Cart
The iPad is typically thought of as an entertainment device. It’s typical use is to watch movies, surf the web, or play games. It’s a revolutionary device as far as entertainment is concerned, but it’s also become an important tool for business owners everywhere, including those that own restaurants.
If you dine out on a regular basis, you’ve no doubt seen iPads being used in a number of ways, and maybe even have wondered if you could benefit from having an iPad or two in your restaurant. It’s easy to see the potential negatives — namely the cost, as iPads aren’t cheap — but the expense can be justified when you see how much easier these devices can make running your restaurant. They can do a variety of things beyond having something to keep you occupied while you wait for your delivery guy to show up.
Read on to learn just how this popular electronic device can help you take your business to a whole new level.
Waiters Can Take Orders
In most table service restaurants, once patrons know what they want, the server writes the order on a pad of paper, or in some cases may simply try to remember the order without a pen. In the pre-computer era, they took this paper to the kitchen where the chef had to decipher what it said to get the diners’ orders right. Computers came along and made it easier by allowing restaurant owners to set up a station in which the waiter could then key the order in, making it easier on the kitchen staff, and ensuring better accuracy for orders, while also saving time.
Yes, this is faster, but the iPad can save you even more time. Instead of taking the order by hand and then walking over to the computer station to put it in, your wait staff can simply carry the iPad with them to the table and add the order as it is taken. The kitchen staff gets the order instantly, and the server can then go on to other business. There are no extra steps, and no waiting for another waiter to finish adding his order. This means faster service for the customer, and a more productive staff for you.
Customers Can View Menus
Another option is to let the customer use the iPad himself to place the order right at his table. While this option is not as common due to the cost (you’ll need as many iPads as you have tables) and higher risk (you have to trust that said customers won’t damage or steal your tablets), it will cut back on staffing since you won’t need full service waiters.
Some services will even allow your customers to pay their check at the table, without having to wait for their server. They can easily split up the check or quickly calculate the tip. Not only does this save you money, but it adds convenience to the customer, which will make them come back, especially if they are pressed for time.
Replace Your POS
One of the most popular uses of iPads, especially in small, casual places is that it can replace your cash register. With the right app, you can ring your customer up, and provide a total. Companies like Square, PayPal, and others allow you to attach a small credit card swipe to your iPad, where you can take payments. This system allows the customer to sign their credit card receipt directly on the screen, and can simply email a receipt if necessary. This is perfect for small spaces where you don’t have room for a computer or credit card machine, and you don’t have unsightly tangles of cords to deal with. Using the iPad for this purpose is safe and inexpensive as well since you only need one, and the customer interaction with it is minimal.
Keep Track of Inventory
Your iPad is also the perfect tool for taking inventory and doing other business tasks that you used to have to do at your desk in an office. It’s light and portable, which means you can work on the go. You can easily take it with you from the kitchen to your office, which means no wasteful print outs, and no carrying a heavy, cumbersome laptop.
It’s Surprisingly Easy and Inexpensive
While you may think that you have to be high tech or spend a lot of money to use iPads in your restaurant, the opposite is true.
Unless you use a notebook and an old fashioned calculator, you will likely need at least one computer for your restaurant. But nowadays a decent computer can be purchased for roughly the same price as the newest, largest iPad. Depending on which service you need, you may incur fees for apps and other services, but you have to pay for these things anyway. When you sit down and compare the cost of using an iPad to older methods of doing all these things, plus the savings you might get from lower payroll costs, you’ll be surprised to find that it’s about the same price, and over time, may save you money.
Perhaps the best thing about using an iPad in your restaurant is that it’s so easy to use. Whether it’s just your employees or both employees and customers using them, you’ll need very little training as many people already know how to use an iPad even if they don’t own one. If they don’t, it can take minutes to train someone. This means that you don’t have to spend time training your employees how to use complicated software that results in errors during the learning stage. Most people that know how to use an iPad can usually figure out how to use an app they’ve never seen in a few minutes. When you remember that time = money, any time you don’t have to spend training and retraining is money in your pocket.
It Keeps Your Business Fresh and Updated
When your customers come in to your restaurant and see iPads whether on the tables or when they pay their check, they get a sense of sophistication and luxury, even in a casual restaurant. An iPad looks fresh and new, with it’s clean lines and compactness. In a casual restaurant, you can seriously boost the impression on customers by having a waiter in a crisp white chef’s jacket carrying an iPad to their table.
Extra Tools
Depending on which company you go with, there are all kinds of extra features you may find useful to your business. Some will allow you to create a layout of your tables so that you can easily assign servers to specific tables. Others will allow you to do recipe costing, create menus, or have your employees use it to clock in and out.
Conclusion
Whether you are opening a restaurant or already have a well-established business, an iPad can be a useful addition. In addition to helping you streamline your business, it’s easy to use for employees and customers, and can keep all of your important business in one place.
Getting set up is easy once you decide which features are important to you, and once you do, you’ll quickly wonder just how you ever lived without it.