Restaurant tech supplier Toast is teaming up with American Express to help restaurants offer more personalized service for customers.
The POS giant works with more than 140,000 restaurants, and the credit card company owns the reservations platforms Resy and Tock, which have about 20,000 and 7,000 restaurants in their respective networks. Their partnership will bring together troves of information on consumer dining habits like where and when people dine, what they like to order and how much they spend. The goal, the companies said, is to power “richer, more personalized hospitality” that will help restaurants grow their business.
Specifically, the companies said they plan to build tools that combine Resy and Tock’s guestbook data, such as customers' visit history and preferences, with Toast’s Digital Chits feature, which allows employees to view customer information on Toast handhelds and terminals.
"When you book and check in, what Toast can do is create a personalized experience for you," said Toast CEO Aman Narang during the company's quarterly earnings call Tuesday. "Everything from allergies, notes, birthdays but also be able to recommend menu items, whether it’s your favorite drink or items that you love. Empowering the staff, the host and server, with that data is really valuable in creating personalized experiences.”
Additionally, restaurants that use Resy and Tock will now be listed on Toast’s consumer-facing ordering and reservations app, Local by Toast, creating a one-stop shop where customers can book tables at a wide selection of local restaurants.
American Express cardholders can also expect special benefits via Toast, though the companies did not say what those will be.
A press release announcing the partnership provided few other specifics but said the new features will roll out next year. An American Express spokesperson said that the company had no further information to add for now.
The agreement deepens American Express’ ties to the restaurant business after its acquisitions of Tock, Resy and the ordering and payments platform Rooam. Those deals have allowed Amex to offer exclusive dining perks to cardholders, such as special access to hot restaurants, while also arming it with a wealth of restaurant data.
Now it will apparently be linking that data with Toast, which collects plenty of data of its own through its POS system and other tools for independent restaurants.
Online reservations platforms act as gatekeeprs for a large chunk of on-premise dining visits, and other tech providers interested in driving demand to restaurants have been racing to join forces with them recenlty.
In June, DoorDash acquired SevenRooms, which it said will allow it to help restaurants grow their on-premise business. Rival Uber, meanwhile, has forged a partnership with OpenTable that will allow customers to make reservations on Uber Eats and book an Uber to get them there.
The Toast and Amex partnership follows a similar line of thinking, i.e., stitch together reservations data with other information to give restaurants a more complete view of their customers.
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