A New Approach to Technology
Before the pandemic, restaurant technology was not as ubiquitous as now. Because of COVID-19, the industry completely revolutionized their approach to tech. Not only do they rely on it much more than before, but even their approach has changed. Compared to last year, so many more businesses use things like Self-Service Kiosks, mobile apps and advanced capabilities they never had until recently.
Before the pandemic, restaurants didn’t lean so heavily on technology. They had a myriad of reasons: Part tradition, part cost concerns, part fear of how their customers and staff would adapt. They also feared that it would remove crucial aspects of customer service, as face-time with guests gives servers the chance to chat, upsell and work for a tip. Self-service and mobile ordering removes that personalized aspect; although they do make up for it in other ways, like custom modifications and automatic upselling. Nonetheless, the fear remained—until it couldn’t anymore.
Why Restaurants Changed Their Minds
In 2020, the pandemic shook things to their core. All of a sudden, businesses needed a myriad of technologies to manage the “new normal.” JP Morgan and FreedomPay report that the changes that occurred during COVID-19 didn’t simply spawn tech that we would have naturally developed over a longer time. Instead, it actually made restaurants start looking for brand-new solutions to their brand-new problems.
No longer did restaurants scramble to use their existing tech for as long and as comprehensively as possible. They aimed for maximization, to the point of hindrance: Mired in tradition, they never upgraded to the latest and greatest. All of that changed when the pandemic forced a lockdown. Suddenly, restaurants could barely operate at all. The channels that remained open to them were wildly different from before. That drastic shift forced businesses to drop all their previous restaurant systems and focus on what would generate revenue. Times were tough, and the bottom line mattered more than anything.
Now, it’s a year later. We’ve gotten extremely far as an industry. Contactless online services have allowed restaurants to thrive in unprecedented times. Now that we’re going “back to normal” (although that won’t look the same as it did in 2019), restaurants will likely keep growing in this technological direction that they’ve adapted to and grown comfortable with.
Photo courtesy of eatOS
Technology is the Future
The rise in technology has made restaurant recovery reliant on sales numbers. Now business is more customer-focused, as data-driven decisions help you keep track of and respond to your customers’ needs much more quickly. State-of-the-art Point of Sales give any restaurant the tools they need to keep track of real-time sales data and progress over time.
