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Month: August 2021

Congratulations on winning the inresto Superstar, Aug 2021

Posted on by inresto

It comes as no surprise that this year restaurateurs have found their revival strategies through technology products and other alternative avenues. This brought a great sense of relief.

Your undying spirit and diner first approach makes us keep you forward every time we think of top dining services across India. As your long-standing restaurant technology partner, we are here again with the inresto Superstar initiative to acknowledge the efforts & outstanding services you deliver to your beloved diners. 

What is ‘inresto Superstar’?

A monthly initiative to identify and recognize the phenomenal dining experience provided by our partner restaurants using inresto’s product suite. It is an effort to celebrate the unrelenting spirit of restaurants across the country! Restaurants spread laughter, moments of joy and create memories for a lifetime for millions of people. And to make that possible, it takes a dedicated staff and the right technology to streamline all the restaurant operations. 

Raising a toast for all the winners of Aug 2021! Check out the superstars here:

International Special

Rasoi Ghar, UAE

This month’s International special mention goes to Rasaoi Ghar, UAE, for their outstanding work with inresto Guest and Reserve and for successfully making dining out such a larger-than-life experience for their diners. 

Pioneering a new concept for vegetarian food lovers, Rasoi Ghar is the go-to place for Indian vegetarian food lovers. They offer authentic flavors of Gujarat, Kathiyawad, and Rajasthan, and also a few other exotic delicacies from other regions of India.

They ensure a healthy balance in their cooking style without compromising on the flavors so that you feel at home. 

India’s inresto superstars from Aug 2021: 

1. Jungle Jamboree, Delhi

This jungle-themed restaurant makes sure you feel lost in the fantasy jungle world while enjoying your favourite cuisine. It is India’s first Restaurant that offers a 7 Course Buffet in a mesmerizing Jungle & Aqua Themed ambiance. 

2. Pop Tate’s, Mumbai

This leading chain of restaurants in Mumbai is one of the best places for all occasions- be it to hang around with a group of friends for an evening out, to watch sports, a party, family outing, date, or casual hangout.

It Specializes in Mexican cuisine and its Meso-American style of cooking Spanish food. In addition, they have an array of mouth-watering Seafood items. The eclectic bar menu offers a range of drinks and spirits to choose from. 

3. Coal Barbecues, Chennai

Coal Barbecues is a Casual Dining restaurant with tabletop cooking serving a variety of cuisines from Arabian to North Indian, Mediterranean, Asian, and Barbecue dishes. They are famous for their mouth-watering barbecue and grilled dishes. They also serve a wide array of choices in the buffet spread as well. Coal Barbecues has a lively and vibrant ambiance to make sure your mood is always lifted when you are there.

4. Uru Brewpark, Bangalore

A restaurant with an attached brewery spread over 1.5 acres of lung space in Bangalore is a favourite among diners for grabbing a beer and food with friends. This Chic, contemporary hangout place with outdoor tables offers eclectic global fare & craft beers.

5. Platform 65, Hyderabad

This multi-cuisine family restaurant resembling a toy train serves lip-smacking food from Chinese, North Indian, Andhra, and Telangana cuisines via innovative locomotive trains on your table. The enticing ambiance never fails to grab the diners’ interest, and the food takes away their heart. 

6. Fly Kouzina, Kolkata

It is Kolkata’s very first aircraft-themed, with a pure vegetarian multi cuisine menu.

Their delicious menu will win over your taste buds, while the masterpiece decor perfectly resembles the interior of an aircraft will give you the real feel of flying. FlyKouzina is meant to make your next dining experience magical and satisfying.

A big congratulations to all the superstars! We are happy to have helped you raise your revenue, increase productivity, and improve efficiency. We wish you continued success and happy diners all year long. 🙂

Keep reaching your restaurant business goals and continue to raise the bar for fellow restaurateurs with each passing year. 

 Check out the previous month’s inresto Superstars here. 

Restaurant Management Modules Every Growing Restaurant Needs

Posted on by inresto

Managing a restaurant on any regular day can range from minor scheduling delays to major management fiascos. Wish to have your cake and eat it too? While successfully managing a restaurant, you will find yourself in need of multiple helping hands and countless reminders. 

Restaurant Management Features Every Growing Restaurant Needs

What if all the help you need arrived in the exact manner you need and at the exact time, sometimes even without you having to set reminders! 

An interactive skill set that helps you efficiently manage your restaurant is a power tool that every restaurant needs at hand. So, the introduction of efficient restaurant management systems has given most restaurants the respite they need. 

Crucial Restaurant Management techniques to Consider Before Purchasing a complete restaurant management system

Irrespective of how big or small your restaurant, a good restaurant management system can truly benefit you in the long run and improve your restaurant’s productivity significantly. 

You will not only make your customers happy but also ensure that your staff is less burdened by repetitive tasks that can simply be managed by the right choice of restaurant software. 

While relying on restaurant management software sounds like a great idea, there are some modules to consider before purchasing one for your restaurant. 

We list down some of the most important restaurant management modules every growing restaurant needs:

1. Cloud Back-up

Imagine losing all your restaurant records due to circumstances out of your control. Not a pretty scenario, is it? That’s a high possibility if you don’t have a back-up of all your transactions and records. 

A cloud-based system allows your office experience to transcend beyond the four walls of your establishment. The ease of being able to manage your restaurant operations from anywhere at any time gives your business a cutting edge in these digitised times. Keeping all resources and operations manageable by a cloud-based system brings in transparency in all your dealings and reduces a high amount of human error.

And, with digital being the new normal, most restaurant management systems are cloud-based, allowing you to enjoy some peace of mind on this front. 

2. Inventory Management

Keeping an eye on the inventory is a crucial task for every restaurant to continue functioning to their best ability. However, taking stock of your inventory in the absence of an automated program can bring your tasks down to a snail’s pace. With the need for speedy completion of your stock-taking tasks, an electronic manager may be an answer to your problems. 

An automated inventory management system can bring you real-time figures and help you restock at the right time so that your restaurant functions effortlessly.

3. Table Management

Among all the restaurant management features a growing restaurant needs, this is a vital one, although it may not seem as such. 

For a growing restaurant, attending to every customer that enters their premises is a priority. Without a table management system in place, bustling restaurants may easily miss catering to certain clients or may delay in serving them. 

Rather than having your staff hover to find out which tables are available or likely to be emptied soon enough, the table management feature will keep you updated while reducing the time taken to attend to them and serve them, resulting in some very happy customers! 

4. Revenue Management

Knowing when to collect bills is a delicate affair. Presenting bills at the right time, neither early nor too late, is the key to customer satisfaction. A revenue manager that allows clients to pay through their choice of mode of payment, be it debit/credit card, cash, or other electronic media, is an advantage to your establishment. A mode of payment that is not only discreet enough for the individual performing the transaction, but also eases the routine is a much needed asset.

5. Menu Management

Restaurants that do not have an e-menu tend to rely on their printed menus for guests to choose their dish. However, a change in menu due to lack of stock or for seasonal dishes can lower the reputation of the restaurant among the diners.

No diner likes to be told that the dish they would most love to feast on is not available, whatever the reason may be. With a restaurant management system, you avoid these issues. 

6. Order Status Recounting

Whether you’re catering to someone dining within your restaurant or delivering to someone outside it, keeping track of the orders coming in requires a keen eye and a dedicated resource. Missing a single order can lower your reputation and ruin all the effort you’ve put in so far. 

An order status tracking program that allows customers to place their orders is a power tool that you won’t regret having on board. The tracker will allow you to not only place and track orders but also make necessary customisations to the orders that the customers place.

The order status recounting system works in tandem with a revenue manager system and backs up the records on your server. A system that can run in the absence of the internet, or during a network crash can prove to be a huge boon.

7. Loyalty Tracker

Like all businesses, keeping your customers happy is always a priority. The golden rule of the restaurant industry is: The better the client reviews, the higher the chances of customer referrals. Recognising and celebrating your recurring patrons gives them the satisfaction of having chosen a rewarding restaurant and improves your chances at having a higher number of recurring patrons.

8. Campaign Management 

Reaching the right customers is of utmost importance, especially in the current times. inresto’s campaign management feature enables you to build the right target audience and provide them with the best kind of engagement based on their demographics. You can also automate and schedule your campaigns through specific triggers. 

What about effectively connecting with the customers? Well, Campaign Management lets you opt for SMS, emails or Push notifications, so that you can build a holistic reach. 

One of the best takeaways of this feature is that you can access campaign analytics, which allows you to learn what’s working and what needs improvement. The multiple benefits that this feature provides are highly beneficial for growing businesses. 

Key Takeaways

Now that you have a better understanding of the crucial features to consider before purchasing your restaurant management system, you can jot down all the factors you deem necessary for your establishment. 

From a cloud back-up to an inventory manager, most of the above-mentioned pointers can be listed as vital restaurant management features every growing restaurant needs. Prioritizing your list of necessary features can help you make the right choice when purchasing a system for your establishment. So, consider your pressing needs before you buy a new restaurant management system.

Choosing a Restaurant POS system: Cloud vs Traditional

Posted on by inresto
Choosing a Restaurant POS system: Cloud vs Traditional

If you own a restaurant, chances are that you don multiple hats. Need help managing sales and conserving time and energy? POS systems are a great solution! Cloud POS systems can help you record sales efficiently so that you and your staff have more time on your hand. 

What are POS Systems?

POS (Point of sale) system is an integrated sales system that allows businesses to record and process the sale. It saves them time and provides price solutions without putting extra effort into the restaurants. 

In the old era of business, every task was done manually using pen paper. Billing was done using a bill book by mentioning the product and sales figure on the book and keeping the copies for maintaining the accounts. In the current era, restaurants can use POS instead of paper pen bill books. POS systems have changed with time, and now, cloud POS is in trend. 

Traditional POS systems are now less preferable due to the lack of security, need for extra training to the staff, maintaining sales manually, and keeping an eye on the system updates. Cloud POS systems are the new systems which help restaurant owners maintain the sale in a single approach. The system can be updated seamlessly and requires basic staff training, which means that it can be used by just about any business. What’s more, Cloud POC systems work as an extra security measure because they protect you against malware. 

Why should you pick Cloud POS Systems over Traditional POS Systems?

Traditional POS needs to be operated manually by the restaurant managers or workers. So, due to this manual operation, it does not ensure the security of cash as the data is uploaded on local servers only. The systems are liable to being manipulated, which can cause you to lose your data. Further, the need for data entry manually makes the traditional POS sets up a huge drawback. That’s why most systems don’t prefer to use the traditional POS systems over their cloud POS counterparts.

On the flip side, cloud POS systems are very easy to use and don’t need the extra effort of manual data maintenance. The system fills the data and maintains the security because it operates on a multi-server. It acquires data from the remote servers, establishes a strong connection, and integrates well with analytics, customer management, and inventory management to simplify work for restaurant owners. 

Nowadays, restaurants prefer cloud POS systems because these systems manage sales and customers well. Cloud POS is more like a central mechanism that operates the whole system and restaurant according to the available data. That’s why you should pick cloud POS systems over traditional POS systems. 

Pros and Cons of Using Cloud POS Systems

Here are some Pros and Cons of the Cloud POS Systems:

1. Enhanced Safety Features

Cloud POS systems are integrated by security measures through remote servers. Traditional POS systems are not as safe as compared to the cloud due to their local server storage system. Since data is stored in the cloud, the need for external data storage is eliminated. 

2. Operate Remotely from any Location

As a restaurant owner, if you want to track your business analytics, Cloud POS Systems make this very simple. You don’t need to install any hardware in your restaurant to access this data. Tracking employee records via remote servers becomes a simple process. You can also operate the restaurant without needing to be at the location. 

3. Reduce Maintenance

Installing cloud POS systems is a one-time investment and does not need extra maintenance on a monthly basis. 

4. Software used in the Cloud POS Systems

Cloud-based POS systems do not need any software to be installed on the systems and can be operated remotely from any device. Extra hardware is not required for managing tasks. To control the system, you will only need a simple app that can be installed on your phone or tablet. 

5. Data Accessibility for Cloud POS

Data is stored remotely and does not need local servers to be stored. Users do not have to be at the restaurant to access the data. Remote servers allow you to get the data from virtually anywhere. 

6. Cloud POS is Eco-friendly 

Since Cloud POS enables you to generate digital receipts, you can completely avoid printing out receipts. This paper-less service helps to prevent the cutting of trees, making it an eco-friendly option. 

7. Boost Customer Experience

No customer wants to sit and wait for the bill to be printed to proceed with the payment of the services he has availed. You can solve this problem by using Cloud POS on a handheld device, which enables fast payments. This simple change will bring happiness and satisfaction to your customer’s experience with your services. 

Final Remarks

We have outlined the various pros and cons of Cloud POS systems for you in this article. Cloud POS Systems help restaurant owners to smoothly manage the restaurant while avoiding operational issues. Since maintaining detailed records is essential for a good business, restaurants can use Cloud POS systems to carry out this process efficiently. A good POS system informs you about your sales and tracks specific analytics of your restaurant for your benefit. So, ensure you get a great POS system to take advantage of all the benefits we’ve listed above for you.

Find all your Answers at one place | inresto Support Centre

Posted on by inresto

No doubt that all this while technology has made our lives easy. It has been a blessing in disguise. Although, sometimes, the lack of knowledge on how to function with them can stop you from availing 100% advantage out of it. 

Our goal is to make your business run smoothly, efficiently, and profitably. inresto’s complete restaurant management solution provides you with end-to-end solutions for all your restaurant operations. We don’t want your business to face speed breakers. 

Find all your Answers at one place | inresto Support Centre

If you are new to inresto or have been using it for a while, our research team knows you well, and we know you seek answers related to your restaurant technology products on a daily basis. We are here to solve all your problems once and for all. 

This inresto Support centre is your destination to find answers to all the frequently asked questions. A web page that will make your life easier instantly.

What’s in it for you?

Check Out the page here. 

How a Restaurant Management System Lets You Run Multiple Outlets with Ease

Posted on by inresto

Running multiple restaurant outlets easily is no walk in the park. It requires tremendous zeal and business prowess to start a restaurant from scratch and take it to heights previously unimaginable. 

Think about operating an entire restaurant chain! Certainly not a piece of cake, right? 

Why Do You Need a Restaurant Management System?

There are far too many things to take care of in a restaurant chain. Some of these include, but are not limited to shift management, reports and bills, stock management, data security, delivery management, customer engagement, menu management, table, and orders management. 

Without a proper restaurant management system, you, as the owner, lose control over some or all these operations gradually. All you can work with are the reports submitted by your managers! 

Not only does this situation leave a lot of room for misappropriations and errors, but it also eats up a lot of your precious time. Powered by a cloud-based restaurant management system, you can access real-time data as well as speed-up your decision-making process. 

Now that you understand it, let’s proceed with our discussion on managing multiple restaurants with ease:

1. Manage Stock Transfers

In the absence of a restaurant management software, it’s up to the managers and staff to report to the owner regarding the stock transfer status. 

This approach, however, leads to excess inventory or out-of-stock situations in your restaurant chain. In either case, it will cost you a significant amount of money to fix it! 

However, with inresto’s supply chain management (SCM) system, you can optimize your inventory while eliminating any complexity in operations. Further, you can conveniently manage stock transfer within the outlets!

You can also leverage its additional features like vendor management and recipe management. 

2. Protect Your Data

When you’re running multiple outlets, managing huge amounts of data and protecting it becomes challenging. Safeguarding your inventories and assets is of utmost priority for any restaurant chain owner. At this point, technology comes into play. 

By using inresto’s cloud-based integrated Point of Sale (POS) system, you can track order queues, manage billing, assess reports, and customize offers without losing sight of all your data! 

Regardless of your current location, you can rest assured about the security of both diners’ and restaurant data with inresto.  

3. Get Real-Time Analytics

Running multiple restaurant outlets easily becomes taxing when it’s not possible for you to travel back and forth!

Internal thefts become a real possibility if you cannot monitor your restaurant chain as efficiently as you would like to. 

However, the good news is that you can eliminate this problem by utilizing real-time analytics offered by a restaurant management software anytime, anywhere! 

4. Maintain Brand Consistency

As an owner of a restaurant chain, you want to send the same message across all cities or countries where your branches are located.

Without maintaining the brand consistency across all the outlets, your branding efforts will go down the drain. It may sound harsh, but a confusing brand message affects your customers’ ability to establish trust with your restaurant or even identify with it.

In that case, inresto’s integrated marketing campaign will help you achieve consistency. You can conveniently re-target, interact, as well as engage with your diners across all locations similarly. 

Thus, it increases footfall and bodes well for your sales!

5. Leverage Central CRM

Without a doubt, you need a central customer database when we talk about how to run multiple restaurants with ease. That’s when having a centralized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software will come in handy. 

The CRM maintains everything: from ordering history to contact details of diners visiting each outlet. Besides, it will be easy to run reward points and loyalty programs for each brand from a remote location. 

You can try inresto’s loyalty program to increase repeat customers, customize programs, allocate rewards, customize reward plans, and generate detailed reports. 

6. Run Offers and Discounts

One of the most demanding operations to handle in a restaurant chain is the marketing campaign. Marketers and owners must ensure that the campaigns are pretty much balanced across all the outlets.

Geo-targeting becomes easy with a restaurant management software which allows you to run suitable offers and discounts for that location. 

Different cities require different marketing campaigns. What works in New York City may or may not work in Chicago. Having automated marketing tools and analytics at your disposal will certainly go a long way for you! 

The restaurant management software offered by inresto will allow you to run multiple marketing campaigns tailored to the geographic location. 

7. Assign Roles and Responsibilities

How to run multiple restaurants with ease? We cannot completely answer this question without taking your restaurant staff into account! 

Human resources are the core of every business. Having a restaurant chain spread across various locations means that you need to take care of a huge workforce. 

Managing such a workforce becomes a challenge for a restaurant owner. However, with the help of a cloud-based restaurant management system, you can effectively assign roles and responsibilities to your staff working at different outlets without having to visit any of them!

Further, you can also track their performance with ease using a POS system. It helps you establish a strong chain of command and ensure that employees are fulfilling their responsibilities diligently.  

Winding Up!

We discussed seven reasons why investing in a restaurant management system is indispensable for running multiple restaurant outlets easily. These reasons include keeping track of total items sold, counting live outlets, managing sales details, calculating the total bill count, applying discounts & offers, and securing your data!

You probably don’t have a budget constraint but if you do, don’t worry about it. A proper restaurant management software that fits all your requirements and makes your life easier will pay for itself in the future. 

Running a restaurant chain across different geographies is a mammoth endeavor. Whether it’s managing business, customers or employees, a restaurant management system will work like magic for you!

Pulse Episode 1 | Restaurant innovations post Pandemic

Posted on by inresto

As you are aware, inresto by dineout just launched its new webinar: PULSE, a monthly dose of the restaurant innovations & management techniques to help restaurants run their business smoothly and take it up a notch. 

Episode 1 was all about Restaurant Innovations post the Pandemic. Ideas and techniques that make your restaurant stand out from the competition. Led by Aafreen, Regional Head (West) Dineout, and Sanjula Miglani, Business Marketing Head, Dineout, the show answered the most important question of the year – How do we get customers to dine out & keep them coming back for more?

If you happen to miss it, well, here’s a recap of our 1st episode, or you can watch the entire video here. 

Some fun and interesting stats you didn’t know: 

  • At dineout, we matched the closing figures of 2019 when thankfully, there was no COVID in just 6 months of 2021: a testament of revenge eating, and people are making up for it by dining out more and more. 
  • Restaurants where the staff is fully vaccinated, have 75% more transactions which means that customers feel safer at these restaurants.
  • The entire restaurant industry is becoming friends with technology. Even luxury dining in five-star properties wasn’t left untouched by technology. For example, amidst the pandemic last year when the industry reopened, Oberoi started taking online orders for doorstep delivery. It helped a lot of businesses keep the momentum going. 
  • Online reservation to maintain 50% seating capacity has been welcomed by restaurateurs and diners alike.

Marketing Your Restaurant Tips and Tricks:

Skip to: 10:55 – 20:00 on our FB LIVE  to catch the entire marketing solutions.

1. Effective Social Media Marketing: The power of social media is expanding rapidly. In fact, with the growing appetite for video content, social channels are shifting their algorithm towards video formats.

2. Content Generation: Having drool-worthy images and videos on social media encourage users to take action. Scrolling past your feed during lunchtime, you will be more prone to ordering in if I see a post about a scrumptious spread at a special price. Restaurants need to go to experts for high-quality, user-intuitive content. 

3. Targeting: This new age requires restaurants to intelligently market that is targeting the right audience and is cost-effective at the same time. 

4. Website and Online Ordering Platform: When a restaurant has to rely on the food delivery business for a major part of its income, losing most of the profits in aggregator commissions is such a loss. That’s why having your website and online ordering platform is your key to successfully bringing more customers. 

5. Retargeting: Personalised Email and SMS communication for your diners are important to convey to them your offerings. 

Check out our entire marketing solutions package here. You will be surprised to know there is more to marketing than just photoshoots and social media posts. 

Audience Q&A Session: 

(Skip to 37.28 on our FB LIVE to catch all the answers to the questions our audience asked.)

1. How can a niche vegan brand gain more followers and generate more interest from new customers?

Customer persona comes into the picture here. For example, customers who order vegetarian dishes or opt for vegan dishes will be the right target audience—the communication for the same needs to be niche.

2. Influencers are quite popular these days, how can a restaurant work with an influencer to get more customers?

Influencer marketing is popular these days, but the key to having an influencer is that it should look like they have experienced your restaurant. Invite them over and to your restaurant, and they can go live from there or post a video of their experience. They can post pictures of food or bartender mixing drinks. The overall vibe of the place should come out in their communication. 

3. Some customers leave mean tweets or comments on Instagram even when our service was good; how can one tactfully handle any fun/out-of-the-box suggestions?

Be genuine, or you can reply to them in a witty manner like ‘It was not you, It was me,’ ‘we believe in second chances and so should you’ which will lighten the mood and make them overlook one instance and DM them a special offer to come back again.

4. What are some ways to keep the engagement high of a restaurant’s social media handle? 

Post engaging & relatable content. Users on these platforms like memes, so a brand can find its voice amongst the crowd when it speaks the language of its audience.

Stay tuned for more such insights on what goes on in the restaurant industry and how to bring in more customers to your restaurant business. We will be back with another episode soon!! 

Until then, save your questions so that we can answer them in our next episode.