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Why Has Automation Become Necessary in Restaurants?

Gone are the days when manual work was preferred over automation due to various reasons in restaurants like low competition, manageable customer demands, financial constraints, lack of digital innovation in the market, and so on. These days, however, technology is upgrading and so are the approaches. Business owners who would earlier work on disparate systems now may prefer to use a unified Hospitality Management Solution. No industry has escaped COVID impacts, and hospitality is no different. Restaurants are now shifting their management approach from manual and disparate tools to unified centralized Software Solutions for Hospitality.   Research has revealed that COVID forced existing technology to evolve even faster than was expected. Customers enjoyed the upgraded comfort and wish to continue it. Convenience is the key factor that compels customers into your business. From easy billing to fast delivery, to attractive meal deals, customers compulsively follow the path which offers more convenience. According to studies, it was found that about 60% of consumers are ready to spend a little more on good services.   Cloud Kitchens caught pace due to automation. Requiring low to no staff, and offering easily prepared dishes, boomed when restaurants were shut. Automation helped businesses to survive through the toughest times so far and protected them from the verge of shutting down completely.  Those who have implemented Hospitality Management solution like LS Retail Hospitality Solution not only survived but also went ahead of the competition effortlessly. They had a competitive edge because of robustly embedded tools such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Power BI (Business Intelligence). These tools immensely helped them cope with uncertainties and forthcoming challenges. On one hand, where most restaurants were fighting hard for their survival, those who adopted a unified Hospitality ERP Solution, were adapting and managing throughout the period. With multiple integrated tools and services on a single platform, restaurants have witnessed a whopping growth in the past few decades.   Why is Hospitality Management Solution So Critical?  Hospitality Management Solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Restaurants has so far helped businesses survive through all ups and downs and continue to be a fanatical support. The COVID outbreak affected the common seating practice in the restaurants and demanded a no-contact approach. Having the pandemic still lurking around, businesses are yet feared of its impacts. Hence, making automation the only solution to grow.   Assists in Keeping Up with the No-contact Trend  Migrating to city areas and their work culture is the main reason behind the large supply demand this industry witnesses. Currently, the market demands no-contact services as they are still feared of calling in sick (extremely sick). Hence, restaurants prefer Hospitality Management Software to keep up with this trend. LS Retail compliments a Mobile App for Hospitality Operations which reinforced your restaurant staff to resolve their query using their hand-held devices with minimum effort. They can use their mobile phones as a POS Software Solution and do everything a https://tridentinfo.com/ls-nav/ does. Taking orders and bills from the same devices fosters ease, empowerment, and staff potential.   Data Collection and Data Management   Data collection and accurate report building get easy with the right tools. Tools driven by Power BI in a Hospitality Management Solution are the easiest when it comes to data collection. It extracts data from different touchpoints and turns them into actionable reports. These reports target your requirements and assist decision-makers in making more logical decisions. LS Retail Software Solution is embedded with Power BI and Azure-driven tools. When it comes to data management Microsoft Cloud Azure is excellent. It offers either a fully managed relational, in-memory database, or NoSQL while spanning proprietary and open-source engines to suit the modern app developers.   Consistent and Error-free Services   Humans have different capacities and may not even feel well enough to work to their full potential. Moreover, the workforce is more likely to make constant errors, machines, however, are usually consistent and error-free. Automating your manual tasks will not only cut out the probability of errors but will also help your staff feel more empowered, eased, and motivated to give their best. Transferring responsibilities to machines gives enough time to your waiters to greet your customers and pay maximum attention to them. Hence increasing the customer service quality. In addition to it, a fully integrated Hospitality Management Solution saves floor space as the waiters do not have to travel to the kitchen to tell the customer orders. Instead, the information will automatically transfer to the right KDS (Kitchen Display System) using a POS Solution.   Better Understanding of Consumer   As cutting down physical interactions with customers was a priority for businesses in the pandemic inception, credit to digitalization some restaurants managed to get customer insights. Automation with the right tools made it possible to use this widely available data and use it for more effective strategy formation. Collecting data also means that the restaurants can provide personalized services to customers without having to directly interact with them.  Loyalty Programs   Having customer insight and understanding their behavior facilitates compelling loyalty programs. Using Business Intelligence tools to track customer data and create insightful reports. Based on these reports, a restaurant can segregate customers based on their choices, likings, spending patterns, and factors affecting their spending. Further, they can create exclusive deals for groups and individuals. In addition, it becomes a lot easier to decide on offering the right meal plan in the right location and chain. Using LS Retail CRM for Hospitality, one can maintain healthy relations with their customers and connect with them on an emotional level.   These days, automation has become so crucial it saves a restaurant from drowning. Having  Hospitality Management Solution like LS Retail provides ERP and CRM on the same platform hence making operations even easier. With integrated solutions, you no longer have to rely on disparate systems. Automation not only prevents errors but also boosts your staff’s potential. It makes your staff feel more confident and empowered. Passing monotonous responsibilities to automation leaves enough time for your staff to treat customers more warmly and fulfil

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How can Restaurants Create Attractive Menus? 

Have you ever wondered why a customer of yours only orders a specific dish and ignores others? Did they decide before if they wanted to have fried chicken with mayonnaise before walking into your restaurant? Was there something else that drove them to choose what they did? Yours Restaurant Management System plays a critical role in influencing your customers. Your Restaurant ERP System helps decide on a menu. A BI-oriented Restaurant CRM Software can help you understand your customers and identify popular dishes in a certain area. This is a huge advantage when creating a menu. Be cautious while selecting the right Restaurant Software Companies. One wrong decision can tie you down for up to five years and may supply a low ROI.   Customers tend to look at the menu for merely a few seconds. If it is effectively tailored, you can witness whooping sales and margin. Transform your menu from a simple and stale price list to an eye-catching marketing tool.   We have compiled a few tips to effectively give your menu a new lease of life ensuring it fulfils your customers’ and business needs.   Go Digital with a Restaurant Management System   The fundamental tip is to use suitable Restaurant Management Software, preferably a unified ERP and CRM. LS Retail is one of the most famous examples of a unified ERP and CRM. It also works on Power BI providing insightful business and market details. These details also specify meals that are in most demand area-wise. It is an incredible tool that helps spot opportunities to boost sales and profit margin.   Scale Down Your Menu   According to the UN National Restaurant Association’s report, many restaurants scaled back their menu at the peak of the pandemic. They axed complex dishes and only simple to make dishes were offered which could be prepared by lesser staff. This way they could cut their inventory requirements and ensure their staff’s potential could be maximized. Most of them utilized their Restaurant Management System to the  In many ways cutting down menus and shredding out less successful items is a logical step. If you keep more items on your list, you will need more inventory at hand which adds costs. Suitable Software for Restaurant Management provides robust inventory management tools, so you live to track and plan your inventory accordingly. Moreover, you may not be able to maintain the same quality throughout all the dishes, which will end up slowing down your pace.   Giving your customers too much time to think encourages them to take more time in deciding what they want. It is a clever idea to add only popular dishes and meals to your menu. Restaurant POS Software can help you identify the popular dishes.   Spot Your Most Famous Dishes  How much you manage to persuade your customers depends on how well you organize your menu. According to William Poundstone’s book Priceless, he described how restaurants list their high profit and expensive dishes on the top right corner of the menu to catch the customer’s eye and make them think of other items displayed as cheaper options. Also, using a Restaurant Management ERP will help you with spotting the famous dishes so you can plan further accordingly.  Boxes are another eye-catcher. Those items are boxed that the chef wants to sell, and people tend to purchase them at the same time. Boxes in assorted sizes promote a sense of flexibility among the buyers. They think they save money if they purchase the smaller size. In addition to it, you can also utilize colors to your benefit. For instance, the color red is used in limits to catch the eye of high-margin items. Orange stimulates appetite, whereas brown gives out an earthly vibe. With a Restaurant Management System, you can easily segment your menu using favorable colors.   Highlight Food, Instead of the Price   A scientist at Stanford University found that people are more likely to choose a less demanded, healthier option such as vegetable sides if they are given a more elaborated description. On the other hand, labels such as “twisted citrus glazed carrots,” attract more of their attention than a healthy vegetable side.   Similarly, you can also successfully justify the price tag of more expensive items. Diners will be more inclined to your expensive mutton curry if you manage to justify how premium it is prepared using top-grade ingredients. With a Restaurant ERP Solution, your customers can view such details on a POS device. It becomes easier to incline them toward a more expensive device with a Restaurant Management System.   LS Retail is a unified Restaurant Management System that helps restaurants manage their inventory and plan their menu. It is also easier to serve customers, and with insightful reports, successful strategies are on their way to implementation. If you are looking to implement LS Central and need a demonstration, Contact Trident.  

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What Tool Does Your Restaurant Need for Successful Loyalty Building Strategies? 

Determining how to attract more customers and encouraging existing customers to stay needs innovative strategies. For which restaurants need thorough analysis of their customers. A Restaurant CRM Solution like LS Central can provide an impactful platform for the same. With Power BI-driven tools, strategists can access real-time customer-oriented reports defining their spending patterns, preferences, and other relevant details through insightful reports.   You must be wondering; how does Power BI (Business Intelligence) manage to provide such insightful reports? Power BI is a collection of software services, applications, and connectors working together to turn distinct data sources into coherent, visually impressive, and interactive insights. It gathers and integrates data from different touchpoints and provides thorough research on each customer. Digitalization plays a key role in creating loyalty-boosting strategies. Restaurant POS Software, for instance, is more than just your regular billing software. It records every transaction, which later helps in building reports.   Without customer insights, your loyalty boosting strategies are going in vain. Multiple factors can hinder your success such as:   Inability to recognize customer patterns and implement the wrong strategy on them.   Sudden customer preference changes lead to an imbalance in services.   Inability to implement the right meal plans in the right chain.   Offering discounts on the wrong meal plans.   Inability to provide customized services.   Seeing every customer with the same vision.   Confusing wrong groups for certain deals and orders.   Inability to look appealing enough to the customer.   Using obsolete strategies can bore customers.   A successful Restaurant CRM Solution is the one that helps you resolve these issues and provides a smooth ecosystem for inventing impactful loyalty boosting strategies.   Use LS Retail’s Power BI to Foster Innovative Loyalty Boosting Strategy   To retain your customers and build loyalty in your restaurant, you must reward returning customers with offers and deals they cannot resist. LS Central Restaurant CRM Solution uses Power BI to identify loyal customers effortlessly. Using this Software for Restaurant Management, create loyalty programs that complement your goals.   Understand Your Customer’s Pattern  A loyalty program gives excellent value toward understanding your customer preferences better while efficiently predicting their next step. You can identify meal trends, micro-segments, and potential demand. By understanding your customer habits and identifying when and what vouchers are offered and are redeemed, you can enhance your marketing campaigns. With its POS Software Solution, you can also optimize stock mix and distribution.   Craft Attractive Loyalty Programs  As soon as you tie up your loyalty strategies with LS Retail Restaurant ERP Solution, you can craft programs to achieve your goals optimally while boosting customer satisfaction. Design different tiers with specified benefits. You can also set rules on how to collect and spend them. The best and most effective part is, you can segment customers according to their choices and preferences, then offer certain deals and offers according to the same.   Build an Emotional Bond with Your Customers  Apply customer data into your strategies and make your returning customers feel cared for. They might not realize it but subconsciously, they will create a special bond with your restaurant. Attractive deals will encourage them to bring their loved ones to your restaurant on their next visit. Alternatively, you can include a strategy that supports this idea; a deal that gives a certain discount if you bring someone with you on a certain date or day of the week. Numerous deals can be created using the same strategy.   Optimize Omni-Channel   Whether your customers order food online or come to your restaurant, you can still track their preferences and spending using omnichannel. This is essentially useful for providing customized offers and logical communication. You can create a tiered loyalty program to drive repeat online and offline business. You can divide a promo according to platforms; online and offline having different promos. Send customized vouchers on birthdays or anniversaries to VIP customers. You can also offer a blended order and pick-up mode. Let them order food online which they can later pick on their way home if they do not want to get delivered by your delivery boy.   Without impactful strategies, restaurants, especially emerging restaurants, cannot survive for long in this cut-throat competitive era. LS Central Restaurant CRM Solution provides a platform that allows crafting impactful and relevant strategies. If you are looking for LS Central implementation, you may contact us. 

What Tool Does Your Restaurant Need for Successful Loyalty Building Strategies?  Read More »

Why are Contactless Self Services Now Trending in the Hospitality Industry? 

Digital transformation is reshaping industry operations, especially in hospitality. Hospitality ERP Software is among the top solutions that restaurant owners are opting for now. Covid-19 Pandemic has boosted the digital evolution even further, because of which it has become a necessity to help keep up with this neck-to-neck competition where everyone is struggling with survival and maintaining profit at the same time. There is plenty of Hospitality ERP Software available in the market which offers contactless services like POS (point of sale), real-time data analysis, front, and back-office integration, etc.   It has become obvious why this industry requires ERP for Hospitality, it faced various challenges which could only be combated with contactless technology.   Social Distancing  Retaining Customers   Long Waiting Lines   Maintaining Hygiene   Lack of coordination between the front and the back office.   Social Distancing  operating a restaurant and complying with government social distancing regulations became the biggest challenge of all time. Business owners needed well-equipped Restaurant Management Software to keep up with the regulations and maintain a good customer inflow.   Retaining customers   In this dynamic era where consumers are constantly changing their demands and needs, restaurants need to adopt new strategies to retain existing customers and lure new customers to their business. This Hospitality ERP Software, with its dynamic tools, help you make customer-retaining strategies.   Long Waiting Lines  Traditionally the customers had to wait in the long queues after arriving or leave the restaurant to complete the ordering and billing process. However, now they need Hospitality ERP Software to make the process less frustrating and time-consuming.  Maintaining Hygiene   These days, one of the biggest challenges of all time includes maintaining hygiene, since the covid outbreak, this has become of the topmost concern of all times.   Lack of Coordination in the Back and Front Office  It gets quite tricky to maintain coordination between the front and the back office without a contactless service. A cloud-based POS can help with the issue. As soon as the order is placed the information will be flashed to the designated kitchen counter. This not only saves time but also maintains coordination between the front and the back office.   How Contactless Service Upgrades the Hospitality Industry?   Going contactless can have tremendous benefits; from maintaining hygiene to boosting customer inflow, you can witness it all. Its further benefits include:  Ensured Safety: one of the biggest concerns these days is maintaining hygiene and ensuring safety. Covid-19 has reconfigured the complete hospitality preface. Contactless services ensure touchless dine-in, payments, and other services, which helps build confidence in the customer’s eyes. Apart from this you are entitled to faster operations and do not have to fear data loss since everything is stored in the cloud.   Increased Mobility and Flexibility: an advanced Restaurant POS Solution makes sure the orders are accurately and instantly placed, straight from the table to the kitchen. It can also display nutritional and allergen information. Everything is extremely handy, which ends up saving your staff’s efforts. Therefore, they can serve each customer more attentively enough with greater enthusiasm. On one hand, they can bill from a device and on the other hand, they can take care of an entire group of customers enjoying their meal at the terrace. This is the magic of mobile POS.   Loyalty Programs: you can get real-time data at hand and track customer behavior to generate individual deals, offers, discounts, and other loyalty programs with Hospitality ERP Software. This is extremely helpful to retain existing customers and luring new customers into the business. Track your customer’s spending pattern and use it to your advantage. Get real-time market data and launch happy hours. Prepare meal deals, exclusive offers, and discounts for your customers.   Cut Costs and Boosts Profit: you can have real-time data at hand which ensures better business insights and suggests the number of ingredients needed, so you could order just the amount you need and minimize wastage. Therefore, it helps cut costs and increases profit margin. Also, you can cut down on inventory you do not need at all. Get it out of your list and use the balance on something more productive.   Develops a Goodwill: adopting contactless service not only makes business operations seamless, saves time, and cuts costs but also helps in building goodwill. It is a good measure to rapidly draw customers and generate a brand name. Everyone is drawn to more comforting and quicker services. Mobile POS allows seamless ordering, payments methods, and customizations which adds up as one of the precise qualities of your business.   Back and Front Office Integration: Using a Restaurant Back-office Management Solution you can experience great back and front office integration and make the ordering and serving process seamless. Hospitality ERP Software identifies the exacts amount of ingredients needed and place orders accordingly. Everything gets faster when the cloud comes into play. You can take orders via mobile POS and transmit the same data to the correct kitchen counter. It saves the staff’s time and efforts which would have been consumed by doing everything manually.   Adopting a Hospitality ERP Solution for your hospitality business can reap tremendous benefits, especially during this cutthroat era. Make sure you avail yourself of assistance from a reliable service provider with years of experience and relevant skills such as Trident Information Systems who are also a Gold Partner of Microsoft. For further information or a demonstration, contact us.

Why are Contactless Self Services Now Trending in the Hospitality Industry?  Read More »

Use Microsoft Power BI to Drive More Customer into Your Restaurant  

Restaurants these days are looking for the perfect Restaurant ERP Software Solution that fulfils their business needs such as LS Retail ERP. An ideal Restaurant Management Software is reinforced with insightful tools like Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is a robust tool used to extract insightful reports on customers or the overall business. It helps integrate distinct data sets, cleans data, and transforms it into a data model, and generates graphs and charts to provide data visually. The set of information can also be shared among other Power BI users in the business.   Overall, to boost and drive existing and new customers into your restaurant needs concrete data. Based on this, restaurants then make appropriate strategies like loyalty programs, offers, deals, discounts, rewards, and so on.   Microsoft Power BI collects data from almost all the touch-points, turns them into actionable reports, and helps restaurants achieve their target. Restaurants trying to understand their customers traditionally are left behind. Having outdated Software for Restaurant Management is another factor adding to it. Due to a lack of customer insight businesses might face issues such as:   Inability to meet shifting customers’ preferences.   Poor brand management.  Lack of clarity on creating loyalty programs.   Poor meal planning.  Detachment with valuable customers.  How does Power BI help restaurants drive More Customers in?  Using Microsoft Power BI, restaurants can track every transactional action taken by the customer, understand it, and based on it, help create relevant strategies to drive more business in.   Creates Effective Loyalty Programs  You can create effective loyalty programs based on your customers’ actions. You can segment customers according to their preferences and spending patterns. Segmentation enables the right program allocation to the right group. You can also create separate programs for individuals. For instance, giving away coupons and loyalty points drives more sales of services or meals.   Deals Based on Geography  You can also establish loyalty programs geographically. According to customer preferences in a certain area, you can create relevant offers. Also, you can offer suitable meal deals when the traffic is generally the highest. It can be on a certain day of the week or at a certain time of the day.  Connecting with Customers on an Emotional Level   Often People tend to purchase certain meals that are driven by their emotions. Being delivered personalized services, customers feel cared for and connect with a business emotionally. Once a business successfully connects with a customer, he will consciously or subconsciously come back to the same business.    Encourages Spreading Word of Mouth  Word of mouth is one of the strongest and most cost-effective promotional methods. People consider references from the people they know and trust. Having customers connected with your business emotionally drives them to bring their family, friends, and acquaintances to your business.  Sometimes, restaurants pay social media influencers to promote them. However, if pleased, they will recommend your business to their followers for free, hence providing free promotion.   What Makes Microsoft Power BI So Special? Earlier, operating a business based on guesses was normal. However, now, this is the riskiest thing a restaurant can do. Where every other business is leveraging the latest technology to get valuable insights, a lack of knowledge can thrust your restaurant back.  Microsoft Power BI helps deal with lack of clarity which is the root of other challenges.  Interactive Power BI Desktop   With the interactive Power BI desktop tool, the user can generate reports simply by accessing the data quickly. You do not need to develop advanced skills to work on this tool. It is non-tech friendly. It is easy to learn and even easier to use and the best thing is, it is free to download.    Tailored Visualization   Since every business runs on different terms, they might need data customization. Certain information may not be as useful to them. Power BI is designed to tackle such complex situations. The user can access the custom library of visualizations and design themselves a concept that fulfills your business needs.   Visibility  One of the biggest challenges that industries are facing is manipulating the existing data to drive essential information. Microsoft Power BI does the job for you. It collects data and turns it into insightful reports while enabling complete visibility throughout your business. It abolishes confusion and directs a straightforward way through efficient planning.    Strong Security   Power BI optimizes the active directory in order to set up access to the control panel. Via this panel only, the business will utilize different Microsoft solutions. Thus, apart from generating a traditional security layer, Power BI can also develop security allowing the team to grant controlled access.    Easy Implementation Process   It is very easy to implement Power BI. It demands low IT resources and engineering skills. Whereas in some instances no technical knowledge was required. All they have to do is create an API key and plug it into the software.    Help Managing Costs   With Business Intelligence analysis, businesses can recognize peak times, peak seasons, and even the efficiency of their labor. With accurate data, restaurants can opt for better strategies allowing them to manage costs. They can apply the right strategy according to location and customer demands.   Microsoft Power BI is a boon to customer-specific industries like hospitality, where direct consumer satisfaction makes or breaks a business. You can leverage Power BI with LS Retail. Contact Trident Information Systems, LS Retail Gold Partner to implement the solution. 

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5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Getting a Restaurant POS Vendor  

Have you decided to get a new Retail POS Solution for your business already? Congratulations, you can now experience the seamless services that will positively impact your business. It ensures smooth services, transactions, and operations.   With the right technology at hand, you can see tremendous changes in your business processing. If you decide to have a cloud Retail POS Solution like the one LS Retail offers, you can get real-time stock visibility and availability, get real-time generated reports, product information, and much more. If running a restaurant, you can access the best meal deals you can suggest to your clients, tell them about current offers or redeem their coupons. Your staff can take orders from one table and bill another table from the same device.  However, be cautious when you decide to get a POS for your business. In the market where every vendor seems to be better than the other, you have to pick the most suitable one carefully, as it will impact your next 5-6 years.  The first step is to answer the following questions before moving ahead:   Q1- What are Your Functionality Requirements?  These days POS systems are more than just billing software. They have transformed into something greater. They cover a whole range of operations in your business. However, sometimes having to choose between so many functionalities can become an overwhelming task. Retail POS Solution can ensure employee time clock, biometrics login, customer database, online ordering, table tracking, mobile POS as well as recipe and ingredient management.  They all seem good to have for your restaurant, don’t they? But is this the case? Having too many features can hamper your staff efficiency. They might get confused, overwhelmed, and perform tasks slowly.  You must map your business requirements and segment them into must-haves, nice to haves, and extras. An ideal Retail POS Solution will be one that checks all your urgent requirements. Furthermore, having a system that responds to all your needs will save you a fortune as well as effort during its implementation phase.  Q2- Is the POS Designed for Your Restaurant?   Point of Sales does not follow “one size fits all” restaurants have requirements when it comes to selecting a Retail POS Solution. Sure, a retail system might cover some functionalities such as employee scheduling or customer loyalty. However, a POS system has diverse needs, from the front office to the back, it has different needs.   A Restaurant POS Solution is specifically designed for a restaurant will help the user manage their daily tasks such as tracking ingredient use, managing recipes, adding, or removing an ingredient, sending orders straight to the kitchen, keeping tabs on the available inventory and required inventory, selling deals, and combos, and a lot more.  Do not settle for just any POS that comes your way. Put your time and effort into conducting research and then go for the one that checks all your required boxes.   Q3- What are its Methods to Consistently Deliver Quick Services?  Make sure the Retail POS Solution you choose follows a straightforward algorithm that ensures quick and consistent deliveries. Saturday nights are already hard, imagine adding a slow POS system to it. Ask yourself these questions before proceeding any further:   Is the POS interface intuitive? Can it segment your employees according to their job roles at that time? Or show the functionalities that are currently relevant?  Does it accept different payment methods? Or does it support split billing?  Can it run on handheld devices like tablets or mobile phones?   Can it still manage to perform if the internet connection goes down?   Q4- What will be the ROI (Return on Investment) of this Retail POS Solution?   It is a big commitment to have a Retail POS Solution, and having the right one will pay in the long run. Compare all the POS and check which offers the highest ROI. We suggest you ignore the upfront investment cost and consider how each of them is going to hit your bottom line.   Make sure the POS you are looking forward could perform the following tasks:   Spending less time training employees: In the industry with high employee turnover, you need technology that does not eat too much time training recruits. You can save a lot of money and time with an intuitive POS solution.   Helps reduce waste: Make sure your POS system helps manage inventory while tracking ingredient use. It must help you order the right amount of food and help reduce waste.   Manage Loyalty: Your system must segment and target your loyal customers. It must use technology to track each customer and identify the loyal customers. It should support loyalty programs.   Align data: Having different systems for different segments while collecting and comparing data demands a lot of time and effort. Having an end-to-end POS solution integrates different segments and brings all the data under the same platform.     Q5- Is your Vendor Trustworthy?  The market is full of vendors posing to be authentic and the best. However, do not fall into the trap. You do not want to select and install a random POS from a startup just because it is cheap. Make sure you opt for an authentic vendor, such as LS Retail.   You may regret having a random POS even more when you run into problems and find out that your vendor does not provide any support. Always take references and see their previous record, this way you can find out if the POS is even worth or just a waste of money.  It is important to wisely pick your POS system as it will impact your business for the next few years. Make sure you go through at least 5 references after checking their customers’ testimonies. LS Retail is one of the best Restaurant POS Software Vendors with an impactful record of accomplishment. If you are looking for an LS Retail implementation partner, contact us. 

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Top Trends In 2022 That Retailers Need to Adopt to Transform Customer Experience.

A decade ago, customer service was the key differentiator between brands ahead of the price and the product. Fast forward to 2021-2022, exceptional customer service is the primary agenda for businesses today. Physical stores never craved in-store customer experience improvement like this post COVID-19 era of mobile shopping, eCommerce. Most of them have already adopted solutions like LS Retail ERP followed by POS Software Solution to help them through difficult post COVID times.   As things are getting back to normal, retailers are excited about the new opportunities that 2022 holds for them. In a study, about 74% of retail sales are expected to go in the favor of store shops. According to some studies – 86% of consumers are willing to pay 25% more for an improved customer experience   However, due to the given stress in the past years, customers have become abrasive and will not stand any friction. One unpleasant experience may drive one-out-of-three customers away from the brand they were loyal to. Because of which retailers have a mounted pressure of providing an exceptional and eccentric customer experience.   Retailers need to put frazzled customers at ease and build loyalty and engagement programs. Retailers need to reimagine their businesses for the new age of retail by integrating online as well as offline platforms and transforming their store experiences with a unified technology.   Other than that, retailers must follow some trends that can make a whole lot of difference in their business in 2022:   Integrate Online as well as Offline Channels  Customers being busier than ever demand next-level convenience while shopping. They need the facility to decide while to purchase from the physical store or from online. Retailers might use a unified software solution such as LS Retail ERP that integrates websites, applications, third-party applications, etc., and provides a convenient shopping experience. Let them shop whenever they want, whether they want to shop while traveling in the metro, or on a vacation, maybe while cleaning the living room also. Having multiple shopping platforms and enough shopping convenience ends up boosting sales.   Imagine how frustrating it will get for a customer if they travel all the way to a shop only to find their desired product missing. Inconveniences while shopping shoes away customers and they might not even want to come back. Make sure you update your product data online, so your customers can check it online so they can come to the store and collect it or get it delivered at home.   Smartly Plan Inventory   Plan your inventory smartly with the right technology. Avoid overstocking and understocking as both scenarios lead to profit drain. Retailers need robust data analysis to understand market trends and plan inventory accordingly and avoid increased costs, inventory imbalance, decreased employee productivity and ineffective decisions, etc. Forecast demands and tracks inventory status in real-time with Business Intelligence. Track each customer who contacted your business and understand the trend followed by the masses. In 2022, due to rapid changes in customer demands and trends, retailers need to plan smartly.   Understand Each Customer and Connect Emotionally  To thrive in the 2022 retail market, it is mandatory to connect with customers. Retailers should create loyalty programs, exclusive deals, promo codes, and other relevant offers for them. It is best to have a system that tracks customer data, understands their spending pattern and factors driving their spending through each transaction. You can even offer tailored deals for individual customers or divide them into segments and do the necessary. Either way, customers are happy. They will feel acknowledged and cared for and ultimately bond with your brand.   Offer Cashless Payment and Self-Checkout    Enable cashless payment options like debit, credit, and online payments. Also, enable checkout counters to bust long queues. Upgrade your POS to cloud LS Retail POS and integrate the front office to the back. Empower your employees with a mobile POS system that contains each product’s data and inventory reports. This way you can boost your employees’ efficiency and streamline customer experiences. For instance, a customer is having a tough time finding a specific product at your store. One of your staff can look that up in the mobile POS and guide the customer ahead.   Apart from providing excellent product quality, customers demand excellent services as well. It is no more a luxury but a requirement. Businesses can integrate online and offline channels, plan inventory smartly, understand customers and connect with them emotionally, and offer cashless payment options with a unified software solution like LS Retail ERP. If you are looking for an Implementation partner, you may contact Trident Information Systems. We are the Gold Microsoft Dynamics 365 and LS Retail Implementation Partner. 

Top Trends In 2022 That Retailers Need to Adopt to Transform Customer Experience. Read More »

Make Your Restaurant Staff Happier and More Productive

The Hospitality Industry mounts severe pressure on the management as well as the staff. With increasing customer demands, restaurants are innovating strategies to cope with each other and move ahead. According to Deloitte research, 67% of consumers believe that having an authentic and engaging environment is the most important part of the overall customer experience. One can achieve this with Restaurant Management Software that offers Restaurant POS Systems.  However, frequent staff turnover is one of the most common issues in the F&B industry. Due to lack of staff, existing staff are expected to exceed more than the scope of their duties. This can lead to poor customer service, too much pressure on the staff, and exhausted resources.  Thankfully, we have Restaurant Management Software available which assists restaurants to adopt the latest approach, shun staff load, and ensure maximum engagement to the customer.   For businesses still working on outdated technology, things are not smooth: they encounter issues like:   High staff turnover.   Exceeding pressure on the existing employees.   Discontinuity of operations due to hardware breakdown.   Slow operations due to working in silos.   Overstocking and under-stocking of operations.   Hectic schedules, especially during peak times.   The pressure of waiters to coordinate between customers and the chef.   Technologies to Relieve your Staff and Endorse Better Customer Service   Owing to the technologies available in the market, you can equip your employees with robust advances and boost their productivity. Enable them enough time to give it all to the customers.   Cloud POS that Integrates Stock, Menus, and Prices  When the time is gone the waiter would roam around with a piece of paper and pet to deliver it straight to the kitchen with the risk of smudging or losing it their way. They can now use a Point-of-Sale solution that works on both mobile and tablet. These devices are affordable, easy to find, and more convenient. Your staff can go to the customers and record their orders and transfer the data to the kitchen. Apart from this, on the one hand, they can take orders from a group chilling at the terrace, while on the other hand, they can receive payments from the same POS on some other tables.   Things get way simpler with this technology. Additionally, they can also keep tabs on stock availability and avoid confusion where they must come back to the table and apologize for the inconvenience. They can also let customers know of the latest deals and offers on a specific meal, also they can suggest the most recommended dish so far to the customers.   If you opt for a unified Restaurant solution like LS Retail and integrate head office, kitchen, and the front office, your staff can be sure that the information they are provided: from prices to ingredients to product availability, is completely up to date.    Kitchen Display Systems  Coupled with the modern restaurant management software and cloud POS, the kitchen is connected with a two-way communication system where the orders are directly sent to the specific kitchen counter. Since the kitchen is sectioned among grills, fryers, bakes, beverages, salads, etc. the orders are sent directly to the right kitchen counter.  The Kitchen Display System (KDS) also enables additional facilities like customer comments, customization, and allergic altars to be marked specifically. Apart from this, it even enables manual customization so you could segment sections accordingly.   All these features are the precious support your staff desperately needs, especially during peak days and festive seasons. An effective KDS will also decrease the risk of dishes being sent back to the kitchen.   Shift Scheduling   Communication and clarity are necessary to maintain a healthy relationship between an employee and the employer. Miscommunication can leave both stressed out and exhausted. No employee likes being called during their day-off and asked why they are not there at the workplace and similarly, no employer likes to make such calls. You can have restaurant management software that is equipped with built-in scheduling functionality and organize complex shifts while sharing clear expectations.   A complete planning system also helps you apply up-to-date scheduling information to payroll, eliminating errors and ensuring you compensate everyone on time.   Role-Based Interface   Every staff member in a restaurant is assigned specific tasks and needs relevant information to comply with them. A waiter needs to know what dishes are available in the kitchen. Those working in the kitchen need to know the availability of the raw material, produce orders on time and know where each item is placed. As part of the management faculty, you need to make strategies to cut costs and provide maximum output.   You can cut costs and time with a customizable system that gives exact information each employee needs to see; you can maximize your staff time with role-based interfaces that enable them to focus on tasks relevant to them to deliver faster and more efficient services.   Intelligent Analytics and Report   The output of a restaurant does not limit its dining tables and staff alone. The managers need robust analytics tools to get insights into how their business is performing and pull out if the specifics are even working.   They can figure out where the business needs modifications? Are our loyal customers not coming back as frequently as before? Are our current facilities satisfying enough? Having such technology offers a glance over the prominent aspects of their restaurants.   These days, restaurant managers no longer have to browse through their Excel sheets and find out the issues. Instead, a Restaurant Management System supporting Intelligent Analytics and reporting functionalities enable insights the manager needs to act on. They can track loyalty programs, outputs, and success of the business while offsetting changes in ingredient pricing, menu customizations, staffing and offers, etc.   Restaurants need to get smarter and load their staff with less pressure. Equip your restaurant with a modern restaurant management system and optimize staff efficiency. LS Retail is one of the most renowned restaurant management software. Contact Trident if you are looking for its implementation.  

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Why Does Your Restaurant Business Need Intelligent Analytics?

Have you ever imagined the number of opportunities you are probably losing to your resistance to change? The past few months have proven that no business can stand longer in the competition while sticking to the old conventional ways. Especially during this time where changes, speed and agility became a survival need.   It did not take too long for restaurants to figure out the need to adopt new models of quick and efficient food delivery. The need for staffing changes, last-minute customizations, ingredient substitution, etc. needs quick processing. Traditional technology cannot support this agility. Therefore, restaurants need to start investing in the right technology that guarantees a greater level of agility.   According to the studies by IDC, companies who focus on building business intelligence improve their productivity, drive cost efficiency, and have 8 times the revenue and twice the profitability as non-digitally transformed enterprises.   How Analytics Benefits Your Restaurant Business   With the new Artificial Intelligence technology, businesses no longer rely on their data scientists to dig out insights and wade through data. There is cloud-based business-powered analytics available to most restaurants while providing tangible benefits.  Effective AI-powered analytics can provide tremendous benefits to a business such as:   Finds the meaningful patterns: Such analytics extracts even the trickiest data that a business person might not catch at first. For instance, you might note that your restaurant gets more customers as it rains. Or that your downtown location sells more wine glasses and fewer beers when you serve steak as the main.   Drives effective Ingredient Ordering: It tracks your historical consumption patterns and helps you forecast the probability of next week’s sales. The system also displays a report containing the necessary details you need to make in the next orders.   Minimizes waste: With the right information at hand, you can figure out why there is an extra can of sauce left, or how much content your freezer already has. Having accurate data on your current inventory helps you adjust just the right amount and while minimizing waste.   Optimize stock usage and distribution: You can also identify if the content in your freezer will be okay if shifted to a different location. You can relocate inventories accordingly and find the most appropriate alternatives that ensure maximum utilization of the spaces you have.   Creates a more logical menu: Intelligent Analytics can provide insights to design a perfect menu that compliments your guest’s taste while giving you more in return. Identify the dish that doesn’t return enough profit. Check if you can work with other dishes that can offer a better return. Check if your most popular dishes are even providing the revenue you expect.   Simplified Staffing: check if your restaurant is overstaffed or understaffed, how many workers are useful, and how many of them won’t make a difference if removed. Check if you have too many or too few staff working in a location at a specific time. Identify how you can make better use of their time and resources.   3 Tips for a Restaurant CIO  We have accumulated a few tips for CIOs to optimize intelligent business analytics for the maximum benefit of their restaurants.   Find the Subtle Drivers of Benefits  Optimize analytics to find the smaller driver of benefits. As it is important to concentrate on the KPIs like the number of laborers and the number of hours you are spending on your guests, you need to find the smaller sections that play a massive role in providing a good return. Figure out the factors that are driving your customers into your business. Identify why small changes are happening among your customers, the factors driving them, and how you can shift them.   Use Analytics to Predict   Many restaurants use historical analysis to understand what has happened. However, the real power of such analysis is to prepare you for the future, where the business is going, and how it can do better. It is essential to involve external data to determine external behavior. For instance, if you notice that the miles your customers travel have dropped, what could be the reasons behind it, and how you can mitigate against it.   Adjust Your Matrix   Take your previous table turns, for instance, how fast you can turn the tables only matters if you have enough guests to fill those tables. As the matrix changes, businesses must focus on serving more to the customers who already exist. Always pay attention to what is happening to your business before choosing the matrix you want to focus on.   To take full advantage of intelligent analytics, the first step is to discard the old disjointed applications and upgrade to a unified software solution like LS Retail. Trident Information Systems is one of the Gold Partners of LS Retail and Microsoft. Backed up with more than 150 technical resources, we have served several businesses. Contact us for further information. 

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Revolutionize Your Restaurant Experience with Technology

Everything in the kitchen has revolutionized in the past two decades; from smart appliances to the boom of the curbside kitchen, everything is influenced by technology. The hike in technology has also helped to cope with the moody customers. A comprehensively designed technology like LS Retail, it is a unified solution that offers a set of essentials every restaurant owner needs to streamline their operations.   The hospitality industry is one of the toughest industries to survive because it directly deals with customers. People from diverse backgrounds, mindsets, and preferences might demand different services. Keeping each of them happy sounds like a tough affair, doesn’t it?   Before the arrival of technology, every restaurant was in a compact shape, worked back office in silos, and allowed enough flaws in to slow down overall operations. The POS was just billing software capable of collecting bills offline and online separately.   The decision-making process was rather slower than it is today due to the lack of real-time and accurate data. As soon as technology signed in, restaurants started evolving in many ways:   Restaurant Expansion Beyond the Four Walls   Many customers these days prefer the comfort of their homes over any dining experience. Especially after covid-19, the demand for taking away has taken a hike. Allow your customers to order food from wherever they want and however they want. Integrate different channels and ensure enough flexibility with food ordering and payments. According to the National Restaurant Association, three out of five buyers in the US alone, order delivery or takeout. Apart from this, two out of five consumers claim that they would rather buy meal kits if their preferred restaurants offered them.   The time has passed when the customers had no other choice but to walk to their favorite restaurants just to have their favorite meals. However, the same is not the case with today’s guests. They demand their favorite delicacies the way they want, be it at their homes or in a restaurant. With the right technology, any restaurant can expand itself beyond the four walls, collect customer data from all interactions enabling both loyalty and personalization of their customer’s preferred touchpoints.   Unfold the New Eat-in Experience   In-store designs and layouts that present restaurant spaces popularized on social media, plates that look like a sheer piece of art, and an impressive essence of a brand. In the past few years, restaurants have focused on delivering an unforgettable experience to their guests.   Privacy and intimacy coupled with an excellent dine-in experience boost satisfaction to the next level. For example, in the Netherlands, a restaurant has set up a temporary greenhouse structure for two, so that couples could enjoy a luxurious time with privacy and intimacy. These innovations are not uncommon today.   For fast and quick casual establishments, self-serve kiosks or self-ordering devices can level up guests’ convenience. Self-ordering devices on the table can provide a hassle-free and contactless way of ordering, while also allowing guests to make it as quick or slow as they want.   Overall, the key to reading your customers is to understand what draws them in. To collect such data, restaurants need suitable technology that unifies all your key data (loyalty, sales, interactions) into a unified view. With this unified data you can see both the individual preferences and the big picture.   Empower Your Employees   In the restaurant industry, the employee turnover rate is notoriously high. According to some research, it can reach up to 75%. Many factors are causing it: such as a stressful environment, working in silos while having more customers in, fewer growth opportunities, etc. Technology can help tremendously to cope with situations like these. For example, by empowering your employees with a mobile POS (Point of Sale) device, the servers can help their customers more conveniently and make the work environment enticing overall. For instance, they can provide readily available information on whether the catch of the day is still available, or a particular chicken dish is gluten-free.   When you have all the information a click away, customer service becomes smoother and less stressful. Apart from this, when tech-savvy workers start joining the industry and arm themselves with the technology, it can take you ahead of the competition in one jump.   Optimize Artificial Intelligence  You can optimize Artificial Intelligence to improve efficiency and prevent waste. For instance, if there are new tariffs or droughts, and there is a specific ingredient that is hard to find, you can use AI and find more affordable ingredients or substitutes of the same. It displays all the options available to you and picks the best option.   No matter what your goal is, AI takes the responsibility to simplify the decision-making process by providing a full-fledged report containing every essential detail on the topic of your choice. However, to run through BI and analytics services, restaurants need to install a software solution that integrates data from different platforms and turns it into a unified actionable report.   Trident Information Systems offers a set of every tool you need to run your business and stay ahead of the competition. We are the Gold Microsoft and LS Retail Partners and have served multiple businesses so far. Armed with 150+ technical resources, we provide services in India and Beyond. For further information, contact us.  

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