Technology can help speed up service
In a busy food operation, one of the biggest problems is getting the dishes out to customers before they get cold - and the customers get irritable.
Technology can help, however. JTech specialises in paging systems for the hospitality industry than can improve communications between the kitchen and staff and the diners themselves, speeding up service, increasing efficiency and improving the relationship with customers.
The most basic kind is a simple pager to alert waiting staff or barstaff that an order is ready and waiting for them in the kitchen, but there are other levels of sophistication. The latest version of JTech's ServAlert starts with the VPS transmitter which sends signals from the kitchen to the pagers.
Consisting of a column of between eight and 32 touch-pad numbers - depending on the size of the operation - which relate to the individual pagers carried by staff, it is light, tough and wipes clean.
When the chef presses the number a silent, vibrating signal is transmitted to the pager, calling the member of staff to the kitchen.
"It is a very simple system, easy to install, yet it has enormous pay-back potential," said Peter Hutchinson, managing director of JTech distributor Call-Systems Technology. "By speeding up communications between kitchen and waiting staff it delivers faster turnaround so more customers can be served, generating more profit.
"It also means food is served hot and cuts down on reheats caused by staff taking too long to pick up the order. Because customers are more satisfied they tend to tip more generously - so staff are happier too."
Peter claims that a paging system, which costs from about £1,000, can pay for itself in 90 days. "A conservative estimate would suggest that a restaurant can add at least one extra table during busy times as service is speeded up," he said. "Assuming you have only three busy shifts in a week, each table has to generate less than £30 to cover the cost of the system within three months."
Taking this a step further, staff can also give customers a pager. This can either buzz them while they are waiting in the bar to let them know their table is ready or tell them to come and collect their order.
JTech also produces a pager in a drinks coaster, which flashes when the table is ready.
And paging systems can be integrated with your EPoS and back office PC to give you information about how your catering operation is performing, hour-by-hour, day-by-day.
