Cash management in the foodservice sector, whether for schools, businesses, hospitals or other local authorities, faces complex and varied challenges. Operational management, guest satisfaction and new consumer habits are real challenges for those involved in the foodservice industry. Today's canteen managers need to find innovative solutions to ensure the success and sustainability of their catering services.
Challenge 1: optimize guest flow management
During peak periods, canteens have to cope with large flows of guests, especially during the lunch break. Interminable queues, overcrowding in the dining room, difficulty of circulation, disorganization... This situation can quickly become stressful and lead guests to prefer other solutions outside their company canteen. And yet, there are innovative solutions for improving flow management in catering operations!
Here are just a few examples:
AI tray scanning to make checkout more fluid
Tray scanning is an image-recognition-based technology that accurately identifies the contents of a meal tray. This solution instantly calculates the total cost of the meal.
After choosing the dishes for their lunch, guests swipe their e-wallet badge and place their meal tray on a camera-equipped terminal. The camera captures an image of the tray, then the intelligent system analyzes its contents and instantly calculates the cost of the food chosen.
Self-checkout allows guests to pay quickly with a pre-loaded E-Wallet badge, considerably reducing the time spent at the cash register, usually by just a few seconds. The meal tray scanning process is intuitive, requiring no input or manipulation on the part of guests. The result: time savings and faster checkouts!
👉 Find out more: Tray scanning with AI revolutionizes foodservice
Order terminals to simplify checkout
Integrate self-service ordering terminals to enable guests to place their orders independently. Operation is easy and intuitive (even for technophobes!): guests navigate the touch terminal interface to select the dishes they wish to order. They browse the different menus of the day, displaying dish details and adding options or additional information if they wish. Then they simply proceed to checkout using the payment method of their choice. All that's left to do is head to the checkout counter to collect their order.
Challenge 2: improve time management
"In over 40 years, the French have lost 1 hour of lunch break time. On average, French employees stop for 38 minutes, compared with 1h38 in 1975"(Source). Various studies reveal that the lunch break remains important for the French, but of short duration. Faced with these new time constraints, contract caterers have no choice but to adapt. And the challenge is considerable: company canteens and community restaurants have to serve a large number of guests in a very short space of time. Here's an innovative solution:
Click & collect to anticipate service needs
Encourage online pre-ordering with click & collect, so that customers can order in advance. With click & collect, it's simple: the guest logs on to your company restaurant's online ordering platform. They explore the online menu, select the dishes they wish to order, and mention any allergies or dietary restrictions. Once they've made their selection, customers confirm their order and pay online, or pay directly at the cash desk when they collect their meal tray.
This way, your guests can be sure of avoiding queues and picking up their meal tray at the specified time, stress-free!
Challenge no. 3: reduce collection errors
In the foodservice industry, you have to manage a wide variety of payment methods, including cash, contact and contactless bank cards, luncheon vouchers, Apple Pay and e-wallet. All this in a tense environment, with hundreds or even thousands of guests every day... This means that payment errors are not uncommon in the foodservice sector. By adopting innovative tools and technologies, foodservice establishments can minimize cash-out errors, improve customer satisfaction and boost operational efficiency.
The cash register to run your business smoothly
The cash register is a central element in the management of a catering establishment, offering a multitude of benefits to optimize operational efficiency and facilitate the experience of both guests and employees.
Here are the advantages of a cash register:
- Quickly and efficiently process all transactions, whether cash, credit card or other electronic payment methods.
- Receive all orders, regardless of the channel used by guests (order terminals, AI tray scanning, click & serve, etc.). By centralizing the management of peripherals such as order terminals, coin-operated machines, cash drawers, etc., the cash register simplifies operations. Staff don't have to juggle several systems, which saves time and reduces the risk of errors.
- Automatically collect data to better identify consumer trends. For example, a company canteen can use this data to determine which meals are the most popular among employees, which can help you design future menus.
Challenge #4: facilitate integration with other systems
One of the major challenges of cash register management in the foodservice sector is to ensure seamless integration between the various cashiering systems, as well as with other systems such as inventory management, accounting and so on. The aim is to avoid fragmentation in channel management, which would slow down the checkout process and overall restaurant management.
An all-in-one system for 100% synchronized management
An all-in-one solution aims to make cash management fluid and intuitive, with ergonomic interfaces and easy navigation, whatever the channel used.
An all-in-one system offers unified customer support, enabling restaurant managers to obtain consistent, personalized help and information from a single point of contact. From order-taking to control, preparation and collection, an all-in-one digital solution helps to remain attractive in an ever-changing environment.
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Would you like to digitize your establishment to simplify cash management? Contact an Innovorder consultant to benefit from their expertise.
