Restaurant
What’s next for data technology? We discuss the impact of technology and analytics on day-to-day operations, current challenges, and revenue opportunities.
INSIDE
The Impact of Technology & Analytics on Restaurant Operations
Challenges Gathering Data
How to Use Data to Drive Profitability
Restaurant Think Tank E-Book published by
PRESENTED BY
NEXT: meet the think tank
Industry
The Future of Data Technology in the
Meet the Think Tank
Jim Balis Chief Executive Officer Sizzling Platter
Bill Bellissimo Founder CrunchTime!
Michael Chachula Chief Information Officer Fat Brands
Robert Firpo-Cappiello Editor in Chief Hospitality Technology
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Bryan Myers Chief Information Officer City Barbeque
A Restaurant Think Tank E-Book published by
Jon Tryzbiak Vice President of IT Checkers & Rally’s
NEXT: the impact of technology & analytics on restaurant operations
Top Strategic Goals for Tech Investment in 2022
Restaurants were asked to identify their three top strategic goals
data from HT’s 2022 Restaurant Technology Study: Making Magic Happen
The impact of technology & analytics on restaurant operations
Efficiency
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There are a lot of different data points across different systems that can help us make good business decisions. Checkers & Rally's analyzes data points around sales, guest sentiment, and loyalty to determine where we can spend our time to improve efficiencies and customer satisfaction.
Sizzling Platter collects and analyzes staff data — when did they clock in/out, how was their shift? — to determine which units are more susceptible to turnover. We use camera tech from back of house to determine which team members work best together, and we create ideal schedules around those metrics.
Fat Brands is in a hyper-growth environment right now, and we’re looking closely at the brands we’ve recently acquired using data and analytics to improve the customer journey. CrunchTime! helps us turn data into useful information so we can make quick, fact-based decisions.
“Now we’re moving into a post-pandemic era — shift from off-prem into the reality, scant resources, supply-chain issues, hiring issues,” notes Toby Malbec, Managing Director, ConStrata Technology Consulting. “Does that promote robotics? Other efficiencies? Menu changes?”
Data is helping City Barbecue understand who our customer is. One of the reasons that’s important is because site selection is key for us. Our ability to collect data has grown now that we have the majority of our customers ordering digitally, and we have analytics instead of anecdotal information.
INSIDE THE DATA
42% early adopter
19% innovator
13% laggard
25% late adopter
NEXT: challenges gathering data
Improve digital customer engagement
Improve business analytics
Improve employee productivity and retention
Reduce costs
Support revenue-generating opportunities
Improve eCommerce / Omni-Channel
59%
41%
39%
35%
31%
30%
17%
Enhance payment & data security
Increase and drive off-premise business
Top Challenges Facing Restaurant IT Departments
restaurants were asked to identify their top three IT challenges
Challenges gathering data
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There are two pieces for Fat Brands. There is data that helps you run the business. And there is data that helps you supply a service. Running the business is all your KPI‘s and how the operation is performing. Supplying a service means looking at efficiencies. How do we run better restaurants? And how do we supply world class service to our guests?
City Barbecue is taking a look at suggestive selling, which means not just knowing what the customer wants, but telling the customer what they might want next—either using digital menu boards, or in digital communications. That kind of predictive data can help us with margins.
Checkers & Rally’s needs tools that can bring disparate systems together and distill that information into answers to (a) the things you know you will want to check on every day and (b) unexpected or unique questions as well. Push repeatable tasks that have relatively low value to automation. That leaves more time for high value-add from people.
Technology is now seen as a revenue generator. The restaurants that can move into new operating models are creating better guest and employee satisfaction. Guests are used to tech and when you don’t or can’t provide it, that’s a differentiator in a bad way.
Difficulty integrating with legacy systems
Lack of sufficient IT budget
Lack of skilled technology resources in-house
Difficulty in measuring ROI for technology
Rising Customer expectations for technology
Security & privacy concerns with adoption of new technology
52%
43%
37%
24%
13%
Impact of COVID-19
NEXT: how to use data to drive profitability
Restaurants Rate the Effectiveness of Their Data/Analytics Strategy
Percentage of respondents answering very or extremely effective
How to use data to drive profitability
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Sizzling Platter’s customer-segmentation data has been very pointed and we’re seeing about a 25 percent improvement on our marketing spend. We also want to understand when and how consumers are using our competitors so we can pinpoint marketing to them.
What’s working for City Barbecue right now is using sales data analytics for site selection, understanding who our potential customers are in new markets.
I think the amount of data that is accessible to Checkers & Rally’s now is far better than it used to be. We’re trying to come up with ways to do meaningful analysis in a timely manner that doesn’t require a lot of time from humans.
We have got to simplify the stack in a restaurant, make sure we are getting all the information we can possibly get. If we can automate operations, we can take care of team members — and they can take care of the customer.
Food quality/safety
Menu performance
Website analytics (e.g., traffic and log-ins)
Promotions
Pricing optimization
Social media analytics
48%
34%
32%
29%
28%
Inventory/supply chain
NEXT: what we’ve learned
27%
Workforce hiring, training, and retention
Guest-check analytics (e.g., upselling)
19%
Customer insights (e.g., profiling/analysis)
Employee productivity
Sales and service prediction/optimization
What we’ve learned
Restaurant technology is all about the customer, understanding their habits and expectations, and making fact-based, data-driven business decisions in real time.
Learn more at CrunchTime.com
Automating low-value tasks allows employees to focus on high-value customer service — and reduces staff turnover.
Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and voice are increasing speed and accuracy of service, and will open up new opportunities for leveraging predictive analytics.
Our think tank reveals that technology and analytics are revenue drivers, enhancing both efficiency and guest experience. While integrating disparate systems remains a challenge, operators are increasingly leveraging data for actionable insights. Key takeaways include:
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