In an ideal world, your technology isn’t removing the human element from your restaurant but improving it. Consider your business at its busiest hour. Amid the rush, will your cashier remember to ask your guest if he wants to add avocado to his burger or a dessert to his order? Maybe or maybe not. Your digital ordering technology, however, won’t ever miss making that offer. As a result, you will be armed with data you can pour into your marketing strategy. Have several add-ons that are popular with guests ordering sandwiches? Your tech can tell you how profitable each item is so you know which one to promote first. The restaurant technology company Tillster says you can consider the data you collect from your online, mobile and kiosk ordering as a real-time guest survey, empowering you to make quick decisions about how to accommodate guest preferences profitably.

Your mobile presence has power: Mobile search behavior by people who search for food using their phones or tablets has a nearly 90 percent conversion rate, according to the study “Mobile Path-to-Purchase” by xAd and Telmetrics. You may be pouring a large portion of your ad spending on mobile as a result, but proceed with caution. Research from the online advertising firm WordStream found that unless a business has a thoughtful mobile strategy, it’s too easy to miss out on business opportunities. Since so many businesses want a piece of the mobile market, the mobile click-through rate decreases 45 percent faster in lower search positions than it does on desktop or tablet computers. The share of impressions on mobile is low as well, with mobile ads less likely to be shown (even in top positions) than they are on desktops. Search costs per click for mobile have also been increasing dramatically in the past year.