Restaurants and food services resilience in the 2020s - a summary

More than ever before, we’ve seen how important it is to be able to move quickly as things in the industry landscape shift and change. Leaders in the restaurant and food services industries have demonstrated the virtues of being flexible and responsive in the present climate, meeting consumers where they are (and where they aren’t), and then rolling out new strategies quickly. Technology has played a vital role.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve written about some of the essential areas that industry leaders are focusing on to meet present challenges, and to set themselves up to be ready for future ones. Here’s a list of vital strategies that leaders have focused on to help them stay resilient.

1. Rethinking and serving the ways that guests interact with restaurants

There has been a major shift in the way that guests engage with restaurants since the beginning of the year, shifting to curbside pickups and take-out ordering in significant numbers. But the shift toward a more versatile means to serve guests, and a more guest-driven way for those guests to get what they want was ramping up even before then, driven by more guest-driven processes and the technology that enables it. How has technology helped industry leaders to transition and adapt to the times? By allowing them to give up control to their customers which in turn has helped them thrive. Read more.

2. Investing in technology designed to empower staff

The guest experience counts more than ever as a key driver to restaurants and food services organizations in building relationships with their customers through a difficult period. Along with the right technology, the main vehicle for that in restaurant locations is staff. To that point, technology in place that empowers staff to do their best work with everyone’s safety, comfort, and convenience in mind has also never been more important. What technology do industry leaders have in place to help ensure this? Read more.

3. Using the point of sale as a hub for strategy to deliver better services

Over the past year, the restaurant point of sale has been proven to be the fulcrum to more adaptable operations, not to mention continuing to be a rich source of business data. Once again, the trend toward this has been building for some time well before then. Yet in times of disruption, clarity and data-based strategy has come to the forefront as the path to continuing success. To affect this, there are some vital integrations that every restaurant POS should reflect to help organizations stay resilient. Read more.

4. Leveraging centralized menu management to deliver better product offerings

In any set of conditions and no matter how complex things get, ensuring that the essentials are in place is paramount to success. For restaurants and food services, nothing is more essential than the menu. Being able to manage it easily and quickly, while always learning from the business data attached to activities around the menu can make all the difference in the profitability stakes. Read more.

5. Utilize event and reservations solutions to make the most of every location

Staying resilient and adaptable as the industry landscape shifts and changes also means making sure that every location is versatile enough to accommodate events and reservations in whatever form those may take. What does this look like now, and what might present conditions say about how to manage these important aspects of the business in times to come? Read more.

6. Bring it all together in the cloud

To be agile enough to change with the times and to be ready for what’s coming next has to be a group effort. That means the whole organization has to be unified, not kept separate in individual siloes. Cloud technology across multiple industries has helped businesses carry on during times of disruption over the past year, including the restaurant and food services industries. What are some of the factors related to cloud technology that have helped them do that?

The right technology to scale from present to future

Recent times have shown the industry that the right technology that scales with growth and with the times is a necessary investment in resilience in the present, and in preparation for the future.