How Technology Trends Are Changing Customer Experience
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Originally Posted On: https://www.deliverect.com/en/blog/omni-channel-restaurant/how-technology-and-trends-are-changing-customer-experience
When talking about long-term success in an oversaturated industry like ours, many key foundational pillars come into play. From operational efficiency to effective online and offline marketing, optimized logistics, digitalization, and beyond, a restaurant owner must consider many important investments.
All of them, however, are implemented to achieve the same goals, such as financial stability, steady growth, a well-known brand, and a stellar customer experience, just to name a few.
This goes for quick service restaurants (QSRs), traditional restaurants, grocery stores, virtual food brands, and more. Ensuring good customer experience involves many moving parts, and the key one we’ll be focusing on today is technology.
Modern tech is the driving force behind success in this industry in many ways, and it’s crucial to explore tried-and-true as well as emerging technologies to take your restaurant forward. Here are some tech trends you need to consider for 2024 and beyond.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
The AI revolution is in full swing across the globe. It’s important to note that artificial intelligence and machine learning methodologies are revolutionizing entire industries. It should go without saying that the overly competitive restaurant industry is one of them, and perhaps one of the biggest industries where businesses stand to gain from AI implementation early on.
We’ve all heard of generative AI and its capabilities and uses in many different sectors, but how can it help restaurants? Generative AI is one of those cutting-edge technologies for ideation and strategizing, quick data analytics, reporting and forecasting, marketing, and brand-building.
Technologies like ChatGPT can condense, interpret, and summarize vast amounts of data, which is great for quickly making data-driven decisions. AI systems that use natural language processing (NLP) are becoming increasingly sophisticated, allowing restaurants to use AI customer support and personalize their communications more efficiently.
Building Social Proof with Video Content
In the past two decades, with the rise of social media and the smartphone, video content has become the world’s most popular form of content. Nowadays, video content is the most engaging format for all online and offline audiences, and restaurants must capitalize on this trend.
Every type of video has a place in your marketing and branding strategy, from short-form video creation to full-length videos. One of the best ways to capitalize fully on videos is to combine them with user-generated content (UGC).
UGC in the form of videos is a great way to get engaging testimonials from influencers and customers. Intuitive technologies like video capture software make it easy to quickly gather and produce high-quality video testimonials from your influencers, for example, so that you can quickly post them on your website and social channels.
The same goes for customer UGC. You can use this tech to interview your customer base and create ready-to-publish video posts quickly to boost online engagement and viewership.
Relying on Software to Grow Restaurant Brands
Whether you’re planning for vertical or horizontal expansion, growth-oriented brands in the restaurant industry require the right software to function efficiently and effectively. While there are many software solutions out there that will suit your needs and providers that will customize their solutions to your restaurant, you also have the option to explore custom-built software explicitly designed for some of your core processes.
You can easily use third-party software for invoicing, such as delivery service invoice templates and generators or other similar processes, which will be very helpful. Then, consider using bespoke software to manage your core operation.
Software is essential to growth, whether adding locations or venturing more into e-commerce. You need a system that will allow you to track inventory and spending efficiently, analyze demand and customer trends in your restaurant, and make data-driven decisions quickly.
The best part about bespoke software is that it can accommodate all of the most important integrations you rely on by being specifically built for your business.
Contactless technology is becoming increasingly popular in the tech-driven world, and it can go a long way in improving the overall customer experience in your restaurant.
In recent years, we’ve seen a rapid rise in QR code menus and self-serve systems, for example, that allow customers to simply scan a QR code to view the menu and order from their phones. Contactless tech like this also allows customers to choose their preferred payment methods seamlessly, easing the whole process and boosting overall satisfaction.
QR menus are a great way to ease staff requirements and workload, allowing your team to focus on providing every customer with the best possible in-person experience. This technology is one of the ways contactless technology supports higher restaurant personalization and, thereby, the industry’s future.
Using Data for Hyper-Personalization in Restaurants
Personalization is one of the foundational pillars of long-term success, as modern customers expect a dining experience tailored to their needs and dietary preferences.
However, the industry is transitioning towards hyper-personalization, which aims to tailor and adapt every aspect of the customer’s experience to their needs. This is accomplished by leveraging AI and data analytics systems to analyze vast amounts of data you capture online and offline about the customer.
From the online data they share with you on food delivery platforms and the data you collect on your website and social media to any on-site data you collect, there’s plenty of opportunity for higher personalization.
Data allows for highly customized menus, tailored recommendations and promotions, special offers based on preferences, tracking important dates and occasions, and much more. While you will capture some data automatically, you can also use an instant feedback system that allows customers to share their preferences and communicate with the brand in real-time.
Over to You
Modern software and hardware solutions are making restaurants more efficient across the board, which minimizes waste and helps your brand create a positive customer experience. These technologies are already changing the face of the restaurant industry and are assisting growth-oriented brands to meet the expectations of modern customers.
With all of that in mind, consider implementing some of these tech solutions into your operation to achieve better results and higher customer retention in the years to come.
