Elevating Guest Experience with Technology

Torote Restaurant, nestled in the picturesque residential community of Valle del Sol, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, showcases the best of La Baja's local flavors with renowned chef Victor Garrido.

Occupying three floors with a garden, a main dining room, and a terrace, the restaurant is stunning, with beautiful views of its privileged surroundings. Before dinner, guests often enjoy watching the sunset with a cocktail from its lounge with a fireplace.

The restaurant is managed by Tatiana Hladetska, who brings a wealth of experience to her role. After earning a master's degree in hospitality management, and gaining an understanding of various aspects of the business through a wide range of roles in multiple countries, she was invited to join Torote by Victor, who is also a partner of the restaurant, while they were in the pre-opening process.

Tatiana's love for hospitality is rooted in the opportunities the industry presents.

The opportunities it gives to travel, meet people, and learn a lot about service and psychology are among the aspects of it she cherishes the most, she told us. To take advantage of these opportunities, she has always been eager to use innovative strategies to enhance the operations of the places she manages.

Choosing technology to support the project’s vision

More than ever, technology plays a pivotal role in enhancing efficiency and productivity in hospitality. Knowing this, Tatiana pays close attention to how to select the right technology - especially early in the opening process as Torote was.

For her, selecting the right technology requires talking to peers about their experiences. “We went to a number of restaurants in the area and asked to speak with the owners to see what they were using,” she told us.

What she was looking for from the technology was a robust feature set that would support modern restaurant operations to cater to both guests and staff's expectations. But crucially, it needed to be easy to use for all staff because, without use, those features would be wasted.

After speaking with other operators, Tatiana and her team selected Infrasys, the point of sale system from Shiji Group. “We saw it was super user-friendly, super fast, and super effective. It had all of the important things we needed.”

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Getting set up with support to succeed

The effectiveness of any technology depends in large part on the level of support provided, especially during setup. It’s the reason that Shiji Group’s Infrasys team invests heavily in support and onboarding, and it’s a benefit that customers often talk about and sets them apart from other providers in the market. For Torote, the implementation team played a crucial role in ensuring a smooth onboarding process.

“From installing the equipment to training the staff, their team was there every step of the way,” Tatiana shared, calling out several team members specifically for going above and beyond in providing prompt assistance during operational hours when needed.

“I was always texting, ‘please help with this’ in the early days - and they did!”

Shiji Group's Infrasys team understands that they are not just providing a technology solution, but they are also building long-term partnerships with their customers.
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Saving time and money

Now with the platform installed and configured, Tatiana is seeing the results. “Infrasys is saving time and it’s saving money for us.”

“In the restaurant business, saving time and money are connected. “Time is money! With Infrasys we take orders quickly and correctly, which helps us to focus more on service and to deliver the best experience to our guests.”

This digitally-enabled process saves time, enhances productivity, and eliminates the need for servers to wait for their turn at a separate station. Tatiana estimates this saves at least a couple of minutes for every order. And at a large, busy restaurant with 80+ tables, that quickly adds up.

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Guiding team members to provide superior service

By using Infrasys, Torote has also been able to provide better service by empowering its team.

For example, choosing the right temperature for a steak is essential before submitting an order to the kitchen. “If one of our guests requests a steak, our servers can’t proceed to place the order until they select the right temperature. Infrasys prompts them to ask and confirm with the guest. Having technology guide our team like this ensures we have the right order for the guest and prevents us from skipping important steps.”

From guidance like this to making the lives of team members easier on an ongoing basis, Infrasys technology is helping Torote fight the staffing challenges many other hospitality companies are facing.
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Improving the guest experience

Infrasys not only creates efficiency and effectiveness for staff but also improves the guest experience.

This starts from the very beginning of the dining experience. “Orders are taken super quickly because every server has their own iPad and can send the order directly to the kitchen.”

“Very important feature that helps us prevent a bad experience is a possibility to set the information of 86 sold out items or items in stock in Infrasys. So for example, if we have only 5 orders of Local Catch, the system won't allow the server to place an order for 7 orders.”

That fast, attentive service continues through the end of the guest experience. Tatiana shared how important it is to leave the guests with a good experience at the end of their meal. “Guests remember the first moments, but they remember the last minutes in your restaurant even more.”

“If the food was great, the ambiance was great, and the service was great - but then you wait 30 minutes at the end for the server to split up your bill, it ruins the whole experience we work so hard to design and deliver.”

Infrasys eliminates this by enabling instant bill splitting and payment directly at the table.
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Empowered with insights

In addition to time-saving, Infrasys also provides comprehensive reporting and analysis capabilities that help Tatiana and her team make informed decisions.

For instance, they regularly analyze menu sales reports to identify their best-selling dishes. This data then informs changes in the menu and pricing strategy.

One such change was made for their popular appetizer, Queso Fundido, which is made with 3-month-old cheese and served with homemade bread. After identifying it as a top seller, they slightly increased its price, which had negligible impact on the guests but significantly boosted the restaurant's revenue.

“It’s really great appetizer, so by understanding the data we could benefit from that without affecting guest satisfaction.”

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Empowered to succeed

Infrasys has proven to be a transformative technology for Torote, and Tatiana's advice to other restaurant managers considering implementing new technology is to think about the time they can save and how user-friendly the system is for the staff who will be using it daily.

“Think about saving time for your team and your guests constantly because this is the most important thing,” she told us in closing.

What Tatiana and her team at Torote are doing is an example of how leveraging technology can result in a win-win situation for both the guests and the restaurant. It showcases the importance of choosing the right technology that aligns with the restaurant's vision and operational needs.

In today's competitive restaurant landscape, succeeding is as much about the food as it is about the infrastructure that supports your teams in providing guests with a memorable experience.

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