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In today’s fast-paced business environment, staying current with technology is essential for any industry, but especially so in the cut-throat world of food & beverage…

A point-of-sale (POS) system is a technology solution that allows businesses to process transactions and manage sales data. Retail stores, restaurants, bars…

Point-of-sale (POS) systems are more than just a cash register. They have evolved into an essential business tool capable of…

When Mr Tan approached us to discuss his plan for a new outlet for Kopi Ong (aka Kopi King), we could hardly hold our excitement back. Some projects are destined to be successful. This is one of them. When we tasted his Brew Master’s unique brand of coffee, we were ready to do whatever it takes to work together on this special project. Tucked in one of Singapore’s more prominent areas, the CBD, Kopi Ong’s latest location is in Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3. A place better known for fast-paced of work and prestigious companies. We will discuss two main points on this post: #1 – What is so unique about the solution we developed with Kopi Ong? #2 – Why do we think this project has a date with success? Point #1 is presented to demonstrate capabilities of our system. Point #2 is to inspire you, what makes Mr Tan and his team such a success story in our eyes. What is so unique about the solution we developed with Kopi Ong? This was a challenging project… in a good way! We directed everything we developed towards one goal: go faster! We had to follow some strict timings and restrictions to make this project a winner. From the pictures above, you will be able to see Old vs. New point of sales system. Mr Tan decided to upgrade from a traditional POS to a more dynamic one. Workflow needed to be studied, and solutions developed so that his team could gain milliseconds in some instances. For example, we designed the Order screen, helps his staff to follow the natural flow of speech. Speed was of the essence for the morning coffee rush. All the staff employed is over 50 years of age. A deliberate and commendable move to help senior citizens have access to better jobs. This means that we had to work on solutions for people who had neither tech-savvy nor prone to doing fast manipulations. We designed a solution that allowed the workers to follow their natural process. Coffee orders were written in code on drink caps in the old outlet. We developed a solution to code these drink orders on labels instead (look at the picture below – old vs. new). This is to help his Brew Masters work more efficiently. We can help them track more variables with the help of the labels. This includes the order number and the number of drinks per order. They were printing two receipt copies with each order to keep track. We helped them get rid of the need for the extra copies of printed receipts. FoodZaps now allows them to refer to old receipts as and when needed. A solution which is both more flexible and environment-friendly. We needed to help make the hardware more presentable. We designed and developed a new tablet stand platform to allow for a smoother and more elegant appearance. This is after all a quality coffee shop in Marina Bay Financial Centre. Why do we think this project has a date with success? As mentioned earlier, we find Kopi Ong so interesting that we wanted to share with you all some of the secrets behind successful F&B businesses. Doing the same method of ordering processing but in a faster and better way with FoodZaps point of sales solution platform. Whereas innovation often starts at the bottom, the ability to let it bloom comes from the top. A strong vision is only more compelling when it serves a greater purpose. In this case, the mission is not just to serve great coffee; it is also to give senior citizens access to exclusive employment opportunities. Preparation is essential. Working through the details increases your likelihood of success. Ok, we can go overboard and get lost if we start with details, but once we are happy with the macro, then the micro is essential. It all starts with the heart. Yes, the heart. The generosity that you feel when you are within the team is palpable. Generosity translates as that special feeling you get that makes you keep on wanting to come back. Passion is the secret ingredient. Once I had my first sip of the freshly-brewed coffee, I started asking more questions. It went beyond my best expectations. Once I started asking questions, I could see how far they had gone to perfect this brew. It is no accident that each sip of coffee could take me back to my own Ratatouille-land. It does not start with the wallet. I think we can agree that everyone wants to make money. The issue is some people want to make money at all costs while others are more concerned with delivering value. I’ll let you guess where this team lays. Repeat the process and improve on it! Over time, I found that most people start with a loose process and then let it get looser. In this case, they are keeping tabs of the process to keep on finding ways to perfect it further, to innovate some more. So not “going through the motions” but more “dancing through the motions.”   I hope you found a bit of inspiration on this one. We would love to hear about your inspiring stories, teams, and projects. Feel free to contact us if you think people could benefit from hearing about you! Speak with us, email us [sales@foodzaps.com].

Minister of Manpower – Mr Lim Swee Say In early November 2016, we participated in one of Singapore’s leading events for Productivity Technologies. The Singapore Productivity Conference & Exhibition is organized by the Singapore Business Federation. The guest of honor was Minister of Manpower Mr Lim Swee Say . In his speech to the assembly, Mr Lim Swee Say emphasized the importance of local businesses to improve productivity to stay competitive. He highlighted that businesses need to re-examine their processes to find bottlenecks. As a result, they can  upgrade their processes. It is important to improving both speed and quality of services.   Mr Lim Swee Say had limited time to spend with the different participants (total 25 minutes) and decided to allocate about 10-15 minutes to find out more about our solution. Please excuse the quality of this footage! We are grateful for this highlight. It was both a surprise and a testament to our vision then that our Minister of Manpower decided to spend some of his valuable time with us.   Food & Beverage is one of the biggest industries in Singapore (and globally). We have scratched our head to find solutions that go beyond what a traditional or even Cloud POS can do to help businesses improve productivity. In fact, helping restaurants identify bottlenecks and proposing solutions to improve productivity is precisely FoodZaps’ strength. Channel News Asia, part of MediaCorp, decided to feature us on their news story!   The Straits Time included us in their article on the event. Productivity Takeaways Hence what are some of our main takeaways from this event? Singaporeans are extremely lucky! There are not many governments around the World who are so actively involved in raising the standards for their SMEs. Several government grants are in place to help local businesses gain a competitive edge. Hence this creates dynamism for start-ups to help them focus on the essential issues. Businesses must look beyond automation. Automation is all too often the go-to answer for problems. Therefore, as nice as automating is: without specific bottlenecks to resolve, these are just dust in the wind. Today’s productivity gain may be tomorrow’s bottleneck. Solutions we found to solve issues in the past may not be good enough today. Therefore, any company looking to bring innovative productivity solutions to its clients must constantly re-evaluate its services. Short-term gains are not sustainable. We must be ready to challenge every piece of the process. Especially relevant for this, it is essential to have the right tools and methodology for a deeper analysis. With the amount of solutions out there, it is more important than ever for businesses to do their due diligence and find the solution that works best for their unique commerce. Change is the only constant. Once you resist change, you soon become obsolete. Your tools must give you enough flexibility to integrate value-adding or value-enhancing products. Consequently, you will gain an invaluable competitive advantage over your competitors. At the end of the day, it has been a privilege and honour to tap on fellow innovators and leaders. What an inspiration!   FoodZaps is Pre-qualifed Integrated Solution Provider Under the ICV Scheme, click here to find out more. [sg_popup id=”4″ event=”onload”][/sg_popup]

In the past, it was hard to print on most commercial printers from your Android Devices. This would be an issue especially if you wanted to print receipts or reports on printers other than your POS printers. This issue is now in the past.   We have finally resolved this problem. Now that printer brands have released free apps to perform these tasks, we have also developed our solution to allow you to print directly from FoodZaps. Well, talking to some of our friends in the industry, we understand this will make your life easier.     So you will now be able to print receipts on larger formats, such as A4 or A5 if you like. This is ideal if you are looking at printing small volumes, such as 10 or fewer receipts per minute. You will also be able to print your reports from the app directly. So the app will manage your printings and allow you to skip a few unnecessary steps. Most major printers can now support WiFi printing via Android Devices.   Here are some simple steps to follow: Activate the printer in FoodZaps through Setting -> Receipt/Report Printer -> Select the Printer Brand All configurations will be automatically done for you.   FoodZaps supports printing Receipt & Report using the following major printers: EPSON iPrint HP ePrint Samsung Mobile Print Cannon Brother iPrint & Scan   Sounds like something you have been looking for? Just head to the nearest IT mall and get those Multi-Function Printers which support ePrint/iPrint and you can setup the complete POS within a few hours using your existing Android devices.                  ***image credits: http://www8.hp.com/nz/en/campaign/eprint/eprint-printers.html http://printhand.com/wifi_printers.php https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.auco.android (FoodZaps)

  We don’t believe that marketing for your business has to be costly. Sometimes we just don’t think of the most obvious things we can do to help our business gain more exposure, get more return business, and a healthier bottom line. As Food & Beverage professionals, we often have to wear many hats, and we can easily overlook certain items. We want to help you out a little by giving you some tips on growth hacking with one of the simplest tools you have on hand – the receipt ticket! Some of these items take a bit of discipline and planning. We guarantee you will have fun once you start making use of these! We understand that these may not apply to all and that’s a good thing! Whatever you can use from this will help your business get a firmer hold on its direction. With the limited space you have on your ticket, time for you to get creative and make a powerful impact! Level 1 – Branding # 1 – Logo A clear and visible logo on your ticket is a must-have. It might not seem like much, but your guests need to be able to identify you at a glance. This is your identity and the most recognizable visual element. It needs to stand out from the others so you can set yourself apart. For a stronger brand identity, we recommend working with a professional designer. Having a printer that can print your logo with a reasonable resolution is essential to make this happen. What kind of visual impact will your guests not forget?   # 2 – Contact Details This one might sound obvious to most of us. We’ll put it out there just in case because we have noticed a lot of people skipping this (one of the most basic) step. Contact details can include any one or more of the following: Phone number Address Website Facebook Choose the ones that are more appropriate to your establishment. If you want to encourage reservations and orders, then your phone number is the best. If you keep your Facebook feed fresh with cool new promotions, then send them there!   # 3 – Sell You Brand What is exceptional about your brand? What is the one thing people should take away from it? Some restaurants don’t have a clear brand identity, some do. The logo is a good start; your outlet will also contribute. We believe that the receipt can help as well. For instance, if you are donating 10% of your profits to charity, then mention it on your receipt – no matter how cynical some guests can be, people are sensitive to contributing to a good cause. What do you stand for?   # 4 – Humor Them We said earlier that you want to be different. We have seen restaurants use their receipts to give people something a bit different to grab their attention. Some restaurants like to give out some poetry, rhymes, one-liners. Whatever your “thing” is, as long as you can get a smile on your client’s face, you’ve won that guest over and are increasing your chances of having him casually mention your outlet to his friends. We have seen even “serious” establishments take advantage of this with a touch of humor on their receipt. This is a risk worth taking. We encourage you to consider giving your clients an extra excuse to talk about you.   Level 2 – Promoting # 5 – Newsfeed Another way to get creative – give your clients a bite-sized piece of news. Up to you how you can best use that. Our suggestion, for instance, is: prior to wild mushroom, a special cheese, or truffle season starting, you want to get them excited so a quick one-liner to get them salivating and already thinking about their next visit is a great use of space that could have been stale. You can also communicate your upcoming events to get a buzz going. Used wisely, this can bring you a LOT of business – not only return business but also word-of-mouth. If you’ve got something special coming, this is another reason for your existing customers to get their friends excited about joining them next time around.   # 6 – Daily Promotions That is tied into the previous point with a slight change in point-of-view. Here, you will want to think about ways you can lure your existing segments to change their habits and join you for other occasions. For instance, to get your lunchtime crowd to join for happy hour, or your weekday crowd to join during the weekend. Or maybe it is the evening crowd you want to target for your lunches or brunches. Do you get the message? Say you want to promote you lunch, you can grab your evening crowd’s attention towards your lunchtime promotions on the ticket. And vice-versa, you can guide your lunch crowd to your evening happy hour.   # 7 – Item Promotions “Show up with this ticket to get your 50% discount on your next main course.” Promoting items can help you guide your customer’s focus on certain items – maybe it’s your best-seller, or the item with the highest margin or simply your flagship dish. The point is that it is another way of increasing your chances of having your guests keep coming back for their next meals!   # 8 – Coupon That’s another brilliant way to use your receipt tickets – turn them into coupons. Not only are you raising the chance of your customers keeping your tickets, but you are also giving them a reward for coming back again. This is simplified Customer Relationship Management. Level 3 – Engaging # 9 – Sell Your Staff A few weeks ago, I read something that is still on my mind – a marketing professional’s message was “people don’t buy brands, people buy people.” Reflecting on that one, I remembered all those commercials that went

Are you thinking of how you could increase your restaurant’s revenue and get more customers coming in? Chances are, you’re already too busy managing the day-to-day activities and operations of your restaurant business. The reality is that you need to stay on top of your revenue targets every month. Special occasions can be the usual birthdays & holidays, but you can also create events and make them a unique attraction for your customers.   1. Promotions – To Exist Or To Create     Promotions are a great way to give your customers an incentive to come to your restaurant. Who doesn’t like promotions? Promotions shouldn’t necessarily mean a meal discount; it could be a unique offering that your restaurant will pass on to their customers during a particularly special occasion. For example, hosting a Mothers’ Day promotion could feature exciting activities and competitions with some giveaways to all the mothers that come to your restaurant. For other types of promotions, if you are like me, then you probably tired of the overdone promotions like “Ladies’ Night” or “2-4-1” etc. Creating an interest for a certain night can depend on a few factors – team, location, timing, need, and Buzz to name a few. A friend of mine had once managed to organize a brilliant monthly event back in Cambodia. He created a Tapas Night in an upscale hotel. What was special about it is that he was offering unlimited buffet along with a glass of wine for a very reasonable price and a DJ playing some trendy tunes. To ensure there was a Buzz, he invited key members of the Media and had an enticing Facebook campaign to top off the communication. What was brilliant about it though was this – he made this affordable affair on the last Thursday of every month… right before payday! He made the most of a night where people would usually stay in waiting for the next paycheck. Your goal is to create hype and excitement around special occasions – which is more appealing than an ordinary restaurant experience.  You will generate more interest from people, and you will sell more. There are plenty of opportunities if you spend some time looking into your customer’s behavior.   2. Conversation – To Listen Or To Talk A special occasion such as a public holiday already has an open conversation around it.  From the media, offline to online, people are talking about it. Since there is already a public interest, why not have your restaurant visible to individuals who are already interested? By participating in existing marketing platforms, your restaurant can take advantage of special occasions to sell more. What publications or event mailing lists are promoting holidays or special events, could your restaurant participate in to reach more people?  Some community websites have “what to do” features for special occasions, and you could consider having your restaurant listed on such platforms to reach more customers. If you are creating events, getting the right people involved to start the conversation for you is key. We see more and more bloggers around who are happy to play a part in your success. Combining creativity and value can bring you a long way. Another friend of mine organized in Mexico held not just cocktail nights. He invited different cocktail bartenders from around the city to face each other off “Lucha Libre”-style. That’s it; he did not need to do much more than that for his communication. Needless to say, the event grew in popularity on all sides of the fence. So whether you join into a conversation or create the next talk-of-the-town, be sure to get yourself in the mix.   3. Gift Cards – To Have or To Hide Special events are all about giving – giving gifts!  Why not help your customers by making it easy for them to purchase gifts for their loved ones during special occasions? How awesome would it be to receive a restaurant gift card?  Who doesn’t like a free meal out?  Take advantage of special occasions and sell gift cards to your customers. Gift cards are an easy and convenient gift to buy for anyone. Your restaurant could have branded and beautifully themed gift cards suited to the occasion.  Display your gift cards at your restaurant reception and be sure to upload them to your website for more visibility. Running a successful Gift Card program can also be turned differently. You can switch the script on your customers. Rather than trying to push as many as we could, you can decide to make it a secret limited edition. There was a family-run business that refused to sell their main highlight to everyone. Keeping it only for a select few, they created a huge Buzz around their product. Without wanting it, in that case, their concept was talked about on the other side of the World. I heard people bragging about how special it was to experience it. The emotional card is part of the experience. When you get to eat it, that is probably the best gift of all – because it is not available to all…   Running a Special Event program properly can attract a lot of interest. As a restaurant manager, you want a tool that can help you make sense of the data you are getting from it. Having a POS like FoodZaps allows you to track vouchers/gift cards or can help you create unique menu items easily so that that you can keep track of all the ins-and-outs at a click. Sometimes you have to remove or add some dishes/drinks to the promotion to see some tangible changes. You need the flexibility to decide what is successful and what is not. Consider these methods to boost your restaurant revenue during special occasions.  Be sure not to let any special occasion pass without your restaurant taking advantage of it to drive more sales. I hope we gave you enough to get inspired! Now time for you

Facebook is not only a popular way to keep up with your friends that may be half way across the world, or just down the street, but also a great way for restaurant businesses to keep up with your customers. For restaurants, Facebook is one of the most powerful marketing tools, not only does it have a high number of users who use it daily; it also brings your business closer to your customers and potential customers. Of course, as a business, you can purchase Facebook ads to promote your restaurant, menus, and promotions, but there are also other ways that you can utilize Facebook without spending any money. Here are three of our favorite approaches to increasing sales for restaurants using Facebook marketing. 1. The power of sharing. Facebook is a social platform. What it means is that Facebook shares is the currency of Facebook. To be successful on Facebook, you need to engage your fans with interesting and entertaining posts. When they share and comment on your posts, you’re spreading your brand organically. Not only do you save on marketing budget, but you also increase the credibility of your restaurant. Organic content has shown to increase conversion rates. Nowadays, people don’t like to see direct advertisements. Organic content shared is the new “word of mouth” marketing. People buy from brands they trust. Organic content will increase your confidence factor and credibility as a restaurant that provides quality food. Aim to write high-quality content, interesting and engaging posts, with memorable photos. 2. Heaven on the eyes. What do you think of the photo above? Do you feel like eating some burgers and chips now? That’s the power of visuals. Humans are superficial. We all look at pretty things. Nice visuals attract us. Nice visuals stand out from the crowd. Nice visuals grab attention. Nice visuals make people imagine. Nice visuals sell. Most restaurants have a nice menu and signboard. But many restaurants do not invest in posting good quality photos on their Facebook page. Why is that so? Your Facebook page is your new menu. People go to check out your Facebook page before deciding whether to come down to your restaurant. You need awesome visuals to sell to these customers. Invest in great visuals on your Facebook page. Being able to take your own delectable pictures on your menu to show your guests at will is invaluable – a picture does speak a thousand words. Learn more about how you can take advantage of your eMenu on FoodZaps to showcase your offering!   3. Let customers take pictures Another approach is to have an Instagram-worthy place for customers to take photos at. It can be a place with your signboard, and some funny props, or a place with an excellent background and view. The idea is to make customers proud that they are here to eat. People like to take photos of what they eat, where they eat; basically, Instagram-worthy photos, to show their friends. Having a nice place for customers to take pictures in will attract more people to your restaurant.   /////////////////////////////////////   FoodZaps is the World’s most Dynamic Android POS Solution – Simply Powerful. foodzaps.com Contact us on assist@foodzaps.com and let us show you how much we care! Your Free Trial awaits you!

FoodZaps is all about freedom of choice. Our advice is to use this freedom wisely – you have to make an educated choice because sure you can take any printer at random but is it going to fit your requirements. See where I am getting at? Take a few minutes to read this article and think about what is best for your business. Choosing the right printers for your outlet is crucial. Let’s take a look at the essentials to simplify this decision. We found that FoodZaps can integrate with a wide range of printers, we will include a few models to help you compare. We will also make some recommendations based on your usage.   CHOICE 1 – Thermal, Impact or Ink Jet Your decision on the type of printing you will go for is mostly based on your budget, usage, and environment. Thermal printers “burn” the details onto the receipt, without using ink. Heat is generated through thermal heads that come into contact with thermally-coated paper which is heat-sensitive, so the paper is selectively heated. The print quality is high and they work fast. Although the initial cost is higher, this is offset because there is no need to replace ink or toner. More recent models include multi-coloured printing. Impact printers (aka Dot Matrix printers) are the more traditional of the lot. Working with a ribbon they use a series of pins to form the letters on the paper. They are generally favoured in the kitchen because they are more robust and can be quite loud. They are typically highly reliable and involve minimal operating costs (paper & ribbon). They are usually capable of printing in 2 colours (black & red). These are on the way to becoming obsolete in the near future. Ink jet printers are worth considering if you want higher quality, colour logos, or coupons printed out on your receipts. Their print heads shoot tiny droplets of liquid onto the paper. These are better suited for the front-house, where its features would be best exploited. There is a high cost to be considered though, especially in the continuous replacement of ink cartridges. Generally, if you need A4 Printing for your receipts then these are a good option, otherwise we would not recommend for the F&B industry.   CHOICE 2 – Cable (USB or Network) or Wireless (Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) You have a simple decision to make here. You will need to look at how flexible you are in terms of technology and risk! Cable printers are the more stable option. They come in 2 forms: USB or Network. Cable printers are, you guessed it, connected via cables. The USB printer will be limited as you can only be connected to a single device. Being limited to a 1-to-1 connection is an ideal solution for a food-truck or small food stand. The Network printer will give you more flexibility to communicate with a local area network and its connected devices. Wireless printers are not as stable as cable printers… (surprise!). It is a convenient alternative to cable, though, as you have more freedom on printer placement. This requires a bit more time to set-up as you will need to enter your network password to allow it to be connected. So now, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi? The Bluetooth printer will be limited in connection to a single device. It is the wireless cousin of the USB printer. You will also be limited in the distance covered. With the Wi-Fi printer it is important to note that you will need to make sure that the network type and printer capabilities are a match; in short, if the printer’s capabilities do not match the network, then you will slow down data transfer.   CHOICE 3 – Memory What is important to know here is that memory will determine how much turnover you can handle. Higher memory will also mean that your printer is able to print multiple languages and work independently for the capacity to support font (and other graphics). If you are expecting high turnover with your outlet, then make sure you have no less than 4KB for receiver buffer.     MORE CHOICES Should I pick a brand? The upside to a brand name is that it is usually more reliable and comes with warranty. The downside is that you will end up paying a bit more for this! 3 of the brands we work with the most are Epson, Star, and Bixolon. There are also options available from lesser-known brands. For obvious reasons, we cannot recommend any although our system is able to integrate a wide range of them. Although you will most likely end up paying less, you will run a greater risk of encountering glitches.   Tear bar or auto-cutter? An auto-cutter might be worth the investment for the convenience it will bring you.   What about eco-friendly printers? You want to play your part to be a solution for the environment and we encourage you all the way! The extra cost is worth the peace of mind.   What is my budget? This might already determine what type of printer you can get!   Will printer speed help me? If you are operating a high-turnover outlet, then the choice is obvious. If not, then you can allow yourself more leniency.   Should I choose a high definition printer? For the kitchen, forget about it. For printing receipts, it can make a difference mostly on your logo. Up to you if you like the attention to detail or if you think the cost is worth it.   What about non-English text support? For English Text, any printer will work just fine. For Non English Text (e.g. Chinese, Thai, Japanese…) use thermal printer with that support graphic printing.   Is my printer compatible with FoodZaps? Look at our list of recommended hardware. If it’s not there, feel free to contact one of our agents who will happily look into it for you.   What should I

These game-changing restaurant industry trends are certainly here to stay, so consider keeping up with them.   The world is changing, and so are your customers. And while it’s good to have a couple of mainstays and all-time favorites–if you want your business to stay relevant–your restaurant’s menu and practices shouldn’t stay all the same. Here are five remarkable trends in the restaurant industry that are sure to shape the game for the next few years.   1. Cleaner menus. It’s given that people are becoming more concerned about what makes up the food they eat. Thanks to the Internet, there’s now a growing awareness of hormones in meat, pesticides in vegetables, GMO’s everywhere, and not to mention the levels of sodium and trans-fat in our food. As awareness grows, vegetable-based menus, organic produce and minimal use of flavorings and additives would be the inevitable trend moving forward. A growing number of people are also beginning to take on special diets–from vegan, to pescetarian, to flexitarian–so you might want to have something for them in your menu as well.   2. Explosive flavor fusions. Chefs have been mixing up things in the kitchen quite literally, and we are loving it. Now that most diners already had a taste of various ethnic cuisines, from Korean, to Mexican, Vietnamese, Japanese, French and Indonesian, fusions have become the next big thing. The likes of Laksa Pasta, Ramen Burgers, Nasi Lemak Cupcakes, and Korean Rib Tacos do not only pique interest but also satisfy the palates of diners. What could be your restaurant’s signature fusion dish?   3. The hotter, the better. Sriracha, Sambal, Gochujang, and Jalapeno have been pretty popular in the past few years, and moving forward, these chillis will get even hotter. Perhaps because our palates are already used to the average dose of spice that the mantra is no longer just to ‘spice things up’, but to dare the bravest of your diners to try the hottest they can take. Moreover, chilis are expected to become more widely used, even in dishes that don’t traditionally make use of them, such as pasta, fried chicken, and even ice cream.   4. Desserts get wackier. Speaking of ice cream, would you consider trying a scoop of savory White Pepper Ice Cream? What about Sushi Donuts? Over-the-Top Milkshakes? Most likely, your customers are adventurous enough and would love to try these outrageous and Instagram-worthy sweets. Your restaurant should seize the opportunity to get creative and invent the next trending dessert in town, by working on some truly unique and over-the-top ideas.   5. Tech industry invasion. The food industry is not immune to the ubiquity of smartphones and their apps, and it’s certainly for the better. Mobile ordering apps, social media presence, and advanced POS systems have now become a necessity in order to allow restaurants to remain competitive. With rising spending capacities and less free time, consumers are now willing to pay more so that they can receive convenient and efficient services. Get on the tech boat and don’t get left behind! The secret in staying relevant is striking a balance between keeping up with current trends in the restaurant industry while staying true to your business’ unique identity. Change can be intimidating, but if it’s calculated and you’re well-equipped for it, then it’s worth the risk.

Missed the target? Dissatisfied customers? System crashed…again? Check if your business shows any sign that it’s time to look for a better restaurant POS system.   Do you complain a lot about your restaurant POS system? Do you find it difficult to navigate, customize and analyze? Or perhaps you’re giving the benefit of the doubt–maybe it’s not really your current system. Who knows–the blame could be on your crew, your customers, the weather, or the wind?   If you have a bad POS system that needs replacement, chances are, your customers and crew are feeling it too. Here are 5 telltale signs that you need to invest in a better restaurant POS system.   1. Peak hours are a nightmare. Peak hours such as Friday nights are a great opportunity to impress more customers than the usual. However, if you’re running on a less robust restaurant POS system, then you’re not really getting the most out of these opportunities. Constant system errors and server crashes will keep your business from running at the optimal turnover rate, when people are supposed to keep coming in.   2. Your servers spend very little time with guests. Ideally, your servers should be somewhere near customers, ready to respond to any call for an extra plate of rice or a bucket of ice. As restaurant-goers ourselves, we know that having no one around to respond to these requests is a mortal sin for any establishment. Therefore, if your crew spends too much time on the host station, second-guessing which button to press next or clicking too many dialog boxes (if not error messages), it’s probably time to think about investing in a more user-friendly restaurant POS system.   3. Someone didn’t get his order…again. Have you ever dined with a huge group and watch all their food arrive one by one, but not yours? Most of us have been there, and it’s pretty embarrassing. As a restaurant owner, you want to spare your customers of this terrible experience. Aside from the possibility of human error, if it happens too often (and even with your most experienced servers), it’s probably your POS system to blame.   4. Your POS dictates how your restaurant works. As a restaurateur, the last thing you want is to run your business like the old bistro across the street so you can adapt to the confines of a common POS system. Whether it’s your floor plan, menu, or optional combos, your chosen restaurant POS system has to adjust for the nuances of your unique restaurant–and not the other way around. Some customers would choose a slightly more pricey restaurant that allows the convenience of an extra ranch dressing, over one that is cheaper but can’t offer such options. Thus, a perfectly-customizable restaurant POS system could just be your next selling point!   5. You can’t tell how your business is doing right now. Have you been to a long trip and now you’re having a hard time to catch up? What’s worse, your current POS system is taking too long to generate reports? You can’t be there to watch your business 24/7. Therefore, FoodZaps offers a Sales Trend Analysis feature, which reports daily updated through an online portal. This should help you stay on top of your business anytime, anywhere. Your restaurant’s POS system doesn’t have to be a major headache. Invest in a good POS system such as FoodZaps, and watch your business grow.

The waiter took my order and left to attend the other tables. After observing him on the next tables, I realized how lucky this establishment are to have him. The guy had managed to smoothly double my bill… and the best part is, I was happy to fork out the extra cash. He was good. Not an order-taker. A salesman. A great one. He sold experience. He could have sold chicken to a vegetarian. Why? He cared. Then I turned to observe the other order-takers and realized that actually it was not luck – they were all really good! It reminded me of a few years back when I was working closely with my teams in upscale restaurants – putting together a great team can be hard work, but good managers can make it look so easy… I remembered why I always had one of the best return rates with my customers – whether you looked like you could afford it or not, I was always determined to give you the absolute best experience in the World. And it worked. Period. Beyond attracting these talents, keeping them was always going to be a challenge, especially in this highly competitive industry where top talent is rare. Here are 7 lessons I learned along the way. Lesson 1: You need a mission Bottom line is this – if you want to attract the best, you need to get them excited about your project. I can tell you that some of the greatest experiences I have had as a customer were at places you would never suspect while some of my worst experiences were in well-known establishments I was excited about. How is that? When the staff works with a common purpose or mission, not only are they excited but they get you excited as well. Size does not matter, quality is secondary. The emotional connection (aka experience) is priceless. In one place I managed, the mission we had was to become the best service team in that whole city. In another, the mission was to be the coolest place to walk into. The staff acted accordingly and took pride in wearing the uniform. As a manager, this made my job easier.   Lesson 2: Give them a challenge Have you ever worked for a boss who did not challenge you? When that happens, there is usually one outcome: the staff is running the show, not the boss! Wake up and smell the rainbow… You think your staff wants it easy? Sure, nobody wants stress. But we are not talking about stress here. Unmotivated staff stink, and your clients can smell it. Believe me; your best employees want to be taken out of their comfort zone. The other ones will want to get away with the minimum, but don’t be angry; you are encouraging them to be that way. Challenges can be on many different levels – on daily sales targets, weekly tests, improvement projects, general knowledge etc… Most of the time you would not need to hire outside consultants if you just listened to your staff. But if you don’t care about them, do you think they will care about you? When I worked for the Four Seasons, what always fascinated me was the ability for this group to be so innovative. I quickly learned why. Most of its innovations happened because the line-employees were encouraged to share their ideas with the leaders. This is why we have 24-hr room service, by the way.   Lesson 3: Play hard but pay fair I remember working in a seasonal restaurant in the South of France one summer years ago. We were serving over 1100 meals a day (+ drinks and ice creams) between 10 waiters. I lost about 15kg over 6 months that year. I lived in a tent this whole time. Every month before receiving our pay-check, half of us were already making plans to move on. Then we received the pay-check. And we were happy to stay on. More than happy. This was a tough season. Tougher than anything else I have done in the industry. People came and for a trial and left after 30 minutes, 2 hours, 3 days, 2 weeks, 5 years… all in the middle of service. The boss was tough. The hours were tough (+14hrs / day, 6.5 days / week). The environment was tough (blistering hot and dry). The intensity was huge (high table turnovers). Would I do it again? You bet. I would do it all over again. Why? The boss was clear – you want it easier, I get more people and pay you less. He made us play hard. But he was more than fair with the pay. We would have followed him anywhere.   Lesson 4: Train them for greatness What’s the use of training someone to just take orders, bring dishes, and clear a table? Right? Right… The arguments I have heard against training your employees are bottomless – they will leave anyhow, too expensive. What if they leave to work for my competitor? Let’s change the question– what if they don’t? I could literally write books on this subject. You want to retain the best? Train them up. Training your staff is not a cost – it is an investment. You can invest in the most expensive machinery, but without a skilled driver, it is wasted. Yet, in my experience you can have the cheapest equipment and make magic happen with a skilled hand. You can’t afford training? Everyone can afford to spend a few minutes a day to develop someone for a particular skill. As a manager I spent about 60% of my time with my staff – guidance is training when it is done with care. It’s like an ex-girlfriend always reminded me: “I don’t care about an expensive gift, I just want something that comes from you.” In other words, don’t limit yourself to a diamond ring! Your staff is more sensitive to you taking the

The whole FoodZaps team would like to congratulate Chris & the whole Gu Thai Noodle Café team for successfully launching their latest outlet. A year since opening his first outlet, Chris Ho and his team have built quickly on success and are now on their third outlet. Thai Noodle Café is famous for their customizable Thai Boat Noodles (starting at $1.90 per bowl) amongst other delicious items.It is rumoured that their closely-guarded secret recipes are only known by a handful… A tribute to their popularity is the number of articles which can be found online and offline. Most importantly, they have hit the spot for their legions of fans! We are proud to be their trusted partners in providing POS solutions from the beginning. Together, we have been able to help them overcome some of the challenges of fast development – including high staff turnover, language barriers (the tickets for the kitchen come in another language) and of course high demand! This outlet is open daily from 11am to 5am and located on the Ground Floor of PoMo Mall (1 Selegie Rd). The FoodZaps team is happy to wish Gu Thai Noodle Cafe great success, abundance, and prosperity for this new venture!!!

Hope you find that this 3-part series on writing business plan for F&B businesses to be useful. If you haven’t read the first part of this blog post, you can find it here, Business Plan For Your New F&B Business. Part 1. In Part 2 of this article, we will cover what you have to take into consideration when you are writing the Operations portion of your business plan. As you read on, if you have been in the F&B industry, you might find that these information are nothing new. We’d still recommend that you put everything down on paper so that you have a better overview and plan ahead or make any adjustments when necessary. If you have already gotten this portion of the business covered, you might want to consider FoodZaps Startup Kit where we provide a hassle-free set up for your restaurant POS and mobile ordering system. Operations Plan As part of your Operations Plan, you’d want to consider having an Operations Manual to be created somewhere along the line. In order to do so, you’ll need a baseline of what is daily operations at your F&B outlet is going to be like. As a restaurant owner, it is imperative that you understand the operations of your business inside out, especially during the initial stage of your business. Once you have come up with the Operations Manual, I would advise that you step back and focus on other aspects of the business while fine tuning the operations of the business. Glossary of Restaurant Management and Operation Terms Your operations plan should minimally cover the following topics: Human Resources Employee training Waiting staff training FoodZaps mobile ordering system will help your waiting staff to improve the restaurant’s overall productivity. We have a written a full article related to this topic which you can find here, How To Improve Your Restaurant’s Productivity By More Than 50%. Barista training Personnel administration Hiring Employee benefits Insurance coverage Front-end Management Dining room management Depending on how big your dining room will be, you might want to segment different parts of the restaurant. You can divide them into Alfresco area, booth tables dining area, family friendly area with bigger tables or even the queue management for take aways. Bar and beverage management Will you require a bar for your restaurant? Will you need fridges to store drinks to keep them chilled? What are the beverages that you are going to serve, you could probably start with a general list of popular drinks and depending on the popularity of the beverages you will be able to adjust accordingly in the future. Cleanliness and sanitation You should ensure that you have a standard operating procedure when it comes to cleanliness, a guideline must be in place on cleanliness and sanitation. Once you come up with the guideline it should be printed out and made visible for everyone. In day to day operations you’ll have to ensure that cleanliness and sanitation is top priority. Menu and kitchen management Working together with the chef, you should work out a menu that caters to both sides of the business. You’d want to let the chef have the freedom to express his creativity with more adventurous dishes while also catering to the palate of the majority of your customers. One thing to note is also to have a manageable list of items on your menu. This will help tremendously with the inventory management as well as the preparation work required for each menu item. As with everything on this list, always listen to feedback from everyone and make changes whenever neccessary. At times when you are too involved with the operations of the business, you might lose the ability to view the macro aspects of the business. Back-end Management Equipment management What are the equipments that you will require? Fryers, freezers, ovens, griddles or any other equipment that you’ll need to run a efficient kitchen. Purchasing and inventory Inventory costs is usually the second highest cost that you will incur after manpower costs. Hence you’d want to control this portion of the restaurant operations closely. When you first start the business or taking over the business, you’d want to personally count the items that are supposed to be in your inventory. Doing so will give you a rough overview of your inventory. You might not be the one doing the inventory and stock taking in the future, but it will be great if you know the starting point and have a basis to work on. FoodZaps Full Course subscription plan comes with inventory management features which allow you to stay on top of your inventory tracking up to ingredient level, you can also set an alert for low stock reminders. Click here to find out more about Full Course plan. Train every one of your staff to understand the stock taking process, also do note that for stock taking and inventory management you should assign 2 persons to do the job. This is to provide a second layer of check so that there won’t be a miscount or to prevent item losses.   Also do take note of any licensing requirements that you’ll need to run your business. E.g. food type certifications, Halal, Kosher. You might also need a license to sell alcohol beverages in some countries, if you intend to run a pub with live sports screening, you might need a license specifically for those. It will be best to check with local governing bodies and do your due research when it comes to the licensing and certification requirements. In the next part of this series, we will look into the Marketing portion of the business plan and what you have to consider. Hope you found this series to be useful and also feel free to email us at support@foodzaps.com for a free demo on the FoodZaps system.

DEFINITION: “Do it yourself, also known as DIY, is the method of BUILDING, MODIFYING, or PREPARING something without the direct aid of experts or professionals.” – Wikipediaorg].(2016).Wikipediaorg Retrieved,21 March, 2016,from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself   Some creative DIY ideas by FoodZaps users that we love and decided to share with you 1. Cool tablet stand… oh wait … it prints ! 2. Why purchase a charging station … when you have a stylish vintage case ! 3. Where is your FoodZaps ? We know theirs are in the pockets, Always.   How does your DIY FoodZaps look ? Share with us and get the chance to win a FoodZaps Best Creativity Award prize !

Before we start, some of you might question whether it is essential to write a business plan for a new Food & Beverage [F&B] business. Having a business plan for your business is one of the most important steps in starting a new business. A business plan will provide a backbone and structure to how you will proceed with your exciting new venture. I would highly recommend writing one, putting everything on paper will allow you to have a clearer picture of your strengths and also identify any missing parts that you might have overlooked. So, what should you include in your business plan?   Executive Summary General length guideline for the executive summary is 5-10% of the entire report. Begin with a summary, include justifications, recommendations and end off with a conclusion. Keep it concise and the reader should be able to read the executive summary independently from the entire business plan document. Company Overview This section should answer the Who, What, When, Where, Why questions related to your business. Be as specific and thorough as possible in this section. Unique Selling Proposition What is unique about your F&B business? What differentiates you from the competition? Find your niche that you’re good at, excel at those specific cuisines or restaurant service style and you’ll fare better than trying to cater to everyone. Do note that if you try to please everyone, you are pleasing no one. Target Market Define your target market, this will path the way for you to determine other factors such as pricing and menu. Ask yourself this if you are unsure of who your target market is, describe the customer whom you’d like to serve day in day out at your F&B outlet.You can segment your target market by generation, each generation poses different kind of opportunities which you can tackle. The different generations represents different purchasing power. They also prefer different restaurant service styles. Even the timing which they are most likely to visit your F&B establishment differs. For example, most “Foodies” are from the Gen X demographic, it’ll be advisable that your outlet is Insta-worthy and place greater emphasis on ambience and culinary presentation. By doing so you can leverage on them to promote your F&B establishment on social media. They are also more likely to visit hipster cafes and coffee joints, you’d want to keep that into consideration when engineering your menu for this demographic. The different generations are listed below: Gen Z [Born after 2001] Gen X [Born between 1981 and 2000] Gen Y [Born between 1965 and 1980] Seniors [Born between 1964 or earlier] Location Location is one of the most important factors to consider for the retail industry. What questions should you be asking when filling up this portion of the business plan? – What kind of foot traffic are the neighbouring businesses bringing in? – Is the floor area large enough and does it meet your requirements for your desired floor layout? – Are there negative elements which might affect your business in the surrounding vicinity? – Are there sufficient parking space? – Is the location served by public transportation? – Are there competitors within the area? Can you compete for wallet share in the area? – Does the location allow for future expansion? – And last but not least, the costs involved. The questions are not limited to the ones stated above. You should ask similar questions from both operational point of view as well as marketing and business perspective. As the old saying goes, “Location, location, location.” further stress the importance of selecting one that suits your business needs. Style of Service This will be determined by your USP, target market and location. There are several styles of service that you can adopt, below is a list which you might want to consider. Each have their own appeal to the different target markets and you might want to consider having a hybrid between the different styles to best suit your business needs. Fast Food Fast Casual Fine Dining Casual Dining Others Restaurant Concept There are plenty unique cafes all over the world, Toilet themed cafe in taiwan, Owl Cafe in Japan, Cat Cafes in Singapore or even Boba Cafes which in New York just to name a few. Sports bars may be popular now, but in the future e-gaming cafes might gain popularity by having live streaming of e-sports such as League of Legends and StarCraft 2. Is there a gap which you can fill and capitalize on based on your strengths? Sample Menu The colour and font used will have an impact on your menu, how do you choose? How many items would be optimum for your opening night? How will you price your menu items? Do you need to outsource the menu design to a graphic designer? For more information on menu engineering, do visit this website.   Business Environment Analysis. SWOT Analysis Analyse your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. Click here for sample SWOT analysis for restaurants. Competitive Analysis There will be a lot of hurdles and challenges that you will face during the process of starting a restaurant and also when you are running the restaurant business. Hence it is essential that you understand the business environment before diving into the retail F&B business. Click here for more in depth information on what needs to be done for your competitive analysis. “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril” Sun Tzu   Having covered this much, do not fall in love with your plan and always anticipate changes that will occur and adapt whenever required. You should always look back to the business plan which you have written and make revisions to it. Do keep in mind, writing a business plan is a process. I hope this article have provided a general overview about writing a business plan for your F&B business. Next week we will be covering part 2 of this article, we will cover the Operations and Marketing section of

We will cover in general 8 things every aspiring restaurant owners should consider before setting up a new food & beverage business. We will lightly touch on each topic and will delve deeper into each topic in the upcoming posts. The Business Plan Have a business plan for your business, this is one of the most important steps in starting a new business. A business plan will provide a backbone and structure to how you will proceed with your exciting new venture. Here are some topics that you should cover in your restaurant business plan, Industry overview, who are your target market, competitor analysis, location analysis, marketing strategy, operations plan, administrative controls for cash flow, accounting etc. Do a business environment analysis, study your competitors and leverage on how you can capture the market share. “An army may be likened to water, for just as flowing water avoids the heights and hastens to the lowlands, so an army avoids strength and strikes weakness.” Sun Tzu Know your strengths and capitalize on it. “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril” Sun Tzu For more resources on business plans and business plan templates, click here. For more information on Sun Tzu Art of War click here.   The Operations Automating you operations either by using POS system, mobile ordering, online ordering through website or apps, table management softwares, inventory management system and also loyalty marketing systems. All food and beverage outlets should be leveraging on available systems and technologies to make your business stand out from the crowd. FoodZaps restaurant point of sale and mobile ordering system is designed specifically for the restaurant businesses, click here to download the FoodZaps app on Google Play. There are plenty of apps and systems out there that covers the areas mentioned above, do choose wisely and pick the one that suits your business needs the most.   The Marketing and PR Marketing and getting people to know about your restaurant. Leverage on social media such as Pinterest and Instagram, here are some examples of restaurants doing it right on social media. One good example of leveraging social media is Chili’s using an egg glaze on its burger buns. This create an appetising sheen on its buns when taken in photos. So what does this do? It looks great on Instagram! And almost every millennial is on Instagram this days, they are the best advocate for your restaurant. One thing to consider for your food presentation is to make them Instaworthy. This will increase the number of shares of your food on social media and generate buzz for your restaurant. As of now they have close to 75k followers on their Instagram account. Ultimately, make your food instaworthy and your customers will be more than happy to spread the word for you. Get connected with influencers and food bloggers within your area, get them to review your food and restaurant.   The Staff Hire people who are passionate about food and delivering good service, this should be your main criteria during the hiring process.You can ask qualifying questions during the hiring process to help sift out the best match for your restaurant. For service staff, you’d want to provide a scenario based interview and see how they respond to difficult customers.   The Paperwork Make sure you do your research on all the relevant licensing and permits that you’ll need to have proper for your business. This may include food handling permits, alcohol license, halal certifications etcetera. This may vary between different countries, do make sure all the paperwork are proper before starting your business.   The Supply Chain Source for good and reliable suppliers and have a good relationship with your supplier. This is key to getting the freshest produce and ingredients you will need and ensure that you don’t run out of ingredients. This will provide a negative customer experience for your customers.   The Menu What makes a good menu, how many items should I have. Should I hire a professional graphic designer to design my menu or just laminate a piece of paper and call it a day. As a general guide to creating your menu, ensure that you take the following into consideration, Use descriptive language. Don’t use the dollar sign. Use colour to your advantage. Click Here for more information on which colour to use in your menu. Reduce the use of jargon or include a short explanation of the dish in a descriptive manner. Placement of items that you want to push is also important, make sure you do some research on where to place the items on your menu. Looking for inspiration for your restaurant menu? Click Here.   The Food And most importantly, maintain a high standard in culinary consistency and standards. This will be the bread and butter of your business, ensure that your food meets the expectation and your customers will keep coming back. Always respect the feedbacks and reviews from your customers and strive to improve. Having said that, have a channel which is easily accessible for your customers to provide feedback. This can be good old pen and paper style feedback form placed on the dining tables or at the payment counter. Alternatively you might want to consider automating this with apps that are available in the market.   To sum things up here are the 8 points once again: The Business Plan The Operations The Marketing and PR The Staff The Paperwork The Supply Chain The Menu The Food   In the upcoming weeks we’ll go deeper into each topics. Hope you have a better understanding on starting a new food & beverage business. Do check out FoodZaps Start Up Kit which aims to provide a hassle free mobile ordering and restaurant Point of Sales System at an affordable price. Know anyone who is interested to start an F&B business or if you are intending to start one? Do share this article!

Thank you for the recognition, we will keep up the good work in providing ultimate solutions to restaurants! http://e27.co/foodzaps-helps-restaurant-owners-tackle-diners-ordering-woes-20151214/

“Rather cleverly, FoodZaps let’s all the relevant departments view the app from their individual perspectives. The chef has the ability to keep the menu updated and monitor the cooking progress, the waiting staff have the menu at their fingertips and can take orders, send them to the kitchen in real time, monitor the progress of every dish for every table and bill the customer. Meanwhile, the manager gets a total overview, can check popular trends and the success of certain promotions as well as keeping an eye on stock levels.” http://feedmyapp.com/review/complete-restaurant-pos-ordering-billing-your-android/

Running a restaurant wasn’t one of the easiest job. With FoodZaps it is! Getting your restaurant all equipped costs a big fortune, and as we always ask ourselves “Imagine many cup of drinks do you need to sell to make up to this spending.” Just like everyone needs a mobile phone, an restaurant running in the modern days needs a WEBSITE “We know website is a must-have thing for a food and beverage business. We are not looking for fancy functions, neither animation designs and hey, we can’t afford to wait for a month just for the the website developer to update our newly released menu! Web developers approached me quoting that I need to pay hundreds to thousands of dollars every year to keep the website running? That’s certainly not a worthy spend for a restaurant like us.” – Mr.Goh, Operation Director of Dine Group So now the question is…… Do you know you can get your own menu website with FoodZaps in just 3 Steps and the good news, it is FREE OF CHARGE ! By subscripting to FoodZaps, you will have your complimentary website to publish your most updated menu at anytime by a simple click. NO MORE HEAVY COST NO MORE REQUEST AND WAITING TIME FOR YOUR WEBSITE UPDATE NO MORE HOSTING AND DOMAIN FEE (you don’t even have to know what it is!) Now, if you have subscribed with FoodZaps, build your own online menu page as Easy as 1-2-3: Click Online Store from Control Station Select the look and feel Click the button [ Publish Menu to Website ] Reserve your online menu page name now www.foodzaps.com/menu/page name before it is taken away. Talk to us now to get a page name made just for you (Free of Charge): assist@foodzaps.com Speak with us, we are always here to listen. assist@foodzaps.com | https://www.facebook.com/foodzaps          

FoodZaps wins hands-down I run the front service with 2 servers plus 1 bartender only, even when the restaurant is full. Once guests are ready to place orders, we walk to their tables with FoodZaps mobile devices instead of pen and paper. We enter the orders and press “Confirm” on our mobile devices. Almost immediately, the drinks counter, kitchen, cashier receive the orders while we are still standing at the tables! We don’t walk back and forth the restaurant so many times now. We save lots of time, energy and give better services at the tables – pour water, serve bread baskets promptly, give more attention to our guests’ needs. We even receive positive comments about our service quality and consistency in Tripadvisor. I’m relieved FoodZaps allows us to update menu and dish photos in the system quickly because we introduce new dishes and promotions often. I used to take about 1 hour to update a new set menu in MICROS and Angeliss Systems. Now I take only 15 minutes with FoodZaps. It’s also easy to train my staff use FoodZaps. I usually need to demonstrate the system just once, takes less than an hour. Because the interface is easy to understand and each function takes one simple click. By the time I finish, everyone already gets the knack to use the system right away! FoodZaps wins hands-down.   – Muhammed Azli, Operations Manager, Sela Restaurant, Singapore

“We used to operate on the big legacy POS, it gave us a lot of trouble as it does not function when the internet is down. The worse time was we wait for half hour for the internet to recover and to settle the bill. Leading angry customers leaving the restaurant.Sales was affected by then.Thankful for FoodZaps Solution, now we have an operation guarantee and closing daily sales became so easy.” – Operation Manager of Pappamia Group “Pappamia Group carrying a number of restaurants in Singapore, we dedicated in offering excellent dinning experience to our customers by providing them with a wide range of varieties in our cuisines. Rv Burger is one of our most popular brands offering delicious Gourmet Burgers with choices of traditional and Asian flavors. We used to operate on the big legacy POS, the system does not work without internet, that legacy POS which suppose to assist our on-floor staff in settle billing and ordering, actually slows down our customer service due to the unstable internet in that branch. The worse time was we wait for half hour for the internet to recover and to settle the bill. Leading angry customers leaving the restaurant.Sales was affected by then. Consolidating sales report is another headache, our staffs need to take shift to stay back just to print out sales report, cartons of printed receipts and reports is sent to our main office monthly, which will be subsequently processed by our 6 in-house accountants. Taking huge amount of time in closing accounts, extra effort to key in records to a third party software for recording. And FoodZaps Solution came to RV Burger, now we have an operation guarantee and closing daily sales become so easy, we’re glad that we’ve found the solution that overcomes our internet problem and auto close sales. It’s so easy to use. Now we have access to all sales details and reports from any web browser even when we are off from site, and the report is amazing.” – Operation Manager of Pappamia Group “It’s actually hard to find a good burger for a decent price in Singapore.” so says a satisfied RV Burger customer in Singapore and adds that you should definitely drop in if “you’re in the River Valley Rd area and you need a change from the endless noodle bars.” Aha, that is why this place is always hopping with customers! Excellent food always brings people in, along with good ambiance and superb customer service which has just become that much better with the recent addition of the groundbreaking FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + Point of Sales solution. Decadent smoked salmon eggs Benedict, ultra juicy bacon and cheese burgers or cold drinks won’t bring patrons back if the service was slow or the food orders were incorrect. RV Burger, a cozy and chic restaurant managed by the Singapore Pappamia Group, decided that their customers deserved nothing but the best service, and elevated their already great customer service to a new level of excellence by introducing the FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + Point of Sales system. Customers are very happy, as are the staff members who enjoy the ease and simplicity that FoodZaps brings to their work day. With FoodZaps, the server inputs the order electronically, exactly as the customer wants it, and sends it directly to the kitchen. No scribbled paper orders to be lost, misread or delayed. Customers, servers and cooks love FoodZaps! Who else loves FoodZaps? Management loves FoodZaps! Since installing the FoodZaps system at RV Burger, managers have been delighted with the automatic hourly and daily sales reports that are generated. These reports are very detailed and extremely useful for learning about customer trends, which foods are top sellers, what times RV Burger is busiest, and much more. This leads to more efficient staffing and inventory controls, and in the end a much more streamlined restaurant emerges. FoodZaps also allows the end of the day to run smoothly with an Auto-Close feature that requires no effort at all on the managers’ part. Another beautiful feature of FoodZaps is that it can be run and viewed on any web browser. A manager could easily check in on their business from anywhere on any web browser, even off site. And FoodZaps isn’t just any POS system – it’s better! In places where internet connections are unreliable or the electricity is less than perfect, FoodZaps shines. What customer wants to wait around to order a meal while you try again and again to connect to the internet? Not too many. Hungry people don’t have the patience for that. FoodZaps will run problem free all of the time, no matter what your internet or electrical difficulties may be. So our friends at RV Burger do what they do best, create and serve spectacular dishes to satisfied customers every day. The cooks prepare meals of great colour and taste without ever worrying about missing inventory ingredients, lost or poorly written food orders or trouble communicating with the serving staff. Each server is confident that their customer’s order arrived instantaneously in the kitchen in a clear form and that it will be prepared quickly just as it was ordered. The management does not have hours of tedious paper work waiting for them at closing time. FoodZaps has taken care of it all! RV Burger’s customers rock! They deserve excellent food, a fun dining experience and friendly service. With FoodZaps, these great customers will always be assured of getting their food quickly, exactly as ordered. Simplified operation for staff, good time for the customer – it’s a beautiful thing!

FoodZaps was at Cafe Blasco, a newly opened cafe located at The Punggol Settlement. They serve all day breakfast and very good coffee. There’s indoor seating as well as a breezy alfresco area with a scenic view. They also have a good selection of wine to choose from. Do check out their place! Here are some tips for you to better utilize the FoodZaps Restaurant POS and Mobile Order System.

We agree FoodZaps is a must-have support tool for our franchisees. We appreciate the customer service. During the installation trial in our new 2nd outlet, the team came regularly to check, troubleshoot and monitor the system. Sometimes staying back after our outlet is closed; to continue the system troubleshoot into late nights without interrupting our business operations. We pick FoodZaps after going through many systems in the market. Because it is easy to configure language settings in FoodZaps system and the price is reasonable. We also use FoodZaps daily sales reports and cloud backup services – very useful for business analysis when we are away from the outlets. We are very happy with the responsive customer service by FoodZaps and surprised by how easy it is to adapt and learn to master a POS and mobile ordering integrated system just within a day ! We take pride offering an authentic Thai boat noodle dining experience to our customers here. We pay attention to the details right down to raw ingredients, soup stocks, chili powder and menu presentation in all our outlets. We want our menu items to be in English and Thai, laid out side-by-side (tom yum soup ซุปต้มยำ); this add authenticity to the menu. We are in the midst of expanding our business through franchising now. We agree FoodZaps is a must-have support tool for our franchisees.   – Jason Ho, Marketing & Business Development Noodle Café at Singapore

Does the situation look familiar to you? Click to watch FoodZaps’ Mascots videos now ! Does the situation look familiar to you? Click to watch FoodZaps’ Mascots videos now !

FoodZaps has invented fail-safe restaurant management technology. It is neither Legacy POS nor Cloud Based POS. FoodZaps POS combined the benefits of Legacy POS’s performance and reliability together with Cloud Based POS’s easy to setup and maintain. FoodZaps POS has no requirement for internet connection during operation and uses android devices like the mobiles and tablets. FoodZaps enables all the devices to self synchronize without going through the cloud or back office client server. When internet is made available, data will automatic backup to the cloud and off load the data from the devices. Legacy POS Also known as traditional & conventional POS systems. Legacy POS store data on a PC/Server and run on closed internal network. An example of legacy application will be word processor to edit the document which is store on the PC.   Cloud Based POS Also known as Web-hosted solution or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) that store data on remote servers and make information accessible online. Examples of such services are Facebook, email etc.   With cloud computing, high-speed network and mobile devices becoming more affordable, Cloud Based POS system is more popular due to easy maintenance as compared to Legacy POS. Cloud Based POS depends highly on internet connection therefore it is unable to function like Legacy POS’s performance and reliability. FoodZaps is the new revolutionized POS Software and System for the economy. If you would like your business to run smoothly 24×7, increase efficiency, collect more customer data and monitor your business while you are not in the outlet and office. FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + POS System is the only choice.   Written by Tan Huey Meng Technical Director of FoodZaps Technology Pte Ltd If you would like your business to run smoothly 24×7, increase efficiency, collect more customer data and monitor your business while you are not in the outlet and office. FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + POS System is the only choice.

By using FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + POS System with your cafe/restaurant’s Process redesign will improve productivity of your F&B business by more than 50%. We understand F&B business have labour constraint, inconsistent workflow, difficulty in menu designing. – CNA Article Productivity Benefits of Process Re-Design with FoodZaps Online Menu to facilitate browsing of menu Locate empty table Update latest menu items’ availability Transmit real-time order to kitchen/bar for preparation Receive real time order to avoid producing excessive and incorrect order Retain order in electronic form with clear, detailed information Display bill electronically at an instant to reduce manpower needed Allow customer to proceed to cashier to make payment while bill is being printed Instant end of day sales report to facilitate changing shift or closing Automatic email of daily report to a designed email account Process Redesign = 9 minutes “Using FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + POS System, steps 2 to 6 and 10 to 15 into 1 step each. At the same time, wastes in all other steps are reduced.”   Traditional Services Workflow = 24 minutes     FoodZaps Mobile Ordering + POS System is a comprehensive system that streamlines customer ordering and payment processes in the F&B industry. The system facilitates the ordering of products through the use of a mobile device. Customer billing and payment system is an integral part of the solution. The online portal generates sales report and provides insights on customer behaviour and product popularity. It is Easy to Use and Setup

[intense_hr size=”large” /] Simple ways to make receipts work harder for your F&B business (Image for illustration purposes only)   1. Let your customer remember you Like your business card, receipt represents your business too. Place your logo in a visible area because image speaks louder than words! Also do state your business details to let customers come back to you to the right place and at the right time! 2. Build a trusting relationship between you and your customer When there is a promotion or discount given, make sure your customer are aware of what they’ve enjoyed. Listing the billing in details to let customers know what they are paying for without a doubt and give them the confident for a return visit. 3. Make your customer return by engaging them with all your exciting promotions and events. Most people read their receipts carefully and keep them. This is a valuable opportunity to share information such as discount off their next order or call-for-action to become your fan on social media. Make receipts part of your engagement plan with customers, just as you do with social media.   * Studies show customers engaged with a brand have more loyalty and will go out of their way to locate a favored product or service. (Gallup)