How efficient is your kitchen? Even if you’ve got a full dining room, your kitchen staff is busy and guests aren’t complaining, there could be room for improvement. The data you collect can give you the clearest idea of where those opportunities are. While you can manually collect information, your automated kitchen display system is your most valuable tool here. FSR Magazine suggests you collect such data points as estimated time needed for a menu item to get from order to completion, the difference in cooking time for two items on the same order so that both dishes are fresh and at the proper temperature when served, and the amount of time it takes for a prepared dish to leave the kitchen and reach a guest’s table. If you have data like this at your fingertips, it can have a beneficial ripple effect across your business, helping you minimize waste, manage your inventory better, expedite service and keep track of orders more efficiently.

Having systems to collect and assess data are critical for large businesses — but the payoff is significant for small operations too. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know, for example, the exact price point that maximizes guest demand and profit for a popular product you sell? Or which promotions generate the most interest? In fact, a BARC research report found that businesses that harness data effectively saw their profits increase 8 percent and costs decline 10 percent. The systems can be just as helpful in predicting what’s ahead as assessing what you have already done — predicting that your past guests want to order burritos for takeout on Friday night and might be tempted to tack on some caramel flan if you suggest it. Or predicting where you should place a promotion on your website, based on how visitors navigate through your pages. Finally, in an age when information breaches no longer make front-page news and businesses are blamed less for experiencing a breach and more for how they manage the aftermath of one, having systems in place can help you pinpoint where and when problems happen in different areas of your business so you can respond and address red flags more promptly. If your data management practices need a boost, take stock of your needs. An Entrepreneur report advises you determine which five or six pieces of information are most critical to the success of your business. Choose technology that addresses those critical needs and determine whether the cost can save time and money, in addition to generating more revenue.

Artificial intelligence has been a buzzword in the industry for some time now, but some restaurant analysts see 2019 as a turning point for the technology — not just in terms of how operators staff and manage their businesses but in how they monitor their food supply. As ITProPortal reports, Spyce, an automated restaurant run by MIT students, is one example of a fully automated restaurant, with everything from ordering to cleaning to cooking done by machines. But even if you’re running a much lower-tech operation, AI can have applications. Aaron Cohen, co-founder and vice president of business development for CoInspect, told FastCasual that predictive AI will have increasing influence in the supply chain, helping food companies anticipate and identify problems, from product irregularities to security breaches, before they cause harm.

What does your POS data tell you about the flow of guests visiting you each day? Do you have a large lunch crowd on Fridays? A reliable happy hour business on Thursdays? A steady stream of snackers all day? Use this data to empower your team. Cake suggests scheduling shift changes so they don’t overlap with your busiest times (e.g. if 12-3pm is busy, schedule a shift that runs from 1-4). If you have regulars on these days, learn their names and (with help from your POS) food preferences quickly. Using your data can ensure you’re less harried when guests arrive, can help you personalize the experience for them and reveal what foods might be most enticing for them to add to an order if you make a suggestion.

As delivery continues its rise (Statista forecasts an annual growth rate of 7.3 percent for the U.S. market) it’s becoming increasingly important for restaurants to be able to manage order streams from both inside and outside the operation. Your kitchen management system can help future-proof your business by displaying multiple streams of traffic, using touchscreen technology to help you communicate between the front and back of house, and quoting accurate waiting times for customers based on the bandwidth of your kitchen. If you’re in the market for a tech upgrade, you can find systems to accommodate your desire for customization: There are systems that can be adapted to the pacing of your operation (TouchBistro is a top-rated one), whether you have a flurry of small plates coming from your kitchen throughout the evening or entrées for a group of 20. 

While third-party delivery gets a lot of press lately, 78 percent of all delivery orders are currently placed directly from restaurants — not from third-party delivery providers, according to the 2018 Takeout & Off-Premise Consumer Trend Report. That could continue as savvy consumers lean toward ordering direct in order to check on potential deals and avoid excessive delivery fees. Cake advises operators to make that process as streamlined as possible by placing an “order now” button and phone number in plain view on their websites. These web visitors are also prime candidates for your loyalty program, so make sure your invitation to join appears front and center on your site.

The practice of standing in line or waiting at a table to pay a bill is gradually becoming a relic of the past. As operators and tech companies have observed the valuable time often wasted at these common pressure points for restaurants, new solutions are popping up to hasten table turnaround times and minimize guests’ anxiety in their time spent at a restaurant — and they won’t necessarily require the guest to download an app to do it. Take Qikserve. Skift Table reports that the company is rolling out technology throughout this year to restaurants in California and Pennsylvania — including 3,500 partner brands — that will allow guests to make a mobile payment and eventually order at the table by either using the brand’s app or by visiting a web page loaded by scanning a QR code at the table. It’s aiming to make life easier for the occasional restaurant visitor not interested in downloading another app. (It also has the potential to turn that occasional visitor into a loyal regular.)