At foodservice technology expo FS/TECH, held in Nov. 2006, Jim Melvin, founder of SIVA Corp., a Delray, Fla., software developer for the restaurant industry, was one of several speakers to discuss technological advances in the restaurant industry. Regarded as a leading visionary in restaurant technology, Melvin predicted a future full of fascinating and revenue-generating surprises.
Prediction: Customers and operators want interactive restaurant technologies.
Many [operators] are eager to use handheld technologies and pay-at-the-table technologies to provide customers a much better, streamlined solution in the order-taking and food-delivery process. And customers want to use them as soon as they come through the door. We're looking forward to using technologies like kiosks and pay-at-the-table a lot more in the future.
Prediction: Expect substantial changes in ordering and payment systems.
What we see coming in the future is a dramatic fragmentation at the order points and payment points in restaurants. Consumers already want to take and pay for the order at the table or in the car or over the Web.
Prediction: Restaurants will know their customers better than ever.
At the drive-thru or an (in-store) kiosk, the restaurant will know who you are and what your favorites are. It'll know what my most favorite thing to order is.
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| In the future, customers can stablish preferences so that they are recognized when they pull into any of a restaurant's drive-thrus. |
This literally is being able to say, "I want the last order I had at the drive-thru," even if you're in Columbus, Ohio, today and were in San Diego yesterday. That happens through an enterprise system that extracts real-time data that's deployed [system-wide] and is accessible at any of that brand's stores. (Melvin later added that customers will be recognized by RFID cards, GSM signals from cell phones, key fobs, gift cards or I.D. numbers they could punch in at a kiosk.)
Prediction: Customers will like such instant recognition because they're already seeking that level of convenience.
These are opt-in technologies, not Big Brother. The customer — you — decided you wanted to be loyal to Taco Bell, and they have permission, when they see your GSM signal coming from your cell phone, to identify you and do what's appropriate. [With digital signage], they could reconfigure the order confirmation board to automatically display what's your number one, your last order, what's your favorite or what you're allergic to, or nutritional information for that restaurant's food. There are lots of those what we call "portable preferences" that come into play in this technology.
Prediction: New technologies will pay for themselves many times over.
We're seeing tremendous savings for our customers when they combine these together. [With pay-at-the-table technologies] they're seeing better table turns, better tips for servers because tables are more capably managed. And [operators] have reduced labor cost.
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| Pay-at-the-table technologies, already growing in popularity, benefit both restaurants and customers. Melvin predicts these will become even more prevalent. |
With pay-at-the-table, the consumer can dictate when they want to leave the table. That 10-minute wait while somebody brings your check is the time servers lose the biggest percentage of their tips, regardless of how good the service has been. And once the guest understands pay-at-the-table is for their convenience and security, they really enjoy that.
Prediction: Handheld POS devices will generate revenue, too.
[Operators] also will sell gift cards on those hand-held devices. You can take a one of them and put it at the hostess counter with some cards below the counter. It's a much more cost-effective methodology for today — and probably for a long time to come — than to have a full-blown kiosk with a card dispenser.
[Kiosks have other potential.] You can self-order, self-seat, use it to sell merchandise and have it shipped off premise. We try to take a vehicle like a kiosk and have it run as many operations as possible to make it more cost-effective for the operation.
Prediction: A major foodservice technology cycle is beginning. Hold onto your hats.
The end of a technology cycle is when you're looking for [technology to give you] that last thousandth of a basis point on your food cost or labor. But the beginning of a cycle is when you're trying to drive your revenue, and that's where we are today.
If you look at the '60s and '70s, when drive-thru was changing the industry, POS provider PAR Technologies was delivering solutions that were different than anyone else. Now a different [technology] lifecycle is just starting. Whether it's Web ordering, cell-phone ordering or curbside pickup, those things are taking off, and most of our customers like it.
Jim Melvin is chief strategy officer for POS manufacturer Par Technologies.
