A restaurant’s “back-of-house” generally refers to three parts: kitchen (the largest component), offices, and staff break room/rest area. A restaurant with a well-run back-of-house operation increases customer satisfaction, empowers staff to provide a higher level of customer service, and prepares the consistent, quality meals your customers expect at every visit.
Essential restaurant back-of-house technologies like a kitchen display system, durable receipt printers, and an all-in-one point of sale system help your kitchen run more smoothly so the front-of-house doesn’t suffer from long waits for a table, poorly timed service or incorrect orders.
Here are three restaurant back-of-house technologies that your eatery should implement right now:
- Kitchen display system (KDS)
A kitchen display system streamlines food preparation. This critical restaurant back-of-house technology helps manage customer expectations by preventing kitchen backups, monitoring prep times and alerting staff when things start to go awry. The KDS also lists out cooking directions/ingredients to ensure that diners have the same delicious experience every time they visit your restaurant.
A kitchen display system connects to the point of sale terminal and consists of software, a monitor that can resist moisture and heat, controller, and a bump bar to scroll through the orders. When the customer is finished ordering, data is sent through the kitchen controller to the appropriate location, either to a single screen or multiple ones at different food prep stations.
Selections are time stamped, labeled with the customer’s name and sent to the appropriate prep area at different times to ensure everything will be finished and served to the proper person simultaneously. This means diners will never have to wait for their friends to be served while their meal gets cold or receive their appetizer with their dinner being served immediately after.
- Fast, tough receipt printer for orders
Receipt printers are an integral part of your restaurant back-of-house technologies. However, an immaculately well-run kitchen is full of hazards for electronic components. Overuse, heat, spills, particles and steam can harm a restaurant kitchen printer, causing expensive work slowdowns, bottlenecks, and mistakes.
Restaurant owners looking for a quality printer for their kitchen should consider a durable receipt printer that can withstand this harsh environment. To guarantee a healthy ROI, the receipt printer chosen should be spill-proof and insect-proof. Additionally, consider a compact model that won’t take up much valuable back-of-the-house counter space. Ensure that the printer you choose is flexible and able to connect with future hardware by selecting one with a multi-interface. For example, the mC-Print3 fills all of these requirements, plus grants access to a suite of free value-added Star Cloud Services.
- All-in-one point of sale systems
All-in-one point of sale (POS) systems are exactly what the name implies: POS systems that include all the important components in space-saving configurations. The best all-in-one POS systems will give end-users the ability to add peripherals, upgrades, and new options as they come to market.
All-in-ones typically include a touchscreen, printer, cash drawer, and magnetic stripe reader, with the option of adding other peripherals such as a scale, bar code scanner, additional security options, and displays. In addition to the mC printers, Star’s mCollection includes 1D scanners, 2D imagers, customer display, and three NTEP-certified scales.
All-in-one POS systems can save a business money, time, and counter space. These systems have a much smaller footprint then a stationary terminal which frees up space for taking orders and impulse purchases. Purchasing an all in one POS means the components are equally rugged and designed for the environment you’re working in. This will also eliminate any headaches and runaround from different vendors when it’s time to make repairs to the system.
Take a Wholistic View of Your Operation
Restaurant back-of-house technologies can be just as important to profitability and customer service as solutions your restaurant uses in the front of the house. Evaluate your entire operation for areas that can operate more efficiently and find solutions that can address those issues, helping you save time and money.
