 Over the past several years, restaurant operators have had to manage a delicate balancing act: Assess and adopt new technology to make business run more efficiently, but do so in a way that engages employees and guests and avoids alienating them. It’s a challenging task to handle when there is often little time in the midst of running a restaurant to sit back and consider the broader picture. As a result, operators may find themselves drowning in too much tech, losing the human touch with guests, and possibly turning off staff who assume they will be replaced by automation. If this sounds familiar, it may be time to reframe your business’s relationship to your tech, emphasizing that it’s not there to take over, but rather to provide a new level of background support that makes it possible for you to provide the best human support you can. A recent report from Modern Restaurant Management provides some suggestions. Think about what you want to provide for your guests – is it friendly service with a personal touch, or do people simply want their food fast so they can get on their way quickly? Build your tech strategy around that. When considering new tech tools or systems, involve your staff in choosing them, giving the people who will be using the tech an opportunity to test it out, ask questions and raise concerns. Then, when training staff on your tech, help them understand the “why” behind it by taking them through each step of the guest journey and demonstrating how the tech supports it.
 Could automation be the answer to perennial labor challenges in restaurants? As the opportunities for restaurant automation increase and pressure remains on operators to manage tasks with the support of a smaller-than-ideal staff, it’s natural to ask the question. How you answer it could mean the difference between attracting talented employees and losing them. While it may be tempting to envision running your business without having to worry about an employee calling in sick or forgetting their shift, the human touch is something that guests and restaurants want. Recent research from PYMNTS found that only a small portion of guests enjoy using QR codes (17 percent) and kiosks (18 percent) for ordering instead of menus and counters – and while younger consumers are more interested in these tools, almost 60 percent still enjoy the experience of interacting with waitstaff. Automation can help you make those interactions better by allowing your staff to spend less time on tasks that the guest doesn’t even see. A recent report from Modern Restaurant Management advises operators to focus on hiring talented people and automating inventory management, food preparation and other unseen tasks that support staff but don’t replace their interactions with your guests. Finding the right balance between those parts of your business is where you can deliver the personalized, convenient experiences that will most delight your guests.
 Is your restaurant adopting more guest-facing self-service automation and technology to streamline service and ease labor challenges right now? If doing so feels like you’re making your service less personal, there are steps you can take to ensure your guests feel like they have been receiving your best service — whether it’s from your app or from a member of your staff. A recent report from Automation & Self-Service suggests customizing the user interface: For example, increasing font sizes and presenting content in a wider range of languages can make the user feel more confident when interacting with your brand. Then encourage the guest to create an account on your system so you can offer personalized content and recommendations related to their tastes and ordering patterns. This will speed up their subsequent ordering processes — and also improve your chances of increasing their check sizes with items they enjoy. You can then use that data to send them promotions that are likely to connect with them at the times they are most likely craving your food. Finally, offer some help to navigate your system. Chatbots and virtual assistants can answer questions, but also be aware if there are parts of your ordering process that are bottlenecks or result in abandoned carts so you can smooth out your ordering process from start to finish.
 As more restaurant brands embrace automation — whether it be through bots capable of taking orders, machines that can prep ingredients faster and more precisely than humans, or simply the tracking of guest preferences — they are raising the bar for not only themselves but also for other brands. “Now most consumers expect their local pizza place and their favorite coffee house to remember their last order, know what credit card they want to use, and make it quick and easy for them to complete an order,” said Aaron Nilsson, chief information officer of Michigan-based Jet Pizza, in a recent article in the Economic Times. “Society has moved on and automation is expected — even from the small-time operator.” As you consider potential technology investments, look at your biggest pain points and areas of waste. From labor to inventory management to food prep, there are incremental steps you can take to automate processes and ensure your brand isn’t left behind as highly established brands show what’s possible with the technology
 Amid the rise in labor costs and the difficulty of retaining labor altogether, it’s understandable that more restaurants would be adopting technology to automate a wide range of tasks traditionally handled by people – or even for well-resourced brands to fully automate their prep lines. However, we’re seeing some of the first signs of pushback from both terminated employees and disillusioned guests who are speaking out about the decline of human connection at restaurants. To be sure, most restaurants aren’t going the way of robotic servers and line cooks. But as you automate more processes – particularly those that face the customer – consider what makes people want to work in restaurants and what makes the experience feel special for your guests. Find ways to retain the human touch (even indirectly) without sacrificing efficiency. Often, it’s the interpersonal interactions that make a restaurant feel like a good place to work and to eat.
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