Does your customer data have gaps in it where you’re missing insights that could be helpful to you? Or is it simply just too patchy to be able to help you draw meaningful conclusions? Predictive analytics may help you make connections that can help you deliver more personalized experiences to guests. As this report from Restaurant Technology explains, predictive analytics software draws from data analysis, machine learning, AI and statistical models to identify patterns and predict future behavior. So even after a single purchase by a guest, a business is able to zoom out and make predictions about guest preferences. This can be a money saver for operators as well, allowing them to predict future inventory needs so they can avoid both over-ordering and being caught short. Just like your guest data clarifies the habits and preferences of those who dine with you, your employee data can reveal truths about your team and your own training procedures that you wouldn’t be likely to learn otherwise. As a recent report from Entrepreneur explains, employee data is about more than tracking your staff’s working hours or sales. Perhaps your data can demonstrate that employees who receive more comprehensive training on your restaurant menu and specials tend to generate more sales – or perhaps there is less of a correlation than you expected. Wouldn’t that be helpful to know when you’re contemplating whether or not to invest in such training for all staff – and what aspects of training are most important to provide? Your data can also reveal who is most efficient in generating sales, so you can aim to have those employees working during your peak hours. When you review the data you have on employee performance, how much are you able to draw from it that can help you make proactive decisions to help your business? By this point, restaurant operators know how important it is to capture data. But what happens when restaurants collect data from catering customers, loyalty club members, retail customers or other parts of your operation – but the information remains stuck in its various silos? As you collect data, ensuring that you can extract it, then combine it with other data across your business and derive meaning from it, won’t only help your business now – it will also put you in a stronger position to adjust as the business needs to change. What tools do you currently use to ensure your data can be moved around and be informed by the other intelligence you have collected about your guests’ habits? Data management is one of the most important things you can do for your restaurant – to support the business right now and to protect its future. But losing ownership of valuable data, or not connecting the dots within it, can be a missed opportunity for many restaurants. Perhaps due to partnerships with certain third-party vendors, you are not able to market directly to your guests – or understand who they are. Or maybe your guests order your food from a wide range of sources and as a result, you may have a number of different pools of data floating around independently – not being informed by the others. How well does your POS help you harness every piece of guest data you can grasp, from every place your guests order from you, and then make informed decisions about how to reach the people who support your business? At a time when restaurant operators are being stretched, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. As you have adapted your business in recent months and years to accommodate mobile orders and off-premise dining, have you compromised at all with regard to your methods of securing the guest data you manage? One restaurant consultant interviewed in a recent Hospitality Net report indicated that since the start of the pandemic, he has seen more restaurants cut corners on online security in an effort to make tech-driven conveniences available to guests. Threat actors tend to look for easy targets – ensuring your business has up-to-date protections in place can help you avoid being in that position amid the sharp rise in online transactions you’ve likely been processing. Your business should allow you to collect a wide range of data about your restaurant, but more importantly, it needs to help you make connections between those disparate pieces of information, enabling you to make apples-to-apples comparisons across your locations. Looking at your business, are there processes that are either manual or are occurring in some locations but not others? Eliminating the loose ends will help you to see clearer patterns across such areas as employee and store performance, guest response to your promotions, and average check totals – and will empower you to make more informed conclusions across your business. A new rule issued by the Federal Reserve brings consistency to how debit card transactions are processed online or in person – and it comes as welcome news to many restaurant operators that had to pivot to accommodate contactless payments over the course of the past two years. The rule requires debit card issuers to enable at least two unaffiliated networks to process all debit card transactions, including “card not present” (CNP) or online payments. CNP transactions have historically cost more for businesses to process than in-store payments. The National Restaurant Association believes that the shift to more unaffiliated networks could translate to less expensive swipe fees for CNP debit card transactions. Further, the rule will also incentivize card payment networks to improve their fraud-prevention capabilities and help operators identify theft and data breaches more readily. Data has become increasingly valuable to restaurants, all while making foodservice businesses more appealing targets of cybercrime. According to Check Point Research, there was a 40 percent spike in cybercrime in the leisure and hospitality industry last year. Securing entry points is important to keeping information safe. A recent report from Modern Restaurant Management said legacy POS systems can be easy targets for attack. Taking action to bolster protection of every transaction at the point of sale is the most important thing you can do to safeguard your business from cyber criminals. That means having a POS with cloud-based monitoring and tech support. It helps an operator get to the root of a data breach or other problem quickly, then get back on track with minimal interruption. For restaurants, guest data is the key to better sales, menu development and loyalty. But in an age of increasing cyber risk, what if some guests don’t want to share their information – or are turned off when you ask for it? First, make it easy and fast for them to share it, without a lot of discussion, clicks or scrolling required. Clarify how you will and won’t be using their information – and what benefits they will receive as a result, including special discounts, shorter wait times, member rewards or customized offers. Finally, make them feel safe – not only through your use of secure technology but also by ensuring their interactions with your staff feel genuine. Collect only the information you need and reinforce your commitment to protecting their safety and privacy. According to a recent survey by the National Restaurant Association, 65 percent of restaurant operators say they lack sufficient staff to support customer demand. As a result, when customers call in orders or reservation requests to restaurants right now, more of those calls are being transferred to lines supported by artificial intelligence. There are clear benefits — it’s easier to collect guest data, and a bot won’t get rattled during a busy shift or miss upselling an order. However, even the most established brands have been experiencing some growing pains with the adoption of this technology in recent months. Would your guests be amenable to connecting with you via AI? If not or you’re not sure, could you incentivize guests to place orders online or via app instead? |
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