3-minute read ---

​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.

3-minute read ---
​
Beverages are a restaurant’s most profitable menu item. With virtually endless combinations of flavored syrups, sodas, spirits, juices, and toppings, the possibilities for creating enticing beverages are only limited by the imagination. Like any menu item, drink trends come and go, but these often require purchasing new and/or novelty ingredients. However, a recent social media trend provides business owners an engaging and profitable beverage solution that is easily created with ingredients in every restaurant's kitchen.

“Dirty sodas” are soda-based beverages that feature soda poured over ice with cream, flavored syrups, fruit chunks, and other non-alcoholic add-ins. The combination of bubbly soda and cream is reminiscent of ice cream floats, but is enhanced with additional item mix-ins and flavor combinations. 

3-minute read ---
​
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.*

3-minute read ---

​​Opening a restaurant is challenging enough. Having a solid plan and mastering that plan as quickly as possible has a direct impact on revenue and the success of your business.

Every restaurant provides a unique contribution to a city. Restaurant operators that network with other small business owners in their community accelerate their learning experiences by gleaning tips from those familiar with the area and customer market. Experienced business owners, especially those native to your area, offer other owners/operators invaluable lessons from their years of running a restaurant, engaging the community, serving customers, and working with third-party suppliers.

3-minute read ---

​There are two primary goals of businesses in the hospitality sphere: to make guests feel “at home” while simultaneously providing a VIP-level experience with customer-centric services and amenities. This is especially true for hotels, which often promote a “like home, but better” mentality when welcoming guests and serving them throughout their stay.

To meet this high-level standard of comfort and convenience, many hotels offer room service to guests, providing food and drinks directly from the hotel’s kitchen or from partner restaurants located on or near the business premises. With increased QR code usage for restaurant online ordering, takeout, and delivery services, hotels are also beginning to use QR codes to enhance in-house and third-party food and drink services.

3-minute read ---

​As inflation and supply chain delays continue, restaurants are challenged to maintain a profitable business while providing consistent food, drink, and customer service quality. To do this, owners and managers must use insights from back-office data to make changes to food and drinks on existing restaurant menus.

Restaurants using native inventory and digital menu solutions from Aldelo Express make changes to digital menu configurations based on item inventory, navigating ever-changing prices using surface-level and detailed sales reports and inventory logs accessed through a cloud back-office environment. With these tools, restaurant owners compare sales performances to food costs to determine popular and high profit items that attract hungry customers and increase revenue.

3-minute read ---

After water, tea is the most popular beverage in the world. In 2021, over 150 million Americans drank tea every day. This year, preferences for age-old brews are surfacing in new menu categories and trends that include afternoon “tea time” happy hours and tea-flavored baked goods. * Because teas provide wide profit margins for restaurants, restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops are embracing the 2022 tea trend and seeing instant improvements to their bottom lines.

Even though per ticket averages may slightly lower during tea time periods, these types of events enable restaurants to draw more customers into the business and serve food and drink items with higher margins, allowing customers to see and experience other menu items and influencing them to make return visits.

3-minute read ---

​Food aside, rather than establishing a restaurant’s brand on atmosphere, services, and overall dining experiences, in the last few years ghost kitchens have revolutionized the food service landscape with a heightened emphasis on superior food quality and customer services. These food service businesses are designed for and rely solely on remote orders, processing ordering and payments remotely before preparing, cooking, and packaging customers’ food and drinks for pick-up or delivery. With no front-of-house costs for service, maintenance, and overhead, ghost kitchens collect revenue from a completely digital customer base, utilizing online ordering, payment, and smart kitchen display systems (KDS) to support seamless transaction processes and order production from start to finish. This includes capturing order histories for quick and easy menu item recall and reorder through unique customer profiles available on staff terminals for phone orders as well as customer-facing online ordering solutions.

2-minute read ---

​In the last several years, point of sale salespeople have faced increased competition from credit card processors integrating their services with POS software solutions.

As a result, ​restaurants that are seeking to acquire a point-of-sale solution tend to struggle to make confident decisions because solutions and features beyond basic POS functionality are priced separately or are intertwined with varying credit card processing rates and fees.

4-minute read ---

​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.

5-minute read ---

​For restaurant owners in today’s market, running a restaurant means employing and training a nimble and versatile staff capable of assuming a variety of roles. It also means selecting a state-of-the-art POS technology platform and online ordering solution that works in concert with customers for efficiently managing transactions and services from anywhere. This means utilizing mobile handheld POS devices to expand the restaurant’s reach in and outside of the store, improve customer convenience, and provide faster service. And best of all, these increase revenue.

Mobile handheld devices make it possible for restaurants to proactively engage customers instead of waiting for customers to come to them. This creates a smooth and convenient method when serving customers at fairs, concerts, festivals, stadiums, golf courses, theaters, concessions, farmers markets and a variety of other events.

4-minute read ---

​The United States consumes 3 billion pizzas per year, with a total of $38 million spent on one of restaurants’ most popular menu items.*

Pizza is one item that rarely “gets old.” Whether your main customer base is fueled by high schoolers down the street or a mix of all demographics, most guests love a fresh pizza pie.

National Pizza Party Day gives guests a reason to celebrate with family and friends at their favorite local restaurant, or at home with food from their favorite pizza menu. Restaurants celebrating this day easily increase awareness of their venue for summer events and local gatherings by hosting a pizza party that guests can enjoy with their family and friends. Restaurants that don’t have a traditional pizza oven may participate in this specialty event by serving pizza variations including pizza bread, pizza sandwiches, pizza casseroles, and more.

​​Whether your restaurant offers pizza items regularly or are introducing limited-time offers, hosting a pizza party provides a unique and engaging opportunity to attract and retain local customers.

5-minute read ---

​Aldelo has spent over 20 years developing restaurant technology solutions fit for any operation. With each innovation, the company’s mission has remained the same: to provide restaurants with unparalleled access to the most economic and ​state-of-the-art cloud POS platform.

To help meet this mission, Aldelo establishes strategic relationships with selected resellers across the US that are passionate about providing local restaurant owners with a robust POS solution that includes everything required to successfully operate a restaurant today and tomorrow. Merchants can retain their current payment processing service or select from a variety of supported ultra-competitive payment processing options. Aldelo employs a simple and straightforward POS sales model that eliminates complexity and confusion making it extremely easy for merchants to make a confident and quick POS decision that is in the best interest of their business.

5-minute read ---

​​Five years ago, typically only pizza places and a few full-service restaurants offered delivery of their food and drinks. Today, restaurants of all types and sizes are engaging with native and third-party delivery services to reach existing customers and expand their customer base.

Determining the best combination of native and third-party delivery platforms can be a difficult and confusing process for business owners. Do they hire additional staff to deliver items purchased through their online ordering platform, or partner with popular ordering and delivery services to increase their brand exposure?

Because each business and local market is different, there is no right or wrong answer. However, owners and operators must conduct a serious cost-benefit analysis to determine the best investment for their business. This depends on (1) what will bring the most value to the business; (2) the flexibility of the online ordering and delivery platform; (3) the cost of the program; and (4) the ease of managing the program for a single or multi-store restaurant operations.

4-minute read ---

​​Restaurant owners seeking to acquire a new point-of-sale solution tend to struggle to make confident decisions. This is because solutions and features beyond basic POS functionality are often priced separately or intertwined with varying (and confusing) credit card processing rates and fees. And if this isn’t confusing enough, many POS providers tout “free” POS hardware that is often bundled with the entire solution, making it difficult for merchants to quickly and accurately compare one POS solution to another.

Merchants purchasing a new software solution may believe they are getting a better deal up front when they choose a POS system with “free” POS hardware. But, in the long-run, they tend to pay much more than the fair market value.

​Restaurant owners that reconcile their “free” hardware with increased costs often believe they are simply amortizing the cost of the hardware over a period of time at a fair rate. However, the actual cost of “free” hardware often ends up costing the merchant much more, since they are really paying for their hardware through higher credit card rates, monthly POS payments, or feature and service fees. Eventually merchants conclude that there really is no such thing as “free” POS hardware.

6-minute read ---

​Modern cloud point of sale systems are a descendant of the traditional cash register, which was created to prevent profit leakage, manage transactions, and effectively secure the business’ bottom line. Today, with the emergence of cloud-based point of sale systems, each one has its own combination of traditional, remote, and mobile services. But the primary function of a point of sale system remains the same: to effectively manage transactions and secure the business’ bottom line.

5-minute read ---
​
Spring is in the air! This May, get customers excited to visit your restaurant by hosting limited-time specials and events as part of a festive marketing campaign. The month of May is famous for flowers, end-of-the-school-year parties, and celebrating the women we love on Mother’s Day… as well as our favorite moments from the Star Wars saga on May the Fourth!

In addition to these festive springtime classics, here are some “national days” that restaurants can leverage to drive customer traffic this May.

5-minute read ---

​Major metropolitan communities are the best – and most challenging – places for restaurant owners. With dense working populations, multicultural communities, families, and schools, successful restaurants serve a loyal customer base with great food, reliable service, and fair prices. These businesses provide quick morning breakfasts, easy lunches to-go, after school snacks, and ready-to-eat dinner options available via dine-in, takeout, delivery, or pick-up to meet the needs of their customer base.

But because of the density of the population and the multitude of small businesses and restaurants, major metro communities are a challenging place for POS resellers to vie for new merchants. Many resellers struggle to define their value proposition in a competitive market, and they find that merchants also struggle to determine how to differentiate one POS solution from another. Providing merchants with a powerful leading-edge POS solution that is sold under a simple and transparent model eliminates confusion and complexity and allows merchants to compare one POS solution quickly and accurately to another.

4-minute read ---

​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.
​
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.

4-minute read ---

​You may have noticed the growing number of restaurants adding gluten-free menu options to their menus. This comes in response to growing customer demand for wheat-free items, usually from health-conscious customers allergic to wheat-based products.

In addition, recently many restaurants have begun moving away from wheat-based items as they face higher costs due to supply chain shortages, caused in part by droughts in U.S. regions where wheat is grown and harvested.

6-minute read ---

​Warmer weather means more customers returning to eat outdoors at their favorite local restaurants. As restaurants continue utilizing cloud-based POS technologies that revolutionized the industry, businesses are incorporating these solutions to optimize their outdoor patios and dining operations.
​
Today, restaurants are operating in a new era, where digitized ordering and payments have skyrocketed, leaving exclusively dine-in and paper-based operations in the past. More restaurants are using customer-facing POS solutions to orchestrate staff and customer experiences, integrating orders and payments through a single system. Utilizing native solutions means reduced complexity and confusion for staff preparing food and drinks, and shorter wait times for customers ordering dine-in, takeout, pickup, and delivery items.

With the full-featured Aldelo Express Cloud POS platform, restaurants maintain clear staff-customer communication across one or several dining areas, including outdoor patios, special event rooms, poolside bars, and more. The restaurant technology platform offers multiple staff- and customer-facing point of sale solutions that enhance every part of the business.

3-minute read ---

​​In the last two years, restaurants across the country that did not already offer chicken sandwiches began adding the savory sandwich to their menu. Chicken offers customers a heart-healthy and lean protein option that doesn’t break the bank and can be enjoyed in an infinite number of ways.

Chicken sandwiches are not a new trend, nor a particularly innovative menu idea. But the chicken sandwich craze began in 2019 when Popeye’s, ​Chick-fil-A, and other leading QSR chains re-introduced chicken sandwiches on their menu, competing with unique sauces, crispiness levels, and sandwich toppings.

Fortunately for restaurants, chicken is an affordable ingredient that is simple enough to customize in many unique ways, but delicious enough to make guests' mouths water.

In addition to classic, spicy, and BBQ chicken sandwiches, here are a few ways business owners can revamp chicken-based menu items in their restaurant.

6-minute read ---

Aldelo referral partners represent a complete cloud-based restaurant technology POS platform that offers both merchant- and customer-facing solutions, including online ordering. Partners add ultra-competitive merchant processing services comprising a full-featured POS offering with all software solutions, apps, and services included at no additional cost.

This combination provides Aldelo partners with a simple-to-use yet powerful POS offering that provides merchants with unbeatable value and leading-edge technology for their business today and tomorrow.

​By adding Aldelo Express Cloud POS to their portfolio of restaurant solutions, resellers quickly elevate their technology offerings with features specifically designed to meet the needs of an evolving restaurant industry.

3-minute read ---

​Restaurants struggling to hire and retain staff are looking for ways to maintain a full-featured operation without hiring additional staff. With Aldelo Express, restaurants maintain clear staff communication while managing one or several dining rooms. Using a built-in table layout module accessible from POS terminals, restaurant staff seamlessly coordinate a VIP front-of-house operation, even during busy mealtimes, without hiring new employees.

With built-in table layout modules from Aldelo Express, restaurants enjoy enhanced visibility of every table and bar location, allowing staff to customize the graphical layout of each room with table icons. The easy-to-use graphical layout is used to simulate main dining rooms, outdoor patios, poolside tables, bars, exclusive back dining rooms, outdoor patios, and other dining environments.

4-minute read ---

​QR codes have become the go-to link between our physical and digital worlds. Customers using QR codes quickly launch and self-manage a variety of experiences and services that enhance everyday purchases with paperless menus, online orders, scan-and-pay at the POS, web-based payments, cashless tips, paperless receipts, digital loyalty points, curbside pick-up, and more.

By employing QR codes in checkout flows, business owners help customers make ordering from their restaurant a part of their routine, providing guests the option to self-manage  online ordering and digital payments, thereby streamlining customer-centric online services in-store and remotely on demand.