Technology

Is your restaurant technology ready for 2021?

Restaurateurs learned a lot about the potentially business-saving qualities of restaurant tech in 2020, as the pandemic forced brands to find ways to still build sales without putting workers or customers in harm's way. Here, three experts recall 2020 lessons learned and 2021 best paths forward with restaurant tech.

Photo: iStock

December 18, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," goes the oft-quoted line from Spanish philosopher, George Santayana. It follows then that any future planning related to restaurant industry technology use must begin with a brutally realistic look back, with particular attention to the areas where restaurant brands have stumbled with their technology over the last year.

"Remember, technology doesn't slow down — it actually speeds up. So think about 'now,' but (restaurateurs) also need to think where you'll be in 18 months or three years." -Laurent May, Ready

That is precisely where three restaurant tech industry experts began their hour-long roundtable discussion and webinar recently, which featured guidance for restaurant leaders related to their use of tech in the year ahead. The free session, "Is Your Restaurant Technology Ready for 2021?" features a moderated discussion of what was, what wasn't and what should be, as it relates to current and future use of restaurant technology.

All-in-one tech network security provider, Netsurion, and its Senior Vice President of Sales Mark Cline, guided the conversation, which included Laurent May, who heads the mobile self-ordering, payment and loyalty solution provider, Ready, and Chris Siefken, who heads at global payments company, Xenial.

Shown left to right: Mark Cline, Chris Siefken and Laurent May. (Photos provided)

Cline said the year's three tech-related themes were:

Agility.
Resiliency.
Scalability.

Laurent May, agreed saying that "technology doesn't slow down — it actually speeds up, so think about 'now.' He reminded the audience, however, that restaurateurs must also think about where they'll be in 18 months or three years and on and on.

That sheer exponential speed of change with restaurant technology may, in fact, be the reason that so much agility is needed in the systems a restaurant brand chooses to use, as well as their people who use it in-house. The business landscape is shifting like quicksand beneath restaurateurs' feet, said Xenial's Siefken, who pushed restaurant leaders to keep in proverbial "shape" to continue to be able to go with the flow.

"Be nimble and flexible," he told participants in the webinar. "The folks who are most successful … they've been watching and seeing what works. … So be constantly on your feet for this one."

Where 2021 is leading us

While listening to this webinar in its entirety provides the best way to access everything these three experts believe restaurateurs should pay particular attention to in their technology planning for 2021, we can still summarize a few of their salient points, beginning with webinar participants' feelings about the biggest areas of change going forward.

For Laurent May, expectations revolved around how — particularly as we return to dine-in in greater numbers later in the year (hopefully) — restaurant tech will have to morph to accommodate increasingly touch- and contact-conscious diners' return to dining rooms.

"Be nimble and flexible. ... Be constantly on your feet for this one."
-Chris Siefken, Xenial

"There's been a lot of thinking around perhaps that the return to in-store dining is not going to be what we've been thinking of it as," May said.

But as a piggyback premonition to that one, May said the conversation is also increasing among restaurateurs about just how all those drive-thrus are going to accommodate what is expected to be a permanently lengthened line of cars and even walk-ups.

"Line-busting," May said, referring to the practices used to expedite orders and keep lines moving, "has become a must. … But there's a lot of interest starting on how to time it … and some substantial success being seen using menu boards to upsell and cross-sell."

To that, Siefken said that among the brands in which Xenial works, a lot of conversation is also extending to the many ways to use all that concrete that surrounds most brick-and-mortar restaurant locations.

"We've seen a lot of (brands) … turning their parking lots into carhop sorts of experiences," he said.

Other areas of current and expected growth in restaurant tech, according to these experts include the growing need for brands to provide diners with numerous options for all manner of restaurant interaction and payment. In fact, the group also agreed that those flashes-from-the-past, known as QR codes, are once again having their day among restaurant brands nationwide.

In short, this session brimmed with tech coaching and future-casting. In fact, the only thing that might be safe to generalize about the year ahead was that change will continue and will also continue to speed up — with or without a pandemic.

Click here to listen to the free on-demand webinar.

Technology

About S.A. Whitehead

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.