How to Curate Your Restaurant’s Tech Stack For Major Growth in 2022

Today’s post-pandemic food service landscape is completely new. Innovative restaurant owners are utilizing new technology faster than ever, and customers are finding them faster than ever, from personalized offers to online apps and cloud-kitchens.

The new landscape offers more earning potential and more customer-oriented methods than ever. How do restaurants of all sizes and tech-savviness take advantage of this new world?

[Integrations with other systems are driving POS purchase decisions for 86% of restaurants, according to HT's 2022 POS Software Trends Report]

The key to success is investing in a tech stack using a nimble POS partner with a thriving API ecosystem and application partners that makes it seamless for your restaurant to access the right data and helps with understanding and utilizing the data to serve ideal customer segments. Digital-first personalization and data-informed decision-making are the new industry standard, and thankfully there are ways every restaurant can start using this strategy now.

Why: Changing Consumer Habits

Marketing research has relied on customer demographics for decades, and now includes more integrated technology than ever thanks to the pandemic speeding shifts in technology like AI and APIs to boost business to companies that otherwise would be struggling.

Restaurants are facing inflation, supply chain and staffing shortages, but those that have taken advantage of tech shifts toward customer personalization have come out stronger than before.

During the pandemic, 75% of customers tried new shopping behaviors and discovered forward-thinking businesses. Thus, personalized customer service is under demand by customers, making it the new default.

Just like elite athlete training isn’t one-size-fits-all, restaurants must start seeing consumers as individuals with varying wants and needs, such as how they discover and make food buying decisions. The increased use of technology of pre-millennial generations proves that utilizing the changing avenues that all customer segments are relying on - social media, food delivery apps, online ordering and cloud kitchens - leads to significant increases in ROI with proper data use.

The key to finding this information is creating actionable customer profiles and curating a tech stack that is managed by a holistic, integrated system for keeping up with in-the-moment changes. Restaurants can craft relationships with ideal customers to tailor personalized offers at specific times, curate menus and staff stores.

The Right Foundation

A Cloud POS Platform  With A Thriving Developer Ecosystem

Restaurants looking to expand business will hinder growth if they choose a POS solution driven by credit card transactions. This used to be the main option because creating a unique CDP was attainable only by big corporations. Today, CDPs are ubiquitous to the point where turn-key customer data and customer intelligence platforms exist to streamline the process and make it affordable for restaurants of all sizes.

[86% of restaurants surveyed say they’re leveraging POS data for loyalty programs and for upselling/special offers in 2022, according to HT's 2022 POS Software Trends report]

In today’s market, restaurants looking to stay in business and grow must be taking advantage of robust POS platforms that are cultivating an ecosystem of world-class developer apps and systems to elevate their tech stack. This includes turn-key customer data platforms and other ways of learning from the guest ordering experience to drive profits. Choosing a nimble POS avoids silos (which decrease revenue) and allows access to customer information.

Ensure Your Brand’s Future Through Unified Customer Experiences
 

Creating a system centered on changing customer needs is key to the future of any brand. Unifying everything from in-person to digital aspects of the customer experience means embracing a data-driven future where every aspect of the customer journey is measurable and aligned with product mix.

Product mix is determined by tracking items sold and dividing them with gross sales, then calculating what percentage of gross sales each item represents, informing which items sell and how to curate the menu, what to charge and more. Pairing this with a Market Basket Analysis (MBA) gives a more thorough understanding. Choosing smart, flexible software tailored to the restaurant industry that seamlessly works with data, apps, and understands the customer journey is the best way to ensure data knowledge increases ROI through decisions that create happy customers.

Digitally native restaurants that become better at personalizing menus and product mixes as customers change will win. Digital data must come at the forefront of business decisions and customer communication.

Crafting Moment To Moment Personalization

Imagine a world where customers receive communication and offers tailored to their preferences that are not only timely, but automated using smart technology that changes along with their changing preferences. This is what aligning a tech stack to customer journeys does. People are loyal to restaurants that reward their business by paying attention to their needs, because isn’t that why people become customers in the first place?

Research supports this:

• 76% of consumers are more likely consider buying from businesses that personalize;

• 78% are more likely to recommend these brands to others;

• 78% are more likely to make repeat purchases.

Most restaurants will see a 10-15% revenue increase, and digital natives will see 25% increase in ROI. The more a restaurant utilizes their integrated tech stack to drive personalization and restaurant decision-making, the more they will grow and the more customer retention they will experience.