I’ve worked with thousands of food service operators. After explaining what our software does, I often hear this: “I need it, but…” followed by one of these two objections:
“It takes too long to get it right, assuming we do get it right”
or
“My people won’t adapt to technology”
Let’s call it ‘usability‘.
So although I’m not a programmer, I do work closely with development. And I constantly push them focus on two things:
- Simplicity
- Ease of use
When you analyze an app, POS system, or any other technology for purchase in your operation, pay special attention to usability. You are in a business where there’s never enough time, turnover is the norm, and technology adaptation can be bumpy. You don’t have endless resources to dedicate to analysis, integration, training, implementation, etc.
It’s all about usability: that means not chasing every bell and whistle, but really focusing on the core objectives of what you want to accomplish. And it means finding solutions that you can adapt and integrate seamlessly and painlessly. All of that adds up to usability.
I’ve told you there would be tips with my emails; these tips are some of the features that increase reciProfity’s usability. These may very well be what enables a successful deployment.