4 Ways To Provide The Best Patio Season Experiences This Summer

In our last blog, we welcomed the month of June and unofficially declared it the beginning of patio season in Canada. Most Canadians love this time of year as it allows them to enjoy so many different activities in the great outdoors. Dining is just one of those many activities. Restaurant owners who have patio sections get to reap the benefits of warm weather all summer long!

But how can you ensure that you are providing the best patio season experiences? Here are four ways:

1. Be sure to have ample lighting.

Naturally, you’ll be able to depend on natural sunlight for the majority of the summer. But, of course, that’s only during the day time. Keeping your patio section open at night requires you to have ample lighting. It ensures that both your customers and your employees will be able to safely enjoy the outdoors.

“Outdoors will become the new indoors,” says Malik Kane of Lightspeed, “People will want to enjoy the weather and stay out as long as they can. Make sure your lighting is on point so no one eats in the dark. Bring out some heaters for later in the day if it gets chilly. Too hot? Bring out the fans. Be ready for anything mother nature throws at you, and make your patio the best in town.”

2. Keep the patio clean and tidy.

It should go without saying that your restaurant’s dining areas need to be kept neat and clean. But it’s important that you pay twice the attention to your patio section during the summer. Because it is outdoors, it stands a greater chance of becoming a mess. Between litter, dropped food, cigarette butts and other forces of nature, your patio can become an eyesore quickly. Never let that be the case.

“Maintain your patio,” advises East Coast Chair & Barstool,” Keep your furniture clean and floor space free of garbage. If something spills, clean it up. Don’t use your extra outdoor space as a graveyard for uneven tables and less than supportive chairs. The patio can be a goldmine for increasing your profits, so make it look like that.”

3. Always have enough staff on hand.

Remember that when you open up your patio section, you effectively make your restaurant bigger. It’s important that you staff appropriately. Don’t let your customers become frustrated by slow service because you didn’t think to schedule enough employees to cover both your indoor dining rooms and the patio section.”You don’t want your indoor crowd to suffer at the hands of your outdoor patio, especially at peak dining times,” reminds East Coast Chair & Barstool.

4. Utilize a pay-at-table solution.

There’s no question that Canadians enjoy eating on restaurant patios. They also enjoy paying for their meals while on those patios. Who wants to get up to make a payment? Be sure to have your wait staff equipped with a wireless pay-at-table option to ensure that your customers round out their dining experiences in the most convenient ways possible.

At Canadian POS Corporation, we proudly offer the Poynt Smart Terminal as our as our pay-at-table solution. For more information, please don’t hesitate to call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.