Digital Cafeteria
While you are working at your desk, with assignments and presentations loaded up, or writing the codes of a particular program, or cross-checking on the excel sheet, and all of a sudden there is a churning in your stomach due to hunger, or you need to relax your brain with a cup of strong coffee or a cold aerated drink to chill your thirst, you hurriedly take a glance at your watch and then make quick calculations of the work still pending.
Wouldn’t it be great if you just happened to take your phone out, place your desired food order and get a notification after a while- ‘your order is ready to be served!’
And all of it would be only possible if you have a digital cafeteria in your organization.
Cafeterias play an indispensable role in creating a healthy and positive ambiance and companies these days focus more and more on having one, not just because it becomes a reason for engaging the employees to become more productive but also to retain them in a way.
The need for a digital cafeteria
Fresh Employee Experience
A cafeteria in office premises is a place where the employees not only gather or meet to have food, but also relax and take a break from work, have a quick chit-chat with other coworkers, sometimes discuss meetings, work, or just indulge in a light-hearted conversation.
And studies have shown that a digitized cafeteria with the latest technology enables the employees to be more productive and feel rejuvenated after they return back to work from a short break with a fresh mind and ideas exchanged.
With the onset of the pandemic situation, people have become more careful, skeptical, and cautious than before about staying healthy and safe. And the presence of a digital cafeteria prevents employees from ordering food from anywhere and everywhere, or walk down the street and hop into any eatery to gobble upon food, or wait in large queues to receive their orders, and indulge in any kind of cash transactions.
Therefore, companies like SmartQ have come up with solutions for a digital contactless cafeteria where it is not only the need of the hour but also a win-win situation for both employees and employers, both!
1. Say bye to long queues (Queueless cafeteria):
People hate waiting, be it at the restaurant for a friend, or at a salon to get a pedicure done, or even for the reply of a particular message or an e-mail. And to wait for food in a large long queue where you can feel the rats and mice running up and down your digestive system is immensely frustrating. A digital cafeteria solves this problem and one can bid goodbye to wait in queues since the selection of cafeteria, ordering of food, and payment processes get taken care of by the advanced technology with just a tap on your mobile screen. It not only saves time but also gives the cafeteria a whole new dynamic, thereby relieving employees from the task of waiting in tedious queues.
SmartQ App
2. Biryani or Noodles or Pancake or Sandwich???:
When it comes to food, people not only get confused but clueless too, and when hunger piles up, with a varied range of extremely mouth-watering options, the decision-making becomes the hardest possible task. Good food always paves the way to a good mood and when your digital cafeteria offers you menu choices with apt images, with the freedom of adding your desired selection of sauces and vegetables, the food ordering becomes simpler which would not have been possible manually. Certain Intelligent menu displays boards also come with additional information like the nutritional value of the food items, the balance and equation of carbs and calories, the most ordered food in the past 10days and the chef’s special item, and so on which helps in easing the hassle of ordering or selection of food.
3. What you see is what is sold:
Who does not like smooth cheese strings coming out from the pizza bite or a dense chocolate cream oozing out from the hot choco lava cake? And digital cafeterias take the pride in luring you like crazy and ruining your day with their AV systems installed, only if you resist yourself and do not try it out. Capturing the attention of the employees and pulling them back to the cafeteria while eliminating the habit of leaving office premises for curbing hunger is what the cafeterias aim at and what you see on big display boards is not only hard but becomes nearly impossible to withstand and abstain from!
4. What’s special in there?:
Digital cafeterias are also a platform that communicates and announces the specials of the day or about any particular event or if the restaurant/eatery happens to introduce new additions in the menu list, a notification to all employees could be sent across for an increased employee-flow. This keeps the employees happy from time to time about new innovations and introductions and helps them work with a better mind space.
5. Go paperless, go cashless!:
With the entire world turning digital in all aspects, the most important transformation that had come is cashless transactions and it was then when online payment gateways climbed the ladders of success accepting online. Digital cafeterias accepting online payments add a boon to the employees since it has lessened the hassle of carrying and keeping cash in a wallet. Not only are the online payment modes more secure and reliable than the traditional ones but also have turned out to be convenient and more accessible. Going cashless also saves one from the embarrassment of leaving wallets at home, keeping a track of the amount deducted, and avoiding unnecessary handling of notes and coins which has become a major concern for people these days.
6. Aaahhhccchhhoooo! *Stare* *Stare *Stare*…
Let’s try to be honest and accept that a cough or a sneeze in a crowded place is frowned upon considering the present scenario of covid-19 and most of us try to avoid being caught up in such places, especially while waiting for food. Having a digital cafeteria in the office premises not only eliminates the queue but also helps you avoid such situations. New introductions like a cafe pass where it allows employees to check out available seats at the cafeteria at any given point of time and pre-book seats so as to avoid any congestion and minimum crowding have come as a blessing for the employees. SmartQ introduced this new project and successfully emerged with solutions keeping in mind the need of the hour and with an agenda to help admins and facility managers to be extra careful and cautious about their respective workplace and employee health and well-being.
The co-founder of SmartQ, Hardhik Sheth says, “Cafeterias are going to go through a fundamental change – and we believe technology is going to play a key role in this change. People were already used to having everything at the tip of their fingers. This is going to be replicated inside cafeterias as well. Everything from the menu, to placing the order, understanding the health benefits, and making the payment will be done digitally. The scope of the digital cafeteria is going to expand from just consumer-facing mobile apps to building out an ERP system for the cafeteria. This will ensure end-to-end traceability and improve the health and safety quotient – which is the need of the hour.”
Soothing Cafeteria Experience
Having a digital cafeteria is the need of the hour considering the present given situation and development where people are becoming exceedingly used to a more relaxed lifestyle habit by getting caught up in the cobwebs of technology.
Employers are also taking into account the establishment of a digital cafeteria in office premises to ensure the convenience of quick, easy and healthy food for their employees in a way maximizing productivity, thereby preventing extra loss of working hours.
Cafeteria owners too in a way are boosting their business through various metamorphoses and initiation through brand advertisements and building strategies to excel in employee satisfaction.
And employees, who are the pillars of a company, inevitably become more loyal towards the organization and shoot up their work, effort, and commitment.
Thus, a healthy and enjoyable workplace gets created through the digitization of the corporate cafeterias, giving an experience worth sharing with other fellow friends and also remembering a lifetime!