The current economic headwinds have made protecting margins more essential to hospitality businesses than ever before, but the right technology, in the right place, can help operators both maintain profitability and create a more sustainable business for the future.

Zonal technology can be a vital tool in this drive. From better, more granular reporting, to digital stock checks, to recipe management, waste reduction and more, our systems can help maximise margins and deliver more revenue.

Here are 10 ways Zonal systems can help you be as profitable as possible:

1. Use real-time product sales and stock data to inform decisions

In today’s economic climate, no business can afford to have cash tied up in too much stock or to have items on the menu that just aren’t shifting. Integrated tech systems enable you to monitor the performance of the items you are selling right down to a product level, in real-time. This data will give you all the information you need to make informed decisions around pricing and ordering to boost margins and make potential savings on recipes or suppliers.

2. Analyse consumer spending patterns to plan more effectively

Fully integrated tech that can collate customer spend data from across all your different ordering channels makes reporting much easier, and allows you to more effectively plan staff and inventory requirements. This valuable data provides a view, not just of how your products are performing, but also insights such as what dates and times spend per head is at its highest, via which ordering channels, or the promotions that drive the most spending increases.

3. Reduce strain on staff and help them to be more productive

With recruitment, retention and the cost of staffing an ongoing challenge, any technology that eases the strain on teams whilst helping them achieve more will be an invaluable tool. Order and pay-at-table technology is already a preferred option for many customers and can do just that – taking part of the task performed by front-of-house teams and transferring it to customers.  At the same time, mobile order and pay technology can actually increase consumer spend which means it can deliver increased yield from available capacity and a better bottom line.

4. Drive sales during quiet periods

Times when there are few bookings and little walk-in trade, can be turned into an opportunity for operators with the right technology. With systems that integrate your delivery and click & collect channels, you can increase order capacity on the fly during quieter periods – and decrease it at times when tables are full. This ensures you aren’t leaving any potential revenue on the table or in the takeaway bag, as well as maintaining productivity for the staff you have working.

5. Identify where wastage is happening

Waste of some kind is inevitable, but minimising it is key to maximising margins. One area to look for improvements is in order fulfilment – minimising how much of your stock is going to waste during this stage can provide sizeable savings. Technology that has been designed specifically for use in pubs, bars and restaurants can help here. Such tech enables you to identify exactly where wastage is happening during food preparation, so you can take action before the costs start to add up.

6. Eradicate common errors

Everybody makes mistakes and, while it’s impossible to completely eliminate the potential for errors (no matter how well designed the processes are), the right tech can help. Systems like ours enable you to track staff activity at all points, right down to a button-press level. This insight will help you identify common errors and any patterns of behaviour that may be causing issues, giving you the information you need to make improvements or to offer training to eliminate the issues.

7. Identify cost saving opportunities in the kitchen

By implementing a recipe management system that is integrated with your EPoS, you’ll have oversight of both sales and wastage data in one place. This will make it much simpler to spot cost-saving opportunities and make smarter, more informed decisions about menu options and pricing. This insight will also enable you to see sales trends as they emerge and to identify changing consumer patterns, helping you stay ahead of the market – and the competition.

8. Change pricing and promotions in real time across the business

A fully integrated tech stack draws product and pricing information from one central database. This means that any changes you make can be pushed out across the entire business in one go and with immediate effect. This ability to react in real-time, capitalising on any opportunities as they arise and addressing any challenges, will result in a more streamlined and agile business, and help you ensure you’re maintaining profitability as costs continue to fluctuate.

9. Automatically calculate real-time stock usage

Operators often have large amounts of cash tied up in stock, so making sure you’re on top of stock levels is vital. Technology that automatically updates stock usage in real-time, allows you to identify which items see lots of usage and which don’t, and keep stock levels optimised. Smart systems can even give you estimates of how many days your current stock will last based on current usage data, helping you streamline your ordering and ensuring you don’t run out of anything important or leave cash tied up in stock that might go to waste.

10. Ensure stock is always being ordered from the right suppliers, at the right price

Ordering stock from a number of suppliers, cross checking prices and delivery times is a huge drain on staff time and resources. Zonal’s end-to-end purchasing solution will allow your teams to manage approved suppliers within the system, including what products or ingredients they provide and at what price. This ensures staff are always ordering from the right supplier, at the right price and eliminating the possibility of incorrect ordering.

With our integrated technology working in the background to streamline processes, maximise efficiencies and minimise wastage, operators can be confident they have the systems in place to drive revenues and boost profits, even if the costs of doing business continue to rise.

Click here to take a quick 5-minute self-assessment to see how your current tech stacks up in the above areas!

Working with a new technology partner can be a daunting process, and with mounting external pressures we know how important it is that any new changes go as smoothly and quickly as possible with minimal disruption.

At Zonal, we don’t believe in sending you the kit and leaving you to get on with it, it’s just not who we are. We care about our customers’ success and want to make sure you’re in the best position you can be, to use your tech to its full potential, from day one.

This blog takes you through the seven stages of implementing Zonal’s tech in your business, and we’ll be there with you – every step of the way:

Stage 1: Kick off meeting with your dedicated Zonal Onboarding Partner

Once you’ve chosen to work with us, the first step will be a kick-off meeting with your dedicated Onboarding Partner. This meeting will involve discussing the key stages, milestones and requirements of the project as well as providing you with a chance to get answers to any initial questions.

Stage 2: Data collection with our specialist Data Team

This next stage is all about data. We’ll work with you to build out your product set and menus so that when you’re ready to go live, all your products and menus are set up, ready for service.

Stage 3: Zonal loads your menus into your new EPoS

Now that we have all the data required, we can progress with building your menus and till design ahead of your go-live date. Once complete, your Onboarding Partner will be in touch with the initial product build and till design for your feedback, so we can make sure everything is set up exactly how you want.

Stage 4: Team training

Once your system build is complete and approved, your Onboarding Partner will arrange a date for our dedicated training team to get your team up to speed with your new system. This is usually no longer than a week in advance of your go-live date.

Stage 5: Go-live! Zonal on-site to ensure everything goes smoothly

With your new system built and training complete, you’ll be ready for your installation and go-live date! Our team will arrive on-site ahead of your planned opening time to ensure that your system is up and running and you have everything you need to start trading with your Zonal system straight away.

Stage 6: Advanced training for head office functionality and technical teams

Once you’re live and trading, we’ll arrange additional advanced training for your back office or technical teams to make sure you’re getting the most from your new system and can update and maintain the system yourselves – but this doesn’t mean our support for your system stops here!

Stage 7: Hand over to dedicated Support and Account Management team

Once you’ve reached the end of your onboarding journey, your Onboarding Partner will introduce you to your Account Management team who will be on-hand to provide help and advice on an ongoing basis and our dedicated, UK-based support teams will be available to help you 8am – 12am, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Click here to find out more about how we work with our customers to support their long-term goals.

Tech doesn’t just save you time and make admin easier. It can have a direct, beneficial impact on your bottom line. Having a range of ordering channels available to maximise capacity and orders, automating bookings processes and promotions, as well as collecting the right data from customers, are all quick-fire ways to pick up vital additional revenue for your business.

Discover eight ways that Zonal’s technology can ensure you’re not leaving any potential revenue on the table:

1. Generate incremental revenue with mobile order and pay technology

Not only do long waits in a queue or at the table to get a servers’ attention result in customer dissatisfaction or even complaints, but they can also result in lost sales. Enabling customers to order and pay through an app, or online by scanning a QR code, speeds up the process for guests and has also been proven to increase basket size, generating incremental revenue.

2. Tap into additional revenue channels

The appetite for click and collect and delivery food shows no sign of disappearing and operators that include this in their channel mix will be able to drive profit through these additional revenue streams, enabling guests to engage with you from the comfort of their own home, as well as providing supplemental revenue on quieter days in-venue. Zonal technology offers click and collect and can be fully integrated with third party delivery channels, enabling operators to manage them easily from one central location with minimal demand on staff or operational overhead.

3. Create specific order journeys per-product

Analysing data from menu and drinks sales is useful for operations of all sizes. Operators can analyse individual product performance to identify what is selling well and what is not so popular. Using this up-to-date data, operators can then take an informed view on which products to keep and which to remove, in order to minimise waste and maximise profits. The information can also be used to drive more effective upselling journeys, pinpointing opportunities for customer offers based on insights around their genuine preferences and purchasing habits. For example, offering deals on IPAs and your most popular pie dish.

4. Automate and personalise promotions for exact times, days and products

Personalised deals, offers and promotions are highly effective in driving extra revenue and footfall, however operators need data to facilitate them. Having fully integrated technology enables you to get information from all parts of the business and make decisions on which promotions to run based on genuine insight. For example, why not offer a discount on a customer’s favourite meal for their birthday?

With the right tech, the process can also be automated, meaning promotions can go live on specific days, specific times, and on specific products without the need for manual input every time. This will minimise the time needed to create and run deals and promotions and increase the chances of success.

5. Reduce no-shows by sending automated reminders to bookers

We know just how costly no-shows can be. Our research shows that it costs the hospitality industry a combined £17.59bn a year – and the total number of no-shows doubled between September 2022 and September 2023. One of the main reasons people don’t honour their reservations is because they simply forget about the booking. However, automatic reminders sent to customers at predefined intervals leading up to a reservation can help to ensure people don’t forget to turn up when the time comes and enable customers to simply and easily cancel or amend bookings, giving operators advance warning. These reminders can also be used to drive more revenue by offering additional extras via pre-orders such as champagne or nibbles on arrival.

6. Personalise the booking journey and increase upsells

Zonal’s online reservation platform enables operators to set up different bookable areas within their venue, allowing for example, a customer to secure a favoured table. Offering this level of personalisation helps contribute to creating a great customer experience. It also helps operators better manage bookings – ensuring the best tables are always filled.  During the booking process, customers can also be given the option to customise their experience by pre-ordering food and drink or add-ons, encouraging customers to spend when they are in ‘buying mode’.

7. Enable guests to make a reservation directly through your social media accounts and Google business listings

Customers are no longer looking at social media accounts for research purposes only (although this continues to be a factor), these platforms are being increasingly used to facilitate bookings as well. In fact, over a third of consumers use social media to book tables, rising to more than half (53%) of 18 to 24-year-olds. Operators would benefit from ensuring their businesses are listed on Google and that they are active on social media, with their profiles including a link to a digital booking platform to convert more browsers into bookers.

8. Facilitate the redemption and reconciliation of gift cards and vouchers at any point of sale

Gift cards and vouchers can be a fantastic way for loyal customers to introduce friends and family to your brand, or to encourage repeat visits and increase revenue. Zonal’s gift card solution, Toggle, and voucher platform, Voucher Manager, are seamlessly integrated with our EPoS and wider suite of technology, enabling customers to redeem their vouchers and gift cards easily – whether it’s at the bar, on an app, or at the table with your waiting staff – ensuring a smooth, frictionless experience that leaves a great lasting impression once they’ve left the venue.

Click here to take a quick 5-minute self-assessment to see how your current tech stacks up in the above areas!

No one gets into the hospitality business to fill out spreadsheets, but admin is a vital part of running any successful business. And, with staff in short supply and rising costs making every minute more precious than ever, finding ways to reduce time spent on admin has even more benefits.

Zonal technology can help automate admin tasks, which increases overall efficiency, reduces human error, and saves operators, and their teams, valuable time – and here are 10 ways how…

1. Export sales and revenue figures from your EPoS directly into your accounting system

Manually inputting sales figures from an EPoS into a separate accounting system is a laborious task. With Zonal’s smart, integrated EPoS solution, you can import this data directly into your accounting software, eliminating the need for a staff member to manually complete this task. Not only does this save valuable hours that could be better spent elsewhere, but it reduces the risk of human error too.

2. Keep track of employee start/finish times

Zonal’s technology can remove the headache of keeping on top of employee start and finish times by tracking exactly when your staff clock in and out directly in the POS. This means no more managing multiple timesheets and reconciling against rotas. Plus, staff hours can be easily accessed from one central location for easy reporting.

3. Manage stock ordering from one central platform

Maintaining stock counts and ordering new stock is a major time commitment for operators. However, having a digital stock management system provides tighter controls, as the entire ordering process can be managed end-to-end from one system and real-time reports mean operators can react quickly to low or surplus stock levels. This eliminates time spent checking discrepancies between systems, speeds up the whole ordering process with managed supplier lists and order templates, and results in less wastage and less cash tied up in stock.

4. Gain access to a comprehensive reporting suite to monitor business performance and metrics

Analysing your business’s performance is vital to maintaining a successful operation but collecting and collating all that data can be time-consuming. Operators that have a fully integrated suite of tech with powerful analytics and a digestible reporting solution can go a long way to making business evaluation a much simpler task. Zonal’s technology has the ability to generate reports on different areas of the business and automatically send these out to key members of staff. Not only can this be done quickly, but the real-time reporting means better and faster decision making, and seamless integration between our entire ecosystem of tech provides 100% data accuracy, meaning you’ll always be working with one version of the truth.

5. Auto-reconcile matching orders and invoices

A powerful stock ordering system like the one included as standard in Zonal’s EPoS, will automatically reconcile matching orders and invoices, helping to cut down time spent on manual checks each week, reducing mistakes and freeing up staff from what would previously have been a time-consuming task. This leaves everyone on the team with more time to focus on delivering great experiences for customers.

In addition, having the right tech in place can simplify managing approved suppliers. Being able to automatically reconcile matching orders and invoices or set up order templates can help to save a significant amount of time each week.

6. Get direct control over digital ordering channels to limit or increase your capacity

With a fully integrated tech stack, you have full control over which channels send orders through to the kitchen from one central location. Technology such as Zonal’s enables operators to turn off online ordering during busy periods to allow your staff to keep up with order fulfilment and focus on providing great customer service to those in-venue. This means less stress on the kitchen team and fewer customer complaints. What’s more, with full integration between our digital ordering channels and EPoS, product availability will automatically be updated as sales are made and stock is depleted, meaning your staff won’t need to spend time updating multiple channels if items go out of stock.

7. Remove the need for staff to re-key orders

Integrated hospitality technology like Zonal’s can help speed up service and save staff time. Integrating ordering and payment channels across the business with the main EPoS means staff don’t need to repeat the same task for each ordering channel. In addition, pushing live product availability from your stock management system to your tills and staff handheld ordering devices, means the team will have up-to-the-minute information on stock availability. This results in no wasted time going to the EPoS with orders only to then find out certain menu items are not available and fewer complaints from customers who tell us that one of their biggest bugbears in hospitality is ordering a dish, only to then find out it isn’t available.

8. Remove the headache of finance auditing (and save money) with clear and concise cash and finance workflows

Finance auditing can be time consuming and laborious, however our tech provides complete oversight of how cash is moving through your business. From being able to define by venue whether floats are being used, allowing you to allocate a value and track it through trade; to approval workflows, allowing senior staff to check all expenses are valid and approved, Zonal technology can provide you with the control and oversight you need to effectively manage your business’s finances.

9. Facilitate bookings easily with EPoS-integrated booking and deposit ledger management

Access all the information you need to manage reservations or orders from other channels in one central location, removing the need for staff to check multiple systems and reducing the potential for mistakes. When it comes to bookings, operators can better manage staff rotas with real-time oversight of reservations. A digital booking system also enables customers to edit, manage or cancel their bookings easily, removing the need for staff to update information manually and reducing the chances of no-shows. We know that no-shows are costly for the industry –  £17.59bn a year, in fact, with figures having doubled between September 2022 and September 2023.

10. Manage products and pricing from one central location

Keeping on top on products and pricing is a key factor for maintaining a successful business especially when margins are tight, but it’s a task that can be time-consuming, and costly if not done properly. Implementing Zonal’s integrated set of tech solutions allows operators to manage and update product and price information in one central location. What’s more, native integration between Zonal’s EPoS and wider suite of technology means all systems are updated in real-time, including across all consumer-facing channels, which saves operators and their teams time from having to replicate this task across multiple systems.

Technology should do the heavy lifting for staff and operators, freeing up their time to focus on delivering great customer experiences, and providing operators with the tools as well as the headspace to think strategically about how to further improve businesses.

Click here to take a quick 5-minute self-assessment to see how your current tech stacks up in the above areas!

Loyalty is currently a hot topic in the hospitality industry but there remains a lot of confusion. What do consumers mean when they say they are loyal to on-trade brands? Is it the same as for other retail brands? How can the sector create and maintain customer loyalty? Does it genuinely add value to the bottom line – or does it really just boil down to discounting?

To answer these – and more – questions, we gathered eight of the industry’s top operators for a chat about all things loyalty. The foundations of the discussion were key takeaways from Zonal’s recent GO Technology: The New Loyalty Landscape report, including:

• Consumers are loyal to 2.1 hospitality brands on average
• The top reason that would make consumers loyal to a brand is if they feel it is value for money (47%)
• Other top reasons are that it serves their favourite food and drink (30%); that the service is top quality (28%), and that their family and friends go there (28%)
• When consumers talk about value for money, they don’t necessarily mean cheap. For 41% of consumers it means ‘worth its cost’
• Three-quarters of consumers said that their loyalty was unchanged since the cost-of-living crisis began in 2021
• More than half (52%) of consumers agree they have higher expectations of the brands they are loyal to now compared to before the cost-of-living crisis
• Younger consumers are more likely to join loyalty schemes to save money since the cost-of-living crisis began than other age groups, with two thirds (65%) of those aged 25 to 34 saying they have done so, compared with 47% of consumers across the board

The research was used as the basis for a wider discussion around the topic, which began with a debate around the positives and perils of discounting.

Discounting discounts

Certainly, pre-Covid there was a lot of discounting in the market, particularly via schemes such as Groupon but by and large these were not used strategically, and attendees questioned if they actually built loyalty or delivered any value. One operator admitted since removing discounts entirely as part of their marketing strategy, the brand’s NPS score had risen “significantly” and the number of no-shows had dropped.

Not all operators thought discounts should disappear, though.

“Not all discounts are a bad thing. If you have evenings when your venue isn’t full and you offer a discount that gets loyal customers through the door and feeling special then, as a mechanic that delivers on business requirements, that works.”

Mark Derry, Chairman, The Heartwood Collection

Focus on quality, not quantity

For those operators utilising their customer data to drive loyalty, the opportunity is around focussing rewards on those who are already engaged and enthusiastic about your brand. Creating offers that target this group is the most effective way to create advocates for your business and driving footfall.

“Our recommendation is to ‘work’ your CRM, targeting a smaller number of contacts who are more likely to respond, rather than the ‘spray and pray’ approach. For example, 500 of your loyal customers, not the entire 5,000-strong database. It then becomes more of a reward rather than an offer, which perhaps poses the danger of more widely cheapening your brand.”

Dan Brookman, CEO, Airship and Toggle

Cash-loaded loyalty

Some operators in the room advocated for different styles of loyalty schemes, a step beyond being part of a database that offers rewards (and perhaps discounts) to those that sign up. Some advocated giving teams on the floor the budget and permission to reward customers as they saw fit – aping Pret A Manger’s “random acts of kindness” scheme of old, where each store had a budget which they could use to reward customers with a free coffee or a treat.

Others looked to create more of a “members club” look and feel to loyalty schemes.

“Our loyalty scheme is a little different, in that we offer a card that can be pre-loaded with cash, acting a bit like a membership scheme I guess, which can be used across all our pubs. It’s not run on a points-based system like a Nectar card but more about rewards such as ‘buy 5 coffees, get the 6^th free’. This works well for us, not least because it means we have the cash up front – some of which does not get redeemed. People don’t talk about that but it is a benefit for us.”

James Nye, Managing Director, Anglian Country Inns

Personalisation is a must

Another hot topic was personalising offers by using data. For example, for groups of customers that always order a burger when they eat with you, sending bespoke offers created around this that tempt them in on quieter days of the week or if they haven’t been in for a while.

“When it comes to communicating with loyal customers it has to be bespoke. If you are emailing them to highlight a promotion then it has to be personalised – an offer on their favourite wine or send out a prompt to your biggest Guinness drinkers highlighting a new Guinness-related dish in the menu, for example.”

Anthony Pender, Founder, Yummy Collection

It’s always been about consistency

As our research clearly pointed out, customer experiences are absolutely key when it comes to building a base of loyal customers – 49% said one or more bad experiences while visiting a hospitality brand would case them to reduce their loyalty. This puts pressure on operators and their teams to deliver excellent customer experiences every single time – but hasn’t it always been this way?

“What is the definition of loyalty when it comes to hospitality brands – is it as simple as people who would recommend you to others? This idea highlighted by the report, of it being around consistency of good service is also key, and that is something that’s always been true.”

Ann Elliott, portfolio NED and Board Advisor

For more on loyalty and digital loyalty schemes, check out the resources section of our website, including this piece on All You Need to Know About Digital Loyalty Schemes.