As a café owner, you have a very demanding job. For one, you need to serve a large number of frequent customers in a very fast-paced environment. You have to constantly check inventory, track your employees’ shifts, have a financial plan, and the list goes on. Also, you are doing everything in your power to provide exceptional customer service to keep up with the ever-growing competition. A lot of these operations can get very stressful. But what if technology had a solution for you? In fact, 95% of restaurant owners have said that the technology helps with improving business efficiency. There are apps for smartphones that will make it easier for you to run your café business. As part of our food business advice section, in this post we’ll delve into our most recommended apps.
The only catch is for you to have a working internet connection. You need to stay online the whole time your café is running so you can check on your progress and analytics. A plus point is that your customers will also have the benefit of enjoying your internet connection and that will keep them coming back. Go for reliable providers like Cox Internet, for example, for their wider connectivity and solid internet plans for your business. I think their support is top-notch, especially the fact they provide it in multiple languages. For example, you can contact numero de cox en español for their Spanish assistance.
Moving on, check out the following must-have apps that all café owners need in their smartphones.
7shifts: to Manage Your Employees’ Shifts
You have heard it all; the constant scheduling drama you’ve had to experience from your employees. But no more of that if you have the 7shifts app. All your employees need to have this app downloaded in their phones as well. They will have access to upcoming shifts that you have set up, can put in details of their availability, and request time off right from the app. In return, you, as the owner/manager, can approve their time-off requests, swapping shift requests, or even send them a message directly. The 7shifts app is the best app for managers to keep track of all their employees’ progress. For more reviews check this.
CrunchTime: For Managing Back-Office System
This app is the solution to managing back-office operations in your café. You can use the CrunchTime app to manage food costs, labor, inventory, and guest counts. You can turn on the notifications for reminders so that you can carry out tasks before they are overdue. Having all the data-driven insights about café operations help to run it as smoothly as possible.
Watch this video to get a glimpse:
Orderly: for Managing Food Cost Management
This app will save you time and money. You don’t have to manually keep count on the inventory anymore. Take and upload photos of invoices on the Orderly app and the cost of goods being sold will be calculated for you. You also need to constantly update your weekly sales in the app and you will be able to view the summary of food costs and the budget you have. No more counts and no more faulty numbers because the Orderly app will do all the calculations for you.
Watch this video to get a glimpse:
Uber Eats: For Delivering to Customers
Instead of takeout and delivery orders being managed by an employee standing by the phone, you can have orders collected over the Uber Eats app. The benefit of this is that the order taker can manage and collect orders from multiple customers at the same time through the app. Moreover, the Uber Eats app reduces the chance of errors being occurred as with over-the-phone orders. Both you and your customers will have the records of confirmation and accurate orders. The Uber Eats app has a user-friendly interface that your customers will enjoy.
Yelp for Business Owners
Most internet users don’t visit a coffee shop or restaurant without checking its reviews on Yelp. Yelp is a user-generated review site for many services such as restaurants, cafés, nightclubs, entertainment centers, doctors, you name it. Your customers post reviews about the places they have visited, which you can respond to privately or publicly. Other than that, customers can also interact with your business, make appointments, and make transactions or purchases. Hence, Yelp for Business is a great place to start for managing your brand’s reputation on the internet.
Watch this video to learn more:
Zonka Feedback: To Collect Customers’ Feedback
Worried how you are doing as a café owner? Get Zonka Feedback. It is a customer service management software for collecting feedback from your customers. When your customers are about to pay their bills, hand them a tablet with this app installed, and ask them to fill out the survey.
Don’t be deterred by negative feedback from your customers; take them as constructive criticism that you can work on for improvement.
Feedly: Keep Up with the Competitors
The Feedly app serves you with the latest news and updates about businesses, trade, politics, influencers, and whatnot. You can use the Feebly app to keep up with the café industry so you can learn about your competitors, what menus they are serving, reviews, new menus to introduce and the likes.
Final Thoughts
Managing and running the whole café can get quite hectic for one person, which is why technology has every kind of possible solution to make the job easier. With the help of these apps, it will make it easier for you, as a café owner, to focus on making your café successful and improving the whole customer experience.
