For most restaurant owners, managers, and employees, working in the food service industry means working in what can only be described as organized chaos. So many things have to be happening at once in order for a restaurant to operate smoothly– meals being prepared, dishes washed, orders taken, countless interactions held between back-of-house staff, front-of-house staff, and customers… the list goes on and on.

Ensuring that your restaurant workflows don’t hit any unexpected snags is essential– after all, delays anywhere can mean lost business and lost profit.

Luckily, there are plenty of tools that restaurants can use to streamline their business and keep their profits high. Today, we’ll be going over how these 3 tools can help you do just that:

• Scheduling software
• Waitlist software
• Online ordering app

Your staff is a huge part of the customer experience. Make sure your front-of-house and back-of-house are always fully staffed without spending endless hours in your scheduling binder when you switch to a scheduling software.

1. Scheduling software makes it easy to staff your restaurant.

Scheduling is the bane of every restaurant manager’s existence. Luckily, technology has evolved to help us make scheduling employee shifts a little less painful. You can download scheduling software that makes it easy to keep employee shifts and time cards organized with features like:

• Managing different employee positions, departments, and locations all in one place
• Notifying employee of schedule updates and upcoming shifts
• Limiting the amount of time your employees can remain clocked in to prevent end of shift oversights from causing a headache later on
• Allowing employees to add or pick up shifts where necessary
• And more!

An organized waitlist experienced keeps your front-of-house staff moving and your customers happy.

2. Waitlist software is an inexpensive way to upgrade your customers’ front-of-house experience.

Having your hosts and hostesses take down customer information for a waitlist by hand is time-consuming and can easily get disorganized. Keep your front-of-house staff from getting overwhelmed and keep your customers from getting hangry when you invest in waitlist software.

Waitlist software allows you to take customer information, update them via text message, and even manage your restaurant’s seating chart all from one convenient application. If that doesn’t streamline your waitlist experience, nothing will!

3. Online ordering apps help you expand your reach and grow your profits.

Sure, plenty of people still want the experience of going out to eat at a restaurant, but if you haven’t expanded into the delivery and online ordering game, you’re missing out on a huge market. Allowing customers to order online results in plenty of perks for your business:

• Customers ordering online may place bigger orders than customers ordering in house
• You’re meeting your customers where they are already– online!
• You’ll put yourself ahead of competitors who haven’t gotten the memo about online ordering apps yet

Tools like scheduling software and online ordering apps keep everyone– from front-of-house staff to back-of-house staff to customers– smiling.

From scheduling your employees to managing customer wait times, it can be difficult to keep everything at your restaurant running smoothly– or at least, it used to be. These 3 techy solutions can help you take your business to the next level, preventing organizational headaches and helping you bring in more customers.

What’s your favorite restaurant management tool? Let us know in the comments below!