It is an exciting time for Restaurant Technology, new tools designed to identify the best customers, employees, and facilitate both groups are ready to help you. It can be a bit complex but if you can see through the technical haze to a future that has these technologies built in, it is an exciting idea to be sure.
Here is what I am doing:
I am Currently testing out and designing products for my own restaurants and those of my clients. To be sure, some of these new ideas will not be developed well, only proper testing and experimenting can weed those out from the standouts that will become the pillars of the burgeoning restaurant technology industry. It is time that we had tools to quantify, evaluate, and define a path to serving guests better, and managing employees in ways that embolden and reward them for their success.
The Big Four Ideas:
1) I am working on the implementation of “card less” loyalty program that integrate with a restaurant’s POS system and the cloud to deliver customer data to the restaurant operator and loyalty bonuses to the customer without paperwork or manual tracking. A text message capable phone is all the customer needs to enroll, claim points, and redeem them. Dead simple and the backend tracking is amazing.
2) Online ordering is old news, but truly mobile online ordering with Amazon like ease of order is not. These days your customers need to be able to order from their phone without fumbling for credit cards or using laptop. There are several new tools that provide just that.
3) New POS integrations allow for service staff to compete for better shifts on a variety of metrics like check average, dessert sales, attendance, and other manager set goals. This is part of a current trend in management and motivation called the Game-ification of the workplace. It is very exciting and has roots right here in Boston.
4) Online hiring and application tools ask all the questions and help you sort through applicants to find the best fits for your labor needs. You don’t have to do it the old fashioned way anymore. I am building a recruiting and application platform for my business that takes care of regulations and gathers applicants to fill openigns that before I would have to manage piecemeal.
What new technologies are you using, or are you interested in?
The time is now to take advantage and focus on delivering amazing experiences to your guests, this is the food business not the database business after all.