How contactless booking and payment help with staff shortages

As restaurants, pubs and bars face a worldwide shortage of employees, you probably find yourself searching for creative staffing solutions. 

The good news is that the restaurant technology that emerged as a result of the growing demand for contactless dining experiences during the pandemic can offer some relief. 

Moving to contactless payments, digital booking software and even cloud-based POS systems (another contactless solution) isn’t a silver bullet for the labour shortage, but it is a way to help your restaurant decrease its labour needs while still giving guests the personalised service that they expect. 

Want more good news? Superb has done the hard work for you. We’ve built the software and created the platform that provides the contactless solutions you’re after. 

Keep reading to see how contactless dining helps reduce the impact of the labour shortage.    

What is the contactless dining experience?

• For guests — Contactless dining is anything that removes the need for close interaction with a server or public surfaces (like a card terminal or counter). That includes the online reservation process and the payment methods offered. 
• For restaurants — Contactless dining includes everything from firing orders to the kitchen to accessing touchless payments and receiving bookings online. 

By removing your manual billing system and keeping staff from dealing with phoned-in bookings and trips to the kitchen, contactless dining decreases pressure on your team, increases your overall efficiency, and gives customers what they want – magical experiences, personalised to them. 

How do contactless solutions help with staff shortages?

Automating your booking flow, giving servers a better way to take and send orders, and providing touchless payment options mean less back and forth for your team. 

Traditionally, your staff would need to answer the phone, chase bookings to avoid no-shows, make multiple trips to the kitchen, and constantly move from table to table to take payments. 

When you remove the need for contact between those points, your staff has more time to focus on other tasks and more time to spend with guests. 

1. Contactless payment = freedom to move 

With Superb, you connect guests directly to your restaurant point-of-sale system and provide user-focused services such as contactless and digital payments.

What is a contactless payment? Contactless payment methods include credit cards, debit cards, mobile payment apps and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, MobilePay, PayPal, Revolut, and Monzo. 

Today, touchless payment is the norm. Even in Italy, 31% of restaurant guests prefer to use digital wallets over credit or debit cards. 

How does Superb do it?

Superb’s GXM Pro includes built-in contactless payment technology, enabling restaurants to keep up with consumer demand by accepting the newest payment methods on the market. 

And because Superb’s POS system works on mobile devices, any server can tender a bill and take payments — meaning the staff you have isn’t tied to one area or stuck behind a counter.

2. Confirmation emails and texts = less time chasing reservations 

Thanks to online shopping, grocery delivery services and everything in between, your guests are used to knowing the status of every purchase and booking. 

Not only do guests expect these reminders, but they also depend on them. Utilising automated text and email is a great way to help guests remember upcoming reservations and avoid last-minute cancellations and dreaded no-shows. 

How does Superb do it?

Superb offers an SMS feature that lets you send confirmation and reconfirmation messages, avoiding last-minute cancellations and budget-draining no-shows. 

The best part is that confirmation and reconfirmation emails and texts are automated. No need for extra admin work or a team member to manually text and email before or during service. 

3. Cloud-based restaurant POS system

A cloud-based POS system for restaurants works via the internet. It saves your servers countless trips to a clunky POS terminal. That’s extremely important if you have outdoor seating or multiple floors. 

You’ll also decrease trips to the kitchen because orders can be instantly sent to the printer or KDS. What does all that mean for the labour shortage? It means that even with less staff on hand, your restaurant can operate smoothly without impacting the guest’s dining experience. 

How does Superb do it?

Instead of requiring your team to learn a completely new piece of hardware – like a standard POS terminal – they’ll quickly navigate on an iPad. This puts your entire team on equal footing and takes the pressure off of the manager or lead server.

Your team will also have fewer buttons to push and more time to focus on actually being with guests – a win-win for everyone.

4. Online reservation flow

The contactless dining experience starts with the reservation. 

More than 2.14 billion people worldwide shop and book tables online. 

If you’re not taking online reservations, your restaurant is missing out on future bookings. But it’s more than just having an online reservations system — you have to think about mobile users, first. 

Google reports that 61% of mobile users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing. 40% will visit a competitor’s site instead.

Having a website optimised for mobile means that your restaurant’s website looks good across all devices — tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers. 

How does Superb do it?

At Superb, we know that guests judge a book by its cover… meaning that your customers will judge your restaurant by how easy it is to book. 

If they land on your website and see clunky booking widgets, get redirected to a third-party booking provider or have to download an app, they'll likely bounce just as quickly as they arrived. 

Your guests want to make a reservation with you, the restaurant they Googled in the first place.

Luckily, you don't have to settle for badly designed booking flows or clunky widgets any longer because we’ve taken care of that for you. 

At Superb, our booking flow is a white-label, clean, experience-led, functional flow for all of your guests. With prepayment, partial payment, deposit and no-show functionality built-in. Plus, upsell opportunities for your guests in advance so they get the experience they deserve and next-day payouts for you, the restaurant. 

The best part? Your team won't’ get stuck answering calls and dealing with emails all day.