Technology can help restaurants in many ways, but it plays an especially impactful role in operations. With the right tech stack, restaurants can reduce wait times, improve accuracy, inventory management and other features.
L to R: Nick D’ Antonio, Salad Collective, Kris Douglass, Small Sliders, Patrick Napp, Bobby’s Burgers, David Marovic, Shift4.
Technology can help restaurants in many ways, but it plays an especially impactful role in operations. With the right tech stack, restaurants can reduce wait times, improve accuracy, inventory management and other features. A panel at the Fast Casual Executive Summit, held from Oct. 13 to 15 in Denver, Colorado, discussed how technology can streamline restaurants.
David Marovic, enterprise director at Shift4 moderated the panel with Nick D’Antonio, SVP of IT, Salad Collective, Kris Douglass, VP of technology at Small Sliders and Patric Knapp, VP of operations at Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay.
D’Antonio said its important to understand whether your restaurant is “actually fast or not?” Restaurants need to do a bit of market research to get a sense of where they sit and what they need to do to improve speed with technology tools.
The panelists discussed how POS systems are the backbone and foundation of fast casuals.
“POS is the foundational element that leads to innovation,” Knapp said.
D’Antonio agreed, pointing out how critical it is to have that solid POS foundation.
Technology tools should also extend beyond the front end to the back-end, such as kitchen equipment.
“When we use the word technology, we think of our equipment we use in the kitchen. Our data from our grill goes to the cloud,” Knapp said. Through this tool, when something isn’t working properly with the grill or there are issues with order efficiency, the cloud can catch that information.
Douglass agreed, stating that back office tools are crucial both for predictive analytics and handling inventory issues.
However, these back-office tools are not a magic fix-all solution, as the panelists discussed. Douglass and Knapp for example both said their restaurants have a smaller menu, so inventory management is simpler for them than others. D’Antonio meanwhile said that because their restaurant has a Chipotle model where customers create their items during the ordering process, inventory management is more challenging.
When examining labor shortages and how best to tackle it with technology, the panelists had differing perspectives.
“It’s a delicate dance. You don’t want to sacrifice experience by getting rid of too much labor,” Douglass said. “We need to be intentional about how we deploy labor.”
Knapp pointed out that due to Bobby’s Burgers reputation for hospitality, it will always need strong cashiers. However, the needs of the kitchen can vary based on volume.
One way Bobby’s Burgers improves labor is by using technology to make employee’s lives easier. For example, its grill automatically takes care of cooking oil so employees don’t have to carry large containers of oil around or replace the oil. This in turn reduces spills and injuries. Knapp said Bobby’s Burgers also uses its POS system to figure out the best placement of items in the assembly line.
D’Antonio said that restaurants should consider, “how to make work as easy possible for the employee.” This takes the form of training videos, optimization of assembly lines and, at times, tip integration.
On the payroll side, Knapp said technology is key to reduce the amount of time general managers spend working on payroll. By using R365 system for payroll, Bobby’s Burgers has been able to turn a complex task into a short one.
Lastly, the panelists spoke on how to determine if a tech solution is the right one for your brand and the importance of not getting locked into one system.
“There is no silver bullet. There’s no system that’s the best for everyone,” Douglass said. Instead, restaurants need to look for the tech stack that makes the most sense at the time, but they also need to keep an eye on what’s changing and update technology as needed.
Knapp agreed, saying at times you may need to pick a technology that’s not perfect, but helps get you closer to your goal.
He said you may see a tech stack that “gets to 90% instead of 100%, but 90% is better than none. You do have to make a decision that’s not your permanent North Star, but one that’s the best for you today.”
