How can a Smart Safe help with increased costs in the hospitality sector?

If you’re operating in the hospitality and restaurant sectors, we hope that Christmas and the New Year brought a welcome boost to the business. But as we head into the first few months of 2024 it’s  probably much quieter, so this could be a good time to look at ways to improve certain business processes.

As we know, from April 2024, the minimum wage will increase to £11.44 per hour for workers over 21 and this is sure to impact on many businesses in the hospitality sector. But, in a sector fuelled by the people who work in it, hiring and retaining the right hospitality staff is essential for delivering exceptional guest experiences, maintaining a strong reputation, and ultimately driving business success.

Alongside increasing labour costs, the cost of food, raw materials and energy bills have also increased, so how to soften the blow to the bottom line? Technology solutions can help to attract and retain customers, as well as mitigate staff shortages and drive down costs. Here are several options that warrant consideration.

Online and mobile ordering plays an increasingly important role in the sector and digital customers have a high bar for utility and convenience. Create a seamless and frictionless ordering experience that also helps to upgrade your digital presence. People want to know who they’re ordering from while they’re online and the more you personalize the experience with your restaurant’s branding and warm hospitality, the better.

Digital subscription/loyalty programmes can be an effective way to engage more deeply with existing customers to counteract  drops in visit frequency.

On-demand tip payouts – nothing keeps employees happier than receiving payouts as soon as their shift ends. There are now a number of cashless tipping software solutions on the market which enable you to send tips directly to employees’ bank accounts instantly, allowing you to eliminate the risk of cash shortages, the hassle of bank runs, and the headache of reporting issues or tip disputes.

An Integrated cash management system with a smart safe – Handling cash can eat up a lot of valuable staff time and expose the business and its employees to excess risk. Restaurants, food and hospitality businesses  can reduce both significantly with a single-source integrated smart safe cash-management solution that combines the hardware, software, service, and security all in one. SafePoint Smart Safes by Loomis can help you increase efficiency by enabling cash deposits without leaving the restaurant and, dependent upon your banking partner, receiving overnight bank credit for cash stored on site. Cash takings are instantly stored and secured, notes are validated and daily cash movement is reconciled, collected and securely banked. All done by the smart safe - no employee time or cost involved. There are range of Loomis smart safe solutions available, with SafePoint Compact proving particularly popular in this sector. A SafePoint Compact Smart Safe service package starts at as little as £39.00 per week - (that’s not much more than 3 hours of minimum wage rate) – but the Smart Safe works for you and delivers 24/7. You can explore the benefits of SafePoint here. The coming year surely will present a host of challenges, but there are also opportunities for restaurateurs to leverage technology to help optimize their staff time, increase customer loyalty and staff retention, and streamline operational tasks.