Aloha POS online ordering

Mobile POS…Mobile Analytics…Mobile Ordering and Payment – it’s all anyone in the industry is talking about…and there’s a good reason for that.

According to the National Restaurant Association’s (NRA) latest 2015 Restaurant Industry Forecast, operators are saying yes to technology. As consumers look for technology during their dining experience, restaurant operators are incorporating more of those options. Some tech offerings are significantly more common than others including smartphone apps and online ordering for customers.

Additionally, technologies related to ordering and payment, touch-screen ordering and mobile payment options have a growth potential because of strong consumer interest. Mobile devices, from smartphones to connected cars to wearables, are changing the consumer experience and giving restaurants the opportunity to rethink how they interact with their employees and their customers.

We recently spoke with Sam Oches, editor of, about how mobile technology is changing the restaurant industry. Here’s what he had to say, “great food no longer guarantees the success of a company. Great food along with a great brand experience - getting in front of, and interacting with, the customers - is what does the trick these days.” As a leader in consumer transaction technologies,

NCR helps businesses of all sizes bridge the gap between marketing, operations and IT. We’re uniquely positioned to understand transactions throughout their entire journey and we thought we’d share some of what we’ve learned as it relates to mobile technologies.

Empower your employees with mobile apps

A connected employee is an engaged employee. Think about what technology you can implement that makes your employee’s lives easier and helps them deliver an amazing experience to your guests. There are various apps available for training, shift scheduling and messaging and communications.

Forward-thinking restaurant chains, like Ted’s Montana Grill, Burger King and Shake Shack, are also giving their managers’ mobile, predictive analytics that gives them access to actionable information from anywhere. The days of low visibility into operational performance, waiting for cumbersome reports to be generated after the business day and the inability to be in more than one place at a time are long gone.

Oches says, “the brand experience that is now so crucial for capturing customers is also crucial for hiring, training and keeping employees. People want to work for a company that understands them and invests in them.”