Trending technology

We have been helping restaurants to figure out which tech solutions add value for their guests and their employees for over 20 years. Fundamentally, the goals have remained the same throughout those years – to enhance guest experience in ways that are true to the restaurant’s brand.

A successful hospitality business offers great experiences through their food, service, and the environment they create. These are the things that made them famous, what their guests come back for.

Technology can enhance these experiences in several ways, before, during and after a visit. Value is found where the technology does something the guest finds relevant and significant to them; this may lie in:

Ease, convenience, and control – viewing the menu and booking was easy, ordering from my phone was convenient and allowed me to control the pace of my visit
Speed and accuracy – my requests for food, a drink, the bill - were processed instantly and I got exactly what I asked for
Personalisation – our experiences were tailored to our needs and preferences – the brand knows me, knows what I like
Choice – we could choose when to use technology to order, when to speak to our server

Trends in technology to deliver these enhancements were well underway before the Pandemic. I cannot think of anything that technology is doing in restaurants today that we were not planning for before Covid. However, what has happened is an acceleration of adoption.

The weird things that happened to us have broken some of our habits and attitudes. The rules said we could not go out to eat, then we could but had to book and sit miles apart - so our established routines, habits and preferences were all challenged and, maybe, changed. And some of those changes have stuck – we learned new ways of doing things and we like some of them.

Some specific trends we have seen accelerate over the last two years include:

The percentage of visits that are pre-booked versus walk-ins has increased dramatically; people want the certainty that there is a table waiting for them – or that they can join a wait list and be notified when a table is free
No-shows have increased significantly – plans get changed more than they used to, and some guests book multiple venues so they can decide on the night
Self-service ordering solutions are much more widely adopted – kiosks in quick-service, order-to-table in casual dining and pubs often account for the majority of orders
Personalised communication based on guests’ and preferences cut-through; broadcast, one-size-fits-all messaging does not; talk to me about what you can offer my kids, the vegetarian options I look out for, the deals on the summer rose I love...

Developing the experiences your restaurant offers through technology is no longer a nice-to-do. You cannot afford to ignore the many customers that expect to be able to book online, order via their phone, interact with your brand digitally.

But every restaurant is different, with different shapes and sizes of customer – so it is not simply a matter of copying what every other restaurant does. Your tech plan must be right for your brand, for your team, your guests.

The technology must work for people, not against or around them. This means capturing and understanding data about your specific guests, their preferences, and their behaviour – otherwise, it’s guess-work – then developing that wrap around them, enhance their experiences.

Our prediction for the near-future in hospitality is that the most successful restaurants will continue to be the ones that offer great food, excellent service in an attractive setting – and that the experiences in accessing these things will be increasingly tailored and personalised.

This requires data and tech strategies to be joined-up. We are long-term, “tech ally” partners, helping businesses to discover and define these strategies. We have helped some of the biggest names in UK hospitality choose and adopt the right technologies at the right time and pace, configured and tailored for their specific brand and guests. We are here to help the next generation of growing hospitality brands to do the same.

For more information, contact us.