We took a look at some of the top food delivery services to help you decide which ones you might want to incorporate in your restaurant, including:

• Google online ordering
• Grubhub
• DoorDash
• Postmates
• Caviar
• Rewards Network Online Ordering

Download this free e-tool to learn more about the pricing and key takeaways of the major food delivery players.

The post Top third-party food delivery services appeared first on Rewards Network.

We have prepared this guide to help walk you through two of the Act’s main programs, the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, to arm you with the information you’ll need as you consider whether to apply to one of these loan programs.

Download this free e-tool so you will be better prepared to navigate some of the very important decisions you will quickly need to make regarding your restaurant’s financial future.

The post COVID-19 Emergency Loan Guide appeared first on Rewards Network.

One way restaurant owners can streamline the process is through the use of software solutions that combine multiple third-party delivery services into one easy-to-use streamlined platform. Here’s a look at some of the top options currently available on the market.

Chowly

Chowly takes third-party online orders and transmits the data directly to your restaurant’s POS system. Orders are sent straight to the kitchen and printed, much like orders placed directly at your restaurant.

This software is designed to save restaurant owners time without sacrificing quality. Chowly can be set up in your restaurant in just five to seven business days and the same team that implements it will be available for ongoing support at no extra charge.

Pricing: Plans start at $79 per month and the company offers a 30-day risk-free trial.

Square

Another company that’s aiming to centralize restaurants’ ordering, delivery, and payment processing structures into a single interface is Square. Many restaurants are already using this company’s “Square for Restaurants” service to manage their payment processing and payroll. Now, they will also have the option to access all of their third-party delivery service app orders through the Square POS system for an additional fee.

App orders are automatically processed and sent to the kitchen through one single tablet, with no manual data entry required. All online orders, third-party delivery service apps, menus, payment processor, and more can now be housed together, within one single touchpoint. Technical support is also available 24/7 along with implementation assistance.

Pricing: Square for Restaurants starts at $60 per month, per location, and includes one point of sale. There is also a 2.6 percent plus $0.10 per transaction fee. Restaurant operators can test the waters with a 30-day free trial.

SpotOn + ItsaCheckmate

The dynamic duo of SpotOn and ItsaCheckmate have partnered to offer restaurant owners a comprehensive solution to integrating all of their third-party delivery apps directly into their current SpotOn Restaurant POS. The system works by automatically sending orders placed through a third-party delivery platform directly to a restaurant’s POS system. The printed kitchen ticket will include the name of the delivery service, order number, customer name, and the items ordered. SpotOn also offers the ability to add online ordering to your restaurant’s website, counter service display screens, and table-side ordering with handheld devices.

Pricing: SpotOn Restaurant costs $65 per month plus the cost of the hardware and a one-time setup fee. Restaurant operators also receive 24/7 technical support, initial face-to-face staff training, and ongoing virtual training at no extra cost.

OrderOut

Touting cloud-based software that links a restaurant’s current POS system to third-party delivery service apps, OrderOut currently integrates with 13 different POS systems. Customers’ online orders from apps like Delivery.com, Postmates, and Uber Eats are pushed into a restaurant’s existing POS system. Then, OrderOut detects the order and sends it to your kitchen printer, including detailed delivery partner and food item data. Since this is a plug-and-play product, you can potentially begin using it immediately, depending on your POS system, delivery apps, and number of locations.

Pricing: The company charges a flat monthly rate. However, a list of prices and plans is not currently available on OrderOut’s website. The company states that pricing varies depending on a number of factors, such as the type of POS system your restaurant uses, and how many locations you have.

Delivering a Simplified Solution

Third-party food delivery services are poised to account for $16 billion in sales by 2022. Restaurant owners who don’t want to be left out of the takeout and delivery boom should make streamlining their process for managing third-party orders a priority. Software solutions like Chowly, Square, SpotOn/ItsaCheckmate, and OrderOut can help by eliminating the need for busy kitchens to juggle incoming orders from multiple sources.

To learn more about all the restaurant food delivery app options, check out our e-tool, “Top Third-Party Food Delivery Services.”

The post Integrate Third-Party Delivery Apps Directly into Your POS appeared first on Rewards Network.

For more than three decades, Rewards Network has championed local restaurants. Our strong partnerships with top U.S. loyalty rewards programs drive affluent diners to these establishments, increasing sales on a daily basis. And our cash advance products provide working capital that allows restaurants to grow.

So why create a new look?

Our refreshed brand better expresses the future we envision for Rewards Networks, its partners, clients, and consumers. We are aggressively investing in improving our products, scaling our restaurant network, setting up exciting new partnerships, and providing the best dining rewards to members. The new brand reflects our new growth strategy.

At our core, we’ve always been a financial technology company that serves the restaurant industry.

Our new brand identity reflects this in three ways:

• First, the warm yellow and orange are universal colors of creativity, energy, vibrancy, and health. In many cultures, these are the preferred colors for kitchen design. And they evoke so many foods that are common ingredients in a restaurant kitchen. Yellow and orange also suggest hospitality which in turn leads to our essential value of being a trusted, helpful partner to the restaurants we serve.
• Second, our modern font speaks to the cutting-edge technology solutions we provide. From our unique Comment Management System that allows restaurants to interact directly with verified diners to flexible cash advance options to data-driven insights, we strive to provide relevant tools that deliver real value. The font is readable and accessible, as we intend our tools to be.
• Finally, the exponent. In mathematics, we raise something to the “nth power” when we multiply it by itself. It’s an expression of rapid growth. And it is our promise to empower local restaurants and their customer by taking dining rewards to the next level.

A brand conveys a company’s personality and its promise—Rewards Network’s refreshed brand promises to continue to help local restaurants thrive, using modern technology, data, and insights.

Though we have a new look, our mission remains unchanged — to help small business owners achieve their dreams.

Want to learn about how Rewards Networks bring cash AND customers to your restaurant?

The post Our Brand Refresh: The Power of Rewards Network appeared first on Rewards Network.

Is my restaurant cash flow going to take a hit?

We take a step-by-step look at the economic challenges your restaurant profit is likely facing in the coming months, including:

• Expected costs like food prices, restaurant marketing, and breakage
• Variable expenses like maintenance, server error, and waste

… and ways to generate more restaurant profit to your bottom line, as well.

Download this free eBook today to identify what you can do to minimize these drains on your restaurant cash flow, and increase your restaurant sales today.

Excerpt from Chapter 3:

Figuring out new ways to increase your restaurant sales is a big part of what it means to manage your cash flow and turn around negative results. But identifying profitable ideas that organically build on your existing brand isn’t always easy.

You never want to expand with new opportunities at the expense of your core business — or the relationship with your solid customer base. Finding a way to improve your cash flow, not simply shift your existing business to a larger pool temporarily, respects your success to date. And it will help you maintain trust with your existing diners and staff, too.

With that in mind, we have assembled seven ways to expand your restaurant profits — and thoughts on how to implement without undoing any of your hard work.

One of the easiest ways to introduce something new to your restaurant’s routine is the LTO — the limited time offer. Controlled in its scope, a successful LTO can be anything from a single dish to a full, additional menu, so long as it feels unique and fleeting. It’s not enough to just conceive of a new dish.

That FOMO (“fear of missing out”) sense of urgency your customer feels must be developed through advertising, whether external (signage, ads, window posters) or internal (upselling by staff, table tents, menu inserts). Otherwise, your LTO is just another menu item that could easily be overlooked.

Your LTO can be a discount opportunity, but it doesn’t have to be. Simply offering something that incorporates a new seasonal ingredient or combines two things your customers haven’t seen on your menu before can generate enough interest for success. Just be careful that your pricing covers any additional expense generated from going outside your usual repertoire, but still works for the market you service.

And who knows? If your LTO is profitable, it may earn a rotating place on your menu. If it isn’t, your commitment is as limited as the offer itself. But no matter what, stick to your guns with an end date. It’s part of what makes the opportunity special.

Adding a weekend brunch (or other special occasion) buffet can seem like a profit loser at first glance. All-you-can-eat is a frightening prospect when planning out prices and cost, not to mention ensuring that your prevailing brand doesn’t get diminished. That said, there’s a wide range of restaurants that host buffet-style serving, from casual to fine dining, and there’s a reason for it — buffets are profitable.

Your typical buffet offering works best when you keep a few key tactics in mind. Pre-cut sizes for proteins encourages smaller portions of your most expensive items. Customers will often self-police the amount of any one item they take — if for no other reason than to leave room for sampling as many different items as possible.

For the guest, buffets are an opportunity to experience everything you as a restaurant have to offer. For you, it’s an opportunity to offset a few high-cost food items with many more at a low cost (potatoes, breads, pasta) at a premium price for the experience. And even if your buffet price is in line with your normal menu, the opportunity to upsell high cost liquor in drinks not already included in the price, like a mimosa or Bloody Mary, can take your Sunday brunch from average to exceptional in sales.

Another avenue for increasing restaurant profit apart from your normal restaurant experience is building out a catering menu and service. The opportunity to build your reputation through word of mouth and positive experiences both in and out of your restaurant is tempting. So too is the ability to prepare food with advance notice on a set budget and for a predetermined number of guests. But every profit-generating opportunity also comes with a price.

Catering can be an intense burden on your existing staff and, as a manager, it falls on you to keep these two tracks of your business from disrupting each other. It also requires an investment in additional equipment, reliable transportation, and — quite possibly the most important part — a salesperson. Having a single person committed to each event, from initial appointment to contract review to execution, is critical.

But despite the upfront financial costs, adding catering to your restaurant’s repertoire can lead to better exposure for your restaurant and an additional steady stream of income, especially around holidays where you may see fall-off in your dining room service.

The post What’s Eating into Your Restaurant Profit (and How to Improve Your Cash Flow) appeared first on Rewards Network.

The future (of restaurants) is female (too).

In our brand new report, we look at the restaurant space in 2017 from the top down — and the increased role women are playing at every level — with special focus on:

• Growing opportunities for female chefs
• Pay and benefits for women in the restaurant industry
• Challenges in the workplace, including sexual harassment
• The state of small business loans for women

Download this free eBook today for information you can use to make your restaurant a space where women employees can thrive and advance — and boost your bottom line revenue, as well.

Excerpt from Chapter 4:

In practice, 16 percent of conventional small business loans are awarded to women-owned businesses. This equates to women-owned businesses receiving only 4.4 percent of the total dollar value of all small business loans. Because 33 percent of businesses are majority-owned by women, that discrepancy can feel like a chasm to budding entrepreneurs.

Indeed, the U.S. government has recognized that it, too, has fallen short of reaching benchmarks instituted to help remediate these discrepancies. According to a 2014 report of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the government has never met its goal of awarding 5 percent of all federal contracts to women-owned businesses. This only adds to the urgent need for more widespread access to small business loans for women.

One avenue of progress could be achieved in passage of the Women’s Small Business Ownership Act of 2015. Introduced to Congress by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), this legislation is designed to increase funding specifically for women entrepreneurs through the Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency that guarantees loans for small businesses exclusively — and a leading guarantor of small business loans for women. While the Act could help ameliorate many of the obstacles faced by women-owned businesses in the small business loan market, this proposed legislation is in its infancy. It may never make its way through Congress and passage into law.

At the same time, access to small business loans in general continues to diminish. Since the financial crisis of 2008, there’s been a 20 percent decrease in the distribution of small business loans, while loans to larger business are up by about 4 percent. As a result, many restaurateurs may anticipate challenges in approaching banks to obtain conventional small business loans for women.

Dishema Fulton, owner of Baltimore Crab & Seafood and Pearl Lounge, knows firsthand what it’s like to face an uncertain experience with small business loans for women. “[Rewards Network] supported my business for the last eight years. When I first opened, it was very difficult to get financing through banks and traditional lending. And it really put me in a position where I was able to push forward.”

There’s a reason for that. Rewards Network specializes in restaurants and sees the potential in entrepreneurs who may expect to be turned away from lenders or other financial providers. Our restaurant clients run the gamut, some have been operating (and serving excellent food) for years. Others have been in business for as little as three months. Many of our women-owned restaurants may not have been able to access operating capital through other means, including specially-designated small business loans for women.

The post Restaurant Opportunities and Small Business Loans for Women appeared first on Rewards Network.

“We are delighted to partner with JetBlue and to offer its TrueBlue members the opportunity to earn TrueBlue points for dining in 11,000 great restaurants nationwide,” said Dan Kazan, CEO of Rewards Network. “TrueBlue members are among the most loyal in the industry, and we are excited to provide them a new way to earn TrueBlue points.”

“We are excited to partner with Rewards Network to offer another option to TrueBlue members — TrueBlue Dining,” said Whitnee Hawthorne, Manager, Marketing Partnerships, JetBlue. “Rewards Network offers unique opportunities for our most loyal customers to earn TrueBlue points while dining at a nationwide network of leading restaurants.”

Individuals can learn more and enroll in TrueBlue Dining by visiting truebluedining.com.  TrueBlue members who enroll in the TrueBlue Dining program, will earn one point for every dollar they spend at more than 11,000 participating program restaurants, bars, and clubs nationwide. Members simply register their credit or debit cards, then pay using those cards for their meals at program restaurants — automatically earning rewards in the process. The process is simple and seamless, with no additional loyalty cards to remember.

Mosaic members have extra incentive to dine. Every dollar spent at participating restaurants will earn them two points, doubling the standard rewards for dining.

About JetBlue Airways

JetBlue is New York’s Hometown Airline and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 32 million customers a year to 91 cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of 875 daily flights. For more information, please visit JetBlue.com.

About Rewards Network

Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Rewards Network powers the leading dining rewards programs in the United States. Thousands of restaurants benefit from the financial and marketing services provided by the company, which include the provision of capital and numerous promotional programs via email, mobile, and social media.

Rewards Network offers its dining programs in partnership with major airlines, hotel chains, and other leading loyalty marketing programs in the country, with more than one billion rewards distributed annually.  Our millions of members include diners who spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually at participating restaurants and in return, earn airline miles, hotel points, college savings, fuel discounts, and retail savings. For more information, please visit RewardsNetwork.com, follow us on Twitter at @RewardsNetwork, or phone (312) 521-6767.

Explore what TrueBlue Dining has to offer now:

Earn on the fly »

The post Rewards Network Partners with JetBlue to Launch TrueBlue Dining appeared first on Rewards Network.