The Best Software for a Quick Service Restaurant

The goal of any software program should be to help simplify your day-to-day tasks of running a business. With so many software options available in the food and beverage industry, it can become overwhelming to find the right software to run your business. Some software platforms may be better designed to run full restaurants, bars, food trucks, drive-thru, or other fast-food restaurants. Therefore, it’s important to really focus on the essential features that you need for your quick service restaurant.

Below are five key features to look for in software for Quick Service Restaurants:

  1. Speed of Service (SOS) Functionality

First and foremost, the system should be designed to speed up service and significantly cut down the manual work put into running your business. Having the right tools in place such as an online ordering system, an optimized screen to enter orders, mobile apps, a drive-thru POS, QR code menu, and self-service kiosks will help to improve your customer experience and speed of service dramatically. With online, mobile, and in-app ordering options, you can provide your customers the opportunity to cut down on the wait time by ordering takeout.

2. Operational Management

Employee Management tools including shift scheduling, time clock management, and payroll are essential for running any type of business. Quick service restaurants are no different. By having a software system that includes employee management tools, you will be able to prevent over and understaffing while easily tracking your staff’s hours worked each week.

Another item to look for from an operational standpoint is the availability of end of day reports, KPI tracking, and batch summaries.  With intelligent reporting, you’ll save time with reports that highlight your top sellers, busiest hours, and monthly progress. With this valuable data in real time, you will be able to make informed decisions for forecasting sales and staff scheduling

3. Payment Services

Setting up a merchant account is an important step for any business owner looking to collect credit card payments at their restaurant. This way you can easily accept credit card payments at your restaurant, online, or upon delivery. However, if you’re not careful, with some merchant processors you could be paying as much as 4-5% per transaction. The last thing you want to do is end up in a long-term commitment with a merchant service provider that ends up adding huge mark-ups to your transactions and overbilling you for services that you don’t need. Additionally, you will want to make sure that you have all the credit card terminals, contactless payment capabilities, and PIN pads available for your customers to quickly checkout. If you are looking to eliminate your processing fees altogether, you may want to add a cash discount program with your merchant processor. This way the processing fees are passed on to your customer.

4. Essential Integrations

Having the right integrations in place will help to eliminate any additional time spent exporting and importing reports, manually adding items to orders, or making other system adjustments. Some essential integrations to look for are food delivery services, QuickBooks, social media, and point of sale hardware.  If you are using or plan to use a third-party delivery service such as Uber Eats, Door Dash, or GrubHub, you will want to make sure there is a direct integration with your software so that you don’t have to manually input any information.

5. White Labeling and Customization

Finally, having customization tools available in your software and website will help you to better market your business and grow your brand. You will be able to decide the look and feel of your brand, order flow, and features to use for your quick service restaurant.  Using software that offers this type of customization such as white-labeled order platform, custom branded app, or a kiosk will help give your business the ability to build brand awareness in your community. Plus, you will be able to collect valuable customer data from those platforms to set up push notifications, track rewards, enhance customer engagement, and create more upsell opportunities.

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Jon Micklow

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About Gulf Management Systems

Gulf Management Systems (GMS) offers all the payment management systems that you need for your business. Our affordable management systems are designed to simplify your business management so that you can save time and money. Our payment management solutions include ACH payments, Credit Card Processing, Virtual terminals, Direct Deposit,  payment management software, and more! 

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