​Like never before, restaurants are gaining new tools to collect guest data and mine it for increasingly precise insights. This information is feeding limited-time offer ideas and menu development, as well as expanding operators’ capabilities in terms of the targeted communications they can send to subsets of guests. It’s also shifting the competitive landscape for restaurants as businesses adopt restaurant technology in varying degrees. Sweetgreen’s CEO, for example, recently announced that the salad brand would like to do for the menu what Spotify did for the playlist – in other words, identify exactly what ingredient and nutrient combinations people want and need to eat, then executing that to a specific degree. Expedite reports that Sweetgreen’s robotic technology, currently in use in two of the brand’s 225 locations, can dispense all of the restaurant’s 55 ingredients with the exception of avocado and salmon, which require human intervention. So far, the technology is proving to lift check totals and margins (it can measure ingredients down to the gram, eliminating waste). The planned expansion of this offering sets the stage for guests to not necessarily order off the menu, but to get customized recommendations based on the information they are willing to share about themselves. To be sure, most restaurants won’t be investing in the kind of robotic technology that is in place at Sweetgreen. But the changes at Sweetgreen – and similar changes at other brands – are apt to incrementally move the needle when it comes to consumer expectations. What mechanisms can you put into place that will allow you to address a range of dietary needs and preferences?

One way restaurants can make the dining experience feel more special to guests is by allowing customization – enabling guests to order a dish the way they want it. But at a time when restaurants need to operate as efficiently as possible and may lack experienced staff, customization can be a strain. According to Restaurant Dive, Starbucks has experienced labor challenges with complicated drink orders in the past, and its recent introduction of four holiday-themed cold-foam flavors aimed at driving demand beyond the holiday season may compound that issue. It’s something to consider if you are weighing options to increase the customizability of your menu. Even if those efforts seem small, they need to strike the right balance with the labor you have available to carry them out. At your restaurant, have you maxed out your tech-driven efforts to make your experience feel more personal? Having automations set up to send a guest a coupon for a free dessert on their birthday can feel personal, as can sending targeted, preference-driven promotions to guests through your loyalty program.​

​It’s one of the paradoxes of running a restaurant right now: Accommodate the preferences of your guests – but do so with a smaller staff, a slimmed-down menu and an unpredictable supply of ingredients. While that can be challenging for sure, there are simple ways to give guests the range of options they crave without stretching your inventory to its limit. Looking to your spices, sauces, dressings and condiments can help you create many variations on a dish and offer the customization guests are demanding – all without requiring a lot of staff training or consuming valuable real estate in your pantry. Try changing up the seasoning and dipping sauces on your appetizer menu to create a new special, using a popular soup to transform the flavor of a pasta dish, or looking to various combinations of condiments and global spices to add a range of international flavors to your burger menu. Even minor tweaks to a marinade can change the experience of an entrée. Turning to these options can be a labor saver, as well as a tool to save time on staff training. As you look across your inventory, what shelf-stable ingredients could you use to create multiple menu items that are new to your guests?