 Thinking about how technology can optimize your business can be overwhelming when there are so many options and potential factors to track. But it can also be a huge opportunity – to manage costs and to understand (and serve) your guests so much better than before. Take AI and its applications with menu pricing. At a time when many reports say consumers are reaching their limit when it comes to restaurant prices, it’s critical to know where the line between price and demand exists for your guests. If you have quality data about your business, AI can analyze it and come up with pricing strategies that consider your guests’ preferences, as well as how your traffic shifts based on the weather or time of day. Restaurants are at a point where they can use dynamic pricing like airlines have been using it for years (when a person takes a flight, they don’t assume they have paid the same price as their seatmate, right?). We’re approaching this point for restaurants. You can harness AI to create personalized pricing options for guests, to make pricing adjustments in real time based on the factors that work for your restaurant, and to strike the right balance between your prices and the demand they accommodate. You can also use your pricing to make your regular guests feel special – with offers and special prices that you appear to have dreamed up with only them in mind. New doors are opening that can help you build stronger connections with your guests. Are you gathering quality data and ensuring you’re making the best marketing decisions you can from it?
 While the pandemic has held plenty of challenges for foodservice operators, it has also sparked a period of creative solving like never before – and the lessons will be useful for the long term. One example is the ongoing refinement of menu engineering, and specifically, operators’ ability to adjust prices on the fly based on supply and demand. Operators can use dynamic pricing to increase the price of a menu item that is selling well, for example, and decrease the price of an item being sold during a slower shift (some restaurants are even starting to use dynamic pricing for the chance to reserve their most in-demand tables on busy nights). Using a QR code system can enable this sort of flexibility. At a time when it’s become all the more challenging to keep the right supplies coming in and anticipate customer traffic, dynamic pricing may provide some extra flexibility. The key is adjusting prices downwards (when possible) as well as upwards so customers perceive it as a fair strategy.
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