Ask any restaurant owner what they’d do with a few extra hours in the day, and they’ll answer quickly enough: spend more time with customers, train staff and get back to focusing on the food… Exactly the parts of the job that sparked their passion in the first place.

The reality, as confirmed by the recent Eat Out Yoco Restaurant Experience Survey, is that most of restaurateurs’ time is swallowed by the less glamorous side of the business - operations, admin and endless manually intensive reporting. That’s why streamlining the backend is more than a convenience, it can be a game-changer.

The survey shed light on the key challenges restaurant owners face and here we explore how the right technology can offer simple, effective solutions to many of these everyday hurdles.

Download the full report here.

Keeping stock in check

Inventory management and stock control is a big pressure point for restaurant owners, with continuous price increases in food and unrealistic price expectations from customers being a major concern for cost management.

To assist with this problem, Yoco’s new revolutionary point of sale (POS) solutions, Table and Yoco Counter, make stock tracking simple and smart, helping restaurant owners stay organised and in control, beginning with your product catalogue. It's possible to organise your menu by brand, category or subcategory, and it’s easy to manage variants like sizes, colours, portions or weights, making it ideal for dynamic menus and daily specials. Real-time inventory tracking ensures restaurateurs never run out of key items, and low stock alerts keep the kitchen running smoothly and eliminate the problem of overdoing it. Need to update a menu? It’s possible to bulk upload and edit products in seconds, with auto-sync across all Yoco smart devices.

Talent management

Overseeing staff and developing their careers can be challenging in the busy life of a restaurant owner. Yoco’s point of sale systems seamlessly connect across all Yoco devices, so teams can easily be managed and tracked from one centralised system instantaneously. Behind the scenes, managers benefit from a complete operational overview from any location (with Table by Yoco), including tools to manage staff performance. You can manage your team with pin-protected staff profiles, custom permissions and real-time performance tracking.

In our survey, owners said they mostly measure staff performance based on positive feedback from customers, as well as observation and gut feel. Kristi Maree, owner of Coffee, on Clarence in Betty’s Bay, Western Cape, admits she used to rely on gut feel to determine who her top-performing staff member was. But since adopting Table by Yoco, she’s gained a more accurate and objective way to evaluate staff performance – and was surprised to discover that her assumptions had been off the mark. With clear insights at her fingertips, she’s now able to recognise and reward the team member who truly deserves it and ultimately retain top talent.

Service, please

With full menu customisation, Table by Yoco makes it easy to adapt to changing needs, making the lives of waiting staff easier. Transactions are managed seamlessly with built-in support for voids and refunds, so service is smoother and faster. In the kitchen and bar, an optimised order display screen system keeps staff informed in real time, while front-of-house tools empower servers to take orders, split bills, process payments and send instructions directly to the kitchen – all from their sleek Khumo device while at the table.

Whether you're using Table by Yoco or Yoco Counter, both POS systems integrate seamlessly with the cute blue Neo Touch card machine for fast, reliable customer-facing payments, which includes built-in tipping prompts of up to 20%. This automatic functionality eliminates any awkward conversations about tipping, while giving customers a simple, frictionless way to reward great service.

For restaurant owners, this means happier staff, better service levels, and a more professional and smooth checkout experience – all while ensuring their best employees are recognised and incentivised instantly. The system has also been shown to triple staff tips, thanks to enhanced efficiency and elevated customer service.

In an industry that never truly clocks out, time is always an ingredient that’s in short supply. Luckily, Yoco’s payment and POS solutions are advancing alongside technological trends, giving restaurateurs more time back to spend doing what matters to them most.

What would you do with an extra side of time?