As restaurateurs rushed to adopt digital solutions amid the pandemic, including platforms for ordering, payments and loyalty, technology-driven amenities quickly became the expectation among diners—and these expectations are likely here to stay.
Between Q2 and Q4 of 2020, 33% of consumers placed their orders at full-service restaurants via web or mobile platforms, compared to the 5% of the diners who did the same pre-COVID-19, according to Technomic’s March 2021 report, Technology Insights—The State of Foodservice Technology Today. As a result, 68% of operators say they expect their spending on technology to increase over the next two years.
While investing in tech is on the agenda for most restaurateurs, finding the right solutions for each operation and consumer base is less cut and dried. Here are three best practices for foodservice operators looking to find best-fit solutions for their businesses.
1. Invest in flexible platforms for long-term success
Breaking new ground in a restaurant’s tech arsenal doesn’t necessarily mean starting from square one. Investing in solutions with open and flexible APIs will help meet today’s, and tomorrow’s challenges. Omni-channel ordering and new fulfillment paths are here to stay and will continue to evolve. Operators need to invest in platforms that prepare for the technology of tomorrow, while continuing to optimize operations in today’s challenging environment.
Flexibility for future growth and change is also key. Brand-wide performance visibility and easy access to consumer data reporting and analysis are both key to nurturing agility and informing smart strategies for ongoing success, and scalable technology allows operators to apply these strategies frictionlessly.
2. Prioritize ease of use for customers and employees alike
It’s crucial that digital solutions balance sophisticated infrastructure with intuitive customer- and employee-facing interfaces. Ease of use promotes better service and higher customer satisfaction—not to mention continued patronage.
For employees, unified processes across all stations in the restaurant help ensure operations run smoothly; streamlined systems for reservations, menu management, order taking, kitchen production, labor management and more can be a boon to efficiency. For diners, ease of use can make the difference between a happy customer and a lost sale—especially for off-premise occasions, such as carryout and delivery, where speed and accuracy are paramount.
3. Partner with reliable tech suppliers for ongoing success
Every operator seeks to keep their restaurant running like a well-oiled machine—and that’s only possible when established systems perform efficiently and consistently. As restaurateurs do the crucial work of selecting tech solutions to support long-term success in the new normal, seeking partnership with a reliable supplier is crucial.
That’s where Infor comes in. As a global leader in business cloud software, Infor tailors its solutions to the needs of the industries it serves by building complete industry suites in the cloud, prioritizing user experiences, empowering operators with data-driven insights and more.
To learn more about how Infor can revolutionize restaurants’ technology systems to help them thrive, click here.
This post is sponsored by Infor