The humble help desk used to be just a help desk with customers simply talking to the help desk executive about all their issues relating to customer service at a restaurant.
This then evolved into something much more complicated and critical with the introduction of IT help desk systems that enabled customers to simply call a number and have their issues resolved.
However, the introduction of IT systems has not really helped the restaurant and hospital industry a lot because there are still a lot of issues that need to be solved and that simply cannot be accommodated with IT customer desks.
The restaurant industry and the hospitality industry in general are all about customer service and providing the exact solution customers need or they are simply going to move their business elsewhere.
This is why the transformation of the help desk from a physical desk to IT systems has been largely beneficial. Yet, it needs another transformation and evolution.
The global hospitality market is expected to reach $16.3 billion by the year 2028 with an annual growth rate of a very healthy 10.2 %.
However, we think that this industry and especially the area that concerns restaurants has a lot more room to expand and it is just being held back by customer service which includes help desk management.
Small and medium-sized restaurants simply cannot afford to set up and invest in comprehensive help desk management systems with hundreds of customer care executives taking in calls and solving issues for the restaurant staff as well as customers.
However, every restaurant needs a system like that to deal with all customer issue just as global giants do.
The only solution to that is help desk outsourcing for restaurants where restaurant owners can simply outsource their help desk needs to professional help desk services companies with comprehensive help desk management systems. This comes with its own set of advantages and it is a very logical choice when it comes to investment.
This is the very reason why the online help desk software market is expected to reach $26.83 million by 2031.
If restaurants opt for outsourcing their help desk needs to an online help desk software solution then they are going to get hundreds of customer executives at their disposal and even very helpful help desk dashboards to view customer grievances in real time not to mention the analytics advantage of getting to see custom reports of the key areas of complaints and much more.
That is exactly why we are going to talk about why restaurants need help desk support in the first place and finally, we are going to talk about the benefits of help desk outsourcing for small and medium-sized restaurants.
Let us start by understanding what is the actual need for outsourcing systems like this.
Why Do Restaurants Need Help Desk Support Software
Online Order Support
One of the most common reasons why restaurants get calls from disappointed and angry customers is simply because online food ordering apps have messed up their orders.
This usually happens when the food ordering app has a problem in its system or the restaurant manager has simply forgotten to turn off a menu item and a client ordered it.
In a situation like that, either the food delivery platform or the restaurant is at fault and the client has to pay for it and that is why having a smart help desk outsourcing system and software can solve that issue.
It can fill the gap between the client and the restaurant and fix problems within platform integration systems and also manage third-party API connections in the best way possible.
Faster Operations
Running a restaurant is not just about cooking or cleaning the tables because there is a lot of technology processing that goes on as daily operations.
We at talking about things like ordered processing in the form of utilising POS systems as well as taking care of inventory automatically and also online ordering systems.
Apart from that, you also have the marketing department as well as social media management of that restaurant and other important aspects such as making sure everyone is paid such as the utilities bills etc in time.
In order to do all that, restaurants rely on a lot of technology and that can lead to problems that restaurant managers will not be able to fix as soon as they want.
That is where outsourcing help desk for restaurants and help in the internal operations of the restaurant as well you will not have to deal with a single software but you will have an entire team of professionals at your disposal to solve issues.
Enhanced Security
Restaurants are not really well known for the best cybersecurity measures because they do not have any active cybersecurity measures in place.
However, restaurants are one of the most common targets of cybersecurity attacks and this is simply because restaurants deal with a lot of customer data in the form of payment information as well as other sensitive data about customers.
A simple help desk with a manager on the other side is just not enough to take care of important cybersecurity concerns but help desk outsourcing can definitely help you against these severe attacks.
Along with that help desk outsourcing can also be quite helpful to train restaurant staff in order to deal with data in the best way possible and mitigate security risks and along with that also follow compliance regarding payment details guidelines.
24/7 Operational Support
24/7 restaurants are becoming very popular but running a restaurant 24 hours of the day and seven days of the week is not only very difficult but it is nearly impossible for small and medium size restaurants.
This is because you are going to find it difficult to staff these restaurants at odd hours and along with that you are going to need double the staff at all times.
Apart from that if you have to keep a restaurant running 24/7 then you are also going to need to keep on running the help desk for that period of time. This means employing even more people to listen to customer problems and also finding solutions to critical technical problems.
Add up all of them and you are spending nearly 3 times the operation costs and you must also factor in the fact that you are not going to earn the same as you do during the day or during the weekends.
That is why outsourcing your help desk is going to transform the experience for you because now you only need to think about manning the restaurant because all the technical problems as well as customer service are going to be handled by the outsourcing company.
Cost Savings
And finally, we come to the issue of cost because this might be the least talked about point on helpdesk management but this is the most important.
It is going to take a huge amount of capital to set up a physical help desk management system along with an in-house IT team for a regular small or medium-sized restaurant.
It is so absurd that it is unthinkable for a small or medium restaurant to even invest in IT and equipment as well as 20 or 50 employees just for help desk management.
What is not absurd or impractical is outsourcing their help desk management services to a help desk IT support company that only deals with solving help desk issues of restaurants and other businesses.
This means no need for investing in expensive IT equipment and no need for training customer executive staff and having them on permanent payroll when you can have all of them at much cheaper rates.
Benefits Of the Key Services You Get with Help Desk Outsourcing
POS System
One of the key areas of benefits of help desk outsourcing is definitely going to be in the area of POS system support.
This is where the technology company associated with providing help desk services remotely are going to help restaurant businesses with everything from fixing transaction issues related to online payments.
Along with that, the help desk team will also help out the restaurant with upgrading and managing the POS systems and making sure these POS systems are always updated with the latest security patches.
In addition to that, outsourcing help desk services will ensure the best level of data security for these POS systems.
Network Support
Every online business has to rely on high-quality network connectivity for its day-to-day operations and that is also the case with restaurant businesses.
This is because restaurant businesses now get a large portion of their orders online and that means they are going to need a stable connection all the time. Restaurants now are also expected to have good Wi-Fi which directly relates to the customer experience.
However, we understand that networking can get complicated and sometimes there might be issues that can totally put networks at a standstill.
If you outsource help desk management to a professional IT services company then they can ensure stable network connectivity at all times including the best Wi-Fi coverage throughout the restaurant which will also add to a better customer experience.
Along with that, they will also network security.
Online Ordering
Online ordering is quite complicated and also quite the trouble if not done properly and this is simply because online ordering integration comes with its own set of challenges.
This is especially the case if the restaurant has partnered up with multiple online food delivery platforms which makes maintaining and managing them quite difficult.
Every day the restaurant staff has to manually set different parameters such as the pricing and item availability and mistakes in that area are going to mean a bad customer experience.
Along with that if the restaurant is using any hospitality management software, then they need to integrate the API of food ordering platforms with their current system.
Fixing something like that is just too much for any restaurant manager who might be good at managing a restaurant but who is simply not technologically literate enough to solve something like this.
That is where outsourcing help desk management is going to help you with all your online ordering and delivery integration needs so that your restaurant never faces any downtime with online ordering orders.
Employee Training
When you run a restaurant, you are going to have employees who are excellent at delivering food and you are going to have employees who are going to be excellent at cooking food or waiting tables.
You are not going to have employees who are cybersecurity experts or customer service executives answering calls from angry customers and you are definitely not going to have a technology company handling technological aspects of the restaurant business.
However, you are going to need your restaurant manager to access the restaurant management systems and you are also going to need the waiting staff to operate the iPads for taking orders and much more.
This means that you are going to have technology involvement and you are going to need to train your restaurant staff to operate and manage tech.
In order to train these people, you are going to need the expertise of professional IT services companies in the form of outsourcing help desk management.
Customer Issues Handling
You can count yourself extremely lucky if you run a restaurant and you do not get regular customer complaints because the thing about food and the hospitality industry is that you are always going to get people who do not like your services.
That is also the case with small and medium-sized restaurants and not resolving these customer grievances is simply going to mean that the customer will never come back.
If these grievances have something to do with the technical aspect of your systems, then your help desk IT company is going to ensure that all technical problems are solved and customer issues are resolved.
We hope this blog has been helpful for you to understand how outsourcing help desk management to professional IT solutions companies can not only save money for your restaurant business but also ensure better operational efficiency for small and medium-sized restaurants.
If you are someone who runs a restaurant and you are looking to outsource help desk management to seasoned IT professionals, we are here for you.
We are Think To Share IT Solutions and we provide one of the finest and most regarded help desk management services that can be integrated into existing restaurant management systems.
We have extensive experience in globally offering custom help desk solutions to hospitality businesses. Along with that, we are also renowned for being among the regarded among the very few AI integration and implementation industry pioneers with extensive experience in cloud integration services.
We can help you run your restaurant and establishment with the utmost levels of efficiency and without any technical snags.
We welcome you to visit our website and check out everything we do.
