The next frontier of restaurant technology is in the kitchen

Anyone who has ever experienced the wrath of an out-of-control kitchen press – with orders piling up faster than the kitchen can handle and strings of tickets scrambling across the floor in the chaos of service – knows it’s a harrowing experience. Whether you’ve experienced it in person, like I have at the beer-restaurant I opened with my wife, Jane, or I’ve watched with comfort and horror as the crackdown on online orders stressed the kitchen staff over hitting FX. Bearservice that has gone sideways can be difficult to recover from.

Add in the pressures of the current job market and it’s a recipe for all hell to break loose. According to the National Restaurant Association in August, the food industry remains 633,000 jobs were lost With pre-pandemic levels – a path to longer recovery with full service and bar and accommodation rooms. Meanwhile, rising food and labor costs, including A, are squeezing already tight margins. Wholesale food spending increased 16.3%. In the last 12 months. And perhaps most timely: With California’s signing of the Fast Act, we can only expect significant wage pressures in the nation’s most populous state, with some other states predicting impacts to follow.

Back-of-the-house roles are tougher because more workers have turned away from industry jobs over the past two years for a number of reasons, including fewer jobs, higher pay and more consistent income amid disease-related restaurant closings. In alternative careers, much less customer service needs, to begin with. Consider that the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is now accepting 97% of applicants. This is a significant increase from the 36% acceptance rate in 2001. The CIA and our nation’s kitchens, they are the cooks.S.

While the industry has taken into account the dynamics that have gotten us here, moving forward we need to reinvent our playbook, and that includes taking a deep look at how technology can bridge the gaps — not just to help operators do more with less energy, but to create smart tools that actually make their jobs easier and more enjoyable for team members. to give

But where to start? The answer (at least for most restaurants) is no robots. Easy-to-use, mobile-optimized technology enables ordering and payment for off-premise dining. This game-changer and critical pandemic sales lifeline may be part of an operator’s arsenal, but it’s only one part of helping restaurants do more with less.

In order to capture – and maximize – technology, every sale possible must be accompanied by a technology stack that creates operational efficiency, so operators and, most importantly, tireless workers are working tirelessly in the back yard. Capture those sales, but also better.

So where to start? The next frontier of restaurant technology is in the kitchen – and it starts with KDS.

Converting paper tickets to a digital and easy-to-use kitchen display system unlocks exponential efficiencies. Routing orders is no longer just about getting point A (the order) to point B (the cook who prepared it). Feature-rich system and app helps prioritize which tickets should be handled in which order and when Most efficient for prep time and service Ability to automatically manage tickets by day and traffic patterns Click menus and easily 86 menu items from the kitchen out of ingredients or upgrades or Alert the kitchen when tickets are left unattended for a long time. Batch ordering rules can make food more efficient; Set the specific time you want orders to be assigned and let KDS do the rest.

Modern KDS can even be used to communicate directly with the guest, for example to explain an upcoming order or to update customers on their preparation time and order status quickly and efficiently. When integrated with mobile ordering and payment, the savings and efficiencies really add up, allowing restaurant and bar staff to focus on more meaningful interactions that build a better experience and guest loyalty.

Located in the heart of Washington, DC, The Bridge, with its 400-capacity indoor/outdoor beer garden and full-service kitchen, is a prime example of how technology can drive sales and control labor costs while simultaneously enhancing the guest experience. and team member experience.

During the pandemic, Briggs introduced QR ordering and payment, which now allows the restaurant, which now occupies 95% of its service model, to operate with 60% fewer employees. With the KDS app, Brig’s management team can quickly track kitchen flows and make on-the-fly changes to service and staffing, streamlining tasks like payroll and inventory management, ultimately freeing up countless administrative and labor hours. It can be used for other tasks. At the same time, by freeing servers from rude practices such as closing tabs with a requested guest payment, on average, servers are clearing average tips because they can cover more tables with less effort.

Overall, incorporating exotic forward and backward technologies has reduced brig labor costs to less than 30 percent and manpower costs to less than 12 percent. %

With the right supplier, adopting KDS into your restaurants’ daily flow should be quick and easy. Look for solutions that your vendors can integrate with their (or if you have) POS and other front-of-house and back-of-house management tools, not just your needs. A one-size-fits-all approach. Partners that offer integration flexibility and compatibility, along with the ability to disable any modern device, make KDS onboarding easier and more cost-effective than ever, saving operators time and money, often on hardware.

In an age where consumers want a digital, seamless and convenient experience, the brands that win are the ones that use technology smartly. Operators need to think about how to navigate unexpected issues in the kitchen and plan how to minimize any food delays or negative experiences with less staff pressure. It’s about being prepared for when things go wrong. – and using technology to make the guest experience great – Operators can maintain an unparalleled level of guest service without additional pressure on servers.

Author Bio

Tim McLaughlin is the founder and CEO of GoTab, a growing restaurant business platform serving more than 1,000 large and mid-sized food and beverage establishments, hotels and other venues in 35 states. A seasoned e-commerce executive, board member and restaurateur, prior to founding GoTab, McLaughlin led Siteworx, Inc., a mid-sized digital experience agency with PayPal, Goldman Sachs, VeriSign, Bain & Co. and with clients including Thermo Fisher Scientific. 2013 to a successful PE exit. After Siteworx, Tim and his wife, Jane McLaughlin, founded Caboose Brewing Co., a high-end brewery and farm-to-table concept based in Fairfax, Virginia. Tim owns Ferment Nation, a craft beer and cider distributor.