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Restaurant leaders address how technology boosts the guest experience

Restaurants are increasingly adopting various technologies, ranging from mobile ordering and menu boards to voice-over-IP phone systems. Panelists at the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit shared how restaurants are using such tech to boost the guest experience.

Scott Davis, Core Life, Phil Friedman, Salsarita's, Michael Johnson, Papa John's, Scott Stalnaker, Donatos, Matthew Douglass, CBTS

March 26, 2019 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

Restaurants have increasingly had to adopt various technologies ranging from mobile ordering and menu boards to voice-over-IP phone systems.

These technologies are helping transform the customer experience at restaurants. Matthew Douglas, senior director of solutions engineering, CBTS, a Cincinnati Bell company moderated a panel on restaurant technology with Scott Davis, president and CCO, CoreLife Eater; Phil Friedman, CEO, Salsarita’s; Michael Johnson, senior director of technical, voice and data services, Papa John’s Pizza and Scott Stalnaker, director of IS operations and projects, Donatos at the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit held in Louisville, Kentucky from March 11 to 13.

From efficiency to necessity

Douglas said restaurants have traditionally viewed technology as a necessary evil, but that mindset has changed in recent years. Friedman said restaurants viewed technology as a means to gain efficiency, but it is now an absolute necessity. It's also become an expectation from staff and from customers.

"If you are a startup you need to be current on technology, because your employees expect it," Friedman said.

Johnson noted that since Papa John's gets 60 percent of its business from online ordering, if the network goes down, the restaurants cease to function.

That means restaurants must develop backup plans to avoid major downtime when a network crashes.

"You have to have back up and redundancies. You can't do it cheap and easy," Stalnaker said. "If anything breaks and you don't have redundancy, it now costs you millions of dollars."

The nuts and bolts

When it comes to the actual tools, the panelists agreed Wi-Fi was an absolute necessity for the most part. Johnson said that although most guests do not dine in at Papa John's, it still needs Wi-Fi for employee tasks.

The panelists identified a number of tools restaurants should invest in:

• Voice over IP phone systems.
• AI-powered phone ordering systems.
• Analytics for phone orders.
• Digital menu boards.
• Digital signage for employee training.
• Online scheduling for employee shifts.
• Sensors to track kitchen processes such as food warmth, baking time, employee preparation, etc.

Davis pointed out restaurants must follow the direction of connected houses.

"There's always a new device and no one wants to use them unless they are connected," Davis said.

The other panelists reiterated this point: all devices in your restaurant need to be able to integrate well with each other to avoid inefficiencies.

Finding the right partner

When restaurants decide to deploy these technologies, they need to find a technology partner not just a vendor, according to the panelists.

Douglas said technology providers used to simply deliver "stacks of equipment" and largely leave the restaurants to figure it out for themselves. Now, restaurants need someone who can partner with them to deliver a successful rollout.

Davis said a partner can, "help lead us where to go and don't less us trip into something that's expenditure after expenditure and there's no value."

Some restaurants don't need to be at the cutting edge of technology, they just need to know that the technology is tried and true. Friedman said he will often want to see use cases of how a tool worked in a restaurant similar to Salsarita's.

Sometimes, restaurants will need to work with multiple partners to get the best solution, such as Papa John's.

Johnson said he tapped several partners to help install and deploy multiple solutions. The partners hold ultimate ownership of the equipment whereas Papa John's controls the "conceptual design elements."

That's great, but how do you get franchisees on board?

Tools such as menu boards, new phone systems and IoT sensors aren't cheap, and with thin margins, many franchisees will typically push back against adopting new technology.

Johnson mentioned how he has seen emails from franchisees that complain about new store upgrades being too expensive in one sentence and then, in the next, say that the old network is too slow.

The panelists recommended rather than forcing the technology upon the franchisees, a brand needs to lead by example and give direct evidence through analytics of how the solution improves business operations and the bottom line.

"Most will join when they see the results," said Stalnaker.

Friedman agreed with that assessment but cautioned 20 percent of some franchisees will remain unconvinced no matter what.

Johnson said one way to get franchisees on board is to present real incentives, such as only giving access to tools like digital menu boards to franchisees that get on board with a major upgrade. Papa John's will only offer its menu boards and other equipment to franchisees that upgrade to its Papa Net online platform.

Yet, at the end of the day, restaurants should not just use technology just to impress guests with cool gadgets. The solutions need to support your end goal of delivering good food to customers quickly.

"The end goal is to get a pizza quicker, hotter and fresher to the customer," Stalnaker said.

About Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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