Technology reaches every aspect of our lives, but with the emergence of mobile devices and cloud computing, the impact is more than ever. After the arrival of portable devices on the table, online bookings, social media, and new payment techniques, technology today has penetrated the food and restaurant industry like never before.
Some of these advancements will serve to progress the knowledge both for the business and for the investors, but in retrospect, the restaurant industry is typically 10-20 years behind as compared to any other industry when it comes to technological advancements.
Yet with every new advancement comes a new challenge, and with technology preceding faster, these challenges can seem overwhelming.
It’s usually been a one-touch-feel, eating at a restaurant, but now, with restaurant commitment programs, communication marketing, and digital receipts, there are even more opportunities for a guest to act together with a restaurant, and for a restaurant to make a commanding database.
It’s how the business deals with these progresses and the disputes that escort them that will decide the destiny of many restaurants, in spite of what’s on the menu.
How technology is influencing the way we dine out:
Big Data
Maybe the most significant trend in 2016 will be the use of big data, as companies begin to get value out of the data they collect and apply it to improving management and the customer experience. The data available for analysis includes everything – from inventory to a customer mix to orders to social media interactions.
The cloud is the ideal solution for big data analytics, with the ability to add capacity quickly when needed and pay only for the computing capacity that’s used. Cloud vendors have added the ability to spin up Hadoop-based analytics environments quickly, reducing the need for restaurant IT shops to have that expertise on staff. The spread of pre-built analytics packages will also simplify the ability to get value out of data, and packages that integrate with POS systems are becoming available.
New Payment Choices
The use of cards and cash will continue to decline as consumers become more familiar with other modes of payment. The usage of crypto currencies like Bit coin continues to increase, with nearly 5 million users expected by 2019. Retail usage is expected to stay fairly limited, and while some real-world establishments already have accepted it, but restaurants are slowly adapting to the changes. Cash and traditional credit card payments aren’t going to go away in any case, and the use of chip-enabled credit cards will spread as banks replace existing cards.
Better Customer Experience
The top priority for any restaurant is to leave all the customers satisfied. It’s not enough anymore to just focus on the guests inside your restaurant. It’s about connecting to the customer before, during, and after the dining experience in person and virtually.
In 2016, restaurants will be required to aim their sights higher. They’ll need to know their customer’s preferences and they will have to be well-equipped to treat each and every one of them like a VIP. Zomato Book is a tool to do just that.
Tools like mobile apps, messaging, and social media give restaurants the ability to provide customers with a more targeted and customized virtual experience . By knowing your customers’ tastes, you can provide a more customized dining (in or out) experience through menu offerings, pricing, reservation times, and so on.
Electronic Receipts
Receipts are no longer stored at the backside of a guest’s pocket, to be elapsed until they show up wrinkled in the wash. Now, restaurants are detecting their guests where they are, their inboxes or their phones. And best of all, they’re opting in to this communication. This is indeed bridging the gap between the restaurants and their consumer.
Apart from this, a few new restaurants are allowing guests to take care of expense and tip through their app so that a bill by no means even comes to the table. One of the common problems witnessed by restaurateurs these days is that guests wait too long for the bill, and this could get rid of guests leaving on blackball.
Kitchen Display Screens
With Kitchen Display Screens, processes are equally good for customer and the chef. Menu orders intercommunicate flawlessly and right away to the kitchen, and missing an order is no longer an option. Kitchen display structures are staples now at fast food joints, but they have been encouraging over the years. Cloud systems can fire objects back to the kitchen right away from the Point of Sale tablets. Kitchen display screens can in fact help chefs learn about the speed of their line; how long it takes to finish orders on average, sectioned by menu group and item. This extends kitchen managers a precious new way to believe about how their kitchens function professionally.
It seems sure that smart dining will basically change the lives of both restaurant personnel and customers globally. It is an exciting time to be concerned in food hospitality; future generations will look back and see the arrival of this elegant dining era as an essential turning point in the restaurant industry’s long and celebrated history.
The restaurant industry is typically 10-20 years behind every other industry when acquiring technological advancements
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