Top Kitchen Display System Features In The Restaurant Industry
To choose the best kitchen display system (KDS), you have to consider what features you will need to manage your restaurant efficiently.
A kitchen display system (KDS) is a digital screen system used in restaurants to manage custom orders. It assists restaurants in organizing, prioritizing, changing, and tracking orders. Purchasing a kitchen display system can be a beneficial investment for a restaurant. However, not all systems are created the same, and many lack features that can improve your operations. To choose the best kitchen display system, you have to consider what features you will need to manage your restaurant efficiently. Below are some must have features to look for in a KDS.
KDS Feature: Batch Ordering
Batch orders are designed to make the delivery of food and drinks to your dine-in customers more efficient. Set an amount of time (in seconds) that you want your orders to be grouped and let the kitchen display system handle the rest.
KDS Feature: 86 & Disable Items
Run out of a menu item or modifier? Quickly and easily 86 menu items or update inventory levels straight from the kitchen display system to update statuses across your platforms instantly.
KDS Feature: Prep Time Delays
Set expectations with guests when you’re backed up. Display how long an item may take, and display custom delays when you are busy. Easily enable coupons or discounts on backed-up items or whole orders to appease your guests.
KDS Feature: Two-Way Texting
With two-way SMS communication, your guests are always kept informed. Respond to guest feedback in real-time straight from your kitchen display system. You can send pre-written texts or personalized messages. Help clarify incoming orders or update customers on their prep times and order status efficiently and quickly.
KDS Feature: Customized Station Settings
By segmenting your customers, you can create special rules, discounts, and notices based on the group. This allows you to easily manage the customers that fall into different categories.
KDS Feature: Basic Routing
The KDS will route food to specific stations, for example grill, pantry, fryer, etc. Routing makes sure that food items are moving in the right direction.
KDS Feature: meal Coursing
After a server rings up an order, a meal coursing feature allows you to send groups of items (appetizers, entrees, desserts) to the kitchen all at once. You can set up rules for when your kitchen display system will display items in a meal, based on when they are supposed to get brought to the table (source: hospitality tech). This ensures you deliver each item when it should be, allowing guests to enjoy freshly prepared meals.
A Feature-Rich Kitchen Display System For All Your Kitchen Needs
GoTab’s kitchen display system helps improve the efficiency of your kitchen by helping you categorize each item for your space so the order can be fulfilled by the right staff. Whether orders are getting sent straight to the KDS or to the paper printer, your team will never need to run around searching for an order, ever again.
Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.
The Situation
Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.
The Solution
Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience
Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.
“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.
“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.
The Benefits
Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.
Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
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