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The month of October is famous for Fall Harvest Festivals, pumpkin patch trips, the Major League Baseball Post-Season Playoffs, and Halloween. Each one of these October activities provides restaurant owners an opportunity to encourage new and existing customers to visit their restaurant by incentivizing menu purchases via gift card, loyalty, and rewards-based promotions.

Here are a few ways restaurants can engage their customers this October:

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​Largely ignored in the US for years, QR codes are proving daily how much of a productive and trusted asset they are to business owners in today’s unpredictable market climate. As restaurant owners continually adjust to the contactless and digital market, utilizing QR code-based access to native and third-party online ordering and digital payment integrations help staff and customers increase operational efficiency, reduce order errors, and improve overall customer service levels and satisfaction.
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With eight out of ten people carrying a smartphone camera in their pockets, unique QR codes enable restaurants to put ordering and payment capabilities into the hands of their customers, including:

• Paperless menus
• Place online orders
• Scan-and-pay at the POS
• Web-based digital payments
• Leave cashless tips
• Receive paperless receipts
• Gain loyalty points
• Trigger curbside pick-up
• Digital restaurant storefronts
• And more!

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The school year is back in swing, which means restaurants are engaging schools, students, and school groups in their local communities. For many customers, their daily schedules are prioritized around their childrens’ school, extracurricular activities, and their local social network. By supporting students’ success while encouraging new and existing customers to return the favor through support of their business, restaurants successfully increase customer traffic this fall and throughout the school year with back-to-school themed campaigns.

Here are three ways to engage your local customer base with back-to-school themed campaigns and events:

Homecoming Catering and Promotions

Homecoming is an exciting time of year for students, families, and their communities. With homecoming float-building, dances, and football games occurring throughout the fall season, restaurants have a unique opportunity to support local schools with homecoming-themed catering and promotions. Examples include:

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Aldelo has always been, first and foremost, a restaurant point-of-sale software developer. Whether it’s responding to merchant feedback to enhance existing POS applications, or introducing new native solutions such as the Aldelo Express Inventory Module, Aldelo’s full-time team of software developers is committed to providing restaurant owners and referral partners with “complete access to leading restaurant technologies.”

To best serve new and existing restaurant owners looking for affordable full-featured point-of-sale solutions, Aldelo Express POS supports “freedom of choice” processing. This includes a monthly POS SaaS option that enables merchants to purchase the Aldelo Express restaurant technology platform separately from their restaurant’s merchant payment processing services. The result is allowing more restaurant owners to benefit from Aldelo Express’s full-featured cloud POS solutions while using credit card processing services that best suit the needs of their business.

​Selecting the ​Aldelo Express POS technology platform means implementing a complete merchant- and customer-facing POS ecosystem using non-proprietary hardware and a single cloud back-office environment. Aldelo Express POS hardware options are seamlessly interoperable and synchronize data so that information is readily available on any device, allowing merchants the freedom to select hardware they feel is best for their operation. Whether utilizing iPads, Android Tablets, or Android-based Mobile Handheld devices, every Aldelo Express terminal is capable of supporting a complete restaurant operation. 

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Because coffee is the most popular drink in America, nearly every restaurant offers hot or cold coffee beverages on their menu. This September 29th, on National Coffee Day, restaurant owners across the country are taking advantage of the opportunity to promote their restaurant’s digital menus with coffee-themed loyalty campaigns. By incentivizing digital online ordering purchases with coffee-based giveaways and discounts, businesses see increased purchases of food and drinks placed both in-store on QR code-based digital menus, and online.

For new and existing restaurant owners, offering a full-featured digital menu means enabling customers to customize their own coffee-based drinks using simple, complex, and priced menu item modifiers. Using a single cloud-based login, owners/operators monitor and manage digital menus and menu item modifiers anytime, anywhere through the Aldelo Express POS cloud back-office. When used alongside self-service Kiosks and QR code-based signage placed throughout the indoor and outdoor restaurant environment, restaurants utilizing Aldelo Express and Masa+ eliminate long lines and reduce wait times through on-demand customer-facing digital ordering and secure payment services.

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One of the best strategies a restaurant can make at the end of a busy summer season is leveraging customer contact information gathered over the previous several months and establishing new loyalty campaigns. Promoting reward incentives that cater to busy schedules keep customers engaged despite a transition into school-year routines. When successful, these restaurants not only retain summer customers, but can present their restaurant as a “grab and go” option or as an ideal “hotspot” for parent meetings, local fundraisers, or a fun time out.

​Here are 3 creative ways to target customers this September with themed campaigns:

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For millions of Americans, September marks the end of summer. By the end of August, summer tourists, campers, and out-of-towners are going back to their school year routines, making September a challenging period for many restaurant owners who are at risk of losing new summer customers. As a result, one of the best things a restaurant can do is target their customers with integrated loyalty and rewards incentives so they will be reminded of their favorite “summer stop” throughout the school year. When successful, these restaurants not only maintain a growing customer base, but present their restaurant as an ideal vendor for fundraisers, sports team gatherings, homecoming catering, and more.

One of the best ways restaurants can strategically compete in the growing loyalty market is to reward customer purchases and influence return visits with unique customer promotions. These help restaurants increase customer traffic and earn additional revenue that is often essential for sustaining the business during slower periods.

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Red wine is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages among U.S. consumers. This means that National Red Wine Day (August 28) offers restaurants and bars a unique opportunity to promote new and existing partnerships with local wineries, tasting rooms, and restaurants through cross-pollination advertising and collaborative campaigns.
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For example, a restaurant and tasting room partnership can use National Red Wine Day to encourage customers to purchase their favorite food and drinks in a tasting room environment, or purchase locally-made wines with their meal on a restaurant’s premises. Partners can offer their menu items in promotional bundles or through limited-time discounts. In both scenarios, business owners and operators make customers aware of existing collaborations, influence guests to place orders for additional items, and can generate future visits with limited-time gift card, loyalty, and rewards offers.

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Masa+ digital online storefronts are an essential tool for restaurants using the Aldelo Express POS system. With a Masa+ online storefront, restaurants support enhanced self-driven experiences for their customers in-store and online, allowing access to digital food and drink menus, selecting and customizing orders, easily re-ordering their favorite food and drinks, and settling transactions with minimal engagement by restaurant staff.

The recent release of Masa+ V2 features an updated user-friendly interface with consistent color schemes, styles, and workflows that provides a smoother, more enjoyable experience for customers as they view digital menus and place orders from personal smartphones. With so many third-party online ordering integrations available on the market today, Masa+ offers restaurants a sleek yet full-featured solution that seamlessly operates with Aldelo Express and is available at ZERO additional cost.

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In 2022, more customers are digitally ordering and paying for food and drinks than ever before. Nearly every restaurant has a digital online storefront and/or access to their menu through native and third-party ordering and payment platforms. With immediacy and convenience driving nearly every transaction, restaurants must provide a secure way of protecting credit cards, gift cards, loyalty credits, and other digital tenders to confidently provide customers with these modern services.

For restaurant owners using Aldelo Express cloud POS to run their restaurant, bar, or food truck, integrating Masa+ secure digital wallets is a no-brainer. The native integration is browser-based, enabling customers to access their secure digital wallet from any device through a single login. Each Masa+ digital payment tender works seamlessly with the Aldelo Express cloud POS software and back office reports, allowing owners and operators to monitor and track Masa+ sales and determine the most lucrative digital payment programs for their business. Regardless of whether an order was placed off-premises or in-store, Masa+ digital wallets enable streamlined POS operations in any environment, and improve experiences for both customers and restaurant staff.

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Ice cream is one of the most popular desserts in the United States, especially during the notoriously hot month of July. For small business owners using Aldelo Express and Masa+, promoting loyalty programs with ice cream and ice cream-based frozen desserts helps draw customers into their store during the hot summer season. With Aldelo Express and Masa+, owners of single and multi-store restaurants launch campaigns that influence customers’ dining choices, generate repeat visits, and motivate guests to purchase additional items.

Aldelo Express and Masa+ users customize their restaurant’s unique loyalty program using digital and physical loyalty credits, or a combination of each. Customers can earn loyalty credits by purchasing specific menu items, ordering food and drinks using specific delivery methods (such as dine in, takeout, curbside pickup, and off-premises delivery), or by placing orders within specified time frames. Each one of these loyalty program strategies helps restaurant owners leverage sales of particular menu items to avoid wasted inventory, increase business during slower periods, promote new products and services, or increase overall business revenue.

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The summer season often brings groups of young customers to diners, smoothie shops, and other local restaurants. These types of customers are looking to get out of their house and go to a fun environment where they can eat and spend time with their friends – and get away from the summer heat. Restaurants are making the most of the summer season by incorporating loyalty promotions and creative events that attract hungry customers with great deals, great food, and family-friendly fun.

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As customers step into the summer season through weekend getaways, family vacations, and exotic adventures, resort and hotel managers can offer enhanced VIP-level guest experiences using flexible, innovative and customer-centric cloud point of sale solutions. With Aldelo Express Cloud POS device interoperability, remote device management, and full-feature usage via Wi-Fi or Cellular Data, owners and operators integrate new poolside and mobile POS services alongside traditional orders and payments.

Here are five ways Aldelo Express Cloud POS benefits poolside and resort point of sale operations.

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​This year, Father’s Day is on June 19th. Each year, businesses compete to be the go-to restaurant for a Father’s Day meal or dessert. For new or independent businesses, this often makes it difficult for their promotions to stand out from the crowd. But with extended or week-long Father’s Day campaigns, local restaurants improve customer traffic and earn additional revenue while increasing brand exposure to the community.

By promoting Father’s Day reservations, buffets, and specials one to two weeks in advance, restaurants provide a convenient way for customers to plan ahead or find them for last-minute gift decisions.

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​For many business owners, switching to a new point of sale system is an expensive, but necessary, investment. Learning a new restaurant technology and management system brings a learning curve for both managers and employees. Generally the losses and delays associated with implementing a new POS system are justified with enhanced operational efficiency and overall system cost-effectiveness.

Owners/operators that make the switch to Aldelo Express Cloud POS, on the other hand, deploy a complete restaurant technology solution in minutes, and receive unparalleled POS value over the life of the system. Plus, with familiar user interfaces (UIs) across all devices, restaurant staff transition to using the iPad- and Android-based system in just days, not weeks, saving the business time and money.

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​Labor is one of the most controllable costs business owners have. With the right visibility, managers know when to prepare for an influx of orders, and conversely, when to reduce purchases and related inventory levels. Having proper insights into the operation allows managers to properly staff and control labor costs.

​In addition to these reporting features, modern restaurant point of sale technology provides a means to nimbly manage expenses based on the current needs of the business. By implementing digital services that include ordering, payments, and digital receipts, businesses become less reliant on physical labor. Additionally, these businesses reduce costs related to managing guest services such as printable receipts, legacy gift card, loyalty, and coupon programs. By going digital, restaurant information becomes readily available to operators in order to make important business decisions that protect the bottom line.

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​People enjoy resorts because they are exciting getaways from ordinary work and daily routines. The best resorts and parks have great food (that guests don’t have to prepare), great hospitality (that make guests feel like celebrities), and great entertainment for guests to enjoy.

In these types of environments, people are constantly moving around and making purchases as they go. There is an expectation of VIP service and luxury experiences throughout, so the faster and more convenient transactions are, the more satisfied customers will be as they roam from poolside bars to restaurant dining rooms, multi-level clubs, seaside bars and snack shack bungalows. Being able to serve in fluid, mobile environments means shorter lines and less congestion for customers getting and other services, providing overall enhanced customer experiences and providing more physical space.

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While the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital restaurant solutions, customer-facing point of sale technology had already been making its way into the industry, beginning with online ordering for in-store pickup and delivery services. To accommodate today’s digital market, 91% of restaurants want online ordering solutions, 66% want table side QR code-based ordering, and 74% want curbside pickup capabilities. Aldelo referral partners exceed these merchant expectations with natively integrated remote POS solutions, providing essential customer digital services at no additional cost to merchants, saving them hundreds of dollars per month.*

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​Many food trucks are a brand in and of themselves, and like their favorite music groups, customers will follow food trucks from one location to the next. This provides a vibrant atmosphere for others to recognize and gravitate towards. Loyalty and rewards programs not only reward that loyalty, but allows these businesses to pick up new fans at every stop.

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​Running multiple restaurant locations can be a thrilling yet daunting task. To run more than one operation, owners must either delegate to additional store leaders or engage in high-level multitasking as they work to release new services or manage day-to-day changes in the operation. With multiple layers of responsibilities that come with operating multiple storefronts, multi-store restaurant owners and managers can quickly become drained from running between tasks. As a result, their own staff are likely to feel the impact, risking the readiness, efficiency, and enthusiasm of their employees, and even the satisfaction of their customers.

Multi-Store Management Solution

But there is a way for restaurant owners to find peace of mind while they manage multiple businesses. Aldelo Express Cloud POS offers a multi-store management solution built into its back-office environment. With automatic syncs and back-office access from any web-enabled device, restaurant owners experience newfound peace of mind and freedom to manage their business anytime, anywhere.
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Restaurants using an Aldelo Express back-office have the ability to manage one or many stores and selectively make changes across all stores, specific stores, or a single store.

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​​Successful restaurants continually anticipate and respond to customer expectations. While many restaurants rely on third-party review sites such as Yelp and Google review for customer feedback, receiving this feedback first-hand allows owners and operators to gain a different perspective from customers that have recently visited their establishment. These first-hand reviews then either validate reviews from third-party sites or provide additional contextual information that allows owners to improve overall customer satisfaction and positively impact external online ratings.

By using customer “comment cards” to identify and understand customers’ pleasure and pain points, these restaurants are able to provide customer-centric services that influence guests to return and create more enjoyable dining experiences.

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​Among the many opportunities a restaurant has to engage its local community, community centers and summer camps offer businesses high-volume public settings that attract both locals and visitors, thus providing consistent exposure to multiple demographics in lively settings. By engaging leadership and administrators in these areas, restaurants are able to understand ways in which they can support groups and activities that enhance participant experiences. Through these relationships, restaurants immediately increase brand exposure and expand their customer base into local and visiting communities, making their business a go-to spot for guests who live nearby or are passing through.

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​Known as “the most important meal of the day,” breakfast dishes are a staple menu category in the restaurant industry, garnering billions of sales dollars each year and steadily growing over the last decade.

In 2019, 55%* of diners said they would order breakfast menu items any time of the day if they were made available on restaurant menus. For restaurants that can add breakfast items or offer breakfast all day, growing demand for breakfast menu items means an opportunity to reach a whole new customer demographic in their community and differentiate from competitors.