What hospitality software is essential for delivery restaurants?

Delivery software, a must for an efficient restaurant or catering business. Not so long ago, everyone still ordered by phone and work schedules were still hung on the wall. The good old days… Since the turn of the century, we have been dealing with the rise of Information Technology (IT). No matter what kind of business you start, or what kind of company you work for, you will always have to deal with IT. In the hospitality industry, it is common to outsource IT work instead of bringing this knowledge in-house. However, there are more and more types of IT systems, solutions and types of hospitality software available. As a result, restaurant owners without a technical background quickly lose sight of wat is essential. In this blog, we create an overview and answer the following question: which hospitality software is essential for delivery restaurants?

 

A website and/or ordering app for your restaurant

In addition to the option to order by phone, you will naturally want to offer your customers the option to order online. Many restaurants subscribe to ordering platforms such as TakeAway, UberEats or Deliveroo. However, these ordering platforms often charge high commission fees. Therefore, it may be interesting to take control of the situation and develop your own website and/or ordering app.

It is then important to use discounts, loyalty programs and promotions to entice customers to order through your own website instead of the ordering platforms. Step by step, with the help of hospitality software in the form of a website and/or ordering app, you will become less and less dependent on large companies such as TakeAway, UberEats and Deliveroo. Doing so, you can save tens of thousands of euros per year in commission fees!

 

Delivery software with cash register functions

If you are a delivery restaurant and have many orders to process on a daily basis, you will benefit from delivery software with cash register functions that allow all your orders to systematically flow into one system. This gives you more control over the incoming orders and makes it easier to manage your business. This hospitality software is the hub of your delivery restaurant that transfers the customer’s order directly to the kitchen, handles payments (including accounting afterwards) and manages the delivery staff.

Do you also want more control over your delivery staff? Then a delivery app might be a good solution for your delivery restaurant. When your couriers work with the delivery app, you can easily follow their live location. They themselves have all the order information available on their phone in the app. Through the menu they can start navigation to the customer and/or contact the customer by phone. In addition, an option to pay at the door using a QR code has been added. Expensive mobile PIN devices are no longer necessary due to this hospitality system!
In addition, some suppliers offer an option for stock management. Inventory management means that you keep track of your stored goods such as long-life ingredients or packaging. Without having an overview of this, you run the risk of running into unexpected shortages. At the same time, you don’t want to store too many goods as this costs space and money. With the help of delivery software, you can easily keep track of your stock and find the optimal balance.

 

Hospitality software solutions for franchise organizations

In basic terms, there is not much difference between the hospitality software needed for a medium-sized delivery restaurant and a franchise organization. Nevertheless, there are a number of software solutions available that are worth considering using for franchise organizations in particular.

1. Multi-store websites

It is important for franchise organizations that their various branches can be neatly processed on one website and/or ordering app, and that a separate website does not have to be set up for each location. A website with several locations built in, is also called a multi-store website.

2. Central menu-management

A similar software solution is needed to implement changes in the menu. Without central menu-management, all menus have to be entered manually for each location. The same applies to every change that is being made on the menu. If not all menus are identical, this can quickly lead to errors and chaos. With an option to centrally manage the menu, a franchise organization can easily implement one change for all (or part of) the locations.

3. “Data is the new oil”

The larger an organization, the more valuable it is to start managing based on data. The hospitality software is the source of the data in which everything is measured and tracked. As far as managing based on data is concerned, you can use it as extensively as you want as a delivery restaurant or franchise organization. For a delivery restaurant that processes a lot of orders but still ‘only’ has one branch, it can be extremely valuable to hang up screens in the kitchen on which the live Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are shown. For a franchise organization with dozens of locations, you can think of using a portal customized for franchise organizations. However, a franchise organization can also choose to develop such a portal itself with a data warehouse. Doing so, separate dashboards can be created for marketing, finance and operations, for example. When a delivery software provider makes all the raw data available, you can analyze this data using Excel and/or Business Intelligence (BI) tools such as Power BI.

 

Sparring with CashDesk about hospitality software? Feel free to contact us!

Hopefully, with this article we have been able to provide you with a little more overview of the various IT systems, hospitality software and solutions for delivery restaurants. There are numerous options available, although most of the abovementioned hospitality software can be seen as an addition to the essential foundation (website and delivery software). Think carefully about which of these catering software options might be useful to you and make sure that everything is linked together so that the entire process is set up smoothly and efficiently. For free, personal advice you can contact one of our employees who rely on their years of experience within the industry. Check out how to reach them here!

 

Thank you for reading,

CashDesk

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