5 solutions for digitalizing your restaurant

Digital opens up a host of opportunities for restaurateurs. Whether in the kitchen or in the dining room, technological innovations are all performance levers that can improve a restaurant's operational efficiency. Investing in digital is a sure-fire way to grow your business and make it more profitable. Digital solutions also offer customers a unique experience, enhancing the brand value of your establishment or brand name. And the many testimonials from ambitious restaurateurs who have taken the plunge demonstrate the extraordinary transformative power of digital solutions. 

Why and how should you digitize your restaurant? What tools are available for your restaurant or fast-food business? Here are 5 essential solutions you can implement right away to digitalize your restaurant. 

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Increase your profitability by optimizing order-taking and collection

Are you a restaurateur facing organizational problems? Do you find yourself wasting time taking orders and serving rushes? Time-consuming tasks affect service quality, and the risk of errors and confusion increases, often leading to delays in service. At such times, queues often discourage customers, or encourage them to place orders quickly and get to the point. And from the point of view of increasingly connected consumers, the absence of digital solutions in fast food can give the impression of an outdated and impractical service. 

Fortunately, simple, intuitive digital solutions offer a wide range of ways to improve your operations and significantly optimize your business. 

Order kiosk: simplify in-room ordering

The touch-order kiosk in a restaurant is a device that allows customers to place their orders directly and interactively. These kiosks are equipped with a touch screen, enabling customers to browse the menu, select the dishes and drinks they wish to order, and even personalize their choices according to their preferences. 

These are the advantages of installing order terminals in your restaurant or fast-food outlet to optimize order-taking:

• Collect more customers at a time, and save time by auto-collecting each customer from the order kiosks.
• Cut your customers' waiting time in half, even during peak periods
• Increase customer satisfaction by reducing waiting times.
• Free your team from time-consuming tasksand devote them to higher value-added tasks: reception and advice, kitchen preparation, etc.
• Increase your average shopping basket by 25 to 40% with photos and automatic suggestions for extras 

"Before Innovorder, my average basket was around €15, and today it's over €20. That's an increase of 33%! "Jabrane, co-founder of Double XL

There are many touch-sensitive kiosk solutions, but not all of them are equal. For maximum performance, we recommend opting for an all-in-one solution (kiosk + cash register + production screen). Examples include: Tabesto, 6XPOS, Innovorder ...

👉 Find out more: discover everything the Innovorder ordering terminal will bring to your restaurant.

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QR code: cash more orders simultaneously

The QR code (Quick Response code) enables users to scan a simple barcode using their smartphone's camera, taking them to a website, restaurant menu, application, etc.

Offering customers the option of ordering and paying directly from their smartphone, simply by scanning a QR code, has many advantages: 

• Save an average of 12 minutes: thanks to the QR code available directly on your restaurant's tables, your customers can consult the menu, order and pay directly, without waiting for waiters. So you can increase table turnover!
• Your waiters have more time to concentrate on the essentials: customer care and service. 
• Restaurateurs using QR codes have seen an average basket increase of between 4% and 10% (according to theRoland Berger study) in their outlets.
• From order taking to payment, customers are autonomous. The QR code simply translates into a more pleasant and intuitive customer experience.

👉 To find out more, discover the 7 benefits of adopting QR codes in your restaurant or fast-food outlet. 

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Easily manage your business with an intuitive cash register

Digital tools offer many possibilities for restaurants to improve their operations and develop their business. When it comes to checkout, the cash register plays a central role in keeping your business running smoothly. Restaurateurs who have not yet opted for an intuitive central cash register face problems in terms of operational efficiency, accounting tracking and compliance with new regulations, such as the end of automatic receipt printing on August 1, 2023. 

More than just a cash register, a cash register is an essential tool for managing your restaurant. This innovative solution, the orchestra conductor of your restaurant, enables you to receive orders from all your peripherals on a single tool, send them to production, display precise financial tracking, generate analytical reports and, more generally, improve operational efficiency, thus contributing to a smooth customer experience and more serene management of your business.

"The till is a real control tower: it automatically receives all my orders (terminal, delivery and click & collect)." Guillaume, Smash Smash franchisee in Bordeaux

Quick learning curve, regular updates and compliance with standards are all essential criteria to consider when choosing your cash register. Opting for intuitive, upgradeable software is imperative if you want to stand out from the crowd and remain competitive in a competitive environment. 

Cash register software offers a diverse and innovative range of functions. Many solutions already exist on the market, including SumpUp, l'Addition, Lightspeed, Zelty, ... According to Shine, one of the best cash register software solutions for your restaurant is Innovorder. The Innovorder touch register meets all your needs, whether you manage one or several points of sale. You benefit from state-of-the-art ergonomics and a system specially developed for fast-food operations. And the icing on the cake, it's NF525-certified to secure and record all transactions, in compliance with Article 88 of French Finance Law n°2015-1785 of December 29, 2015.

👉 Need a more comprehensive comparison? Here's a comparison of all existing cash register software.

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Revolutionize kitchen preparation with production screens

During kitchen rushes, a multitude of orders arrive at the same time, and your team members have difficulty prioritizing them. Under these conditions, the risk of making mistakes is considerable, and can have dramatic consequences for you, the restaurateur. However, there's an innovative solution for kitchens equipped with production screens. They lighten the load in the kitchen, making orders easier to read and prioritize, and streamlining service. 

Kitchen Production Displays, or KDSs (Kitchen Display Systems), are digital display systems used in kitchens to efficiently manage orders and coordinate activities with the front of house. Rather than using paper tickets to transmit orders from the dining room to the kitchen, KDSs electronically display order details on screens installed in the kitchen. The advantages are many: 

• Speed: Orders are transmitted instantly, reducing delays and improving service speed.
• Visibility: Order details are clearly displayed, minimizing communication errors between the kitchen and the dining room.
• Coordination: the different parts of the kitchen can see orders in real time, enabling better coordination when preparing and assembling dishes.
• Prioritization: KDS can highlight urgent or long-awaited orders, and are updated in real time.

In a nutshell, KDS delivers efficiency and productivity gains, helping chefs to manage workflows effectively, while guaranteeing quality customer experiences.

"Thanks to KDS, everything runs smoothly during assembly, and assemblers don't make any mistakes." Albert, Alfi founder

Performance management and monitoring with an intelligent, omnichannel system

As the manager of a restaurant or fast-food outlet, it's important to have a global view of your business. We know how busy you are, and how difficult it can be to manage and monitor performance, which is so vital to the growth of your business. 

This is why ambitious restaurateurs are turning to omnichannel digital solutions. These enable the most demanding restaurateurs to monitor their business closely andimprove performance via a single tool. There are several service providers on the market offering comprehensive, high-performance software solutions. These include Addition Reporting, Lightspeedhq, Poping backoffice and Innovorder's IO Analytics solution. 

IO analytics, Innovorder's all-in-one solution, enables you to monitor your business closely and boost your performance and profitability. How does it work? 👇

On a single screen, you can : 

• Track your budget, margin, ratios and sales at a glance, even from your smartphone, and compare your results with previous periods.
• Find all the data related to your business in clear, relevant graphs.
• Retrieve all your data in real time, at any time of day, even remotely.
• Collect data on your customers' consumption habits to get to know them better and build loyalty.

"Thanks to Innovorder, my entire business is encrypted. I constantly rely on data to make my decisions." Stéphanie Merceron, BCHEF franchisee in Cholet

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That's it! We've presented you with the essential solutions for improving your restaurant's productivity and profitability. One last tip for the road: use the same service provider for all your solutions. This will save you precious time (and money!).

👉 Why choose a global solution?

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The case of Alfi: why it chose Innovorder to digitalize its restaurant

Read his testimonial 👇

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Did you like these tips? Don't hesitate to consult our other articles on our blog to help you develop your business!

Innovorder is the leader in digital solutions for commercial and institutional foodservice. Our team supports restaurateurs in their digital transformation with an all-in-one solution (kiosk, cash register, KDS, online ordering).