The retail tech growth has remodeled the best way we store for every part from footwear to vehicles. And now it is revolutionizing our espresso orders and pizza deliveries. The identical retail prospects that anticipate their loyalty applications, cell apps, and in-store experiences to be interconnected now anticipate the method of ordering meals to be simply as seamless.
Many eating places have taken important strides towards assembly these expectations, however there’s nonetheless an extended technique to go. Eating places should juggle extra ordering channels than ever earlier than, which makes a well-integrated tech stack that rather more essential. By prioritizing a well-integrated tech stack, restaurant leaders can put their staff in a greater place to ship agile and seamless buyer experiences.
How restaurant tech fell behind the curve
Loyalty applications, kiosks, internet orders, cell app orders, normal in-person orders — these are simply a few of the contact factors eating places need to optimize to fulfill prospects. When the pandemic ushered within the period of contactless ordering and pickup, prospects grew accustomed to the comfort of the restaurant expertise. But most of the patchwork tech options supposed to function short-term fixes throughout the pandemic are nonetheless in place — and eating places are straining to maintain up with prospects’ elevated expectations.
Eating places usually tailored to the pandemic in one in all two methods. Some prioritized management above every part else, opting to construct their very own restaurant tech options. Nevertheless, most restaurant operations do not have the assets, employees or experience to construct best-in-class coupon or loyalty applications themselves. Consequently, this method has contributed to an uneven, poorly built-in mixture of options which might be too complicated for patrons to navigate.
Different eating places opted for an method that prioritized velocity. This meant utilizing templated options that have been simple to implement however did not essentially replicate the particular wants or model id of the restaurant. Just like the method that prioritized management, this method additionally led to poor integration and glitchy experiences for customers.
Irrespective of which path a restaurant took, the outcome was the identical: unreliable programs that created a bunch of recent customer support points. For instance, suppose a buyer is trying to money in on a take care of the restaurant’s loyalty program. They stroll over to an in-store kiosk, however the kiosk would not provide a connection to their loyalty program or is simply too complicated to make use of. Confused, they take their place in line to order on the entrance counter.
On this situation, what incentive does this buyer have to make use of this kiosk the following time round? I do not see one. The message they obtained from this failed interplay is that they can not belief the restaurant’s expertise. It is not definitely worth the bother. Magnified at scale, this may flip kiosks and different probably profitable investments into sunk prices.
Utilizing modular commerce to attain larger tech stack flexibility
Eating places and retail clearly face totally different challenges. Nevertheless, your restaurant can take a lesson from retail in methods to construct a tech stack that is interconnected.
As a substitute of settling for a one-size-fits-all resolution, choose your excellent mixture of options and combine them with a modular commerce method. Modular commerce means that you can implement standalone best-of-breed options in a means that integrates with current parts of your online business and tech stack. In follow, this implies a change to your loyalty program can be mirrored in your kiosks, and vice versa. A modular method makes the method of including and eradicating new companies or options way more frictionless.
Along with flexibility, this method additionally lightens the load on builders and different tech leaders in your group. As a substitute of getting to construct a number of menus in your kiosk, internet and app flows, you possibly can construct a menu service that integrates your menu into all three of them. In follow, this helps your kitchen function extra easily. For instance, orders from an in-restaurant kiosk ought to take priority over a cell order as a result of the cell buyer presumably has not but arrived. Capturing these nuances makes workflows a lot easier for restaurant employees and prevents orders from unnecessarily snowballing.
Whereas a modular method promotes larger integration all through your tech stack, it is essential to stay strategic in your decision-making. That is the place the distinction between a vendor and a accomplice turns into very important. In a vendor relationship, interactions develop few and much between after the corporate indicators on the dotted line. However the correct accomplice can serve in an ongoing advisory position, offering experience on integration prospects with any new applied sciences your restaurant is contemplating.
Prioritize perform over flash to please prospects
The pattern of retail prospects anticipating extra from their restaurant interactions is unlikely to reverse any time quickly. In actual fact, I anticipate it is going to turn into much more prevalent over time.
Nevertheless, the eating places that achieve assembly buyer expectations will not essentially be those that make the splashiest tech investments. We have seen this method fail time and time once more. As a substitute, the eating places that get fundamentals like seamless integration proper are those that can have the flexibility to shock and delight prospects.
Transferring ahead, the flexibility to introduce personalised, tailor-made experiences with out clashing along with your current tech stack will make it easier to adapt to new buyer expectations sooner than your opponents.