Fast food has been an age-old concept and countries across the world have their own definitions for the segment. While all these years, people have been tussling among food trucks or, for that matter, popular restaurant chains to grab a bite of their favorite fast food, these days seem to be fading away. The term of grabbing a bite on-the-go has caught on, as technology makes it way to large restaurant chains and even smaller outlets.
By Transparency Market Research
There is little space left for technology to be unexplored in the business of food and beverages. Improving the existing technology and rolling out something that enhances customer experience is just the motto. Below are some of the technologies that seem to have created a difference in the quick service restaurant business.
Kitchen Automation
Automation has been the go-to solution for almost all the industries across the world to improve production speed and quality. The food and beverages sector is no different. As the consumers’ purchase power improves, the footfall in restaurants has increased in the last few years. This has created pressure on outlets that struggle to serve overwhelming crowds on weekends and holidays. In the last decade, major restaurant outlets have either worked on improvising their automation set up, or have installed one in their restaurant. It has helped outlets eliminate the dependency on humans to serve and cook food. As a result, restaurants are able to serve large quantities of food in shorter time spans. This, in a way, has helped reap more revenues.
At the same time, kitchen automation has also helped restaurants improve on their food quality. Machines have been programmed in such a way as to ensure that any poor or bad quality food ingredient or item is eliminated from the production or delivery line. With better results, restaurants find it more sensible to invest in kitchen automation products. However, experts and several case studies in the quick service restaurant market have revealed that a combination of machines and humans help produce better results, thus this recipe is key to holding greater brand value in the market.
While the existing products are doing wonders for businesses, companies that develop kitchen automation are always working on improving or rolling out new products. The major challenge in this segment of the quick service restaurant business arises from the need to serve something new to the customer. As the restaurant menu evolves, the products that will be needed in large volumes will increase. This will prompt players that develop kitchen automation products to innovate and keep themselves on their toes.
Cloud Solutions
Restaurants or chains that have more than one outlet to handle can rely on cloud solutions. Food and beverages is all about the consumer. A business that fails to understand the consumer’s sensation, is set to fail completely. Nevertheless, it is impossible for large restaurants or chains to keep track of how consumer behavior is evolving. To monitor how users have changed their preferences or how they are reacting to certain changes in the menu or ambience is a difficult task for a team, let alone one person. This is where products from the cloud solutions in the quick service restaurant business come into play. In an era where every business is driven by data, studying consumer pattern backed by data is fulcrum to success. Restaurants, using the products available in the cloud solutions section of the quick service restaurant market are able to monitor sales, preference of food, timing, profile of consumers, etc. When a barrage of data lands on the table, the management is able to make conscious decisions to build strategies that will make a difference tomorrow.
While staying relevant in the business is one aspect of the cloud solutions available in the global quick service restaurant market, the other aspect is keeping a vigil on the workforce. A simple system helps restaurants keep tab on the volume of each dish sold, and hence can prevent any loss of stock or products. Most restaurant chains also keep a warehouse to store all their ingredients and staples used on a routine. Maintaining stock of them is also an easy task using products in the cloud solutions sector of the quick service restaurant business.
Point of Sale Solutions
While automation solutions have enabled restaurants to serve at an unbelievable speed, there is one more trend that just makes the entire experience of quick service restaurant pleasant. Many restaurants have integrated their point of sales machine with quick service restaurant technology. It simply allows users to stay away from the queue that can be a hassle. With an easy to navigate menu screen integrated within the point of sales machine, consumers can quickly choose their meal, pay and proceed. This is just the thing that makes quick service restaurants perfect for food on-the-go. Several restaurants have introduced these machines both in their dine-in and take away outlets. This has been a wonderful concept especially in malls and drive through restaurants where people wish to pick up something to eat while on the move. The fact that they are hassle free and let people choose their desired food easily makes them more consumer friendly. This aspect has caught up among popular restaurant chains, and in the coming period, many such restaurants are expected to take up products in this section. Niche food chains, and local food products may also make way to these machines as the business evolves and companies find merit in investing in such products. Again, data acquired from cloud solutions could help restaurants make their decisions stronger.
One more critical aspect that influence the use of integrating point of sale machines with quick service restaurant technology is the easy payment methods. With online payments modes making payment easy, in fact so easy that just plashing the card on the machine works, the use of point of sales machines with quick service restaurants is easier than ever. This makes the purchase process quick and at the same time, with automation in place, the delivery of food products is also very fast.
An instance is the global quick service restaurant giant McDonald’s. The company has introduced Dynamic Yield’s technology in machine learning that helps it with suggestions based on three aspects – weather, popular items on the menu, and time of the day. This facility is available in more than 9,500 outlets in the United States, and is expected to make way to all outlets in the U.S. and Australia by the end of this year.
Tickling the Taste Buds with Something New
It is well-known that it does not take long for the consumer to get bored with the dish unless it is a classic. Hence, food and beverages is one of the most dynamic sectors in the world. Be it traditional dine-in restaurants or quick service outlets, they have all had to evolve and bring in something new to tickle the taste buds of the consumers. This helps restaurants keep alive the interest among the users for their brand. At the same time, they have to keep up with the latest in the market. Here are a few factors that make quick service restaurants work on their menu always
- The consumer is evolving. Today, if the restaurant has created a menu that strikes a chord with the current college going audience, four years down the line, the entire menu may sound obsolete. This is why it is important for quick service restaurants to keep trying something new, and have them on their menu.
- Tweaking it for the kick. It is always prudent for quick service restaurants to have something new on their menu that attracts crows. Each restaurant might have a loyal consumer base, but it is also important that it has a consistent flow of new crowd. This is important for the business’ growth.
- Hyperlocal is the future. Managing to hit the bull’s eye is the key for business in the quick service restaurant sector. Sometimes, the ideas fail, but sometimes they are a blockbuster hit. In either of the two cases, the ideas still have to come out from creating menus that touch the hyperlocal sentiment of the audience. Popular quick service restaurants like McDonald’s, KFC, Subway, etc. in India are great examples.
- A menu for each audience type. An essential factor that divides audience into two is kids and adults. Many restaurant chains have tried to kindle the sentiment of the audience by rolling out specific products for kids. This prompts parents to choose from the options that serve products their kids like.
- Pricing cannot be neglected. You might be one of the bestselling brands in the business, but if your overconfidence rides over the basics in business, you might be brought down to shambles in no time. And, pricing on the menu is clearly a sign of it. If you are in the quick service restaurant business, you are likely to keep a vigil on the competition and price your products such that it does not hurt your sales much. You might be a tad bit expensive, but compromising sale for the bills is not the trick of the trade.
- The most important on the list is knowing the competition. Your competition might be trying something new and if you are unaware of it, the business might shift sides in no time. Hence, it is needed that you are aware of your competition’s next move well in advance so that you are prepared to defend their moves with confidence and it does not affect your business much.
Knowing the Consumer In and Out
The food and beverages business is consumer-centric. And, it is impossible to survive without understanding your consumers in and out. For quick service restaurants, the deal in not new. They ought to understand the user to serve them better. Be it the technology they are using or the food they are serving. Understanding the consumer helps devise strategies that can make the difference between success and failure tomorrow. Adopting the latest technology mentioned above in the article can be the primary route to understanding the consumer. All of these solutions are linked to the digital interface and that means every process or input made in these systems is recorded. In short, these are all data that get recorded.
In today’s world where everything is data driven, there is nothing more valuable than data. When analyzed, it can point out at trends that can help quick service restaurants understand how consumers have reacted and can help develop business strategies that will enable them to grow. This is where artificial intelligence plays a crucial role. Companies can use AI to know how a consumer behaves. The technology tracks behavior and segregates them. A quick service restaurant can analyze consumer behavior on various parameters like age, time, weather, preferred food, beverage, etc. All of these details when recorded and culled out to be analyzed, can hint at trends that can help refine business models.