The Benefits of an All-in-One Restaurant Platform

Over the past few decades, restaurants have typically thought about their various technology needs as being in several distinct buckets. A restaurant might buy a point of sale, an accounting suite, payroll software, an online ordering system, and an email marketing tool all from different vendors. And a restaurant’s staff would have to learn how to use each system and how to transfer data and records across systems. 

On a typical day, a staff member might need to transfer email lists from their online ordering system into their email marketing tool. Or, they might transfer sales records from the point of sale into their accounting suite. This separation of multiple software solutions created major operational inefficiencies and resulted in missed opportunities to provide better experiences to guests and employees.

Recently, cloud-based systems like Toast have grown into fully integrated restaurant technology platforms, offering solutions for everything from point of sale and payments, to payroll, to online ordering, to marketing. A restaurant platform provides an all-in-one solution to a restaurant’s technology needs in a single hardware and software interface — and the benefits of an all-in-one platform can be tremendous.

Toast offers one of the most extensive all-in-one restaurant platforms, and restaurants using Toast's All-In-One Platform during the pandemic had up to 30% higher sales than those using Toast Point of Sale alone¹.

That’s because the Toast platform consolidates all your restaurant’s data sources and works together in ways that individual software solutions cannot. For example, Toast can pull timecard records from the point of sale directly into a payroll system to reduce time spent on payroll each week.

Below, we highlight some of the ways in which an all-in-one restaurant platform is better for guests, operations, employees, and your business overall.

Better for Guests

Toast’s all-in-one platform creates amazing tech-enabled dining experiences for both on-premise and off-premise dining, — and with robust guest marketing and loyalty programs, you can keep guests coming back. 

1. Integrated online ordering, delivery, and contactless payment solutions gives guests the power to order the way they want
2. Toast Order & Pay gives guests greater control over their dining in experience — and the result is 12% higher check sizes²
3. Toast’s Marketing and Loyalty solutions leverage data from across the Toast platform to bring your guests back more often

Better for Operations

Toast combines front of house, back of house, and management technology to dramatically streamline your restaurant’s operations.

1. 24/7 customer support and top tier reliability ensure you’ve got help at any time
2. Our direct integrations with third-party delivery providers allow restaurants to receive all orders in a single, easy-to-use interface, eliminating the need for multiple tablets, menus, or double entry
3. Toast’s Kitchen Display System allows your kitchen to receive and respond to orders in real time. At Suviche in Miami, ticket time was reduced by 40% by implementing Toast Go handhelds in conjunction with Toast Kitchen Display System

Better for Employees

By simplifying restaurant operations and management, Toast helps employees be more productive and makes it easier to provide a great employee experience.

1. Toast’s handheld devices and contactless payment technology enables staff to serve guests faster and can increase orders served by up to 30% during peak times, like at Mr. Sandwich in Whittier, CA 
2. Handhelds and Order & Pay technology also keep staff from having to run back and forth to the POS all shift long, reducing the number of steps they have to take per shift
3. Toast’s integrated payroll solution draws on point of sale data to reduce time spent on payroll to an average of 30 mins or less, like at One0Eight Bistro in Salt Lake City, UT

Better for Business

By providing better guest, operational, and employee experiences, Toast’s all-in-one restaurant platform can provide a big boost to your restaurant’s revenue and bottom line.

1. Restaurants using Toast's All-In-One Platform during the pandemic had up to 30% higher sales than those using Toast Point of Sale alone¹
2. Toast Delivery Services allows restaurants to provide greater convenience to their guests while reducing commissions paid to third-parties: Toast customers using TDS pay less than 4% per order vs. up to 30% commission through 3rd party delivery providers³
3. By using Toast Online Ordering, Trapper’s Sushi saved $25,000 on third-party commissions in a year

Pick a Restaurant Platform

Toast’s all-in-one restaurant platform is one of the most extensive available and provides numerous pathways to help restaurants grow, streamline operations, and provide a better experience to guests and employees. As restaurants continue to embrace tech in the future, the gap between restaurants who adopt an all-in-one restaurant platform and those who do not will continue to grow.

1 Based on performance of small to medium-sized restaurants during Summer and Fall of 2020. Toast’s all-in-one platform includes Toast Online Ordering, Toast Gift Cards, Toast Loyalty & Toast Marketing. Customers who quickly adopted the full suite mitigated the pandemic’s impact on their sales by 10-30% when compared with customers who used Toast POS only. Full suite available via our Growth Package.

2 Based on performance at select Toast customers.

3 No upfront costs. Delivery fees are assessed on a per-use basis. Must maintain an active Toast subscription plan to be eligible for Toast Delivery Services.