Today, dining out or ordering at home is more often than not a high-drama opportunity for people to immerse themselves in good food and great conversations. In order to stay on top of their customers' mind, restaurateurs are incorporating technology to entice and entertain diners. We are living in the "golden age" of food. Technological innovations have made things a lot simpler. Forward-thinking businesses understand the impact restaurant technology has on food-service industry and are ready to leverage tools for business success.
Let’s take a look at how the technological shift is shaping the future of the foodservice industry.
Revolutionized restaurant discovery process
In the last decade, the biggest and the most prominent change in the foodservice industry has been the way diners connect with restaurants. Two factors: Technology and Social Media are redefining the process for consumers to find restaurants, order food, and make reservations. The extensive data collected from reviews help companies like Zomato, Deliveroo, and UberEats put the right restaurant and the right meal in front of the customers at the right time, creating a virtuous marketing cycle.
Improved communication process
Lack of communication between front-of-house and kitchen often leads to confusion, mistakes, and disengaged employees. To meet the demands of today's customer expectations, your restaurant needs better tools for managing its operations. Effective deployment of POS systems can provide tremendous opportunity to streamline restaurant communication, thereby, eliminating most communication issues.
Increased productivity and accuracy
Let's face it, your customers are always on the phone. They've got internet access literally at their fingertips almost everywhere they go. Setting up your own online ordering system is a great way to eliminate errors and increase productivity. Online food ordering systems are ceremoniously being used by online, as well as offline restaurants to increase productivity and accuracy, further smoothing out operational efficiency.
10 seconds takeaway: Don’t be distracted by all of the shiny and sleek systems.
It is highly encouraged to do your due diligence before adopting a new piece of technology and then see what goes best with your business model. Primo, does it solve the problem you've been facing? Secundo, does it integrate with other systems that you currently use? Tertio, who is actually using this successfully in the industry? (Speak to them!).
Keeping up with the others in the foodservice industry has essentially become a tech war. More than leveraging solutions that can drastically improve customer experience, restaurant technology one-upmanship brings more revenue, reduces waste and shrinks overhead. As your customers upgrade to the future, it's important for you to be on the cutting edge with them and point them in the right direction. In simple words, the right technology is essentially a requirement for the modern restaurant - keep up or lose the customers.
