In the past couple of years, the food and beverage industry has undergone significant transition. Restaurants that were able to adapt to changing customer expectations and ever-evolving back-of-house processes have been the most successful.
Some trending technologies that restaurants adopted during this period include integrated QR-based table ordering, loyalty programs, contactless payment solutions, social media integration, inventory and integrated delivery services, and handheld POS systems. Rhythm Gupta, Co-Founder and CPO, Easy Eat explains how this shift allowed restaurants to capture every data point in the value chain, resulting in a better understanding of customer preferences, higher revenue, and lower costs.
Today, more customers are seeking discounted meals at restaurants. How does this present restaurateurs an opportunity to grow their customer databases and turn these diners into loyal clientele?
Discounted meals have become common with the advent of third party aggregators. These aggregators created an umbrella offering, which consists of online menus, seamless payments, delivery tracking and great customer support.
Most of the restaurants lost a great deal of margin to these aggregators and had almost no customer connection. With the rise of D2C in every sphere, these entrepreneurs are going beyond aggregators as they realize that most of their online orders are from repeat customers.
This realisation has enabled restaurants to own the relationship with their customers and build a complete digital strategy. By implementing AI based systems restaurants can own customer data, create customized offers such as cashbacks or rewards for their regular customers and increase their profit margins.
How can they leverage technology to deal with ongoing challenges related to supply chain and manpower shortages?
Manpower shortage is one of the biggest problems being faced by restaurants globally. Hiring people like a full time waiter staff has been challenging with the advent of the gig economy.
We’ve seen restaurant owners use technology to automate the biggest time taking tasks of a waiter in restaurants. From taking digital orders using QR codes to paying orders through a customer’s phone, they adopted technology that can make their staff’s life easier. Adopting technology not only gives staff time but they can also provide a more fulfilling experience to their customers.
How can they use technology to do more with less, while elevating guest experience and improving profit margins?
It is safe to say that artificial intelligence in the kitchen is the way of the future. We’re seeing more and more personalization at all levels across restaurants, and in the coming year, restaurants will use AI to remember previous user interactions, food preferences, habits, and so on.
Businesses will use their customers’ digital footprints to gain insight into their habits and create one-of-a-kind experiences. Personalisation has always been the holy grail for restaurants. This is especially for tech-savvy users used to brands like Amazon remembering their past orders and automatically making recommendations based on preferences and purchasing patterns.
Currently, no one knows if you’re a regular or a first-time visitor when you walk into a restaurant. Restaurants can analyze who is a first-time visitor or a regular visitor using AI, and with this data, restaurants can further surprise their guests.
Additionally, we are witnessing restaurants create custom menus in order to personalise the dishes based on individual preferences thus elevating the guest experience.
How can restauranteurs use data from their PoS systems to calculate the cost/benefit of menu items and then reengineer the menu again?
The first step of any process optimization is collecting information and data about how it is being used. Paper menus and old POS systems do not capture almost 80-100% of the data. For example – old POS machines cannot capture if this is a repeat customer or a new customer without asking for customer details. Technologies like Easy Eat can easily capture repeat visitors without any problem and now can personalize menu offering for the customer.
20% of the menu brings 80% of the revenue but having the inventory ready for the remaining 80% of the items leads to spillage and profit margin reductions. Through a predictive analysis on trends, AI can help restaurants minimize spillage and increase gross margins.
