5 ways to

run your
restaurant
smarter
in 2022
Reinventing your
business for short
and long-term
success
The hospitality sector is reopening across North America, but
the industry may look a bit different than it did before. New
rules to reduce the risk of infection mean restaurant owners
are being confronted with a whole new set of challenges.
But you can still give guests an enjoyable experience while keeping them and
your employees safe. To set themselves up for success, savvy restaurateurs are
turning towards new technologies designed to weather unpresented challenges,
allowing them to reconfigure their restaurant floorplan and integrate new
revenue-generating sales channels that work alongside their in-house service
with ease. Additionally, restaurants that incorporate delivery and takeout position
themselves to emerge as a stronger, more resilient business in the long run.
We’ve put together this playbook to show you how you can incorporate these
techniques to future-proof your business for short and long-term success.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 01

 In this guide
01 Adapt your restaurant space and tools
to optimize customer service
From reconfiguring floor plans to upgrading to patio-friendly iPad POS systems, restaurants are
constantly changing to adapt to growing customer needs. By finding the right technology that lets you
adapt at a moment’s notice, your restaurant will be in great shape to take on whatever comes its way.

02 Serve more customers with delivery,

takeout and alternative offerings
By offering your customers a choice of how they want to patronize your restaurant, you can boost your
revenue and ensure your restaurant is ready for anything. Adopting popular sales channels like delivery,
curbside pickup and online ordering, will help you serve more customers and generate more profit.

03 Market your restaurant

and delivery service
There are several avenues a restaurant can take to create a successful marketing strategy. Get more
customers through your doors by using a mix of tactics like web optimizations, social media, Google
My Business, in-app marketing, storefront signage and voicemail.

04 Adopt new revenue

streams
While takeout and delivery services remain the main sales channel alternatives to table service, a
handful of restaurateurs are exploring new and innovative revenue streams. Online grocery stores,
value added takeout and branded merchandise are just a few ways restaurants across North America
are successfully satisfying their customers while also turning a profit.

05 Optimize your operations with proper

food inventory management
Inventory control is an essential step of restaurant management. Proper food inventory management
keeps service running smoothly, but a failure to do so can impact financials. Incorporating the right
inventory management processes can help you have a better handle on food and beverage cost
control, manage fluctuating ingredient prices and grow your revenue.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022

01
Adapting your restaurant
space and tools to optimize
customer service
The restaurant industry and customer needs are constantly changing.
For many restaurants, this means periodically reconfiguring their
space to accommodate trends and industry shifts and ensuring
they’re using the best tools to serve customers efficiently.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 03

1. Update your seating chart
Redecorating your restaurant? Or just trying to add more seating? Reimagining
an entirely new layout can be tricky and time-consuming. Lightspeed can help
you manage adjustments to your space with a floor plan that reflects your new
restaurant layout. This will help your employees adapt to the new layout quickly and
let you work from a POS system that lets you make adjustments in real time.

✓ Move tables and make adjustments

to your floorplan so your staff always
know where to go

✓ Easy to still keep social distanced

seating procedures in place even
with last-minute reservations and
special requests

✓ Use custom images for tables,

seats and decor to properly
represent your space

2. Offer contactless payments

It can take up to nine minutes and several interactions with staff to close out
a table. With contactless payments, you can reduce unnecessary touch points
between staff and guests and close out tabs more quickly, improving the overall
customer service. You can also introduce paperless payments so all receipts are
sent via email or encourage contactless payment methods like tap payments.

To make transactions even easier for processing and reporting, restaurants can
also use a payment system like Lightspeed Payments, that’s fully integrated to their
POS. Offering a unified payment experience gives you more control over payment
processing, lets you access clear and reliable payment reports straight from your
POS back office and lets you offer preferred payment methods such as mobile and
contactless.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 04

3. Easily serve on your patio
with an iPad POS
Restaurants that also have seasonal or permanent outdoor areas need a POS that
can seamlessly take orders and serve customers no matter where they’re seated.

Here’s how an iPad POS system will set your restaurant up for success this summer
and beyond.

✓ Quickly build your seasonal menu

✓ Optimize your takeout and delivery process

✓ Remotely manage your tables and seating arrangements

✓ Add more mobile terminals to support additional seating

✓ Spend less time creating and managing your staff schedule

✓ Sync your staff for quicker turnaround

Lightspeed is a cloud-based point of sale system, so you can have access to all
your data and management tools and still be where your customers are instead of
stuck in the back office.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 05

02
Serving more customers
with delivery, takeout and
online ordering
As restaurants around the world have seen in recent years, offering
customers only one way to dine can leave them unprepared to
address sudden disruptions to revenue.
Many restaurants have already added a delivery service model to their
mix, but some are taking it one step further by offering additional
sales channels like curbside pickup and online ordering, essentially
future-proofing their business for short and long-term success.
By offering customers a choice of how they want to patronize your
restaurant, you can boost your revenue and ensure your restaurant is
ready for how dining may keep changing and evolving.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 06

 By offering customers a choice of how they want to patronize your
restaurant, you can boost your revenue and ensure your restaurant is ready
for anything.

Here are three sales channels that’ll help you serve customers and generate a
profit.

1. Delivery
Even without the recent global pandemic requiring restaurants to have delivery
options to serve customers, the delivery segment of your market would be
growing—COVID-19 simply helped it along. Millennials, in particular, are flocking to
delivery and takeout, with one study finding 6 in 10 millennials using delivery apps
in a month.

Millennials, in particular, are

flocking to delivery and takeout,
with one study finding

6 in 10
millennials using delivery apps in
a month.

Offering delivery gives you a way to serve this growing market. Because the demand
isn’t going away any time soon, these options have gone from a nice-to-have to a
must-have.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 07

Getting ready to offer delivery

Before opening your delivery service for business, consider the following:

1. Think about a delivery-specific menu

Ideally, these should primarily be items that are easy to package and can be
refrigerated and reheated without compromising food quality.

2. Stock up on appropriate takeout containers

Take stock of your new delivery menu and decide what kind of containers you’re
going to need (i.e. cardboard or aluminum ones that retain heat, cups and lids for
drinks, napkins, etc.). Be eco-friendly whenever possible.

3. Decide if you want to manage your delivery through a third party or in-house

Third-party delivery like UberEats In-house delivery

and DoorDash

PROS: PROS:

✓ Offer you more visibility ✓ Gives you more control, which

✓ They’ll take care of the delivery means you can set your own quality
logistics for you standard for delivery
✓ You don’t have to worry about
having to lose up to 30% of your
CONS:
delivery and takeout revenues to
✓ They take a cut of the revenue third-party companies

✓ You’re not in control of the delivery

process, which could mean
customers blame you for food
arriving cold or damaged when
that’s not your fault
CONS:
✓ Additional expenses in the form of
vehicle costs and payroll for
delivery drivers
✓ You’ll have to invest in extra tools
like insulated bags to ensure your
deliveries arrive at their destinations
at the right temperature

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 08

2. Curbside pickup
More and more restaurants are turning to new revenue streams like curbside pickup
as a profitable add-on to their order offerings.
Curbside pickup means orders are made remotely (online or over the phone) and
then picked up by the customer at the restaurant without physically entering the
establishment. It gives guests the option to skip the delivery service fees without
heading to a potentially packed restaurant, and it gives them a way to keep visiting
their favorite local joint even when they don’t want to dine in.
Curbside pickup is an ideal mix between convenience and speed that slots nicely
into the busy schedules of your customers going forward.

How Alma’s Tinc Set is Flourishing in the

New Age of Takeout
Tinc Set serves as an inspiration to restaurants everywhere, demonstrating how
a business can adapt and fight the odds of changing regulations with a takeout
concept.
When faced with dwindling business, Montreal-based restaurant Alma launched
Tinc Set, a concept where customers place their orders online and pick them up at
a designated time from the restaurant’s charming back-alley.

“For us, it was really

important to create an
ordering process that
was reflective of our
brand and style and that
evoked the elements that
are behind Tinc Set.”
—Lindsay Brennan
Co-owner, Tinc Set

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 09

With Lightspeed, they worked together to find an ordering platform that would
streamline that process without losing the essence of Tinc Set. They decided on
UEAT, which is 100% integrated with Lightspeed Delivery so the online ordering
system sends paid orders directly to the restaurant’s kitchen.

3. Order ahead
Online ordering systems like Lightspeed’s Order Anywhere lets customers place
orders ahead of time and schedule pick up. The advance timing gives restaurant
staff extended notice on the day’s demand volume, allowing for better order
preparation and employee shift planning. Customers appreciate this feature as well,
as they can pre-order lunch or dinner earlier in the day, freeing them up to complete
other tasks until their order is ready.

Online ordering can also be used while dining at the restaurant. Customers can
use QR code menus to place orders and even pay without having to wait for staff.
This can help decrease wait times, improve order accuracy and reduce strain when
working with a limited staff.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 10

03
Marketing your restaurant
and delivery service
It’s no secret that world events have greatly changed the landscape
of small business marketing. While restaurants now face new
challenges, they also have access to new opportunities. Whether
you’ve recently opened your restaurant or are hoping to get new
customers through your doors, here are a few tips to help you
increase traffic and get the word out to hungry diners.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 11

1. Marketing your restaurant
1. SEO optimization

For customers to find you online, search engines like Google use special programs
that visit websites to see what content there is and judge if it’s meaningful. If you
want your website to be found online, consider doing the following:

✓ Make your website easy to navigate

✓ Post informative and engaging content that contains words people
tend to pick as search terms
✓ Build links by promoting your content on social media

2. Social media management

Most major brands use social media as part of their marketing strategy. It’s great
for getting noticed in your community, collecting feedback and responding to what
your customers are really thinking.

Before choosing a platform, remember

that different customer bases use
different social media sites. For
instance, Instagram tends to skew
younger and Pinterest is particularly
popular with women, while LinkedIn is
designed to appeal to business people.
To attract new followers and keep loyal
ones, frequently updating your feed is
key. Post relevant content updates like
your reopening or what the new dining
experience will be like. Don’t forget to
take the time to respond to posts and
re-share content you feel is interesting
to your customers.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 12

3. OpenTable and other third-party reservation services

For a small fee, certain websites, pioneered by OpenTable, will help you fill up
empty spots by presenting you as one of several possible reservation options for
their hungry user base. As well as getting customers in the door, these services let
you manage other information about customers, from how they like their meat to
what kind of table they prefer.

4. Online reviews

Online reviews are a major part of most restaurants’ digital presence. Managing
these reviews, whether it’s encouraging positive feedback or following up on
negative feedback, is critical, as they affect your restaurant’s reputation.
Consider taking the time to manage your profiles on review sites like Yelp or
Tripadvisor, as they give you control over how you present yourself, allowing you to
add photos, location and contact information.
When it comes to negative reviews, it’s important to be accommodating. A polite
request for follow-up will bring you a lot more good than anything that makes you
seem dismissive.

5. Influencers

Influencers that are passionate about

food are your secret weapon; if you
present yourself properly to them, they
will actively want to promote you.
Remember to check the influencer’s
impact and invest accordingly.
Influencers with huge audiences tend to
be picky and expensive. Make sure they
have a good reputation and a big enough
audience that matches well with the
types of customers you want.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 13

2. How to market your delivery service
Customers are going to be looking online for restaurants near them. Here are a few
ways you can assure that anyone who finds your restaurant online knows you offer
delivery and how they can place an order.

1. Social media 3. In-app marketing

Update each of your social media
accounts’ about section (or bio) with an
explicit callout that you offer delivery
or pickup. Additionally, get the word
out with some posts or stories on an
ongoing basis.
2. Google My Business (GMB)
Certain delivery platforms have built-in
marketing tools to help restaurants create,
target, track and promote their own in-
app advertisements and reach more
potential customers. Inquire about in-
app marketing features with the delivery
services you decide to partner with.

With 5 billion monthly searches on

Google for restaurants, setting up or
updating your Google My Business
(GMB) profile is an accessible way to
help searchers learn more about your
business, like your location, opening
hours and whether you’re offering
takeout or delivery.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 14

4. Storefront signage

Your restaurant storefront is an invaluable asset for getting the word out about your
delivery service. The goal is to assure that any patron that you serve or that walks
by your establishment knows you offer delivery.
Some delivery services provide stickers that you can place in high-visibility areas
like your cash register or front door. These let patrons know who they can order
your food through if ever they want to dine in.
As an added measure, consider updating your printed and electronic receipt
promotional text to explicitly call out both your business hours and delivery.

5. Voicemail

Consider updating your restaurant’s voicemail to mention that you offer delivery
and through which channels, whether it’s your website or through partners like
DoorDash and UberEats.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 15

04
Exploring new
revenue streams
Restaurants across North America are finding new and creative ways
to serve customers while also turning a profit. While takeout and
delivery services remain the main sales channel alternatives to table
service, a handful of restaurateurs are exploring innovative revenue
streams

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 16

Boost your business with these
alternative revenue streams
1. Online grocery store

Sell the specialty products you would

normally use in your dishes—be it
homemade pasta sauce, olive oil
imported from Croatia or organic wine
you can only get from a family-owned
winery in Switzerland—that customers
can’t find in a typical grocery store
online to give your guests a taste of your
restaurant at home.

2. Value added takeout

Some restaurants are getting creative with

their takeout options. Think about how
you can add value to common takeout
boxes and plastic cutlery. Creating a
more personalized offering allows you
to benefit from added income while also
giving customers a memorable restaurant
experience beyond your walls.
While many restaurants offer traditional
delivery and takeout service models,
Montreal restaurant Le Virunga went a
step further to stay true to their African-
inspired roots. Owners Zoya de Frias
and her mother Maria-José created a
picnic package with a special menu, an
African print tablecloth and everything
you need to enjoy their food outside. Le
Virunga successfully added a new revenue
stream to their business model while also
creating more value for their customers.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 17

Some restaurants are even adopting the popular concept of DIY meal kits as a new
sales channel. This gives you access to a new source of income, while also giving
customers a restaurant experience they can enjoy at home.

3. Branded merchandise

Add to your restaurant’s revenue stream

by selling basic branded merchandise
that reflect your business’ values and
lifestyle. This could be anything from
t-shirts and reusable shopping bags to
wine glasses and kitchen accessories.

4. Cookbooks

Some restaurateurs are even sharing a

few of their recipes with customers by
selling cookbooks that give back to their
communities. Elena, an Italian restaurant
that serves some of the finest pizza
in Montreal, developed an accessible
kitchen-friendly digital PDF cookbook
that supports the Montreal Restaurant
Workers Relief Fund.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 18

How Pumpui future-proofed their
restaurant with a hybrid business model
Known for its classic Thai dishes, Montreal’s Pumpui is equipped with a hybrid business
model that’s helped them weather strong changes in the hospitality industry. Part
restaurant, part takeout, part grocery store, this casual Thai restaurant embraced
omnichannel selling strategies even before they became an essential. They also have a
restaurant merch store for customers wishing to buy t-shirts or reusable tote bags.
Not only does this 360-degree approach offer customers multiple ways to shop, but it
also provides the owner with access to a variety of sales channels, ensuring a constant
revenue flow for their business in the event of an unpresented crisis.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 19

05
Optimizing your operations
with inventory management
Food inventory management is a way of tracking what and how much
inventory your restaurant is carrying at all times. Equipped with that
information, restaurants can improve their inventory purchasing (i.e.;
not buying too much or too little), minimize inventory lost due to theft,
spoilage or waste and maximize profitability.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 20

Restaurateurs with a firm grasp of inventory management know the following at any
given time:

✓ What inventory you’ve purchased and what amount

✓ The quantity of inventory used each day

✓ The amount of leftover inventory at the end of each day

The benefits of inventory management

Using a stock control system helps enhance
business practices within any type of
restaurant setting. It’s common practice
in many industries to keep a close eye on
manufacturing costs as well as the overall
market value of products. Yet some food and
beverage businesses don’t subject their menu
to the same level of scrutiny. Maintaining an
efficient stock control system can help you
offset overhead costs, adjust menu pricing
and devise a plan for portion control.
When your business implements a proper control system, you’ll find that you’re in
a better position to make business decisions. For example, you may discover that
certain menu items have lower profit margins than expected. In this example, when
items go unsold, you burn even more money, negatively impacting cash flow. Armed
with this information, you can make changes that recover lost profits and guard
against similar pitfalls in the future.

Food inventory for loss prevention

Keeping track of usage, dollar value and overall inventory levels is essential
for restaurants to understand where the money they invest in food inventory
goes. FoodPrint reports that up to 10 percent of the food inventory a restaurant
purchases is wasted, meaning that 10 percent of their food cost will not generate
revenue. Equipped with that information, restaurants can improve their Cost of
Goods Sold (CoGS) and maximize profits on each sale.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 21

 One study finds that up to 10
percent of the food inventory a
restaurant purchases is wasted,
meaning that

10%
of their food cost will
not generate revenue.

Not only that, but understanding how the inventory you buy relates to sales helps
pinpoint inventory that’s lost for any of the following reasons:

✓ Spills

✓ Employee mistakes

✓ Staff meals

✓ Theft

✓ Comping disgruntled customers

Take control of your stock with

automated inventory management
Inventory management is an important part of running your restaurant, but it is
notoriously a very time consuming task. An automated inventory management like
Lightspeed Inventory system built-in to your restaurant POS, can free up hours
of time for you and your staff, allowing you to focus on what’s really important—
hospitality.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 22

How does it work? With automated inventory, your stock numbers are depleted
as items are sold. You can see your stock in real time and get alerts when a key
ingredient is running low. In addition to the time savings, you’ll also reduce food
waste and food costs. Tracking inventory diligently assures that every penny you
spend can be attributed to sales.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 23

Key takeaways
Restaurants that quickly adopt a hybrid business model
successfully reach more customers and position themselves
to emerge as a stronger, more resilient business in the long
run.

From reconfiguring their restaurant layout and going beyond

delivery and takeout service models to incorporating new
sales channels and optimizing their inventory processes,
restaurants must take a multi-pronged approach to ensure
business continuity.

Armed with the latest technology you won’t outgrow, it’s never
been easier to serve your customers and future-proof your
business for short and long-term success no matter what
unprecedented challenges come your way.

5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 24

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed’s advanced commerce platform ignites the potential of businesses
around the world. Our suite of digital solutions drives innovation and powers
high-performing small and medium businesses within the retail, hospitality and golf
industries. We provide merchants with the tools they need to achieve more—from
selling across channels and managing operations to accepting payments, engaging
with consumers and adding new locations. Founded in Montréal, Canada, in 2005,
Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: LSPD).
With teams across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, the company now
powers local businesses and communities in over 100 countries across the globe.

For more information, please visit: lightspeedhq.com

On social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter

See Lightspeed in action.

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5 ways to run your restaurant smarter in 2022 25