TechRyde

Restaurants are one of the workplaces where work never or hardly ever stops. From culinary to service, all the areas of operations work on full efficiency to provide their guests a memorable dining experience. However, with the times changing, there are certain pain points which affect the operations directly or indirectly, which can be eradicated with the help of technology.

 We are not in that time anymore where a restaurant keeps the same menu and pricing for years. On the contrary, as per frequently changing guests’ demands, rising competition, etc. the restaurants are making great efforts on bringing something new to their guests, everyday. Most of the restaurants have a special day wise menu- Chef’s Special/ Menu of the day, which needs to be updated on the digital platforms as well, so the customers could see it in time.

 Another challenge that many restaurateurs encounter, affecting their optimization, is where a restaurant runs out of a particular item, however, its online orders keep coming through. Such scenarios are not only embarrassing for a restaurant, but also affect the goodwill. And the mixing of orders due to human intervention, where in the worst case scenario, a vegetarian guest ends up receiving a non vegetarian dish. In countries where religious dietary laws are quite strict, such blunders could end up in a court case.

 Along with these are many small problems which have arisen since the digitization of the Food & Beverage sector, and it would not be wrong to rephrase these as modern problems, which require modern solutions. TechRyde powered online restaurant solutions, the idea of which stemmed from these very problems, are what the restaurants require to work hassle-free amid these on-growing challenges.

 AnyPOSConnector from TechRyde seamlessly connects with all aggregators including all payment aggregators such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Paypal, and Food delivery applications such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and others can also be easily connected with it.

 The Any POS Connector connects your POS system with online food aggregators, where single dashboard, single menu, and with less spending, you get all your restaurant online on all delivery ordering web platforms. Some of its key features are:-

 Menu Distribution- TechRyde's menu distribution System (MDS) is a single source of truth menu, owned and controlled by restaurants across any digital platform. TechRyde’s API syncs the entire restaurant menu with all third party apps.

There is no way to predict when a trend is going to be replaced with a new one in this competitive sector of Food and Beverage. Chefs and bartenders work day and night to bring in new concepts to engage more customers. However, some of these ideas shape the ongoing trends in the industry. Let’s talk about some of such new trends driving the Food & Beverage industry crazy:

25 Course Emoji based menu: One of the world’s best restaurants, Gaggan, featured 25 emojis printed on a single rectangle of translucent paper in a single column. After all 25 courses have been served, waiters present diners text based versions of the menu, so they place it under the emoji menu and figure out exactly what they ate.

 Inspired with this, many other restaurants worldwide are adapting such menus, and giving them a try. Mannequins & Teddy Bears in restaurants: Mannequins, in 1940s era clothing, occupy some vacant tables in the dining area of the Inn at Little Washington, in an effort to enforce social distancing, as restaurants around the world are getting creative about how to let patrons know where to sit.

 Similarly, Beef'n Beer in Hofheim, Germany, arranged teddy bears for keeping customers at a distance while maintaining levity. QR Codes: As the era of unsafe menus might be coming to a close, restaurants are replacing all their standard table elements, i.e. salt & pepper shakers, sauce squeezers, and menus with QR Codes. From ordering food, to making the payment, QR Code is the one man army, which, with just one click will take you through the menu, discounts, promotions, and billing.

 Healthy Eating: According to an article from Oklahoma State University, in 2019, the consumers observed a growing demand for healthier eating options, and 2020 is going to take this trend ahead with a fall in sugary foods.

If there is something that restaurant workers hate the most, it is doing inventory. Inventory is done daily, at the weekend, or at the end of every month where all the stocks of foods, beverages and many other items are taken into account. Things are measured, weighed, and counted manually and put up in the system. Inventory, when done manually, not only requires great manpower, but is also time consuming and lacks accuracy.

 One thing that most restaurateurs underestimate is the effect that their inventory can have on the revenue they generate. There are many ways in which inaccurate inventory levels affect the business:

Overstocking: A situation which arises due to excessive ordering which increases the risk of mass spoilage. Understocking: Due to poor forecasting, when Foods and Beverages are ordered in lesser quantities than required, it results in loss of revenue opportunity.

 Pilferage- Pilferage is very common where operations take place on a large scale and storages are not monitored, due to which it mostly goes unnoticed. Spoilage: It is another big factor which could affect the revenue as spoilages are best termed as cash throwing in the trash.

 Overuse in Recipe: While preparing food in a large quantity, any particular ingredient could be overused, which ultimately affects thqe inventory. Buying at higher cost from the local market: Any fluctuations in the local market could soar up prices of a certain raw food material, which could affect the costing of one or more dishes.

 Bypassing the quality standards: With an improper inventory, the quality standards are very much likely to be compromised in any restaurant. It is clear how an inaccurate inventory could affect the revenue. Here, the question arises, could there be a better way or indeed the right way of doing inventory? The inventory management system by TechRyde could be the best fit here as it offers many features which inventory like never before.

 TechRyde offers a cloud-based inventory system that automates your restaurant’s operations and manages your business efficiently. With its outlet level reporting, anti theft module and live inventory tracking, the system gives you an easy way to manage and control food costs. With its user-friendly interface that requires no special training, set the system up and running in no time.

 TechRyde inventory variance management system comes with features like Theft Control: A visual of raw materials and used produce variance allows you to monitor your inventory.

 Predictive Menus: Machine learning based predictive menus allows you to forecast your sourcing needs in advance. Clould based Inventory System: TechRyde hosts it so you don't have to worry about it. Simple and easy to use with no downtime. Mobile app and tablet support for stock taking. Single or Multiple Locations: Seamless coordination of inventory and stock along single or multiple locations.

 Easy on boarding: Easy on boarding allows you to use the system in no time. The simple user experience means no time gets wasted on training. Recipe Optimization: It allows you to balance your recipes while maintaining their costs. Suggestive Ordering: To avoid last minute shortage of any raw food material, keep your stock complete with suggestive ordering. The system suggests ordering of any item which is used very frequently or in large quantities and is likely to get over before the next order is made. Smart Inventory Taking: An effective solution to manage the operations of multiple outlets & franchises from a single place.

Ever since the global pandemic, we have completely changed the way we used to do things before, from dining out in a restaurant to receiving a home delivery, which is without getting in physical touch with the delivery person. The main reason behind this change is undoubtedly our health concern. This is the time when advanced payments solutions like ‘Self Pay’ by TechRyde could turn out to be a game changer. It enables payment from the guest's phone, where different tables would have their personal payment options enabled along with split and merge table options.

 Restaurants around the world as a gesture of care for their customers are encouraging digital payment apps for the safety of not only their customers but for their staff as well. This could be phrased as the end of the times of personal touch, which is now given without getting in touch with the customer. Should restaurants be cashless or not has always been a topic of heated discussion for quite long, however, with things completely changed, all restaurants are encouraging the cashless payment for their customers which should not be something surprising. Where on the other hand, small scale restaurants or Food Trucks are still struggling to go completely cashless as many find the POS (Point of Scale) system complicated and out of their affordability. Delivery aggregators like Zomato and Swiggy are keeping them in business amid the pandemic.

 W.H.O (World Health Organization) advised the public to make cashless payments as much as possible, in order to prevent the virus-spread. Where restaurants worldwide are contributing to this since, they were hit the hardest during the Coronavirus outbreak. Looking into the estimates from the National Restaurant Organization, approximately 30,000 restaurants in the US had permanently shut down, 110,000 more anticipated closing their doors by April. We cannot disagree from the fact that digital ordering processes shall be vital to the survival of restaurants during and after the pandemic.

We live in a society where we have more than one home chef in every family, and while cooking for their loved ones, sometimes these home chefs daydream of becoming professional chefs. However, this dream does not last longer than the cooking time in the kitchen. Due to the global pandemic, where endless people lost their jobs, many of them while cooking in their free time during the isolation, decided to switch careers and follow their passion, and having a new start as professional home chefs. However, as their business grows TechRyde solutions could help them match with the trends of industry by providing with advanced tools to handle business easily. Small scale businesses always lack in proper staffing, which leaves one with more work. With TechRyde solutions, most of the workload will be taken care of by the software, from digital payments to contact-less ordering, and the staff could execute operations more efficiently.

Digitalization, which has connected the world through the Internet was the first thing that helped the home chefs grow their businesses without stepping out of their houses. Messengers, Social Media and Delivery Aggregators like Zomato, Uber Eats, Deliveroo, DoorDash and Grab foods gave them business, regardless of how large or small their kitchen was. The shutting down of restaurants and eateries had left a huge gap which had to be filled back and that is where these home chefs came in. The Declining business of the Food and Beverage sector gave them a chance to revive it, but with a different approach.

The pandemic had left the society so fearful that people were afraid of ordering food from their favourite restaurants, as they did not trust their hygiene and sanitation. On the contrary, most home chefs got recognition in their locality since they were a familiar face that people trusted and thus they started getting orders from the neighbourhood. Society Whatsapp groups were a key factor which was then followed by word-of-mouth publicity. Many others came up with their own weekend menu that became a big hit. These menus are mostly pre-booked by their coworkers, friends and through social media pages, thus, a specific quantity is prepared which reduces the wastage and consequently, the losses.

 This makes it clear that social media definitely contributed its part in promoting the home chefs through various platforms like Facebook and Instagram. It not only gave them a digital ordering platform to promote their business, but also the customers. Here the customers felt being prioritized as they could directly ask the chef for small modifications as per their requirements. In a country like India, where some people avoid eating at restaurants because they cook vegetarian and non vegetarian food in the same pans, many home chefs used this concern like an opportunity and came up with pure vegetarian delivery kitchens, which got them a separate clientele.