According to Nation’s Restaurant News, approximately 87 percent of restaurant owners feel that embracing and using new technologies since the 2020 pandemic has helped their companies to thrive despite personnel shortages, health and safety standards, and supply-chain challenges.
When it comes to communicating with consumers, contactless ordering and service will be the new norm. QR code menus, as well as self-pay alternatives at tables that allow consumers to pay their bill without the assistance of a waitress, are must-have features. This gives guests a degree of control over their own dining experience.
Sit-down restaurants have typically avoided digital advancements and other forms of consumer-facing technology for fear of devaluing the diner’s experience and undermining their value proposition. But this just isn’t so. An NRA’s 2021 State of the Restaurant Industry report stated that 21% of consumers plan to dine inside a restaurant that had contactless payment options factored into their restaurant choice.
Fifty percent of full-service restaurant operators said they have added digital menu access via QR codes since March 2020, according to NRA’s 2021 State of the Industry Report.
Ghost kitchens are another restaurant technology development that looks to have caught on in such a way that it is likely to remain an important aspect of restaurant success in 2022. A ghost kitchen is a hybrid model that concentrates on takeaway or drive-thrus but does not provide inside seating for clients, allowing owners to operate the business without the need for wait staff or the expenditures involved with maintaining a dining room. According to Restaurant Business Online, a recent Deloitte poll indicated that over 80% of consumers had no objections to using a ghost kitchen.
Read more about ghost kitchens.
The importance of unique client loyalty programs is a third restaurant technology trend projected to take off in 2022. While the programs themselves are not new to the market, the way they use applications to draw back repeat clients is what has gained traction amid the ongoing pandemic.
The US Department of Agriculture expects grocery costs to climb as much as 2.5 percent, and food-away-from-home prices to rise as much as 4 percent, as eateries reassess their menu pricing as a result of inflation. The rising expense of eating out makes it less appealing than eating at home; but, if businesses can create loyalty programs that give discounts and prizes, customers will be more inclined to use them.
Nation’s Restaurant News reported that a survey of over 1,500 Americans found that 69% of respondents said incentives from loyalty programs encourage them to frequent a restaurant more often.
Learn how your restaurant can enhance customer loyalty by customizing your online ordering system
If your restaurant isn’t on the digital bandwagon, it’s time to get there or get left behind. You can still offer the traditional dining experience, the older crowd will probably thank you for it, but your eatery needs to get ahead of the times and one way to do that is with the advancement of technology.