If you’re looking for ways to manage high guest demand and unsteady labor with the help of technology, brands are offering new examples of how it can be done – or at least how they are approaching it based on the popularity of different menu items. Take Chipotle, which recently introduced a test of an automated digital makeline in collaboration with Hyphen, a foodservice platform that helps automate kitchen operations. A Fast Casual report says the brand will be using the automated makeline for digital orders of its bowls and salads, which comprise 65 percent of its business. Each dish travels along the makeline as an intelligent dispenser releases the desired ingredients. When the item arrives at the end of the makeline, a staff member places a lid on the dish and adds any final requested items to the order. The goal is to free up employees for other tasks and increase capacity for (and accuracy of) digital orders. It’s easy to see how this might help a restaurant better adapt to employee absences as well. Looking at your menu, are there certain dishes that make up a large portion of your sales and would be easy to automate? As data is becoming a more powerful predictor of business success, restaurants are transforming into data warehouses. In the process, they must consider their responsibilities for protecting both themselves and the people who offer their personal information. One recent real-world example of this is White Castle’s use of a terms & conditions page on their drive thru ordering screen, which is perhaps a sign of similar policies to come in restaurants making use of guest data. The general public is increasingly aware of how valuable their data is – and that it must be protected. A recent Forbes report suggested that consumers’ growing awareness of data privacy is generating trust issues, which isn’t a big surprise considering the regularity of cyber breaches. As you set out to collect data from guests and others, it is becoming more important to have a technology provider you trust to help you understand how you’re using and protecting that data – and what immediate steps to take if you lose control of it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the restaurant technology options available today and where they seem to be taking restaurants, you might be relieved to hear about the key themes that emerged from FSTEC, the annual conference of foodservice information executives and technology vendors. A Nation’s Restaurant News report from the event, which was held in Dallas in late September, indicated that it was less about robots and the flashier side of tech than it was about back-of-house software solutions and a general sense of caution about finding technology that provides the best value. Restaurant operators are watching their spending right now and feeling cautious about stepping into new territory with technology. There was a focus on how tech can support back-of-house efficiency – how restaurants can marry AI and operational data to better manage tasks such as inventory management and employee scheduling, for example. Further, there was some push and pull between the need for technology and the desire to provide traditional hospitality. How is your business balancing the two? How well do you understand the path your menu items have to take to make it from their source to your restaurant? Being able to trace the journey accurately can help you zero in on the origin of recalls promptly (before they pose food safety issues), identify bottlenecks that delay products en route to you, and generally give you greater confidence in the safety and quality of what you’re serving. As a recent article in Restaurant News indicates, the Internet of Things can connect each link of your supply chain using sensors, RFID tags and blockchain technology – and it is an important tool to bring transparency to the path your food takes before it reaches your guests. If there are links in your supply chain that you don’t see as clearly as the others, ensure your suppliers are on the same page about food safety and the best ways to protect it. There is no shortage of restaurant tech on the market – so a number of players have been stepping out with more specialized offerings to stand out in the market. These include offerings that aim to facilitate orders in high-volume settings during morning and afternoon rush periods, as well as streamline delivery. Pymnts reports that Toast has launched a solution designed for cafes and bakeries, Oracle has a new offering aimed at independent restaurants looking for a more transparent and affordable tech option, and Uber Eats is expanding its white-label services through a partnership with Deliverect. (The partnership would allow restaurants to integrate Deliverect’s online ordering software into their POS system, then have Uber Eats deliver those orders.) How well is your restaurant able to harness real-time data about how it’s operating? Right now, devices connected through the Internet of Things (IoT) are making it possible for restaurants to not only generate more revenue, but also avoid costly problems. Consider parts of your operation that customers don’t necessarily see, but which are critical to how you operate – like your energy consumption or equipment performance, for example. Sensors connected through the IoT can analyze data from these parts of your business, identify patterns and flag problems or unnecessary down time. As a recent report from Restaurant News says, this can help a restaurant stay on top of equipment maintenance and avoid costly repairs, or help optimize energy consumption so you can avoid an unexpectedly high energy bill and operate with less environmental impact. We have all been there: It’s been a long day, you’re hungry, you’re craving a meal from a favorite restaurant, and you want it here now. Somehow the effort it takes to order or adjust a past order to your preferences – never mind collect orders from others – feels like more than you want to manage. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could skip that first part and allow the restaurant to get a jump start on preparing your dish? This functionality is something that Panera is offering their loyalty club members. The new feature, dubbed Crunch Time Ordering, allows guests to pre-program their favorite meals into their app and set them to be ordered at a set date and time. The app sends the person a reminder to place the order for pickup or delivery, then they just need to swipe a prompt within the app to complete the process. This kind of functionality is something to consider if you serve craveable foods that your guests think about at certain times of the week – like a large coffee on the way to work, a soup-and-sandwich combo for lunch during a busy work day, or a Friday-night pizza to kick off the weekend. Looking at your guests’ ordering habits and the preferences of your most loyal fans, are there ways you can remove friction from your ordering process and make it a little easier for people to get the food they crave? Name a restaurant business challenge and there is a tech tool to help address it. As a result, it’s easy for restaurants that have the means to invest in new tech to drown in a sea of options. Adopting new tech to help manage staff schedules sounds useful. Yet so do inventory management systems, tech-based staff training and kitchen display systems. If you can’t do it all, focus on what’s going to help elevate your brand by asking one question: How will this improve the hospitality we deliver? At the recent FSTEC Conference, restaurant CEOs reinforced this message. Gregg Majewski, CEO of Craveworthy Brands, said he has seen far too many operators get distracted from that goal. “Hospitality is key,” he said. “It’s how you win guests, and it’s how you make your franchisees money.” Each month, artificial intelligence-powered tools are being adopted in more guest-facing restaurant roles. As a recent article in The Spoon put it, we will likely see the biggest use of this technology in quick-service roles, in particular, because they tend to be lower-paying, higher-turnover jobs. Wendy’s and White Castle are two such brands stepping into this territory – and now delivery providers including Uber Eats and DoorDash also have plans in the works for AI-powered ordering. Once brands have established some history with guest-facing AI, we’ll know more about how it is impacting order accuracy, labor challenges and the guest experience. If the changes are positive, restaurants beyond the quick-service category may well look for ways to weave it into their models too. Could you see a way to use chatbots or other AI tools to support your service? People learn in different ways – and the tools you use to reinforce food safety skills can help you make the lessons stick. Restaurant Technology News suggests using virtual reality headsets to role play different scenarios with staff. Having them take part in exercises that feel real can help muscle memory kick in. Ongoing reinforcement is helpful too – and leveraging their smartphones can help you make sure they always have the information they need. Send employees reminders and just-in-time updates via their phone, or simply allow them to use their phone to access a bank of helpful food safety information when they have questions. |
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