Restaurant Paging Systems and Solutions

How to improve service levels, efficiency and profitability in Restaurants Pubs and Bars!

One of the difficult things to face since 2020 here in the UK is the decline of many restaurants, pubs and bars. With temporary closing in 2020, increasing prices that never seem to end, a massive shortage of staff, and other pressures all contribute to the current state of the whole sector. There are many establishments that are no longer in business sadly, and some companies that are losing money or barely balancing the books. The customer foot fall has changed and these days customers demand high levels of service and low costs - and those two linked with the history as described here might be hard to achieve. But some companies are doing well so what is their secret? Can anyone do it? Do you need large budgets to make things happen? Below are some of the methods used by many companies that have 'turned around' that bad situation since 2020 and are pulling things back to profitability by increasing the technology in their business - and we can confirm it does work!

Controlling customers for improved service levels

One of the first areas where there can be a disjointed problem that affects table turns among many other things in a restaurant is calling guests or customers so they can be seated. Literally, there have been some mechanisms used by some companies (personally seen!) that are not compatible with good service or indeed restaurant aesthetics. One that always springs to mind (believe it or not) is one restaurant with a megaphone inside the building calling customers because the table is ready. While that might be hard to believe it is actually fact. There are two alternatives to using crazy techniques or other methods.

The first option is a guest paging system. While there are many out there, most of them are very low powered (they have the power of a car remote!) generally those types of systems have their own problems. Professional customer paging systems like those shown above are high powered and designed to operate for long periods over many years. Here's how it works:

• Customer arrives for their table but its not quite ready
• Customer is given a coaster pager and their name and pager number is noted.
• The customer is free to go outside, visit the beer garden or other facility while they wait and have no fear of losing their place in the 'queue'.
• When the table is ready, just a single button press will notify the customer to return.
• The table will be quickly filled by the patron.

As well as that solution, a second method that is similar, but includes an application so you can note on screen the customers name and pager number. When the table is ready, its a simple matter to recall the customer for their waiting table. However, advantages include:

• Visual on-screen of how long a customer has been waiting.
• Easy recall of customer
• Collection of data and key metrics for later review or analysis - this matters! Without this data its all anecdotal assumptions.
•  Customer can be called back by text

These types of solutions that speed up customer return are designed to ensure that customers are seated as fast as possible and without any of the 'fuss' that the megaphone created in the restaurant we cited earlier!

Keeping servers on the floor serving

Take a look around most restaurants and you can often see chaos right before your eyes. Waiters or servers running around often aimlessly, servers waiting by the kitchen serving window waiting for food to serve, waiters that don't always return to customers after food delivery and you can figure many more scenarios that are not mentioned generally in 'not so good' restaurants. Sometimes there's cold food delivered to the guest which is immediately rejected and that adds an extra cost to the meal - but can't be sold. So how can we ensure that those sort of issues don't happen in our restaurant, pub or bar? It's easier than what you think - and here's how it works:

• Give the chef a transmitter so he can call the waiter or server or runner when food is ready
• Give the waiter a pager for their belt that tells the waiter when the food is ready (messaged by the chef remember)
• When the waiter receives the message they collect the food immediately and serve it piping hot to the customers

So what are the advantages?

• Servers are ALWAYS busy tending to customers or guests and selling ancillaries like sweets, drinks or other consumables
• Servers deliver food as soon as ready, and this improves the table turns - thus increasing the profitability each busy night.
• Servers will receive increased tips from great service
• The restaurants service levels increase and customers love that
• The efficiency overall improves which means in some circumstances less staff so reduced overheads
• The aesthetics in the restaurant are generally improved

A kitchen to waiter or server paging system if you don't have one, or have a non-professional system should be at the top of the list for restaurants pubs and bars and the improvement overall will pay for a system typically in about a week!

Using call buttons to improve service levels

Restaurant service can sometimes suffer through staff shortages, lack of waiters because they are congregated at the kitchen window or other troublesome things. But it is possible to place a call button on each table so that guests can call for assistance (maybe an order) easily. It's all about ensuring that service is as fast as possible to the guests. Call buttons are perfect for exactly that. The guest simply presses a button,  the server receives a message (servers usually manage a zone) and attends as soon as they can to attend ton the guests needs. Yes it really is THAT simple. Linked with other systems its easy to see how these technologies change the overall operation.

How to deliver food to the correct table directly even when there are many tables!

Operating a large (or not so large sometimes) restaurant with even 100 tables at busy weekends is difficult. And finding the exact table that customers are seated at can have a big effect on table turns in a bad way. Some companies use 'spoons' or table tents to try and solve the table delivery issue, but frankly as soon as there are numbers of tables, even with table tents and other cursory ideas, nothing works too well. There is simply no answer! or is there? Back in about 2008 LRS invented the Table Tracker system that could actually determine EXACTLY where the customer was seated in the restaurant - even with hundreds of tables. Here's how it works:

• Customer orders food. A Tracker is given to the customer and the tracker number entered on to the food order in the ePOS
• The customer will sit anywhere in the restaurant, but the tracker senses the table the customer chooses and notifies the table tracker system.
• Even if a customer moves tables, the tracker will change the table number on the system accordingly.
• When the server leaves the collection point they will take the food, piping hot, directly to the exact table and customer.
• The server collects the tracker and clears it from the system for use with more customers.

The Table Tracker system also collects substantial data and key metrics that can be downloaded and analysed. Even for a large group, the data can be consolidated to produce results that cannot be collected any other way. Currently Table Tracker is on version three and has improved over every iteration. The effect on table turns cannot be over emphasized, but also that data frankly is priceless and will drive your restaurant to places that others cannot achieve without Table Tracker.

How to ensure safety and security in difficult times

There are times anywhere that the public are involved that there could be incidents of either security or health issues of visitors. Restaurants are no exception. Ensuring that both security and safety for patrons is good is seen as a legal requirement and for those reasons often walkie talkies or two-way radios becomes the key tool to use. There are so many restaurants that do use two way radios for this purpose that it is generally a 'de-facto' standard for security. And with equipment these days while remaining simple to use, but with features that take communications to the next level, wireless radios are the way to go. And remember, that features like lone worker and man down can apply to security staff too.

We supply every top brand of radio handset and accessories and supply literally thousands of radios every quarter to many companies. You can trust our customer services staff to offer no hard sales, but they will assist you and recommend the right equipment for your circumstance. Contact them on 01782 537000 of use the contact form.

We hope that this section of pager.co.uk has proved helpful in helping you to operate a great effective restaurant and we look forward to talking with you soon.

  

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