How to Keep Internet Outages From Impacting Your Restaurant Business
In recent years, the Internet has become an essential part of how restaurants function and engage with customers. From online orders and mobile apps to VoIP phone systems to day-to-day in-house tasks like tracking orders, running appliances, taking payments and more, fast and reliable internet service has become vital to efficient operations and profitability. But what happens when your restaurant’s internet experiences an outage? Here are three ways your business can be impacted.
Orders and Tracking During an Internet Outage
With complex point-of-sale systems and tracking methods, you have more ways than ever to serve your customers. Real-time data provides valuable information to you as an operator or owner, with detailed insights into customer behavior and preference. It also makes it possible for your staff to deliver more personalized, customized service that deepens customer loyalty.
Receiving orders through mobile apps and loyalty programs can be hard to manage without dependable internet service. Lost and delayed online orders often result in confusion and frustration for employees and customers. Data received from internet-supported applications will continue to be a priority for restaurant managers as they find new ways to cater to customer needs and drive sales.
Back-of-House Equipment During an Internet Outage
If your restaurant is like most, it’s using technology to deliver consistent service and fulfill orders as efficiently as possible. Technology is increasingly playing a role in multiple back-of-house processes, with key metrics like service times and pre-programmed oven temperatures generated along the way. Managers and owners can use this data to improve operations, and employees can utilize it to help improve the customer experience.
Without the support of the internet and technology, delays in fulfilling orders and wait times start to compound, leading to inconsistent customer service and food quality. Infrequent internet outages may not cause more than a temporary blip in service or customer expectations, but continued occurrences often have a broader impact.
Payments During an Internet Outage
Frequent outages can severely impact the core of the restaurant: its profits. If one or more of your locations isn’t able to process live credit card payments, it won’t be able to authorize those payments in a timely way or accurately validate them, leading to delayed funds and possible loss. If you don’t have a way to keep cash flowing to and through your restaurant, while maintaining customer expectations, the impact can start reaching your bottom line.
What You Can Do During an Internet Outage
You can ensure that your restaurant continues to function during an internet outage with backup 4G service. The backup turns on automatically, allowing your staff to continue service without interruption. Payments keep flowing in, online orders (OLO) work, customers are satisfied, and potential revenue losses are minimized or eliminated.
At SymplyFi, our goal is simple: to make IT operations easy, reliable, and secure for multilocation restaurant businesses. Visit us at symplyfi.net to schedule a call today.
