Every business requires new innovative strategies to grow in markets with high competition. The competitive advantage depends on different kinds of factors as we have discussed in the previous article. Now the question arises, why Agile Leaf POS emphasizes too much on the terminology of competitive advantage?
The answer is simple, every activity, policy, practice, and strategy carried out by the business owner should contribute towards achieving more revenues and profits as compared to competitor companies in the market.
Let’s take the example of the food industry in Pakistan, every restaurant tries to introduce new products, services and offers various kinds of discounts to ensure that more customers from new segments of the market get attracted. The equation is simple: more customers mean more revenue. Therefore, Agile Leaf POS realized this fact and decided to introduce a compatible Restaurant Management System (RMS) that can be used to identify opportunities and develop innovative strategies by collecting data about the customers and the restaurant’s operational activities.
Risk Management by Implementation of Restaurant Management System
The factor of risk management also encouraged our company’s R&D department to develop a high-end technology-based product for the restaurants’ overall management. Our R&D department identified that one of the reasons that restaurants implement RMS is to collect data associated with different kinds of risks at the workplace. Every activity at the restaurant can generate risk, such as; production, manufacturing, general services, etc. Hence, business owners need to recognize those activities and mitigate their impact.
If a small food chain does not invest in technology-based tools and methods, then it becomes difficult to identify current cash inflows and outflows. The management decision-making process is dependent on the cash flow information and always remember one thing; insufficient or invalid information always create ineffective decisions.
Large restaurants have the freedom to experience the consequences of ineffective decisions but small food chains do not have the margins to make bad decisions. Doing repeatedly so means brand equity decreases up to a point, where they have to discontinue their respective operations. Restaurants usually experience high sales revenue at initial stages of launch and this situation helps to achieve competitive advantage.
Once a business enters into the maturity stage, profits are achieved at a stable growth rate, and then comes the decline stage, where it becomes difficult to even achieve the break-even point. Therefore, businesses require tools and methods to perform high in maturity and declining stages and for this purpose, the RMS presented by Agile POS plays a significant role.
The RMS provides complete support to collect data about high performing activities to improve customer responsiveness. Collected data and the generated reports by RMS helps to develop strategies for improving brand equity, strengthening brand recognition, and for facilitating innovation. Therefore, the role of the RMS exists through the life-cycle of the restaurant and data-driven strategies minimize the impact of the risks associated with the organizational activities.
Restaurant owners should understand the fact that any risk can be a high threat in the situation, where they create a high impact on brand equity. Restaurant’s internal investment should be evaluated in terms of its contribution to the organization’s overall goodwill. Any activity can create a potential risk in the situation, and without tools to identify them, it can cause problems over time. Automation in the digital era is the most important step to achieve effectiveness and it is also directly linked to the achievement of the sustainable competitive advantage.
Role of Restaurant Management System for the Market Segmentation
Generally, it is observed that millennial customers spend a high amount of financial capital on food products. Millennials today as of 2020, belong to the age group of 26 to 40 years. Every restaurant owner understands its target market but the ground reality reflects that they do not have the relevant tools to collect the data related to the customers. Let’s analyze how a restaurant owner can use RMS to collect the information in an innovative way to attract more customers from the millennial generation.
Attracting more millennial generation customers is one of the best approaches to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Suppose, restaurant A has 10 food items on the menu. The data collected through the RMS reflects that two food items of Chicken and Fish Burgers are the highest profit-generating products. Millennial generation customers are usually spending on food products and they are willing to pay premium prices because the majority of them are employees or self-employed. Based on the information collected through RMS, restaurant A can decide to increase the prices of Chicken and Fish Burgers by 10% by increasing side order serving while still increasing their profits. As customers are already interested to purchase these products, therefore, the restaurant can expect that millennial generation customers will purchase Chicken and Fish burgers at premium prices.
Restaurant owners should understand the market segmentation and then develop a product portfolio to attract customers from those segments. Product prices need to be determined after detailed market research and collected data. Restaurant owners should adopt the policy of diversification to offer high-quality products at varying prices to different customer segments and then continuous evaluation should be carried out to identify whether or not the customers are satisfied with the restaurant offerings.
Restaurants need to decide whether they want to be part of the current market trend or should depend on traditional methods to achieve success. Agile Leaf is a relatively new company with a high-end product of Restaurant Management System to help the restaurants in Pakistan to complete their tasks and responsibilities. Please contact our company at the given details to discuss how the restaurant management system can be deployed in your restaurant and what kind of additional changes, if any, may be required to ensure that restaurant activities and environment become compatible with the new technological tool.