Providing a rewarding experience for customers had already been growing increasingly important for restaurant operators before the pandemic hit.
Consumers have long been shifting their spending away from material goods and toward entertainment-rich activities they can share with friends and family. Now, they still want to enjoy those rewarding types of experiences, and they want restaurants to provide them in a safe environment.
That has become more challenging than ever, as many consumers shun indoor restaurant dining—if it is even available—and operators have transitioned to focus on off-premises consumption models.
A well-run IT system, however, can provide the platform operators need to create enjoyable experiences for guests. Customers expect to be able to order and pay for their food through a variety of channels, including in person in the restaurant, on their mobile devices, from their home and office desktop and laptop computers and in the drive-thru. Each of these ordering and payment experiences relies on technology to provide a user-friendly and frictionless experience.
The same goes for orders placed through third-party delivery companies. And in many restaurants, technology also facilitates order production and the eventual pick-up process, along with increasingly useful tools such as digital signage and geo-fencing. Technology may also help operators with other aspects of restaurant operations, such as labor scheduling and inventory management.
Ideally, these technologies will be seamlessly linked and tied in with a technology-driven loyalty program and a robust data-analysis operation. These, in turn, provide insights for marketing and operations that together lay the groundwork for creating great guest experiences.
For many operators, pieces of this interlocking puzzle may be in place, but significant holes remain. In the rush to meet the challenges that have befallen the industry during the pandemic, many operators have hastily added new systems such as curbside pickup and contactless payment, but they need these systems to be integrated with the rest of their technology in order to optimize the customer experience.
As an end-to-end technology and services provider, NCRcan help restaurants complete the puzzle. Outsourcing technology functions to a trusted partner provides a way to quickly test and deploy the technologies needed to fill the gaps in IT infrastructure and remain competitive. Outsourcing also allows operators to focus on the myriad other day-to-day challenges of the current environment that require attention, such as managing the evolving roles of their staff, ensuring safety protocols are being followed, and driving guest satisfaction.
“Outsourcing your IT management can help you refocus your staff on the roles that matter,” NCR said in a recent blog post. “They can have time back to go from good to great, no matter their role. And your IT management team can get time back, too, since they’ll be offloading the management of day-to-day technology infrastructure tasks. It all adds up to happier employees and smoother operations.”
As an expert partner that understands how important technology is, NCR can help run the restaurant end-to-end, including managing IT behind the scenes, so that operators and staff can use technology to create great guest experiences.
This post is sponsored by NCR