How digital can simplify reservations, orders and deliveries for small businesses

Here at Libeo, we are all about making life easy for our partners in the hospitality industry. We know that mixups over reservations, orders and deliveries make life very hard. You can lose a customer's business when a reservation gets misentered or forgotten. And as it creates a wrong impression, they might never come back. 

If that wasn't enough, many restaurants, cafes and bakeries in today's marketplace offer click-and-collect or home delivery services. Here the scope for human error in sending food in the wrong direction is even greater. Late deliveries or preparing the wrong order can lead to devastating online reviews – and we all know that customers hit up the world wide web before booking a table, meal or room.

But as we've discussed, a digital revolution is transforming reservations, order placement and payment, and deliveries. Let's take a detailed look at how these hotel, bar and restaurant management tools can help your business.

Quick and error-free reservations

You can ensure an efficient service right from the booking stage. Online reservation platforms allow your customers to choose not only their preferred time but, when available, their preferred room or table too. A couple looking for a romantic nook can choose a cosy table in the corner, while a fun-loving party of six might opt to be close to the bar.

You also have the opportunity to highlight special offers and promotions and get the ball rolling on sales before the customer has set foot through your door. Automatic confirmation and reminder tools cut the risk of last-minute cancellations or no-shows.

Order up! Give your cash register superpowers

When orders get mixed up, it costs you time and money. Not only do your chefs need to prepare a different dish, but the experience can also leave your customers with a bad taste in their mouths–and that’s the last thing your restaurant needs or deserves! But with a digital setup, ordering is simplified. Processing times can be reduced and the potential for human error all but eliminated. 

Imagine how much less confusion there will be for your chefs if mobile orders go straight to the kitchen. Maybe your kitchens can be drama-free zones – although we won’t promise that!

EPOS systems have hundreds of business-friendly features. Equipped with a dynamic display of the seating plan that integrates reservations, they save time on placing customers. Plus, they analyse attendance in different areas of your restaurant. 

With this information, you can identify when traffic peaks, which promotions are most successful, and whether a particular voucher offer or advertisement hits the mark. These cash registers can also centralise flows from other channels (delivery, click and collect) or cross-reference sales data.

For your customers, bills sent by email and payment features that simplify splitting a tab are welcome features. That bickering party of eight trying to work out who ate what and whether two glasses of wine cost more than two bottles of beer will thank you – as will your team! 

With options to pay with their smartphone or use PayPal, you make the customer experience easier and more relaxing – not to mention, your waiting team will have more time to catch up with what’s happened with that returning customer’s local sports team or their holiday plans since their last visit.

Digital reservation and ordering tools

The Fork Manager is a digital solution that will manage reservations and promotions and maximise the online visibility of your restaurant, so you can entice tourists before they've left home. You now get a customised page for free that's visible on all devices.

Served Up offers fast, frictionless EPOS for pubs, bars and restaurants. It is an all-in-one solution that speeds up service, reduces staffing costs, and drives additional revenue. The tech streamlines venues to serve customers better and make operations easier for staff.

Maximising the gain and taking the pain out of deliveries

Our friends in the hospitality sector sometimes say they entered the delivery market with high hopes but that the friction in the experience made them wonder if it was worth the effort. 

Online solutions can assist here. You can centralise all orders at a single point of sale, whether from a delivery platform, website or on-site takeaway. Orders can appear directly on your EPOS, eliminating the risk of missed or duplicate sales. 

With an integrated dashboard, you can easily follow up on deliveries, and geolocation allows delivery times to be updated live. So you can keep that hungry customer who just won’t wait fully informed about their meal’s arrival time. Plus, these tools use delivery data to compare the efficiency of each platform and analyse delivery times in a given geographical area.

Smooth delivery management removes the barriers that made the initial launch of some delivery services problematic. Now it is easy for you to create a virtual brand around a new range of products. Best of all, it can be done at minimal cost and only takes a few clicks to display on a delivery platform.

Delivery platforms available for partnership

Try Otter integrates all online orders onto a single tablet that can link right into your POS, eliminating the need for manual entries and reducing stress and mess.

Deliverect will help you reduce delivery failures and mistakes and promises to speed up order preparation. 

If you'd like to know more about digital tools to help your restaurant, bar or hotel, check out the business impact of automated payment management