Seven ways technology is influencing culinary and customer service trends

Technology is influencing culinary trends and foodservice operators can leverage technology to better engage customers and improve the bottom line.

There is an observation I have been making while dining out which I do regularly in many different cities and countries while on business. Restaurant patrons are thinking more about what is in their food and getting more assertive in asking for modifications to suit their personal preferences.

I did a Google search on the term “menu ingredients” and found a spike of 65 per cent in search requests over the past two years. I did a social media specific data pull for the keyword “ingredients” and found an astounding 950,000 mentions per month. Consumer interest in menu ingredients could translate into the need for more flexibility by the restaurateur as his or her customers get used to asking for tweaks in the menu. Flexibility can also mean headaches for an operator as it could impact food costs, prep time, training and table turns.

A restaurateur is faced with a decision: Do I allow modifications or not, and if so, how do I measure and control this process so it is a benefit to the business and to our customers? Once the genie is out of the bottle it may be very hard to put it back, so determining how to manage a growing list of permitted and innovative one-off modifications will be a challenge.

How can technology help?

1. Mobile: Create mobile websites with ingredients readily available by scanning a QR code on the menu. The more a customer knows about what is in a menu item the less they need to ask. This can also be done with a tablet at the table but that can be costly and they could disappear or breakdown.