Tech stacks for restaurants can get overwhelming with many bells and whistles from inventory managements systems, to QR ordering to loyalty and CRM apps.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all model. We learn from three different restaurant businesses and how their tech stacks have helped their businesses: Blake Hammonds, National Operations Manager of Compass Group with 700 sites nationally and about 15,000 employees, Jereon Cools, Director of Operations of My Goodness Group, and Stephen Anderson, owner of The Lott’s Café and Pha Thai Restaurant.
Predictability of covers
For Hammonds of Compass Group, it’s all about accurately predicting covers. “How busy will we be today? How busy are we going to be next week? I’m always amazed at how some of the staff pick it so well. But it is just a hunch, and when you start working across hundreds and hundreds of locations, the hunch doesn’t always work. What I’m particularly interested in, and what we’re working on in Compass Group, is using tech to actually predict our restaurant covers into the future.”
Using a system they designed involves data analytics, AI and machine learning. The system learns from past experience what a busy day looks like and what a quiet day looks like in each of their venues they operate.
He explains: “In the zoos where we do catering, it’s all about the weather. We feed the system with the data from the from the Bureau of Meteorology. We cater at the NGV. Recently, they’ve had Yayoi Kusama exhibition, which was the most popular, most visited exhibition in Australia. We need to be able to predict when there’s going to be heavy customer traffic. We need to make sure we’ve got enough food and staff at the right time to deliver that.” He can confidently say, “It’s no longer a hunch, and we use data and AI to achieve that.”
A strong POS system for ordering and loyalty
For Cools of My Goodness Group, a POS is not just about taking customers’ orders. The QR code on the tables allows people to order using app delivery.
He explains, “Once our customers sign up with us, we gather data. Through the data, we start implementing an integration. It’s what’s called impact data. Your point-of-sale system is important to find out how to integrate different systems.” His sound advice, “Don’t look for too many systems if they don’t talk to each other. As an operator, time is money, and time is already very short in hospitality.”
Impact data generates retention by reading customer behaviour. Once a customer comes in and scans a QR code, they get to know the customer. They know details like how many times they come.
He explains, “If the customer doesn’t come back for 10 days, Impact data automatically sends them 5% discount. It analyses data, knows customers’ birthdays, and can remember all sorts of data”.
For their coffee shop, they created a digital loyalty card. Cools says, “In the good old days, when you buy coffee, you get a card. Ten stamps and you get a free coffee. They created a hardworking digital loyalty card for us based on integration.” If the coffee shop gets quiet at 2pm, they can create a 50% cashback, creating traffic back into the café.
Knowing exactly how the business is tracking
For Anderson, owner of Lott’s Café and Pha Thai Restaurant, “Loaded Reports has been an absolute game changer for both of our businesses, because we can see how it’s performing on a daily and weekly basis.” It leaves the guess work on profitability. He narrates, “For many years, I guessed. At the end of the year, we’d go to the accountants, and it wasn’t always great news. Whereas now, every week, I know exactly how my business is tracking, and we can make adjustments in real time.”
Using the business analysis software helps Anderson keep labour and food cost target stay below 60%. “We can look at the list of everything that is sold every day. We can see if something is not fitting the profile, we can change it immediately.” By focusing on the top 20% income generating food items and making sure they fit the profit ratio profoundly yielded financial wins for his business. He proudly says: “This year, we went to the accountants with $200,000 more revenue, and about $65,000 less in food costs.”
Significantly reduced food waste
The Compass Group’s ability to predict covers accurately means less waste. Hammond reports, “Getting to an accuracy of sort of 5% by looking at the data analytics, we’re also reducing our food waste in a significant way. We’re not over producing food thinking that we’ve got more customers than we’re going to have on that day. And for me, there’s a real sustainability focus, when you see the amount of food we’re saving in terms of waste.”
