Many businesses in the hospitality industry are embracing digital solutions to improve their customer experiences, sales, and marketing. For restaurants, adopting automation solutions has never been more important to keep up with the dynamic industry. In 2024, running a restaurant is beyond cooking tasty meals and serving customers in an ambient setting.
Restaurants are now building digital brands, offering customized services, simplifying payment options, and providing top-notch customer experience. Many of these improvements can be achieved with a variety of restaurant automation solutions. Restaurant automation solutions are innovative processes, apps, and software that allow restaurants to digitize their processes for more efficient service and operations.
In this article, we’ll be covering some of the best automation solutions for restaurants and how they can benefit your business.
Automating your restaurant operations can help you in many ways, from saving you time to providing a better customer experience. Let’s explore the top 5 benefits of leveraging restaurant automation solutions.
Running a restaurant can be time-consuming and overwhelming with so many tasks to juggle. From business strategy and administration work to creating recipes and ensuring excellent customer service, being a restaurant owner is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride.
In this busy, high-pressure environment, minimizing wasted time is crucial for success.
Restaurant automation software helps you save time on mundane tasks such as HR, inventory management, and even prepping food in the kitchen. This allows you to focus your time on other important aspects of running your business.
In this day and age, where most people are dependent on technology, many customers are looking for convenience. Restaurant automation solutions can help you stay up-to-date with the technology that customers are accustomed to using on a day-to-day basis, like using their phone to pay or ordering food online.
Integrating automation into your restaurant business can lead customers to associate your business with convenience, speed, and innovation. This can drive traffic to your restaurant from customers who are looking for an easy and fast meal to squeeze into their busy lives.
Customer service is at the heart of any restaurant business. It provides the human touch that many customers look for and can set you apart from the restaurant next door. Beyond just the meal, customers tend to look for friendly and attentive service. They want staff to treat them with respect, listen to their concerns, and consider their feedback.
Some restaurant automation solutions, like AI chatbots and robot servers, can help you provide reliable, yet exceptional customer service at your restaurant, creating an overall positive customer experience.
Marketing automation tools allow you to create better experiences for returning customers based on their previous buying preferences. You can send curated coupons, treat them on special days, such as their birthday, and give them perks and rewards for loyalty. You can even note their preferred dining times or favorite table in the restaurant to create a personalized experience for their next visit.
Automated marketing personalization allows restaurants to easily anticipate customer needs and cater to their requests. This can result in boosting customer retention through seamless and memorable guest experiences.
Restaurant automation solutions can increase your sales in various ways, such as self-serve kiosks, AI chatbots, and AI-powered kitchen management. Considering that self-serve kiosks boost order values by 25%, incorporating one in your fast food or fast casual restaurant can be an easy way to boost sales.
Additionally, automation solutions can help you tap into the market of customers who prefer to order online. Using AI chatbots, customer orders can be taken, prepared, and delivered without a human having to speak to them.
Now we’ve covered how automation can benefit your restaurant business, let’s explore some of the best restaurant automation solutions to try in 2024. In no particular order, these restaurant automation solutions can help you take your restaurant to the next level.
More than anything, integrating an automated point-of-sale (POS) system is one of the best solutions for restaurants.
Automated POS systems allow you to manage inventory and generate reports at the push of a button. With no lag between the time a customer purchases something and the time inventory is updated, you’ll always have updated and accurate inventory levels for all products. Additionally, having easy access to a variety of different sales reports can help you make data-driven business decisions.
Not only are automated POS systems great on the back end, but they can also help significantly on the front end. Offering contactless payment options, such as Tap to Pay or Apple Pay, gives customers a fast, safe, and convenient way to pay without the need for a physical card or cash.
If you want to offer customized services using data from previous restaurant visits, you need a data privacy management solution.
When customers give you their details like names, locations, payment details, and birthday for reservations or loyalty programs, you must comply with data privacy rules. If you’re not sure where to start, having a regulation guide like the CCPA requirements checklist can come in handy. This guideline can be a helpful reference for both you and your employees to determine if they’re complying with the rules while handling customer data.
By making sure you’re following all the rules, you won’t have to worry about facing any fines or penalties.
Consider using an online ordering platform to build a business that goes beyond its immediate geographical location.
This may be an app, website, or landing page where people can submit delivery orders without having to call or walk in. On the platform, customers should be able to see the full menu, including the prices and details on order arrival time. Restaurants can advertise their online ordering platform in several ways, such as using a QR code, emailing a link, or running a promotion on an app.
By using an online ordering platform, your restaurant business will have the opportunity to expand its reach to new customers.
Nearly 75% of people use their mobile phones to search for and order food.
So, when building an online restaurant platform or website, it should be optimized for mobile usage. The images and user experience should be just as high quality for mobile as it is for web viewing.
You should also optimize your website or app for users to find directions, see available menu options, order online, track their deliveries, and use a game-like interface such as scoreboards and challenges for loyalty programs.
Besides customer service, automating your kitchen processes saves you time, ensures you deliver high-quality food, and develops efficient behind-the-scenes processes.
Automated solutions like kitchen display systems, automated cooking appliances, ingredient inventory, and automated recipes help the staff create dishes more efficiently. Using AI to do simple tasks in the kitchen can reduce cooking time and prevent unsafe multitasking. This will improve overall customer satisfaction as it reduces wait times and increases meal quality.
To ensure everything is running smoothly, facility management software can be an essential part of day-to-day operations.
Computer-aided facility management software (CAFM) and computerized maintenance management systems are effective ways to automate facility management and equipment maintenance. A CAFM helps you manage facility operations and oversee asset inventory on a single centralized dashboard. Imagine having preventative maintenance schedules, automatic work order generation for repairs, and detailed asset tracking all in one place. Similar to CAFM, another software to consider is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) that helps you procure and manage staff needs, like uniforms and protective equipment.
Implementing facility management software translates to a cleaner, safer, and more efficient restaurant, all while ensuring compliance and peace of mind.
Customers are the livelihood of any business, especially a restaurant business.
Automating customer service using artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies will ensure a standard level of service to keep your customers happy. Some ways you can do this include integrating chatbots, automated feedback, and live chats to attend to customers, confirm reservations, and answer questions. Going above and beyond, you can even offer a video chat service to show customers private dining areas for special events.
While automated customer service can help relieve some burden from your front-of-house staff, it’s important to remember that customers still desire a human touch and automation should not completely replace human servers.
Taking reservations is an important task in any restaurant.
Especially if you offer upscale dining services, having accurate and thorough customer information on your reservations is of utmost importance to make a good impression. This could include taking note of every reservation preference and asking guests if they’re celebrating anything special that day.
Automating the reservation process ensures you don’t get overwhelmed, or even worse — lose or forget reservations.
When it comes to restaurant automation, people management software can be a game-changer. It streamlines the bulk of HR tasks by automating mundane tasks all in one place. From automated scheduling and payroll to time tracking and data privacy, people management software allows you to take a more hands-off approach when managing your workforce. Additionally, a cloud-based platform provides a seamless way to communicate with employees about their schedules, pay stubs, and other important information.
Implementing people management software that’s specifically designed for restaurants can help you stay on top of HR, keeping your employees happy without the headache.
In the restaurant industry, hygiene and cleanliness should be a top priority. While your employees may be able to help with some basic cleaning and sanitation, it might be challenging for them to keep up during peak times.
To ensure you’re meeting cleaning and sanitation standards, consider incorporating some cleaning automation tools. Floor cleaning robots can sweep, mop, and scrub floors while avoiding obstacles. Sanitizing robots use ultraviolet (UV) light or chemical disinfectants to kill bacteria and viruses on all surfaces. Lastly, waste disposal systems automatically compact and dispose of trash. All of these tools ultimately help reduce labor costs while improving sanitation.
Cleaning automation tools offer an efficient solution, reducing the time-consuming and labor-intensive burden on your employees.
While all of these restaurant automation solutions have different benefits, they all contribute to creating a more streamlined and efficient restaurant business. Since every restaurant is unique, you may find some automation solutions more helpful than others. This list was simply created as a guide to give you an idea of what restaurant automation solutions are out there.
Contrary to what you may think, many of these automation solutions do not have to be expensive. As each restaurant has unique needs and budgets, you can choose the pricing option for each service that makes the most sense for your business. Although these solutions may have an upfront investment, they’re more than worth it in the long-run as long as they reduce overhead costs.
Step into the future of restaurant operations and elevate your business with these innovative restaurant automation solutions. By slowly integrating these automation solutions, you can create a more profitable and thriving restaurant in 2024 and beyond.
“In the labor numbers, we were reporting about a $300 to $400 difference than what we were getting through Push!”
-Tara Hardie, ZZA Hospitality Group, 16 locations
