How Digital Capabilities Add Long-Term Value to your Restaurant Brand

In the restaurant sector, digital innovations have taken over every segment of the value chain — whether it’s supply, back-of-house, consumer-facing, marketing, or delivery.

There’s not even a single restaurant that’s not utilizing some kind modern technological solution to streamline operations, connect with customers, and deliver robust ordering experience. Anyone who’s still lingering around with traditional systems is either out of business or struggling hard to keep the doors open.

“Restaurants can enjoy significant benefits and unlock opportunities if they are open to building their business around a digital-first model”, says Bharti Batra, Founder, and CEO of Restolabs. This provides them a guaranteed edge over competitors.

Online Ordering System and Food Delivery Apps are great exemplifications of how technology has given a new lease of life to restaurant owners all over the world during coronavirus pandemic.

Restaurants that already had a strong digital set up were able to sail through the crisis much more effectively compared to the ones that neglected technology.

A recent study by Euromonitor explains, “Brands and businesses successfully emerging out of this pandemic will most likely be those which are prepared for the “new normal” of digital consumer engagement, e-commerce, cashless payment, and at-home consumption.” Several other researchers have also emphasized how businesses with digital capabilities will be the ones finding long-term success.

The Many Benefits of Digital Transformation

Highlighting the importance of prioritizing digital efforts by brands, Accenture advises, “…those who have viewed digital commerce as a secondary channel now need to reorient every aspect of their business towards a digital commerce mindset. There exists an opportunity to double-down on digital commerce, augmenting existing offerings, and creating new lines of service.”

“During the pandemic, restaurants saw an average of 10% -15% growth in online ordering, whereas dine-in only restaurants struggled to go by the day”, adds Bharti. “Digitally equipped restaurants were able to expand their reach via different social channels and score new customers on a daily basis”, she further added.

The same trend is going to follow even in the post-pandemic world. For those, still pondering on investing in digital capabilities must take note of the following list of benefits that they deliver.

Improved Discoverability

The math is simple — if they can find you on Google, they are more likely to connect with your brand.

So if a customer asks “Alexa” to find a Chinese Takeaway Near By, your restaurant must pop out in the search results. And this is something that only a brand with a strong digital presence can achieve.

A survey by BentoBox on what diners expect from restaurants when they reopen after the pandemic showed that a restaurant’s website is the number one source to find the most up-to-date information.

Another survey by US Foods also showed that a restaurant’s app or website represents 70% of digital orders and the remaining come through third-party apps. It’s clear that being having a strong digital presence is critical to being on the top of customers’ minds.

Drive Direct and Better Revenue

When ordering from an environment they are comfortable in, from devices they are familiar with, and without the pressure to finalize orders quickly, customers acquire a certain ‘perception of power’ over their transactions. This makes them order more than they normally would at a dine-in or over the phone.

What more? They don’t have to stand in long queues to place their orders, and neither there’s any time limit for making the transaction. Customers that use technology to place their orders, make a payment or perhaps, connect with your brand, would always provide better conversion value.

Confirming this, Deloitte states that customer spend increases by 20% when ordering via technology. Hence, making your restaurant website responsive to different platforms and gadgets is an infallible way to better and faster revenue growth.

Enhanced Customer Engagement

Pre-pandemic talks around technology mostly involved millennials and Gen-Z, but during the COVID-19, customers across all ages are familiarizing themselves with the digital. Studies have also revealed that customers will continue to prefer online spending over offline post-pandemic. Restaurants can take advantage of the data collected from various digital channels and deliver efficient and personalized customer experiences.

For instance, an AI-based menu can create personalized recommendations for customers based on previous order and weather conditions.

The same is true for marketing. Loyalty programs and promotions can be customized for each and every customer to entice them into spending more on each transaction.

Ensure Maximum Productivity

Think about all the times when the staff spends half of the time running around looking for certain ingredients only to find out that the procurement department forgot to restock. Sometimes, simply being out of stock can derail efficiency and lose a sale.

You must capitalize on the growth of cloud technology to bolster your restaurant operations. A digital workplace can enhance communication, speed up services, reduce errors, and increase accuracy.

By automating workflows including inventory and order management, operational congestions decrease while efficiency improves, immediately resulting in greater profits.

More Power To You!

With the kind of innovations and tools that we get to see these days, restaurants are getting powerful and embracing new capabilities. In today’s time and age, no Kitchen — whether new or old, can run without the state of the art kitchen technology.

The time is now to either become part of the success story or just another business that failed in the face of digital disruption.