The restaurant industry in the United States is a competitive one. Small businesses face many challenges, from finding the right location to hiring the best staff. Then there are the day-to-day tasks of keeping track of inventory, managing finances, and ensuring that customers have a positive dining experience.
Fortunately, there are now a number of solutions that can help restaurant entrepreneurs overcome these challenges and succeed.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the best restaurant management software and platforms for restaurant management, reservations, and hiring in the United States.
Restaurant Technologies Are An Underutilized Area For Entrepreneurs
As the restaurant industry in the United States becomes more and more competitive, it’s essential for restauranteurs to find ways to stand out from the crowd. One way to do this is by using restaurant technologies that can help them manage their business more efficiently, be more productive, and hire the best employees.
Some examples of popular restaurant technologies include:
- Restaurant management: Operating systems that can help you control your restaurant’s finances, inventory, and reservations.
- Employee recruitment: Programs that can help you find and hire the best employees for your restaurant.
- Customer relationship management (CRM): Tools that can help you manage your restaurant’s customer relationships and loyalty programs.
Let’s take a look at what it takes to make the best choice when selecting software to assist you to manage your restaurant business.
What To Keep In Mind Before Choosing Software
When deciding on which platforms to use and which brands are the best fit for your restaurant, it is important to keep the following factors in mind:
- Ease of use: They should be easy to use and come with step-by-step instructions on how to set it up and use its features.
- Cost: They can vary widely in terms of cost. Some are free, while others charge a monthly subscription fee. Be sure to compare pricing plans and choose one that fits your budget.
- Customer support: In case you run into any problems while using the tool, it is crucial to have access to customer support. Look for tools that offer 24/7 customer support or a live chat feature.
- Security: Especially when we’re talking about finances and delicate HR topics, security is a very important factor. Be sure to choose a solution that protects your customer and employee data.
Now that you know what to look for in restaurant technology, let’s take a look at some of the best platforms for restaurant management, reservations, and hiring in the United States.
Best Restaurant Management Software
If you run a restaurant in the US, you know how important it is to have a system that can help you manage all your activities on a daily basis. Every successful restaurant needs a great management solution and there are tons of software options out there, but some of the best include Toast, Upserve, and Square.
Toast
Toast is a tool that offers features like POS, inventory management and guest tracking. It’s a great option for smaller restaurants that are looking to streamline their operations.
Some of their benefits include:
- Easy-to-use POS system that helps small restaurants streamline their operations
- Inventory management
- Guest tracking
Upserve
Upserve is another great option for restaurant management. It offers similar features to Toast, but also includes tools for menu development and guest insights.
Some of their benefits include:
- Menu engineering
- Guest insights
- Track sales data and guest preferences
Square
Square is a popular choice for restaurants because it offers a complete point-of-sale system, covering all of what foodpreneurs need to run their own companies.
Some other benefits are included:
- Square’s mobile app allows restaurant owners to manage their businesses on the go.
- Online ordering, gift cards, and loyalty programs.
- Integration with other business applications, such as accounting and inventory management software.
After learning about all the available options to help you in your food business, let’s explore possibilities for making reservations.
Reservations Software
When choosing a reservations platform, it’s vital to consider the needs of your particular restaurant. If you have a lot of walk-in traffic, then an app that allows diners to easily book tables in advance may not be as important to you. On the other hand, if you’re looking to fill up empty seats during off-peak hours, technologies like Open Table could be a great option for you.
Open Table
Open Table is a popular tool that allows diners to easily book tables at their favorite restaurants. For restaurant owners, it provides a powerful marketing tool to help fill up empty seats during off-peak hours, giving support to manage large groups and events.
Some of the main benefits they offer are:
- Manage guest lists
- View real-time reports
- Create custom seating charts
- Integration with POS systems
Resy
Resy is a reservations solution that helps you manage your restaurant’s seating and schedule. It makes it easy for customers to book tables in advance and offers a mobile app so you can manage your restaurant on the go.
Some of the main benefits they offer are:
- Eases the process of table reservations for restaurants
- Offers a broad range of tools to help businesses run more efficiently
- Powerful marketing tool to fill up empty seats during off-peak hours
7Shifts
7Shifts is a restaurant scheduling and workforce management platform that helps restaurateurs manage their employees’ schedules and time off requests. The company also offers a mobile app for employees to clock in and out of their shifts.
Some of the main benefits they offer are:
- Schedule employee’s shifts
- Manage employee time off requests
- Monitor labor costs
- Communicate with employees
- Track employee performance
Recruiting Software
As the restaurant industry in the US continues to grow, so does the competition for top talent using restaurant benchmarks to stand out with the best people in their staff. With wages and working conditions improving, more people are looking to enter the culinary field. This means that restaurants need to be ahead of the curve when it comes to recruiting new employees.
Fortunately, there are a number of great apps out there that can help you find the best candidates for your business. Here are a few of our favorites:
HigherMe
HigherMe is a great platform for finding qualified candidates. A simple interface allows you to post job descriptions and receive applications from interested candidates, managing them all in one place.
Some of their benefits include:
- Search through HigherMe’s database of over 2 million hospitality professionals to find the perfect fit for your business
- Access to a wider pool of qualified candidates than you would through traditional methods.
- Text to apply feature, which incentivizes job seekers to finish their applications by receiving automated reminders from their mobile phones
Indeed
Indeed is one of the largest job search platforms in the world. With millions of visitors per month, you’re sure to find a large pool of qualified candidates on Indeed.
Here are some other benefits of using Indeed:
- More exposure for your job listing: With millions of visitors per month, the tool is one of the most popular job search solutions.
- Easy to use: Posting a job listing on Indeed is quick and easy. It’s just filling out the required information and start receiving applications from interested candidates.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is an underrated platform for employers. While many know it as a platform to find employee-submitted reviews about a company, there are metrics you can pull from this as an employer, too.
For example, how do current and former employees really feel about working at your restaurant? What demographics are reading these reviews? The better you can understand your strengths and weaknesses and who is looking at your brand, the better you can position yourself for that next round of hiring.
- Get a deeper understanding of your brand’s perception
- View important demographic metrics to make sure you appeal to the right audience
- Post your job ad on both Indeed and Glassdoor simultaneously for better exposure
There are a number of great operating systems out there that can help restaurant managers with everything from reservations to recruiting. By using the resources available on these platforms, you can save time and money while finding the best candidates for your business. So take advantage of these tools and make your restaurant the best it can be!