Rising Star: Taking the Reins to Build Guest Experiences
Lindsay Eichten, director CRM, Loyalty and Media TGI Fridays, received Hospitality Technology’s Top Women in Restaurant Technology - Rising Star Award at MURTEC in Las Vegas.
Eichten was among 15 women recognized for their accomplishments. Hospitality Technology's Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards, sponsored by Paerpay, are now in their seventh year.
Receiving the award, she says, “gives me encouragement for credibility that we can press on to enable change. With this award, I hope to have additional platforms to drive growth and change for the marketing technology segment that I love. It’s my passion area and in conjunction with my love for the restaurant industry, I want to see marketers take the reins to build the experiences their guests are already enjoying from other sectors.
Unlocking the Experience
Eichten enjoys the possibilities powered by marketing technology. “Marketing technology can unlock any experience that can be imagined. Being able to communicate technical requirements, manage multiple internal and external partners, and anticipating experience gaps will enable marketers to have a measurable impact on driving visits and sales for their restaurants. As marketers, we must always be looking to up-skill and advocate for the absolute best experiences from our restaurants to our guests,” she says.
Eichten says she’s passionate about “ecosystems that can unlock barriers that frustrate guests and win over the hearts and wallets from customers that expect connected digital and in-restaurant experiences.”
The bar is set not by other restaurants but by all the businesses with which customers engage digitally.
“We are not just measured by how we compare to each other, but to every other digitally connected experience that customers interact with in their life, including heavily-funded apps from brands in travel, retail and financial services,” she says..
The Impact of Mentorship
Eichen was fortunate to have a mentor who demonstrated “a whole-hearted approach to leading technology projects as a marketer,” she says. “We are all partners to deliver the project successfully and we’re also all people who have goals and constraints and personalities and families. To create dynamic chemistry requires vulnerability to lead strongly but be approachable when incorrect.”
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To date, Eichten says she is most proud of her efforts to roll out the pilot for Sally Beauty Rewards. “It meant significant change management for support center and field teams; as well as the orchestration of data and tech platforms. The experience spanned technical requirements, entire store pricing reset, duplicate web and app solutions operating based on geo-location, and field training complete with a dance video,” she explains. “The energy of a collaborative team, that’s aligned and committed, cannot be beat.”
The Future of Restaurant Tech
Looking ahead, Eichten says she hopes “to see restaurant tech providers start to release their oppressive grips on trying to maintain entire ecosystem control and instead move towards open-source API integrations with standardized solutions that can be more easily implemented. Restaurants deserve the best-in-class tech solutions and will require them to avoid extinction in a tech-first world. My observation is that today many are not as accessible due to inexperienced design and lack of scale by some of the leaders in online ordering and loyalty that don’t allow for flexibility and innovation.”
About the Top Women in Restaurant Technology Awards
After a call for nominations, Top Women in Restaurant Technology Award winners were chosen by Hospitality Technology magazine and members of its Research Advisory Board. T.he winners were announced and honored during an awards program on March 8 at the 28th annual MURTEC (Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference), in Las Vegas. Nominations for the 2024 awards will open in mid-October.