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restaurant technology

Restaurant Technology Trends for 2023

Restaurant Technology

The last few years have been a rollercoaster for restaurants, with closures, supply chain issues, labor shortages, technology advances, and inflation posing unprecedented challenges. What could the coming year possibly bring? I’m predicting six things to expect in 2023:

  1. Labor pressure is easing, but operators are still looking for labor management solutions. The labor crunch has been hard to bear, but the situation is improving. Operators who don’t already have a system in place will need to prioritize finding one to control costs ASAP.
  2. Incentivizing in-house delivery and in-app purchases will be key. Operators will need to provide incentives to encourage customers to order directly from their websites or apps.
  3. P&Ls will adjust to added technology fees as the need for new or unified technology grows.
  4. More restaurants will embrace cloud-based solutions as they offer more features to simplify amplify operations effectiveness.
  5. Restaurant owners will continue to look for ways to optimize costs and increase efficiency.
  6. Guest experience will be more crucial than ever in the face of a likely recession.

Our Choices:

As the restaurant industry evolves, these changes will shape the future of the industry and the success of its participants.

New Tools Proliferate for Restaurant Marketing and Operations

pork-belly-september

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.