The bakery segment is a large section of the UK food and beverage industry. It is worth £3.9 billion and is continuously growing, leading to an increase in demand for bakery management systems. Many elements in a bakery need special attention but are likely to be missed out while the bakery owner is busy handling the entire business. Therefore, a little technological assistance doesn’t hurt anyone.
Introducing technology to your bakery can be profitable on many levels. For example, a bakery POS helps in facilitating the ordering process, delivery, takeaways, inventory management, etc. seamlessly.
This article will cover the different features that a bakery POS software must have to carry out all these operations quickly and effortlessly.
Features To Look For In Bakery Management Systems
A bakery management system should be robust enough to handle all the bakery operations efficiently. From handling online orders to managing inventory, the bakery POS should help you take care of everything. Here are some features you should look for in your bakery management system.
1. Advanced Booking Module
The advance booking module is an essential feature of a bakery POS. The bakery orders are freshly made and usually take time to be prepared. In order to carry out deliveries in time, bakeries need to be aware of the orders in advance.
A good bakery management system lets you accept orders in advance from the customers and rids you of the hassles of maintaining a sheet for every order. Furthermore, it also lets you set reminders and alerts to deliver the orders in time.
2. CRM Integration
Events like birthdays and anniversaries are primarily responsible for boosting any bakery’s sales. The CRM module of a bakery management system captures this customer data from multiple sources and updates it centrally in a single location.
The customer’s eating habits can be recognized using their order history data, which eventually helps you in dishing out personalized SMS and email campaigns. Running loyalty programs also gets easier when you know what your target customers prefer.
CRM module is also a good marketing tool for bakeries. Now that you’re aware of your customer’s birthdays and anniversaries, you can send them personalized greetings and create a special connection with them. Additionally, you can enhance customer delight on their special days by offering them customized discounts on your bakery products.
3. Shelf Life And Recipe Management
Inventory management is critical for bakeries as most of the raw materials used in preparing bakery products are perishable. Therefore, it has to be made sure that these perishable items are consumed before their expiry date and are not eventually wasted. A bakery management system ensures that the perishable items in stock are used first, and the customers are served with the freshest products, thereby leading to better shelf-life management.
Besides, maintaining consistency is also one of the key things to take care of. The recipe management feature of a bakery POS keeps track of the consumed ingredients in preparing any item, thereby maintaining the same taste and consistency in all the items. Furthermore, since this feature guides you to follow a standard recipe, it also helps keep the food costs in check.
4. Mobility & Cloud Telephony
The bakery management systems should be accessible on any device. You should be able to view the reports and analytics from anywhere that you want. The mobility feature of a bakery POS lets you access the reports and get the real-time bakery updates right on your mobile phone or any other internet-enabled device. When the business data is so easily accessible, comparing multiple outlets’ performance also becomes more manageable.
In order to not miss a single order, especially during rush hours, a bakery POS must have the feature of routing incoming calls to the next available line if the mainline is busy. The latest cloud telephony technology allows you to access fully-managed telephone services via the internet at a much lower cost. It does not require expensive hardware. It also gives you access to the call logs to know the time spent on each order.
5. Detailed Reporting
Getting detailed reports is critical for knowing where your money is invested and where it is being utilized. It’s important to know whether the efforts you are putting into your business are reaping the best results. The detailed reports that a bakery management system provides help you to do an in-depth analysis of your bakery’s sales and raw materials.
The in-depth daily, hourly, monthly, and annual reports of bakery sales help to know the pace at which your business is expanding. Furthermore, ingredient-wise and item-wise reports give a better grasp of the food costs and revenue earned per unit.
6. Central Kitchen Management
Central kitchen management makes it easier to handle multiple orders across multiple outlets simultaneously. It is important to be aware of the day-to-day stock requirements to run all outlets successfully. Managing a kitchen centrally gets you better control over the bakery operations. You can easily view and track the baked, delivered, and wasted items from your inventory. In addition, handling receipts becomes easier as the list of receivable and payable bills is present centrally.
While every F&B vertical is going tech-centric, the bakery industry is no exception. In the intensifying competition, adopting POS technology can get you the lead in your local market. Thus, you should ensure that you buy a sound bakery management system having all the features mentioned above.
