Time to tech up – 5 on-demand technologies for restaurants

We’re in the middle of a ‘now’ boom.

Want a quick workout before service? Good news, there’s a Nike instructor ready to train when you want.

Thinking about mastering a new skill? Thanks to Masterclass, you can learn about leadership from Howard Schultz or have Carlos Santana share guitar secrets. Downtime? Watch anything you want, whenever you want it on Netflix.

The restaurant industry may not feel as techy as Netflix, but it works similarly to other on-demand services: want it, click it, get it.

If you’re thinking that on-demand only matters to food delivery and fast food, you’re wrong.

The shift to ‘now’ involves everything from mobile payments to how a guest books a table at your restaurant.

Your customers love convenience, and they’re ready for more of it. Now.

How on-demand technology is changing the restaurant industry

1. Discovery (How guests find you)

No one wants to scour the internet looking for a way to book a table at your restaurant. If your reservation link isn’t easy to find (and easier to use), you could end up losing a reservation. 

Research shows:

• 55% of restaurant guests rank the ease of the online reservation process as very important.
• 53% put convenience as the main deciding factor in booking.
• 81% of guests prefer booking methods without actual interaction with staff. They prefer booking with mobile devices and text messages over an actual phone call with a real person. 

With Superb’s shareable reservation links, you can display the quickest way to book tables directly in your bio on Instagram or Facebook, and your followers and visitors can book instantly on their own devices.

2. Takeaway 

Takeaway is arguably the most recognisable type of on-demand service in the restaurant industry.

According to Deloitte, customers are dining on takeout more often than during the pandemic – 29% more. More than 60% of those order delivery or takeaway once a week.

Wouldn’t an app make takeaway even faster?

Maybe. But people want to order from the restaurant’s own site.

For the restaurant, that’s great news! When ordering through an app, customers don't know who is making their food and restaurants don't know who is eating it.

The question is, who owns the guest experience? Who is accountable for (and damaged by) a subpar customer experience when it’s takeaway through an app?

Ordering directly means fewer mistakes and no delivery fees. Customers want dinner now, but convenience only takes you so far. Great food is still paramount.

3. Table management 

Table management isn’t necessarily something that guests even know they want. But ask any customer about long waiting times, and they’ll tell you they want to be seated as quickly as possible.

With Superb’s GXM, you’ll always have a bird’s eye view of your entire space, seamlessly integrated with our POS and easily viewed on an iPad during service.

This floorplan instantly reveals the status of every table. There’s no shifting from system to system or opening a new app or window. You’ll see which tables are expecting bookings, your full waitlist and more.

Want to move a table? Just drag and drop in the dashboard.

The GXM restaurant management platform includes time-saving, smart table management. A dynamic feature that automatically moves people into your restaurant by determining the size of available tables, number and availability of seats for each party.

We know you’re in a hurry during service and ‘now’ is important to the guest experience.

That’s why we’ve made it easy to see important information in 2 taps or less – in one dashboard on an iPad.

• Staff can update the status of a reservation with 2 taps. For example: when a guest arrives, you can glance at the table grid, find their table, seat them and mark as seated in only 2 taps. (Not multiple windows or screens)
• See your experience counts in 2 taps.
• Find all dietary requests in 2 taps.
• See guest, internal, and profile notes in 2 taps.
• See VIP guests with 0 taps. Talk about time-saving! 

4. Mobile payment

People don’t want to key in 16+ digits just to pay. And they prefer to not touch another person, too. So would your staff.

To better serve your guests, remove the friction entirely – with digital payments like Apple Pay, PayPal, and Google Pay. 

While most transactions at your restaurant are probably still credit/debit cards, the adoption of contactless and e-wallet payments is growing. Over 60% of debit and credit card transactions in the UK were contactless in 2021.

With Superb’s payment platform and card reader (branded to fit your needs), you can finally have paying as part of the guest experience – and save yourself from drowning in busy work.

5. Next-day payouts 

Not every on-demand feature has to be for the guests only.

With next-business-day payouts from Superb’s all-in-one Guest Experience Management system (GXM), you’ll have the confidence in knowing that your money is in the bank instead of the multi-day cycle of payment processing.

GXM Pro users enjoy next-day payouts from all payment types – including the sale of gift cards, prepaid tickets, and no-show fees.

Guests want it now… but who pays for it?

Guests want the convenience of on-demand restaurant tech, and your restaurant wants the boost in efficiency. But the real question is, who pays for it?

Hospitality Technology's recent Customer Engagement study found that less than 20% of diners were willing to pay extra for tech features they value.

So where does that leave you?

Instead of focussing on the cost of embracing new technology, think about the cost of not doing so. 

• What slows down your team each day?
• Are legacy systems causing more trouble than they’re worth?
• Are your sensitive business information and customer data secure?
• Are you having trouble getting customers to come back?
• Is the guest experience suffering because customers don’t get what they want?
  

It’s time to tech up 

Here’s the thing. You aren’t competing with other restaurants. You’re competing against other experiences.

With food available on every corner of every city, and more and more on-demand solutions shaping our lives, guests will choose experience over food.

Your guests, no matter their age, location or upbringing, all have smartphones. They’re using Amazon, Uber, and Instagram. They’re booking flights with one click and streaming Succession whenever they want.

The easier you make your restaurant guest experience – all of it – the more customers you’ll retain. The more customers you retain, the more money you make.

It’s not about becoming a fast-food chain and flipping out lukewarm burgers every 20 seconds. And it’s not about taking out another loan to pay for fancy tech hardware upgrades.

It’s about realising what your guests want and finding the balance between giving them that and holding on to what makes your restaurant special. 

Now’s the time

Superb’s GXM Pro has on-demand restaurant technology that helps you give guests the convenience they’re after – from quick, contactless mobile payments integrated directly to your POS and reservations platform, to one-click table booking through your Instagram bio.

Reach out and see how our flexible pricing plans help you give guests exactly what they want. What’s the best time to get started? Now.

Click here to book a free demo.