According to the Garden Centre Association’s Barometer of Trade report, catering sales in garden centres were up a staggering 3,679% in March 2022 compared to the same month in 2021, and have been up throughout 2022 so far^[1], which neatly demonstrates just how important this arm of the business has become. Now playing a key role in driving revenue and footfall, café and restaurant F&B managers in garden centres must deliver on evolving customer expectations in order to continue to drive growth in 2022.

Delivering exceptional customer service in garden centre cafés and restaurants can be easily achieved by implementing the right tech – and technology specifically designed to meet the challenges of a hospitality environment can be employed to give garden centre restaurants the edge.

Here are four ways this tech can help improve the customer journey in your garden centre restaurant or cafe:

1. Booking systems can reduce queue times

Although Brits are known to love a queue, we don’t like to be kept waiting unnecessarily. In fact, according to research we conducted together with KAM Media, a main bugbear for consumers when spending time in a restaurant is being forced to queue for a table, with 55% of consumers citing this as a top frustration.

Implementing a simple and easy-to-use booking system is one solution to alleviating this pain point. Having systems in place that allow customers to either reserve a table, or be added to a waiting list whilst they shop and be alerted when their table is available, is a great way to manage customer expectations and alleviate a major pain point for customers.

Further research also showed that 64% of consumers have reserved a table or space to eat or drink out since hospitality venues reopened in April 2021. With more customers wanting to have the assurance that their table is booked and ready for them, garden centres that provide customers with this facility will get happier customers as a result.

2. Mobile devices can speed up service

Not only do customers not like to be kept waiting, but we know from our research that customers are looking for slick, quick, convenient service. In fact, we know that more than a quarter of consumers (29%) now expect to receive updates about things like the status and timing of their orders, and another 46% would welcome them.

The challenge then, is to deliver a convenient service that doesn’t compromise on the overall quality of face-to-face service and going mobile is one solution to this dilemma. If you offer table service in your restaurants or cafes, or are considering offering it, an easy way to increase speed of service, is for staff to use handheld ordering devices, as this reduces the reliance on fixed terminals and eliminates the need for staff to rekey orders into the POS, both saving your team a significant amount of time as well as reducing any potential mistakes. This will free up staff to focus on delivering great customer service.

Digital order and payment solutions, which enable customers to order and pay directly from their mobile phone, are another easy-to-implement piece of tech that offers customers a quick and easy way to order food and drink or pay for the bill. Post-pandemic, customers have become accustomed to the presence of such services in their everyday lives. Our GO Tech report findings, in partnership with CGA, found that 79% of consumers were happy with the ease and speed of payment when paying digitally. The warm reception from consumers given to order and payment apps is reflective of how valued they have become, making them a valuable addition to any garden centre restaurant or café.

3. Digital loyalty schemes can drive repeat footfall

Our latest report conducted in partnership with CGA found that 80% of customers seek some form of personalisation from restaurants. What’s more, a third of people expect tailored discounts and details as a matter of course. But what does this mean for garden centres?

We know that people want to be treated on a personal level when spending time in other hospitality venues, so there’s every reason to believe they will have the same expectations in a garden centre café or restaurant. Meeting these expectations and providing customers with the personal touches they expect will make them feel valued and hopefully keep them coming back again and again. Having your EPoS system linked to a digital loyalty scheme is a fantastic way to achieve this. The customer data businesses acquire from their EPoS can inform F&B managers on vital sales information about their customers which can be used to create bespoke offers, deals and promotions as well as targeted marketing campaigns.

4. Digital stock management can remove customer disappointment

Specialist hospitality technology can help keep track of stock levels down to every single ingredient – in real time. This is important in terms of reducing wastage and keeping costs down, but it also removes a customer frustration before it has even occurred.

We know that another major bugbear for customers in hospitality is ordering things on a menu that are sold out already and therefore unavailable to them. With an inventory and ordering system such as Zonal’s, menus can be updated as items are ordered by customers and staff can be informed of shortages ahead of customers ordering them, side-stepping a potential customer upset.

Garden Centre Association, April 2022

It seems everything is going up.

News cycles are dominated by hikes in fuel and food prices, utilities, import charges and the general cost of living. Add in a staffing crisis and the pressures of running a hospitality business, and things are arguably more challenging than ever before. The natural temptation is to cut costs and raise prices. And while both of these options have their place, so too does investing in technology that can reduce your costs overall.

Here are eight ways technology can really help your numbers.

1. Keeping a closer eye on stock control

With many ingredients and items facing double-digit price increases, it is vital to know precisely what you are spending. An effective stock management tool will allow you to monitor exactly what is going out of the business and help you adjust accordingly by either changing recipes or searching for new suppliers.

2. What about waste?

Another major issue is losing cash through wastage. Of course, waste of some kind is inevitable, but by using a stocktaking solution that allows you to look at what is either not being ordered, what’s being wasted in the kitchen and what is coming back on the plate, you can monitor portion sizes and reduce over-ordering of ingredients. Keeping on top of waste not only helps the bottom line but also to achieve sustainability ambitions.

3. Mistakes will be made…

You may have the best staff around, but human error will always be a factor in any busy hospitality business. This can be tracked using reporting functionality within your EPoS. Not only can you see what is and isn’t selling, it can also pinpoint where errors are being made on the till or with payment devices and highlight them to reduce the problem.

4. Cash free payments

More and more businesses are going cash-free, and it’s easy to see why. Contactless payment devices are not only more efficient, but they also remove any risks associated with cash. The less cash you have in the business, the less there is that can go missing.

5. Make them an offer they can’t refuse

Tech allows you to create, schedule and tweak promotions linked to what is working in the business and what stock you have available. This saves time and also potentially money in terms of hours worked. You can consider producing bounce-back offers on receipts and by collating data you can also create offers for customers on key occasions such as birthdays.

6. Order and pay

It was on its way before, but the pandemic certainly changed the way customers feel about ordering and paying with technology. For many it became a preferred option, meaning they can order drinks or food without running the risk of losing their chosen spot or facing a queue at the bar. With recruitment and the cost of staffing an ongoing issue, this reduces the strain on your staff, and allows the staff you do have to achieve more, by getting customers to perform some of that role themselves.

7. Money up front

Not only are customers happy to order themselves they are also becoming increasingly more comfortable with the concept of deposits. In research last year, 51% told us they would be happy to pay a deposit when booking a table in a restaurant or pub. . Taking deposits will reduce the dreaded no –shows, which have so many negative consequences including lost revenue and wasted stock, but also means more cash flowing into the business.

8. Turning tables into profits

A digital table management tool, such as the one in Zonal’s suite of solutions, is more than just a way of knowing how many customers are coming to dine with you. You can also set the system so it knows the volumes you can cope with during given trading periods, taking the strain off your team. Having the ability to control those numbers and access to the data at your fingertips means you can reduce money spent on staff and give available tables to walk-ins. Again, having such an effective system could reduce labour hours and help your profits.

Long gone are the days where garden centres were simply a place for consumers to pick up a petunia or two. As the popularity of Santa’s Grottos at Christmas demonstrate, a trip to a garden centre is now a full experience and, as a result, food and drink has become more important than ever.

Restaurant and café operations have become an increasingly vital revenue stream for the sector. However, with new opportunities, come new challenges, and with the recent eye-watering increases in overheads, the pressure is on to find ways to drive increased spend and improve the customer experience.

In order to achieve this, technology that’s geared up to handle the unique demands of an F&B operation is key. As hospitality tech experts with proven experience in the garden centre sector, we’ve put together our three top tips on how garden centres can leverage hospitality tech in their restaurants and cafes to reduce queues, increase speed of service and grow profits.

1. Quicker queues and less waiting!

While trading in garden cafés and restaurants remains steady through most of the day, there are nevertheless key trading times, as there are in any hospitality venue. It’s therefore important to have the right technology in place to help staff manage high footfall and reduce the amount of time customers are required to queue to be seated or served. For example, technology that enables customers to be added to a wait list and be alerted via a text when their table is available. This speeds up service, enables customers to shop while they wait for their table rather than simply leaving to find an alternative, and allows staff to serve more people – improving the overall customer experience.

While pre-booking a table may not have been something that has played a huge role in garden centre restaurants and cafés to-date, we know that three quarters (76%) of consumers say they have pre-booked to eat or drink out since the end of Britain’s first lockdown in summer 2020. Having the assurance that their table is booked and ready waiting for them has become a customer priority. With this in mind, implementing booking technology that allows customers to reserve a table, helps to improve the customer experience, as well as reducing queues and wait times during peak times – such as when the Santa’s Grotto is running or over the summer holidays.

2. Go mobile to speed up service

It’s important for F&B managers to take into consideration the main points of friction that can occur during the customer journey. We know, something which is echoed in our GO Technology report from this year, that convenience and speed of service is important to customers. More than a quarter (29%) now expect to receive updates about things like the status and timing of their orders, and another 46% would welcome them.

The key to speeding up operations whilst maintaining high-quality customer service is by leveraging technology to process customer orders quicker. Handheld ordering devices for staff is a solution, which is cost effective and can also speed-up orders and wait times. Providing staff with handheld devices reduces the reliance on fixed terminals and can also help to reduce mistakes when inputting orders. This also frees up staff to focus on delivering great customer service.

3. Grow profits

There is also back-of-house tech, such as stock and ordering technology that takes the guesswork out of stock control by providing real-time availability. If implemented into garden centre cafés and restaurants, managers will be able to more easily ensure they are maximising the profitability of each product they stock. Meanwhile, inventory and ordering systems developed specifically for the hospitality sector, would give garden centre café and restaurant managers tighter control over their purchasing. Such systems eliminate the risk of over-ordering, minimise wastage and avoid a situation where cash is tied up in stock.  Consolidating and joining these systems will also highlight where inefficiencies lie, improve reporting at all levels and increase profitability as a result.

The tech every licensee needs to streamline operations and free-up time

Merely the word “technology” can be enough to strike fear into the hearts of some pub operators. It can feel like a distant land where the rewards are high but the path to get there is full of potential pitfalls; far too complicated, time-consuming or just prohibitively expensive. When you think about it though, nearly all hospitality operators have been travelling this path with success for years already.

You don’t see many black and white TVs in pubs anymore, do you? And old fashioned cash registers are now few and far between. The fact is that technological advances have already had a huge bearing on the way the industry operates and will continue to do so.

Moreover, the right technology – from the right supplier that understands the sector and the needs of pubs big and small, will save you not just money but also a significant amount of time, something we know is seriously in short supply at the moment due to the staffing crisis – particularly for independent operators with small to medium-sized pubs.

With all that in mind, here are five ways that technology can free up your valuable time by streamlining operations:

1. EPOS is boss

It starts behind the bar with a time-saving, data-collecting, report-producing till system but also extends out to the floor and the garden. Having an integrated EPoS system means that staff can take orders on handheld devices. The orders are then sent instantly to the kitchen, eliminating the opportunity for errors along the way. Fewer errors equals time saved.

Cash free payments at the table are also a time-saver and are only going to increase, in fact 57% of teenagers surveyed by us can’t see cash being used at all in 10 years’ time  so investing in tech such as handheld readers, or app-based payments will certainly pay off.

2. Data day use

You may have a genius in your ranks who can recall everyone’s name, birthday, favourite drink and where they like to sit on a Sunday at 2pm. But not everyone is in possession of such sorcery. And what happens if that genius leaves? You can, however, have access to that information through a digital booking system, that can harvest valuable consumer data, enabling you to efficiently provide tailored and personalised offers and deals to your customers. Connecting a loyalty scheme, will build on this even further, offering tailored rewards based on habits and preferences. And we know they want it, with our recent research with CGA showing that 80% of consumers are interested in some form of personalisation when visiting pubs, bars and restaurants.

Having such an automated system not only relieves a little pressure on the old grey matter but also saves you paper and the time it takes to note everything down and refer to it.

3. Turning tables

The pandemic normalised pre-booking tables for food and even drinks in pubs, and an online way of doing this makes life so much easier for both you and your customers. Having a booking system that automatically updates as soon as someone books, allows you and your team to focus on other areas of the business. A system that also sends out automated reminders to your customers will not only save the team needing to call every customer to reconfirm bookings, but will also cut down dreaded no-shows – something which costs the industry a whopping £17.6bn a year, according to our research – which can prove devastating for smaller businesses.

4. Pre-payment

Taking a deposit ahead of a visit is something of a thorny subject in the pub trade. However, research we conducted last year as part of our #ShowUpForHospitality campaign suggests customers are mellowing on the subject – 51% are happy to pay a deposit. You can do this through a seat and redeem system, meaning that a pre-paid deposit can be assigned at the point of seating the guest. This has obvious financial benefits and, again, reduces the chances of a no show. But in this instance money also equals time, because you are reducing the manual steps in the process and have customer and payment details before they even step foot in the pub.

5. Show me the money

Smart systems not only make it easier to take money but they also keep a close eye on your cash flow. At the click of a button you will be able to see where money is being spent, how much you are spending on stock and wages, what’s being wasted and where you can make savings. That’s got to be quicker than looking through your ring-binders and receipts? And the admin time-saving doesn’t stop there. You can also use smart system to plan your rotas, identify trends that may need attention and much more. Having this all in one place without needing to jump around from place to place means fewer clicks and manifold benefits to you and your business. That could free you and staff up to spend more time on the floor or get round to those jobs that always seem to be on the bottom of the list.

Want to know your AI from your EPOS? We understand that hospitality technology can be intimidating and some of the terminology is, frankly, baffling, so we’ve created this jargon-busting glossary of terms to help licensees make sense of it all.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

In pubs, this happens when arguments and theories become more spurious the longer the night goes on. In tech, it means intelligence demonstrated by machines rather than humans or animals. Advanced Google searches or Alexa answering your questions are both common examples.

Augmented Reality (AR)

It’s reality but not as we know it. Augmented reality is an interactive experience of the real world enhanced by computer generated information. Still not clear? Remember when loads of people were using their smartphones to find Pokémon? That was augmented reality. It can be used in pubs to provide customers with venue information that can be accessed with their phones, such as details generated on menus or pump-clips about food and drink.

Backend

Tech circles will affectionately refer to this as ‘under the hood’. This is the bit of the computer which allows it to operate and is not typically accessed by the user, it includes data and operating systems.

Click & Collect

Prior to the pandemic, the practise of buying online and collecting at a venue was more generally associated with retail and the weekly shop. Smart pub operators pivoted during enforced closure periods to sell meals and drinks online that customers would collect at the venue. For many, it has provided a valuable and continued revenue stream.

Connected Technology

This one is as simple as it sounds. Connected technologies are devices that connect to each other and the internet, making business more efficient. This could be a tablet connecting to your EPOS system to monitor payments and bookings or the way a smart phone links to a watch.

Customer Database

A means of storing all the metrics about your customers and how they interact with your business. Using a variety of channels like reservations, loyalty and WiFi to build and maintain your database allows you to glean insights about your customers and thus personalise their experience of your brand. If the data shows the majority are veggies, maybe hold off on that steak night! This data is often stored in a CRM system.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

Ensuring customers are happy and want to come back for more is essential for any pub. CRM systems are designed to help you do this by managing the touchpoints you have with customers so you can communicate effectively. They do this by using the data from your customer database.

Customer Experience (CX)

Also known as the customer journey. This is the entire experience a customer has with you, from finding you online, making a reservation, entering the building, ordering, eating and drinking – all the way through to writing a positive review and sharing that experience with others.

Contactless Payment

Contactless was something we all got used to over the course of the pandemic. Payment wise, customers now expect to be able to pay using contactless in pubs so they can avoid entering their PIN number or trying to find some loose cash. Contactless includes both physical cards and mobile payment devices using Apple or Google Pay.

Digital technology

A catch-all term for basically everything involving computerised technology. It also covers data captured in binary digits. We’re talking smartphones, social media, laptops, desktops, digital photos, EPoS (we’ll get to that) and much, much more.

EPoS

Newcomers to the trade may well wonder what this acronym means. It’s short for Electronic Point of Sale (as opposed to PoS, which covers the likes of posters, beer mats and table talkers). However, EPoS is so much more than just a fancy till system these days. A modern EPoS includes all the tools a business needs to help you run your business better, faster and with as little effort as possible. Find out more about our customisable EPoS solutions for independent pubs here.

Handheld Ordering

Taking the EPoS system to the table with a connected handheld device has many advantages. It dramatically speeds things up, reduces the potential for any errors from either memory, notebooks or inputting into the till and can give a superior guest experience! (Think: a table ordering drinks before their meals, and having those drinks arrive before they complete the ordering process!)

Integrated Payment System

The important bit – receiving your hard-earned money! This technology ensures servers always charge the correct amount and sends that money directly to your bank. Simple. As this technology progresses, you’ll find it built into EPoS, Pay-at-Table devices. handhelds, kiosks, apps, websites… and likely wherever the next frontier takes us…

Integrated Technology

A suite of technological solutions that link and work seamlessly together to help the smooth running of the business. Zonal works with a number of partners to offer various solutions to help pubs and the wider hospitality industry.

Inventory Management System

This is a digital system that controls your Stock and Order process – from supply chain and recipes and menus to stock counts and reports. Such systems help operators keep a close eye on things and spot where savings can be made and margins improved.

Online Booking

A software system to allow customers to make reservations online, before they visit you in person.

Order & Pay

The ability to browse the menu on your phone, make your choice and pay, all while at the table or in a seat. Another area of tech that became more familiar from necessity due to the pandemic, but is now a customer expectation.

Platform

Not just the stage from where your resident quizmaster asks the questions or your karaoke singers star, but also technologies that provide systems or services. Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and (of course!) Zonal are all platforms.

Property Management System (PMS)

A software system for hotels and venues with rooms. It can encompass facilitation and management of a range of requirements such as: bookings (availability, rates and channels); check-in / out; finance and invoicing; room maintenance; customer details; staff rotas and wages; marketing and point of sale.

PoS Terminal

The tangible device that houses your EPoS software, be that behind the bar, at a host point, in the ticket office, at reception and even at the table (see handheld ordering). Check out what Zonal has on offer here.

Purchase to Pay

This is the term that describes the end-to-end journey of placing orders with your suppliers. It can enable teams to see what’s in stock, what’s on order, when orders are due for delivery and invoices that need to be paid. A Purchase to Pay system can reduce over-ordering and significantly improve margins by sourcing goods from the best supplier at the cheapest price..

Mixed Reality

The next step on from augmented reality, where the real world and virtual reality are combined together to create new experiences. Think, sitting in a pub and enjoying a pint with friends – except they are in another pub…

Real-time Booking

Technology that allows customers to make online reservations with you at any time of day or night and receive immediate confirmation. Connected technology can take this to the next level by giving an ‘in-session’ view of availability for those last minute booking types!

SEO

Not the boss of the company, but probably even more important. Your SEO is ‘search engine optimisation’ and getting it right improves your visibility and presence online.

Server

A pivotal role in all hospitality businesses around the world! Not dissimilarly, in tech a server takes orders and delivers the right thing, to the right place, at the right time! It stores applications, files, web services, email and customer databases.

Stock & Order

Running low on stock? Got a big event coming up? Stock and Order describes the process of tracking what lines you have in stock, on order and what you will need to replenish.

Table Management System

Paper diaries are great. Online Bookings are even better. And Table Management makes Online Bookings the best! A good Table Management system will automatically assign your bookings to the most suitable table, allow hosts to plan and refine the session allocations and make greeting and seating a thing of beauty. Using connected technology can even give a hosts live course status’, automatically assign loyalty numbers and even ping pre-orders directly to the kitchen! Check out how we can help with this.

Tech Stack

All the bits and bobs together… The combination of technologies used to help run a range of processes within a business. This is sometimes delivered by a single platform (like Google or Microsoft – you may hear a business described as a ‘Microsoft House’ which means their tech stack is mostly provided by them), or by a multitude of providers. Choosing the right ‘stack’ is essential for a business and will be determined mostly by the technology experience levels it holds, and how well this tech works together.

User Experience (UX)

A term that has as much relevance in hospitality as it does to technology. User experience, often shortened to ‘UX’ is used when talking about how easy, effective and enjoyable a device or service is for the person using it. Something tech and hospitality providers strive tirelessly to get spot on.

Voice Recognition

Many of us are now familiar with asking Alexa, Siri or Google for answers to tricky homework questions or weather forecasts. We would anticipate a proliferation of this kind of technology within hospitality both for customers and staff.

Virtual Reality (VR)

Another piece of the reality puzzle, where users are immersed in an entirely simulated environment. Examples are already appearing in hospitality via gaming experiences and is likely to grow in the on-trade. This could be used in training programmes or even allow customers to enjoy a version of your venue from anywhere in the world.

Web Ordering

Not just for those Halloween decorations. It’s another catch-all term that covers ordering via any web-based platform. It includes how your menus can be made available on third-party apps and website.

Wireless

As simple as it sounds, the ability to communicate over distances without the need for any wires or cables. There are many technologies that can provide this, most notably: Wi-Fi; Bluetooth and 4/5G. Different situations and locations will suit a certain wireless type, so it’s always a good decision to get some expert advice.

Zonal has a wide range of technology solutions designed to make life easier and businesses more profitable. Find out more about our range designed specifically with pub tenants and licensees in mind, here!