Using your Cafe EPOS to offer multiple ordering & delivery options
As the hospitality industry has well and truly kicked back into life, and the initial flurry of excitement of eating and drinking in venue dies down, we believe that the innovative ways of selling developed during the pandemic are here to stay. Consumers have come to expect more choice and flexibility, the more open & available your business can be for your customers, the better. Here we consider how Café’s and Coffee Shops can use their EPOS system to continue offering customers more ways to purchase.
Pre Covid, the high street and demands of consumers were already changing. The convenience of online shopping vs. in store was apparent within retail, and businesses were needing to adapt their strategies to provide multiple ways to buy. This was already beginning to filter down into the hospitality industry with the likes of Greggs exploring delivery and wholesale channels, Café Nero & Starbucks apps allowing you to pre-order your drinks for collection, and Deliveroo and Uber Eats giving customers the chance to get restaurant food at home.
Covid not only accelerated any plans or pilot schemes big businesses had in the pipeline, but also meant smaller independent venues needed to adapt quickly in order to keep revenues coming in.
In Venue
We have previously looked at the continued use of ordering apps in venue, now restrictions have been lifted. Whilst there are reports of QR Code fatigue, and many customers are keen to order from waiting staff or at the bar now they can, as long as you’re not forcing customers to use mobile ordering apps, it’s a great idea to keep them running as an option. A percentage of your customer base continuing to use ordering apps, will reduce queues at the counter, and makes your venue more accessible for those who may not be able to stand in a queue, or parents with small children. It also makes ordering that impromptu piece of cake for dessert so easy!
Our food & drink app is included as standard with the Essentials package of Tabology’s EPOS system, and being web based, means customers don’t need to download any specific apps.
Click & Collect
As workers return to the office, coffee shops are set to welcome back their flock of morning commuters. Having the ability to order a coffee from their phone ahead of time, for it to be waiting for them to simply pick up as they pass your venue could be the deciding factor on where this time poor bunch go for their morning caffeine fix.
Why not tap into them again on their way home? When the pandemic struck, and Pret began offering delivery for customers, they were surprised to find orders come in later in the day than their shops typically catered for. Having cook at home food options for your customers to collect as they pass on their way home could see a whole new revenue stream for your business.
Tabology’s integrated food & drink ordering app can be accessed via a link on your website or social platforms for customers to order via, their orders are handled by your EPOS with all the same functionality as a manually keyed order, i.e. hot drinks orders delivered to a barista & food orders delivered to the kitchen. If you’re collecting email addresses, you could even notify customers of any food left at the end of the day available at reduced prices, reducing food wastage.
Delivery
We’ve all read about the huge increase in spend across the delivery sector, with many hospitality venues using this as their main source of trade during lockdowns and periods of restriction. With the phrase ‘hospitality at home’ being coined, covering everything from subscription meal boxes, cook or finish at home meals, home cocktail kits and the familiar ready to eat food delivery options. Consumers are loving having a variety of their favourite food & drink options available at home and this trend doesn’t seem to be slowing now venues have opened their doors again.
Unless your venue demand is huge, you’re unlikely to want to manage your own delivery drivers, so will want to use a service like Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat etc. to manage everything for you. The downside here, is you can end up with multiple screens and systems to manage receiving orders from each platform, manually keying orders back into your EPOS. Our Café EPOS system integrates with all these delivery platforms for you, pulling all the orders directly into your main EPOS to be handled in the same way as an in-venue order.
The hospitality industry has shown it’s agile, fast paced and able to adapt quickly to ongoing changes over the past 18 months, offering consumers a wealth of different ways to enjoy food and drink both in venue and at home. We believe the key to being able to continue to offer all of these extras alongside your day-to-day operation is having everything integrated into one system. Having the ability to receive any orders placed in one place will ensure a smooth service for customer and venue.
If you are considering switching EPOS and would like to know more on how we can help manage the transition for you, get in touch.
