I know you're thinking, "Jeff, that's nice and all, but you're crazy." Well, yes, I am crazy, but digitally streamlining a business's front of house is more than manageable in today's world.

With server and contactless dining, most restaurants hardly even need a point of sale anymore. Why? Well, because every one of your customers has a point of sale already in their pocket.

So how do you digitize your front of house?

Let customers transition at their pace

Should you rip out all the carpets and turn your store into a digital only nirvana? Well, no. There will always be some demand for a traditional ordering experience, and some customers do need a personal touch to get the best experience.

What we're trying to solve for here is the percent of customers who are perfectly fine ordering, paying, and managing their tab on their phones. It might not be every customer, but if even a quarter of your customers manage their tickets on their own, your staff can save hours in a shift.

Automate front and back of house communication

Stop arguing over tickets and missing items. A lot of restaurants think that they can solve a lot of these communication issues with a Kitchen Display, and they're not wrong. KDs do help, but the secret to our success is the fact that our Kitchen Display integrates with BOTH the front of house point of sale and the order a customer inputs on their phone.

You'll never get an order wrong again (or it at least won't be your staff's fault) since digitizing the front of house has more customers ordering for themselves. They'll ensure the modifiers are tuned to just what they want.

Systematize your bigger business lines

Catering. It's the holy grail for many businesses, but it's difficult to orchestrate the same seamless flow for huge catering orders than a few walk-ins. Getting a bit of tech help can ensure your catering flow matches your online ordering setup, so when the order's get to the kitchen, no one is surprised by the format.

What's more, with 4Leaf/Orderspoon's technology it's easy to set inventory and volume limits, so your kitchen doesn't get surprised by a busy lunch hour, a catering order, and a wedding order on the same day.

I hope these tips and tricks help inspire you to think about digitizing your front of house experience. With a few simple updates, you and your staff can save hours daily (literally).

As always, if you want to learn more, give us a call at (650) 681-0400 or email us at support@4leaflabs.com.