In the past, we regularly commented that restaurants were sluggish to implement new tech into their business model. That is Until the pandemic forced restaurants to adopt new tech at a faster rate than we’d ever seen. Virtually overnight, restaurants were looking to implement 3rd party delivery apps, contactless payments, and increased drive-thru infrastructure to their restaurant. All in a bid to survive. Here are some of the most significant changes we’ve seen so far this year and how exactly they are driving growth:
Kitchen Display Boards
Sous Chefs have nightmares about it. Servers’ PTSD gets triggered by it… It’s a dinner rush on a Friday night. The ticket printer whines as the ink runs out and blank tickets start pumping out. Digital display boards allow for easy order tracking and to eliminate manually writing tickets down. Typically these boards connect to your POS system and relay the appropriate information to your kitchen team, resulting in better prioritization of orders, communication, and cleaner workflows. We’ve seen even smaller chain and single-store restaurants finally convert to kitchen display boards and leave the stress-inducing ticket printers behind.
Inventory Management Software
“Do we need to order more buns?” “Hey Mr. Manager, we’re running out of cups.” If these questions make you cringe, then your kitchen probably has some sort of automated inventory management software. Inventory Management Softwares offer automated inventory tracking through your POS system and can send alerts if your store is running low on something and make recommendations for ordering new inventory. These new softwares help you cut down on waste which is a huge problem for the industry, $162 billion is wasted each year! (https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/restaurant-waste-statistics).
Contactless Payment
Look, we’ve stated it numerous times but contactless payment is quickly becoming the way of the future. Over the past 5 years more and more people are switching to some form of contactless payment and in 2020 over half of the US said they have used contactless payment (https://www.cnbc.com/select/mastercard-survey-contactless-payments/), whether through a smartwatch, smartphone, or touchless credit/debit card purchases. The obvious benefit of contactless payment is less interaction, resulting in better hygiene and faster processing times.
Online Ordering
As restaurants start to reopen, more and more people are continuing to order online. Customers would rather skip the line or have their food delivered to their doorstep for increased convenience. While 3rd party companies like UberEats, Doordash, and others fight for their market share of food delivery, other companies like Panera Bread and Dominos utilize their own native platform to cut out the middleman and give their customers better prices. Wix has even launched their own food delivery platform that’s free to use, so we’re excited to watch what companies start to develop their own native platforms.
Full Kitchen Automation
Think full automation is for a far-off distant future? It may be closer than you think. Earlier this year CUSITech installed the first fully automated french Fry Flipper: Flippy. Etc. etc. Blurb about Miso robotics and link.
As restaurant and QSR trends change and the amount of infrastructure needed increases. CUSITech is here If you or your company is looking to adopt any of these new trends.
CUSITech provides a single point of contact to manage the planning, surveying, installation, and implementation of these projects with our nationwide skilled W2 technicians, so you can hit go-live dates on time and on budget. Give us a visit today: https://cusitech.com
