iPad-based technology increases sales and elevates dining experience in restaurants
Restaurants seeking to improve their profitability, efficiencies, and customer dining experience now have a new, high-tech arrow in their quiver. After nearly eighteen months of Beta testing, TopCellar Pro – the hospitality industry’s most comprehensive interactive menu technology – recently launched two apps publicly on iTunes. The apps include a free “lite” version, for purposes of demonstration and “test driving”, as well as the feature-rich and customizable TopCellar Pro version now available for download for $599.
“We built TopCellar Pro with a set of core beliefs that mirror the hospitality industry’s value proposition of providing superior service and unparalleled guest satisfaction,” said TopCellar Pro Chief Executive Officer Geoff Wasserman. “We are excited to bring what we consider to be the most feature-rich, guest-centric tableside and bar top technology on the market.”
Users can experience a number of key features found in the TopCellar Pro app by downloading the free, “lite” demo version:
- Customized and designed specifically for iPad use
- Powerful, easy-to-use interactive features
- Endless menu capabilities for customized menu content
- Photo-rich menu items
- Customize user interface with your restaurant’s logo and branding
- Easy and convenient to add/edit/sort content
- Complete, expandable food & beverage menus
- Customize “top-selling” or “featured” items quickly and easily
- Wine selection and photos post live to guests’ Facebook walls to promote your restaurant
- Natural navigation capabilities: swipe, click-through, or touch to move between menus
- Quick, responsive customer support
TopCellar Pro allows restaurateurs the ability to completely customize and brand the app with their food and beverage selections. Features unique to the TopCellar Pro version include:
- Beautifully crafted front-end app to enhance the guest experience
- Customize TopCellar Pro with your logo and restaurant images
- Full wine listing with details, photos, pairing and tasting notes, pricing, wine ratings, winery maps, recommended items and more
- Unlimited menu creation and management (Bar, Appetizers, Entrées, Desserts, etc.)
- Cloud-based, administration that allows you to quickly and easily manage, edit, and add new content
- Real-time content delivery to EVERY iPad deployed in the restaurant. Add or edit content “in the cloud” and publish to all your devices at once.
- Track what guests are viewing and see their favorites from your administration dashboard
- Create and sort by category
- Social media integration: Allow guests to share photos and favorite items directly from the app
- Menu still operates if internet goes out unlike other iPad based menu apps
- Operates on- and offline. *Requires an internet connection for publishing updates.
- Multi-Touch Gesturing
- “Pinch to zoom” on menu item images
- Capture specific guest information via the guestbook feature
- Items can be marked as “favorite” by a guest to be viewed by that guest at a later date
The TopCellar Pro app is designed to benefit restaurants at every level. Restaurant owners and CFOs like it because it increases revenue; servers like it because they sell more and increase their gratuities; General Managers like it because it optimizes the logistical day-to-day operations (inventory, sorting, etc); and customers like it because it gives them a more dynamic and gratifying dining experience.
Rick Erwin, the proprietor of two award-winning restaurants in Greenville, S.C., conceived the idea for the TopCellar Pro app. Erwin originally commissioned a custom designed wine app for his restaurants after researching and being uninspired by the alternative products on the market. After testing the app for more than 18 months, TopCellar Pro was created to enhance and expand the capabilities of the original app in preparation for its public launch on iTunes.
According to the National Restaurant Association, smartphone apps and tablet computers are the top technological trends in restaurants in 2013. The United States alone has more than 998,000 restaurants that employ 13.1 million people. On a typical day in 2013, restaurant sales nationwide eclipse $1.8 billion, with full service restaurants poised to grow by nearly 3 percent this year to annual sales of $208.1 billion. With restaurateurs constantly seeking ways to gain market share, innovative tools like the TopCellar Pro app can substantially improve profitability with impressive and swift return on investment.
For restaurants focused on boosting wine sales and overall profits, TopCellar Pro is the hospitality industry’s most comprehensive interactive menu solution—including custom-designed iPad-based wine listings and total menu-evolution options— delivering a more dynamic and satisfying dining experience for guests that ultimately translates into increased sales and revenue. Learn more about TopCellar by visiting www.TopCellarApp.com or following TopCellar on Facebook and Twitter (@TopCellarApp). The TopCellar Pro app is available for download on iTunes under the Food & Drink category.
