Ever since the pandemic forced restaurants to digitize or die, operators have been trying to find the right balance between tech-driven convenience and the human element of dining out.
At the FSTEC conference last week, restaurants sent a loud and clear message that they are ready to lean more heavily into the latter.
It’s an admirable idea, and one that we here at Tech Check have been endorsing for years.
But as the pendulum swings back toward hospitality, the challenges associated with that approach are also coming into focus.
To begin with, the whole concept of human-centered hospitality relies upon having humans working in the restaurant. That in and of itself remains one of restaurants’ biggest headaches.
In the second quarter, 65% of operators said labor costs were a top concern, while 64% reported problems recruiting employees, and 63% said they have trouble keeping them, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic.
The carousel of employees will make it difficult for restaurants to provide good service on a consistent basis. It’s one of the reasons operators have been investing in more tech in the first place: A voicebot never forgets to say thank you.
But even having a fully staffed restaurant does not guarantee good hospitality. There’s the additional step of actually training employees how to be hospitable—a job that seems to have become tougher as younger generations enter the workforce.
“Our team members now are our Gen Zs and soon to be our alphas who don’t understand how to interact,” said Kevin Bentley, head of technology and digital for Jollibee Group, during an FSTEC panel. “How do we get them to a point where they can actually interact in a way that’s meaningful and brings life to that experience?”
Here’s one solution I like: Putting new recruits through an improv comedy class.
“I think we have to teach our employees how to connect and how to find joy in that experience,” said Jennifer Bell, CMO of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, during the same panel. She said improv could help employees “be more human and more connective.”
On the other hand, some restaurants are taking the opposite approach by scripting hospitality into their service model and enforcing it.
At Five Guys, employees are required to greet every customer who walks through the door. And the chain takes that requirement seriously: Corporate staffers secret shop stores multiple times a week, and if they’re not greeted, that location loses points.
“People do what you inspect, not what you expect,” said CIO Zerrick Pearson at FSTEC.
Starbucks is the most prominent example of this trend. After years of heavy digitization, the chain is recommitting to the human touch under CEO Brian Niccol as it looks to regain lost traffic.
There’s the new directive for baristas to hand-write customers’ names on their cups, for instance. But Starbucks’ emphasis on customer service goes deeper than that. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that new training materials include scripts for how employees can better connect with customers, down to the preferred way to say “thank you.”
“Pause for a second to make eye contact. Don’t rush the moment,” reads a section of the manual called “Thank with eye contact,” the WSJ reported.
It’s easy to scoff at such a calculated approach to routine interactions. But it underscores the challenges restaurants face in trying to be more hospitable, especially across hundreds or thousands of locations and a revolving door of employees. It may seem silly, but some hand-holding is probably necessary.
And it has shown some signs of working. Though Starbucks' same-store sales remained negative last quarter, employee and customer scores were up, and it reported fewer customer complaints.
It’s one of the reasons I believe Starbucks is the most interesting brand in the industry right now. It is putting to the test, in dramatic fashion, one of the biggest questions of the era: Can technology and hospitality coexist?
If it proves that the answer is yes, I expect to see a lot more brands copying from its script.