Technology
A new year calls for embracing new tech
The right tech stack, with the point-of-sale system at the heart of the ecosystem, can make or break a pizzeria's long term viability in today’s marketplace.
January 24, 2024 by Chris Lybeer — Chief Strategy Officer, Revel Systems
When you think about your favorite pizza pie, you likely associate it with being delivered hot and fresh to your doorstep. Pizza is synonymous with delivery, and most pizzerias put first class delivery capabilities at the top of their technology stack wishlists. Whether they rely on third-party delivery providers or native tools, most would argue that you can't run a successful pizzeria without delivery.
However, there are so many more aspects to running a successful pizzeria in 2024, a restaurant environment with classic staples that also remains very dynamic in keeping with shifting market expectations. The right tech stack, with the point of sale (POS) at the heart of the ecosystem, can make or break a pizzerias' long term viability in today's marketplace.
From deployment speed, to ease-of-use, to scalability and beyond, let this be your sign that investing in the right technology can revolutionize the way you prep pies and turn tables. Let's dive in.
A connected kitchen is an efficient kitchen
For a busy pizzeria, an efficient kitchen is perhaps one of the most critical aspects of its operations. Customers love their favorite customized pizza pie, and in order to retain loyal patrons, that pizza needs to make it into the hands of the customer hot and accurately without putting a strain on the kitchen.
Implementing a kitchen display system (KDS) is a best-in-class solution pizzerias can leverage to eliminate the waste, cost, and hassle of paper tickets. In addition to making a kitchen paperless, a KDS removes different shorthand naming conventions, making for a simpler and more trackable order flow. The power of the KDS is that it displays orders from all channels as they come into the POS, resulting in increased speed of service while also improving order accuracy.
For one restaurant brand, locations using KDS were saving roughly a minute per order in the back of the house. That's a huge win in the fast-paced world of pizza, making cloud order management systems with integrated KDS a must-have for pizzeria kitchens in 2024.
Built-in scalability matters
Whether your pizzeria has three locations with plans for growth, or you're already a large enterprise operation, selecting technology that can grow alongside your business is always the right investment.
A big piece of built-in scalability is selecting a POS that allows your add-on tech stack to evolve alongside your business. One popular southwestern pizza chain takes advantage of an open API, which allows their team to develop online ordering, mobile payments, and customer loyalty programs that strengthen the company's position in a very competitive marketplace. By having access to these third-party, best-in-class solutions, your pizzeria can always build on its core infrastructure.
A cloud POS platform also makes managing and organizing your order channel data for multiple locations easier than ever. If you need to push a new menu item to several store locations and their third-party integrations for online ordering and delivery—or perhaps you're opening up a new location and want to simply duplicate an existing store's setup — a centralized, cloud-backed dashboard makes it possible with the push of a button. One Midwest pizza chain leverages this capability to take a process that used to take a full day down to less than an hour.
A focus on deployment speed and training
Although automation is already a buzz word across restaurant industry verticals, some operators still find themselves investing valuable time in deploying and training employees on new technology. A point of sale that is truly designed to train the trainer can mitigate a pizzeria's reliance on experienced labor, making it easier to deploy new technology, operate the pizzeria, and onboard new employees.
One Midwest pizza chain recently selected a cloud POS platform and collaborated on a highly successful implementation approach, which included comprehensive upfront planning so that the pizzeria's employees could easily self-install the platform in just a few hours across sites.
When implementing cloud technology that is built for the end-user, operators embrace technology at a more rapid rate, benefit from reduction of labor, and spend more time enhancing the customer experience, meaning the pizzeria of the future is more efficient than ever.
The pizzeria of 2024 and beyond
A new year is always a great time to invite welcomed change into your operations, which, naturally, is easier said than done. Partnering with a cloud POS provider that focuses on ease-of-use, efficiency in the kitchen, and scalability is a great place to start when it comes to running a standout pizzeria in 2024 and beyond.
Included In This Story
SkyTab
Revel Systems is an open cloud order management platform at the heart of our clients’ business. Through flexible architecture and open API, Revel ensures brands have the freedom they need to design a full tech stack that meets their needs, enabling them to provide an unmatched customer experience, diversify revenue streams, and scale with ease.
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