How Tech can Help Restaurants on the Road to Recovery

The pandemic served up a rotating menu of regulations for restaurants. What was going to be the catch of the day? Shorter hours? Partial capacity? No indoor dining? Despite seemingly endless challenges, restaurants adapted, rolling out curbside pickup and takeout, reducing staffing, changing offerings, and using technology in new and unexpected ways.

After a year of on-again, off-again regulations, the situation does seem to be improving. Every state now allows in-person dining, and three-quarters of U.S. restaurants are now open for business. More people are eating out, and many others are anxiously awaiting the opening of outdoor dining patios with the warmer weather.

Simply put, the state of the restaurant industry is looking better every day. And yet, there are still challenges ahead. Not only must restaurants continue to navigate COVID-19 safety regulations, customer expectations have changed. People are now looking for restaurants to keep them safe and offer an elevated experience. The good news is that technology can help.

How Technology Can Keep Guests Safe

People have become more germ conscious than ever before. Restaurants can build trust by being transparent about their cleaning and safety measures — and how they’re innovating to make dining out even safer.

Touchless Payment and Ordering

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discourages the shared use of items, such as menus, that are hard to clean. Self-serve kiosks with voice ordering can provide seamless no-touch ordering and payment. Customers can verbally order and pay through the kiosk. Often, these kiosks seamlessly pair to a mobile device, allowing guests to order directly through their own device. Another popular approach is to enable tableside ordering via personal devices.

Mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) devices are an increasingly popular way for restaurants to manage contactless payments. Any smartphone or tablet can become an mPOS with a downloadable app. So, it’s no wonder that this is an attractive payment option whether you're operating out of a food truck or a brick-and-mortar location.

App-Based Waiting Lists to Reduce Crowding

More people are eager to dine at their favorite restaurants. But, with most states limiting dining capacity, the waiting list can quickly become very long, especially on the weekends. A crowded entryway isn't exactly consistent with social-distancing standards.

One trend is making the waiting list available through an app. It helps prevent the “clumps” of people standing around waiting, by allowing guests the freedom to leave the premises without losing their place in line.

Streamlined Curbside and Takeout

During the pandemic, you likely innovated new ways for customers to get their favorites from your restaurants. Here's the thing: People aren't ready to give up the conveniences of curbside pickup and streamlined takeout — and it's likely they never will be.

Similar to driving by a gas station that doesn’t offer pay-at-the-pump options. Many customers will drive a little further, or even pay a little, more for convenience.

If you haven't yet harnessed technology to standardize and streamline food pickup, it's not too late. Implementing a process doesn't have to be overly complicated. There are many curbside pickup software options that can automate the process for you.

Customer Data Security

Of course, keeping customers safe extends beyond physical safety to also include the security of their data. Expanding the ways that people can interact with your business can also increase security risks. For example, as you move to more app-based or cloud-based solutions, security should be at the forefront, protecting your business and your clients’ personal information. Investing in security solutions can protect networks, data, and assets against malware and cyberattacks.

Using Technology to Elevate the Customer Experience

It will take more than just a safe environment to get people back into your restaurants. After all, people are used to dining at home even when they are eating your food. Creating a more engaging and consistent experience can help.

A more entertaining experience in store

Using a digital signage solution within your restaurant can create an upscale, differentiated experience that keeps guests informed and entertained — and boost sales. Video walls and digital displays can provide information or ambiance. One of my favorite applications is immersive displays that use augmented reality to simulate close encounters with athletes, musicians, and film personalities.

Engaging at-home experiences that fuel customer loyalty

Technology can also help you deliver at-home experiences for customers designed to inspire loyalty and boost your brand. For example, you could provide the opportunity for a virtual peek or live demo of what it takes to make your hand-cut spaghetti. Or maybe there's an opportunity to sign-up to take a virtual cake-decorating class if they buy the cake and frosting from your bakery. Perhaps it's a Q&A with your renowned chef about what to serve for an upcoming holiday.

These are all ways to stir up excitement, provide value and remind customers why they love your food. If your foodie fans see their favorite veggie pizza, baby-back ribs, or dark chocolate torte, it might be enough to get them back into your restaurant.

A Consistent Experience Across Locations

The use of digital technology for signage, menus, and ordering can help deliver a consistent experience across multiple locations. It's much easier to kick off promotions, roll out menu changes, and display menus with dynamic pricing. Because digital signage is easy to adjust, if you need to increase the price of avocado toast at one or more locations — or remove it from the menu altogether — you can do that.

Get the Right Foundation for Innovation

Your restaurant needs a network that provides speed, reliability, connectivity, and security to fuel these technological innovations. AT&T's 5G network with dedicated internet and Wi-Fi can be the foundation to help you improve customer experiences with enhanced mobile apps and digital signage.

Learn how technology can help your restaurant deliver a safer and more engaging customer experience: Explore AT&T for Small Business.

Register now for Guy Fieri’s Restaurant Reboot which will provide guidance and inspiration to the next generation of restaurant owners as well as $300,000 in bottom-line financial support via the “We Build Restaurants Grant.”