New Trends Impacting Restaurant Operations

For years restaurateurs have been folding Internet technologies into their businesses. It’s all on the Internet: ordering - promotions - credit cards – banking- reservations - food ideas - cocktail recipes! Restaurant operators go online daily. Even so, operators are just now really dipping their spoons deeply into the rich world of the Internet! The most significant new trends in restaurant technology are deeply rooted in the online world.

· Social Media – Secret of Successful Operators

Social media is how people share information in the Internet age. It is utterly amazing how social media, the world of Facebook, Twitter and blogs, is impacting even the smallest local restaurant operator. Restaurateurs that ignore social media do so at their peril. As accountants we can see the business impact of social media on local Atlanta restaurants. Simply stated, restaurateurs that promote their restaurants through the use of social media see an increase in sales. In many cases the impact on sales is substantial. As Tom Murphy of Murphy’s in Virginia Highland recently told me, “There is a conversation about our restaurant occurring every day on the Internet. We must be a part of that conversation.” Restaurant operators are employing social media to drive revenues, both through tightly targeted ‘touchs’ and through more broadly based methods including: 1) email messages about special offerings and events 2) Facebook invitations to “friends” for in-store promotions, 3) Tweet messages about limited time offerings, and 4) aggregated promo services such as Groupon. Tom Moore of Brick Store Pub tells how they “tweet” the arrival of a limited-supply beer and 8 to 10 customers show up for the special. We can raise a glass to that idea!

· Your Next POS Will Be A Subscription

Today operators spend thousands of dollars on point-of-sale (POS) technology - and then pay an annual maintenance fee for support and upgrades. In truth, the POS technology you purchase is obsolete the day it is installed. Insult to injury, operators and POS companies face a minefield of technical and other problems keeping POS systems upgraded and protected from credit-card hackers. It is a system that has generally worked...until now. Alan Wright of Postec, the POS company told me that “The push of legal liability and the pull of new technology will shift restaurants to a subscription POS model.” Today buying a POS is like buying a car – a large up-front investment and smaller maintenance investments. Tomorrow buying a POS will be like buying an insurance policy – a small upfront investment followed by a stream of payments covering hardware, software, maintenance and training. All sales and non-financial data will be kept at a secure, off-site location.

· Your Office Is Going Paperless

NetFinancials is primarily a large restaurant back office. Each month we handle the books for around 100 restaurants. About two years ago we decided to try the “paperless thing”. Today virtually all our internal documents are paperless. Here’s what we learned: 1) It’s easier to go paperless than you think, 2) paperless does save money - particularly on supplies and storage, and 3) your data is now easier to find - no more searching for files in the storage closet. Also, there are a growing number of options for storing data on-line. These “Internet filing cabinets” store your data making sure it is safe and available to you when you need it. All that most restaurants need to get started is a desktop scanner, an extra computer monitor and an Internet connection.
Technical innovation is a reality - both exciting and breathtaking - that opens many possibilities for businesses. Savvy restaurant operators are making this innovation work for them, building more successful, satisfying and profitable operations.