When you own a restaurant, preparing outstanding meals, attending to customers and delivering the best customer service is usually top of mind. These are all important things to focus on but often times what is also just as critical to success is constantly evaluating staff. Part of that is taking into account how well your business's technology is suited for the latest in technological development.

Outdated Technology Can Hurt Business 

Technology may seem like the one the least of concerns for a restaurant, but when technology is grossly outdated, it can very well affect profits. Simple things such as credit card readers that take awhile to process or more complex things such as not being able to alert the attention of a waiter during busy hours. These are nuances that can be very frustrating to customers and lead to negative feedback in the form of social media or yelp reviews. Just spending a few minutes on Yelp can show just how vocal unsatisfied customers can express themselves publicly. It's actually technological advances in the form of social media and smartphones that have embolden customers to point out there frustrations with service.   

As people get more reliant on smartphones and used to using them in stores, restaurants that don't keep up with the times can run the risk of falling behind their competition. Increasingly restaurants are using stationary tablets on tables to show and make purchases from the menu, and today's customers are becoming accustomed to it. Of course nothing replaces the touch of one to one conversation, but for many of today's younger customers, being able to use technology as part of their diner experience goes beyond posting food pictures on Instagram. Mobile communication and payment systems are becoming a new norm. 

Restaurant Staff's Productivity Limits

Having an attentive staff is essential for a restaurant's success and unfortunately many staff members don't meet the expectations of owners. Some waiters can be very friendly and hard workers, but when they can't be at every table at once, inpatient customers can easily get upset. Aside from bad food, one of the most frustrating occurrences during dining is when you want to order something and can't get anyone's attention.

When a customer has the urge to order an extra drink or appetizer and can't get someone's attention, it can lead to a missed order if the customer gives up and settles for what they have. Stepping away from a table to search for someone is awkward and uncomfortable for many people so it's not unrealistic to think of how much money is lost when this happens. For a customer in need and willing to spend money not be served, it's a failure of service that should never happen. Unfortunately, for many restaurants it happens often and even more frustrating when it happens during times when it's not that busy. When this happens, customers get the impression of laziness and not valued as guests. 

How The Ready App Can Help Restaurants 

The good news though is that technology can also help solve these issues.

The Ready App was designed to be an answer to these frustrations and help both restaurants and customers improve the meal experience. With the Ready Mobile App, customers can view and pay their bills on demand and no longer have to wait to get anyone's attention. The process of finding someone, reviewing your bill, waiting for the waiter to get back and charge you card is now replaced with a simple click of a button on the app. 

Even opening up a tab is now greatly improved from the app and eliminates the nightmare of forgetting a credit card and discovering a day later with hundreds of dollars worth of charges you couldn't keep track of. With the app you can keep track of a tab and close it out with ease. For bartenders, you can also use the app to promote new cocktails and signature drinks through the ability to post pictures and branding on the interface.

For restaurant owners, the app can also help improve business by providing a direct forum for reviews from customers. If a customer has a bad experience, they can use the app to let you know and probably likely to keep it there instead of posting the same poor experience on a larger review site like Yelp or Google Reviews. This feedback is critical to improving your business and gives you an opportunity to respond to it before it gets out of hand.

In essence, it's another way to monitor how customers feel about your restaurant and give you a clearer picture on the outstanding issues you should focus on over others. Chances are you might not be aware of all the problems customers are having and some of them might be able to resolved quickly. You can turn a guest's poor experience into a second chance through service credits and refunds that are sent directly as messages from the app to the customer. This kind of intimate response makes customers feel important and probably assuage them to give you another try.  

If you aren't satisfied with how your restaurant's current technology is functioning, you should give the Ready App a try to see for yourself. It's free to download and available for both iOS and Android. The Ready App is updated regularly so there are always new features being added to it to help further improve performance.