The restaurant industry is fast-paced, competitive, and innovative. Today more than ever we are seeing the hospitality industry embrace creative ways to engage their customer base and keep them coming back for more. The pandemic has required so many industries to adapt to new ways of business, and anyone that has ordered food recently or gone out to eat during the past few years have probably noticed many innovative technologies being utilized.
Like most other industries, restaurants have experienced rapid digital acceleration. (Forbes)
For people looking to turn their passion for being a foodie into a career, here are some trends we are projected to see in the long term. We have done our research and we are prepared to say that the following trends are here to stay.
QR CODES FOR MENUS & PAYMENTS
QR codes have been used to quickly connect consumers with information for quite some time now, but just recently restaurants have embraced this technology with glowing success. Restaurants are starting to 86 paper menus and in turn moving towards QR codes as an easy and innovative solution. Additionally, QR Code technology such as Revel’s SmartPay enables guests to pay quickly and with no contact. We can’t name all of the benefits of using QR codes, but a few that stand out are:
- Contactless menu viewing options
- Contactless payment options
- Savings on printing cost
- Ability to update the menu in real-time
GHOST KITCHENS/CLOUD KITCHENS/VIRTUAL KITCHENS
Take your pick, they all refer to the same business model, and despite the debate on what everyone is referring to them as, they are here to stay. So what is a ghost kitchen? It is a delivery-only based restaurant that operates out of an already established restaurant’s kitchen or out of a cloud kitchen, which is a commercial-based facility that is specifically built to produce food for delivery.
As interesting as this model is for upcoming culinary students, the key to success with this model is technology.
CUSTOMER RETENTION/LOYALTY
The restaurant and hospitality industry has been using different forms of loyalty programs for a while now, so what’s different? The adoption of restaurant POS technology and the added convenience and rewards these programs now offer customers. With an exploding option of digital ordering apps, customer loyalty can set one business apart from the rest. Customer loyalty solutions offer benefits such as:
- Quick sign-in with customer data stored
- Simple re-ordering of past menu selections
- Easily to implement promotions and discounts
- Compelling rewards programs
Customer loyalty is not only a short-term way to increase sales but it’s also a great way to drive repeat business and build a loyal base of customers that identify with your brand.
Forty percent of restaurant operators surveyed by the National Restaurant Association say they added a contactless mobile payment option last March to minimize person-to-person contact, according to the group’s 2021 State of the Restaurant Industry report. (restaurantdive.com)
ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT METHODS
Contactless payment has been slowly being adopted over the past few years, once the pandemic hit, alternative payment methods have accelerated to be the new norm. Apple Pay, Venmo, $CashApp, and even crypto-currencies are making their way into the hospitality and culinary industries and soon will become industry standard.
KITCHEN DISPLAY SCREENS
It used to be only quick-service restaurants that used KDS systems, however, going paperless has many advantages for all types of establishments and is a trend culinary students should embrace in 2022. If a POS is your technology for the front of the house, a KDS is the technology solution for the back of the house. Kitchen Display Screens receive orders directly from online ordering, mobile ordering devices, kiosks, and stations in real-time. This reduces steps, which then minimizes order entry errors and improves communication between customers and the kitchen. Additionally, the streamlining of the order process, on the whole, saves your restaurant time and labor costs. Other attributes that prove to be useful are:
- Analyze data on ticket times and cook times
- See recipe displays while preparing meals
- Integrate multilingual language options
- Alert your guests/customers in real-time when the order is in process and/or complete
- With no need for printers or paper, you also avoid the headache associated with printed tickets
At the end of the day, it is clear that technology innovation is going wild in the culinary and hospitality industry. To stay relevant and competitive, students moving into these fields must embrace these changes. At RCS, we have found that Revel Systems is a premier Point of Sale System and technology partner that enables you to stay ahead of the curve in 2022. The flexibility to add features with very little setup time paired with endless customizations on an affordable, easy-to-learn system makes the choice easy when exploring POS options. If you would like to learn more about hospitality or culinary technology or discuss how Revel Systems powered by RCS could benefit your restaurant please contact us today!
