In line with our recent launch of our new online presence, we want to start with a brief article on what we hope this hospitality blog will provide for readers and, more importantly, what you, the reader, would like to see, hear and discuss. So what would like to know about, or discuss more when it comes to hospitality technology? We have some ideas and we’ll be putting them out here. However, we want to hear from you in regards to relevant topics and discussions on the challenges you are having. We’ll hold active discussions on our Facebook page.
We are first and foremost about how technology can, as Jim Collins states, be a “catalyst” in moving your hospitality business forward towards greatness; great restaurant and hotel operations, great customer service and resulting loyalty, great returns on your investment. So whether you are just starting out with your first location, or operating a multi-location restaurant or hotel chain, your technology only can help in relation to how it is being used to further your current operations and processes. Yes, it can greatly improve efficiencies in operations, resulting in lowering costs, as well as increasing revenue – but the efficiencies of actual operations themselves matter much more at times – especially when considering the implementation of new or updated technology.
Our guidelines for approaching an overall hospitality technology strategy:
POS at the core – it is where the day-to-day operations get managed, and data from it can clue you in to where the challenges lie – all of the other technology segments, with the exception of bringing new customers in through an effective online marketing strategy/implementation, hotel reservation management (and maybe a few others) directly relate to the Point of Sale.
Operational Security- keeping your risk at a minimum with security plan and can include configuring employees’ roles and jobs in the point of sale system, a video surveillance system and, or a video surveillance system that integrates with the POS to record transactions
Credit Card Transaction Data Security – while most of your customers do not pay close enough attention, you still must ensure that their credit card data is secure. PCI Compliance may seem like a big hassle, but it is one of those necessary pains to not only limit risk to your customers, but risk to your hospitality business as well. It is now a critical demand from Visa and the credit card industry as of June 2010.
Customer information tracking: for loyalty and marketing to bring in new customers – knowing what they ordered and when, how many times they came in; adding the personal touch with special offers and information; optimizing your menu to offer the hits and remove the misses.
Integration and Automation of POS data to other critical operations, such as accounting, payroll, food costing and inventory control can greatly reduce the time spent managing this information. Whether solely owning your business, or overseeing franchisees/managing partners, this can be most important when managing multiple locations and, or concepts for centralized data organization and management. Integration and automation allows you to start building business intelligence data for strategic and tactical decisions that help your hospitality business to succeed.
HTG will be discussing these topics in future articles, so stay tuned.
So what is your overall strategic and tactical approach? Feel free to comment here or on our Facebook page.
