticated data analytics help restaurants optimize labor scheduling and costs. By assessing historical sales patterns, managers can accurately forecast busy periods. Accordingly, they can increase floor staff during weekend rushes or holiday meals, while reducing excess staff during slower Mondays and Tuesdays. This precision scheduling saves unnecessary overhead but still meets customer demand spikes. Analytics provides insights to do more with less in terms of strained labor.
Conclusion
Innovative fintech solutions directly address the most pressing problems restaurants face amid debilitating staff shortages. Inventory control, mobile POS, contactless tech, kitchen management systems, intuitive interfaces and smart workforce planning can all maximize understaffed team productivity. This technology also reduces the staffing burdens in key restaurant operations. Together, these capabilities offer a lifeline for establishments struggling to operate smoothly while short on staff. Managers must assess solutions that keep customers satisfied despite thin teams in the months ahead.
FAQs
How can technology reduce inventory costs?
Automated inventory management software gives managers real-time visibility into exact stock quantities and ingredients usage rates. This allows smarter purchasing and waste reduction. For example, buying less expiring dairy items that spoil before use based on sales data.
What tasks can staff complete with a mobile POS?
Handheld POS devices allow wait staff to take orders, process payments, split bills and handle any guest requests without leaving the table. This improves table turnover, revenue per staffer and the overall customer experience.
How does contactless tech improve customer service?
By shifting basic ordering and payment actions to guests, staff have more time to promptly deliver hot food, answer questions, handle issues and build rapport through quality face-to-face interactions.
What key data should restaurants analyze?
Historical sales patterns, foot traffic, menu item popularity, staffing needs per hour/day and inventory consumption rates all guide better decision making with limited resources.
How can fintech provide a competitive edge?
As staffing disruptions persist, restaurants leveraging fintech to serve customers smoothly despite understaffing can grow revenue while competitors stagnate. Tech-enabled efficiencies also boost profit margins as the industry recovers.
