The role of a waiter should be heavily focused on hospitality—building rapport with guests, making expert wine recommendations, and ensuring the dining experience is flawless. Unfortunately, in many restaurants, waiters are reduced to glorified data-entry clerks, spending half their shift running back and forth between the table and a stationary POS terminal.
Here are 5 ways to leverage technology to drastically improve your waitstaff's efficiency.
1. Eliminate the "POS Run"
Every time a waiter takes an order on a notepad, they have to walk across the dining room to punch it into a terminal. This double-handling of data is inefficient and prone to errors. By implementing a QR Code Menu System, guests can fire their own orders, completely eliminating this step and freeing up the waiter to focus on service.
2. Smart Course Firing
Instead of a waiter having to manually remember to tell the kitchen to fire the mains after the appetizers are cleared, a comprehensive restaurant order management software allows the waiter to fire the next course with a single tap on a mobile tablet, right from the floor.
3. Instant "86" Notifications
When a dish runs out, the kitchen can update the KDS, which instantly pushes a notification to every waiter's tablet (and updates the guest-facing digital menu). This prevents the dreaded scenario of a waiter selling a special that no longer exists.
4. Automated Bill Splitting
Splitting a check four ways with different items is a massive time sink for a waiter. Modern systems allow guests to scan a QR code at the end of the meal, select precisely which items they are paying for, and settle the bill independently.
5. Wearable Notifications
Integrating smartwatch notifications ensures that when the kitchen marks an order as "Ready" on the KDS, the specific waiter assigned to that table feels a subtle vibration on their wrist, ensuring food never sits dying under the heat lamps.