Restaurant Technology Takes Over - Part 1

Technology is Taking Over & Restaurants Should Be Prepared.

            It’s the year 2017 and restaurant trends are quickly becoming those of “the future”. Robots are prevalent, drones can deliver food and reading a paper menu is on its way out. These trends can result in many negative attributes in today's food service industry. Because of the technology shift in F&B, many restaurants are forced to close their doors due to the lack of customers or limit their working hours (and, therein, loss of revenue). Challenges remain if restaurants do not implement the ability to offer quick sale or delivery menu items, incorporate the newest technology and know how to attract and obtain their targeted market. Here is an ongoing post about those important issues facing restaurants. First up. Deliver Options. 

Deliver My Food & No One Gets Hurt:

            In our days of Netflix and kale smoothies, restaurants are noticing more restaurant goers wanting to stay in for dinner. They are content watching Jeopardy in their pajamas. Want a better way to keep those once loyal customers coming back and filling up your dining room? Offer delivery. Individuals are willing to pay delivery costs if the process saves them time and frustration. Most restaurants have pick up options but not the opportunity to deliver food to their guests. Owners and managers take great pride in their product, why just limit it to those dining in? The days where we pick up the phone to order to-go food is still prevalent, but there are many other options restaurateurs are implementing. The days of being able to only order pizza and Chinese food are over. 
            Take places like Butcher Block and Ando in Manhattan. They are what the industry has now coined a Virtual, or Ghost, Restaurant. These restaurants are not the traditional brick and mortar. By going online, guests can order delivery food items like gourmet vegan sandwiches or pork belly rice bowls. There is no host stand. No bar.  No wait station. Ghost restaurants consist of chefs, a kitchen, a website and a phone number. That's it. (Mind. Blown.) They see no need in having customers dine in; they want to showcase their amazing food by only offering delivery.
            The success lies in knowing how to deliver the quality food in a timely manner while being competitively priced. Of course, there will be other challenges like having to have reliable to-go containers and hiring the right person for the job but we at JES Restaurant Equipment are here to help.
            Luckily, your chef already has a beautiful, popular product which will leave time for managers to figure out the best way to keep that beautiful, popular product in tact during the delivery process. They must keep salads from wilting, the soup piping hot and sandwiches from becoming a soggy mess. Fret not! JES Restaurant Equipment has the best products to keep you going. Shop all of our GET eco-friendly Products here.
            Hiring a delivery person can be a stressful situation. Start small by promoting an existing employee or take an ad out in the local paper. Go through an interview process with candidates if necessary. That person will have a great responsibility (and consequence if anything goes awry) to the brand. To even begin to be considered, make known the individual must have a clean driving record and working vehicle. It will take some thought but always hire someone trustworthy. (This just in: Uber has announced they will be using robots, or self driving cars, to deliver pizza. From the CNBC report: "Imagine now a car that is delivering food but doesn't have [a] driver. How do you get the food? You could come down and get it but if you have three kids … you want somebody to bring it up. And at some point there is going to be a humanoid that crawls up your stairs .. and hands you your pizza," Now that's what we call customer service!)
            If your restaurant is too busy (which is always a great thing) to lose valuable staff members to delivery, there are third-party companies like UberEats, Seamless and GrubHub who will deliver your food to your guests. This way, chefs and restaurant owners can focus more on developing new food items and oversee the happiness of those patrons dining in. These services take a lot of stress out of the human resources aspect of hiring a driver. Without that added stress, managers can worry about why there isn’t bread and butter on table 14. Currently, these third-party services are only in big cities but eventually will be a normal luxury in smaller towns. 

            Whether you choose to hire a delivery guy or a third-party service, there are many benefits to delivering food to local residents. With the right research and knowledge, any restaurant can successfully offer delivery to their masses. And it is another method to increase revenue and who doesn’t like more money?!

Read Part 2 Here!