2025 is set to be a difficult year in the food service industry. Rising costs, the ongoing problem of staff shortages and evolving customer expectations present the kind of challenges that demand sophisticated solutions. For besieged F&B operators, tech adoption is the most obvious place to start.
The past five years have witnessed some exciting advancements in this area – advancements that have unfolded against the backdrop of an increasingly difficult climate. Whether or not these developments have taken place because of industry pressures or in spite of them, is perhaps a conversation for another time.
But there’s little doubt that the latest technologies can equip operators with all the tools necessary to tackle some of the most pressing of these challenges. So what are the three biggest and most current industry headaches? And how can tech remedy each?
Staff shortages are a persistent problem in the food service industry. Low wages and long hours, as well as stressful, unsupportive working environments, can take a toll. Many prospective employees are put off from entering the sector, while existing workers often seek pastures new.
The onboarding process can also be an issue. With there often being little time for adequate training, new starters are expected to hit the ground running, which can lead to higher turnover rates. But it really doesn’t have to be this way.
Restaurant technology can significantly improve staff retention in restaurants. To begin with, its ability to streamline operations and simplify routine, but critical tasks, can help foster a better, less stressful working environment.
Most of the best systems feature intuitive POS terminals and order-taking devices that include full KDS integration. Operationally, this helps servers to avoid errors while allowing them to monitor the progress of every order. The need for chase-ups is therefore eliminated.
This immediately takes the pressure off front-of-house teams in terms of placating customers. Kitchen staff can also focus on preparing orders unhindered. The impact on general team morale can be significant.
The ability to craft and customise incentives is another key feature among next-gen platforms. It’s often possible to create incentives tied to sales and even wider business objectives.
This includes sales target bonuses, leader-board gamification, shift-specific incentives as well as total turnover commissions. Having the flexibility to create incentives and bonuses at both a store-level and individual basis, can have a profound impact on engagement and morale.
Some restaurant management systems, particularly those offering comprehensive coverage, include tools to engage and motivate staff. To improve transparency and communication, they’ll often include personal account pages that allow employees to check their income and hours worked, as well as learn about company developments through live feeds.
Tech also plays a critical role in staff scheduling – a time-consuming, complicated task that leads to errors and all-round stress for both managers and front-line workers. But with the assistance of AI-driven forecasting and automation, it becomes a whole lot easier to create staffing schedules based on employee availability and business needs. Thus, scheduling conflicts and needlessly long shifts can be averted.
Where to begin with rising costs in hospitality? Operators are feeling the squeeze due to all kinds of factors including ingredient price inflation, labour costs and waste. These hurdles are now such that many restaurants are closing their doors.
According to Price Bailey, more than 6000 restaurants are expected to wind up in 2025. About a fifth of the 50,000 restaurants surveyed also had negative assets on their balance sheets. Some of the pressures are unavoidable, of course - there’s little that can be done about energy prices or the higher cost of living. But operationally-speaking, it is possible to combat the price crises. And it all begins with tech.
Restaurant tech helps operators to manage rise costs by improving efficiency, optimising labour and reducing waste. Core features such as AI-driven inventory management, automated ordering and smart staff scheduling are among the most helpful features. The use of real-time data analytics and advanced ordering technologies can also be of great benefit.
Often present in all-in-one restaurant management frameworks, real-time-inventory management systems track and monitor stock levels in real time. Providing low-stock alerts and suggesting optimal ordering times helps put an end to the costly, wasteful practice of over-ordering. And with a well-balanced inventory, a restaurant is far less likely to run out of stock, meaning that expensive last-minute purchases can be avoided.
As already discussed in Point 1, tech-driven staff scheduling can help prevent overstaffing – it can also reduce overtime expenses thanks to more sophisticated planning tools that include colour-coded (red, yellow, green) shift entries. Based on forecast data, this indicates if too many or too few employees are scheduled for any given shift, thereby helping to prevent the costs of overstaffing.
The integration of kiosks is becoming increasingly prevalent among RMS providers. Speeding up and simplifying the ordering process for customers, kiosks can also cut back on costs in a number of areas.
For one thing, they reduce the need for additional front-of-house staff with fewer cashiers required to process orders. This means less money needs to be invested in hiring and training. Order errors are also minimised which, in the long run, means less refunds or dish remakes.
The evolution of customer expectations is another restaurant trend that operators are having to contend with. Mainly driven by technology and the proliferation of choice, consumers expect more personalised experiences in addition to flexible, multi-channel ordering options. Again, this is where technology can prove vital.
In an era of hyper-personalisation, the latest tech solutions include a variety of powerful tools to help restaurants meet and exceed consumer expectations. These include standalone or fully-integrated loyalty creation modules, customer database management systems, e-commerce packages and third-party delivery connectivity.
Loyalty integration is a recurring feature with the latest ePos systems. To help foster deeper customer connections with guests, most providers integrate their tech platforms with third-party loyalty providers and/or include bespoke packages allowing you to create tailored discounts, rewards and offers.
And supported by advanced analytical packages, the latest platforms make it much easier to create targeted campaigns for different demographics – a hitherto daunting task that was complicated by data fragmentation.
With convenience and flexible ordering now a must for operators, delivery management tools tend to be present with the more comprehensive tech solutions. The best systems integrate directly with the likes of Uber Eats and Deliveroo. while offering driver management apps and direct order-injection to simplify front-of-house ordering. This is often supported by e-commerce modules to help operators establish an online presence via a website and app.
Guest management is a core feature of most restaurant management solutions. To address the demands of hyper-personalisation, a typical tech stack will include a suite of tools for driving engagement and encouraging loyalty, such as a customer database system for storing preferences and personal milestones, as well as social media and digital delivery integration for sending out the actual customer messages.
It should be pointed out that adopting and implementing a fully-fledged restaurant management system is not without its own costs. This is why cloud-based systems that operate on subscription models are often a more cost-effective solution. Requiring lower upfront expense, cloud-driven solutions operate on subscription models which can dramatically reduce costs. Many also include tiered subscription levels to suit the operational scope of their customers.
Learn how Syrve can help your restaurant meet all of the above challenges: https://www.syrve.com