The old adage holds that there are few things more essential to a retail business’s success than “location, location, location,” as hotelier Conrad Hilton famously put it.
So true, agreed a speaker at the Restaurant Leadership Conference. But no longer does that apply merely to the placement of brick and mortar.
“Today, you have to be concerned about where your app comes up, or how high you end up on a Google search,” asserted Paul Langenbahn, president of the hospitality division of Radiant Systems.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
What management tech can do for employees
Enough with all the talk about technology’s payback for restaurants. How about the benefits it’s delivering to the employees?Like leaving them less time-starved, more valuable on the job market, and more aware of the big picture? In short, how it’s leaving them more satisfied and engaged while distinguishing their restaurant as a superior place to work.
I, probably like you, have attended plenty of industry events where the pay-off from high-tech management tools was explored solely from the perspective of the restaurant operator. The panel discussion I was fortunate to moderate at the Restaurant Leadership Conference went beyond that viewpoint to look at the considerable advantages for the business’ changing workforce.
As the panelists stressed, the foodservice labor pool has been remixed considerably by the economic downturn. No longer is it a pack of youngsters looking to earn a few fast bucks before heading off to something else. High unemployment has put more heads of households on the payroll, including a number of economic casualties from other fields. Turnover has braked dramatically, and workers are thinking in longer-range terms.
Technology is helping restaurateurs manage that new workforce more adeptly and cost-consciously, the panelists agreed. They cited such capabilities as being able to gather more information from job applicants, or to coordinate scheduling more astutely with the labor needs of any given shift.
But the technology is also helping restaurants address the sensibilities and preferences of their changed workforce. Values have shifted, with staffers showing more appreciation for variables like how much time is left for their families, or even the caliber of the technology they wield on the job. If the restaurant industry was once a haven for techno-phobes, the panelists stressed, it’s done an about-face, with young people now picking a position in part because of the technology education it affords. They don’t want to fall behind the rest of the job market in their familiarity with the latest HR software and equipment.
Free time and the more enjoyable life it affords are particularly important, and will be even more prized as the economy recovers, the panelists stressed. The families of restaurant employees will have discretionary dollars again, and managers and hourlies will want the time to indulge and enjoy.
“Being an employer of choice will be all about giving the team the best quality of life, and the time to be with their families,” said Jeff Maier, the former restaurant operator who now heads retail and hospitality marketing for Kronos, the panel’s sponsor.
He cited the trend of using technology to provide more information to restaurant employees while they’re on the go. Instead of calling or stopping by the restaurant to see when they’re scheduled or what vacancies they might be able to fill, staffer can look at their smart phones or laptops.
Jacqueline O’Rourke-Smith, senior manager of payroll operations for Red Robin, spoke of her chain’s use of technology to provide employees “a gift of time.” Recently, for instance, it rolled out a streamlined, paperless payroll system “to make the payment process as quick as possible,” she said.
The company also strives to hold the line on administrative work. For every HR initiative that’s added, “we try to simplify the business process by two or three steps,” she explained. Technology has to deliver that benefit to the employee, along with a return to the company.
Employees will challenge a new technology-based responsibility to ensure it’s not been casually dropped on them, noted Andrew Van Ermen, director of information systems for Levy Restaurants. “They will ask you, ‘Why am I doing that? What’s the purpose?’” he said.
He noted how the restaurant operator and sports feeder uses technology to shave time and aggravation off employees’ non-work time. The 750 employees who work at Dodger Stadium, for instance, are now given explicit communications about when and precisely where to report for work on a game day, he explained. They don’t have to scurry anxiously to find their outpost for that shift.
Having them punch in at stations close to where they’ll be working also averts the cost of paying an employee to walk halfway around the stadium because he or she used a distant time clock.
Van Ermen observed that employees are demanding that sort of additional, more precise information. They want their employers’ technology to provide them with the intelligence to make informed decisions, instead of relying on intuition and possibly being faulted for a bad call.
The panelists agreed that new HR technology can generate that sort of information. Indeed, they noted, it can provide data in reams if an employer wanted it. Smart users work with their vendors to provide intelligence, not numbers or unnecessary information.
“You have to get the right data in the right hands at the right time,” said Maier.
“It’s all about trying to make their lives easier,” said O’Rourke-Smith.
I, probably like you, have attended plenty of industry events where the pay-off from high-tech management tools was explored solely from the perspective of the restaurant operator. The panel discussion I was fortunate to moderate at the Restaurant Leadership Conference went beyond that viewpoint to look at the considerable advantages for the business’ changing workforce.
As the panelists stressed, the foodservice labor pool has been remixed considerably by the economic downturn. No longer is it a pack of youngsters looking to earn a few fast bucks before heading off to something else. High unemployment has put more heads of households on the payroll, including a number of economic casualties from other fields. Turnover has braked dramatically, and workers are thinking in longer-range terms.
Technology is helping restaurateurs manage that new workforce more adeptly and cost-consciously, the panelists agreed. They cited such capabilities as being able to gather more information from job applicants, or to coordinate scheduling more astutely with the labor needs of any given shift.
But the technology is also helping restaurants address the sensibilities and preferences of their changed workforce. Values have shifted, with staffers showing more appreciation for variables like how much time is left for their families, or even the caliber of the technology they wield on the job. If the restaurant industry was once a haven for techno-phobes, the panelists stressed, it’s done an about-face, with young people now picking a position in part because of the technology education it affords. They don’t want to fall behind the rest of the job market in their familiarity with the latest HR software and equipment.
Free time and the more enjoyable life it affords are particularly important, and will be even more prized as the economy recovers, the panelists stressed. The families of restaurant employees will have discretionary dollars again, and managers and hourlies will want the time to indulge and enjoy.
“Being an employer of choice will be all about giving the team the best quality of life, and the time to be with their families,” said Jeff Maier, the former restaurant operator who now heads retail and hospitality marketing for Kronos, the panel’s sponsor.
He cited the trend of using technology to provide more information to restaurant employees while they’re on the go. Instead of calling or stopping by the restaurant to see when they’re scheduled or what vacancies they might be able to fill, staffer can look at their smart phones or laptops.
Jacqueline O’Rourke-Smith, senior manager of payroll operations for Red Robin, spoke of her chain’s use of technology to provide employees “a gift of time.” Recently, for instance, it rolled out a streamlined, paperless payroll system “to make the payment process as quick as possible,” she said.
The company also strives to hold the line on administrative work. For every HR initiative that’s added, “we try to simplify the business process by two or three steps,” she explained. Technology has to deliver that benefit to the employee, along with a return to the company.
Employees will challenge a new technology-based responsibility to ensure it’s not been casually dropped on them, noted Andrew Van Ermen, director of information systems for Levy Restaurants. “They will ask you, ‘Why am I doing that? What’s the purpose?’” he said.
He noted how the restaurant operator and sports feeder uses technology to shave time and aggravation off employees’ non-work time. The 750 employees who work at Dodger Stadium, for instance, are now given explicit communications about when and precisely where to report for work on a game day, he explained. They don’t have to scurry anxiously to find their outpost for that shift.
Having them punch in at stations close to where they’ll be working also averts the cost of paying an employee to walk halfway around the stadium because he or she used a distant time clock.
Van Ermen observed that employees are demanding that sort of additional, more precise information. They want their employers’ technology to provide them with the intelligence to make informed decisions, instead of relying on intuition and possibly being faulted for a bad call.
The panelists agreed that new HR technology can generate that sort of information. Indeed, they noted, it can provide data in reams if an employer wanted it. Smart users work with their vendors to provide intelligence, not numbers or unnecessary information.
“You have to get the right data in the right hands at the right time,” said Maier.
“It’s all about trying to make their lives easier,” said O’Rourke-Smith.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Meanwhile, in non-Tiger news...
‘Tis the season to hunker down and hope for a better next year, so the restaurant business hasn’t exactly been cranking out news like an elf production line. But a few little-noticed developments in recent days might prompt some hmm’s among the ho-ho-ho’s.
Applebee’s experiments with a server-calling system. A number of franchised stores here and there are testing a tabletop device that allows guests to summon their server if something is needed. Patrons press a button on a tabletop console, which causes a watch-like device worn by their waiter or waitress to vibrate, according to a story in the Sun News, a South Carolina newspaper.
The set-up also monitors how long the guests initially sit before a server approaches. When a hostess seats a party, she waives a watch near the tabletop console. That causes the watch of the wait staffer assigned to the table to vibrate, and an unseen timer starts. If the server doesn’t show within a minute, the manager’s watch buzzes. Then a painful electric shock is directed at the tardy server. Okay, I made that up. But it’s an interesting idea.
Server alerts have been tried for eons. The 160-year-old Tadich Grill in San Francisco, for instance, features tableside buttons on the wall that patrons can press for service. A similar set-up is a signature of a classic watering hole in New York City, the International Bar.
It says a lot that those places are known for the novelty (and kitsch) of having a server-summoning system. Plenty of other converts presumably discovered that the set-up detracted from a guest’s experience. When you have to buzz for someone to take an order, you’re unlikely to coo over the attentive service you’re getting. Unless it’s handled well, patrons might as well take a number, as if they were at the supermarket deli.
Goofy has been pink-slipped by a Disney World restaurant. Other characters had their hours cut, according to a recent post on Examiner, the network of blogs that’s been set up as grassroots news service.
If the posting is accurate, I might soon spot Goofy in a state unemployment classes. The ‘Ohana Restaurant in the Polynesian Resort of Disney World was dropped Pluto’s packmate from the character rotation, or the circulation of people in Disney character costumers during meals, according to the report.
I initially suspected he got a job as the mascot for a Major League Baseball team, since a Goofy would fit just about any of the squads. But that doesn’t explain why Rabbit, a Winnie the Pooh character to which Disney owns the rights, is also gone.
Meanwhile, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Pooh himself reportedly had their circulation hours cut.
And all you see on the airwaves is non-stop reporting about healthcare.
Restaurant marketing makes the list of 2009 campaigns to remember. Unfortunately, the campaigns may not be remembered for reasons the industry should cherish.
For instance, the Wall Street Journal ranked Burger King’s de-friending crusade on Facebook as the year’s fourth best marketing program. In case you’ve forgotten the furor it sparked, the campaign rewarded Facebook users with a Whopper coupon for every 10 acquaintances they “de-friended,” or publicly designated as someone they didn’t want as a friend anymore. About 234,000 people were informed of their newfound leper status before Facebook asked Burger King to knock off the high school nonsense.
It’s vexing to see that effort on the Best of the Year list when KFC’s plug from Oprah Winfrey is on the Worst-of roster. The talk-show hostess informed viewers that they could try KFC’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken for free, triggering a run on the Colonel’s old Kentucky chicken home.
KFC halted the giveaway, saying supplies had been depleted. But it was never clear if the chain rain out the new product or merely didn’t want to give away that much free food.
In any case, the cut-off triggered more media coverage than we’d see until Tiger was brushing broken car window off his Nike shirt. The logo would be torn off later, no doubt to Woods' delight that nothing else was torn off his body.
Applebee’s experiments with a server-calling system. A number of franchised stores here and there are testing a tabletop device that allows guests to summon their server if something is needed. Patrons press a button on a tabletop console, which causes a watch-like device worn by their waiter or waitress to vibrate, according to a story in the Sun News, a South Carolina newspaper.
The set-up also monitors how long the guests initially sit before a server approaches. When a hostess seats a party, she waives a watch near the tabletop console. That causes the watch of the wait staffer assigned to the table to vibrate, and an unseen timer starts. If the server doesn’t show within a minute, the manager’s watch buzzes. Then a painful electric shock is directed at the tardy server. Okay, I made that up. But it’s an interesting idea.
Server alerts have been tried for eons. The 160-year-old Tadich Grill in San Francisco, for instance, features tableside buttons on the wall that patrons can press for service. A similar set-up is a signature of a classic watering hole in New York City, the International Bar.
It says a lot that those places are known for the novelty (and kitsch) of having a server-summoning system. Plenty of other converts presumably discovered that the set-up detracted from a guest’s experience. When you have to buzz for someone to take an order, you’re unlikely to coo over the attentive service you’re getting. Unless it’s handled well, patrons might as well take a number, as if they were at the supermarket deli.
Goofy has been pink-slipped by a Disney World restaurant. Other characters had their hours cut, according to a recent post on Examiner, the network of blogs that’s been set up as grassroots news service.
If the posting is accurate, I might soon spot Goofy in a state unemployment classes. The ‘Ohana Restaurant in the Polynesian Resort of Disney World was dropped Pluto’s packmate from the character rotation, or the circulation of people in Disney character costumers during meals, according to the report.
I initially suspected he got a job as the mascot for a Major League Baseball team, since a Goofy would fit just about any of the squads. But that doesn’t explain why Rabbit, a Winnie the Pooh character to which Disney owns the rights, is also gone.
Meanwhile, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Pooh himself reportedly had their circulation hours cut.
And all you see on the airwaves is non-stop reporting about healthcare.
Restaurant marketing makes the list of 2009 campaigns to remember. Unfortunately, the campaigns may not be remembered for reasons the industry should cherish.
For instance, the Wall Street Journal ranked Burger King’s de-friending crusade on Facebook as the year’s fourth best marketing program. In case you’ve forgotten the furor it sparked, the campaign rewarded Facebook users with a Whopper coupon for every 10 acquaintances they “de-friended,” or publicly designated as someone they didn’t want as a friend anymore. About 234,000 people were informed of their newfound leper status before Facebook asked Burger King to knock off the high school nonsense.
It’s vexing to see that effort on the Best of the Year list when KFC’s plug from Oprah Winfrey is on the Worst-of roster. The talk-show hostess informed viewers that they could try KFC’s new Kentucky Grilled Chicken for free, triggering a run on the Colonel’s old Kentucky chicken home.
KFC halted the giveaway, saying supplies had been depleted. But it was never clear if the chain rain out the new product or merely didn’t want to give away that much free food.
In any case, the cut-off triggered more media coverage than we’d see until Tiger was brushing broken car window off his Nike shirt. The logo would be torn off later, no doubt to Woods' delight that nothing else was torn off his body.
Monday, November 24, 2008
More kiosks to pop up at Jack in the Box
Jack in the Box hasn’t explained why it waited two years, but the frequent innovator is finally moving ahead with its kiosk ordering system. Executives told investors last week that a test of the self-service devices had been expanded to 30 of the chain’s 2,158 stores, with more locations to be identified using the test results.
Jack started tinkering with kiosks almost exactly two years ago, moving a self-ordering system into just three stores at the beginning of December 2006. Why such a long breather since then?
For one thing, executives didn’t say if the system that’s booting up for the expanded test is the same one the chain tried during rosier times.
Call me cynical, but another factor may be the tougher present-day climate, a possibility underscored by investors’ reaction to last week’s disclosure. Management broke the news during a conference call about the franchisor’s financial results for the last quarter and full fiscal year. Recent performance was good relative to the rest of the industry, but still negative, with profits declining 5% and officials warning of a further earnings retraction in the quarter underway for the company, which also franchises Qdoba fast-food restaurants.
The kiosks were mentioned during executives’ account of how they plan to counter the negative economic trend. President Linda Lang noted that orders placed via the kiosks tend to exceed the chain’s check average, an experience reported by other chains that have tried the devices.
Analysts participating in the conference call repeatedly pressed Lang and her team for more details. What operational impact did the kiosks have? (“It definitely helps with our order accuracy,” said COO Paul Schultz.) And exactly how many stores are currently offering the self-serve devices?
Another question dealt with the higher sales volumes of some newly opened Jack units. Lang’s response was not totally clear, but her comments suggested that those stores sport a kiosk as part of an updated look and layout, including a more efficient kitchen.
Jack started tinkering with kiosks almost exactly two years ago, moving a self-ordering system into just three stores at the beginning of December 2006. Why such a long breather since then?
For one thing, executives didn’t say if the system that’s booting up for the expanded test is the same one the chain tried during rosier times.
Call me cynical, but another factor may be the tougher present-day climate, a possibility underscored by investors’ reaction to last week’s disclosure. Management broke the news during a conference call about the franchisor’s financial results for the last quarter and full fiscal year. Recent performance was good relative to the rest of the industry, but still negative, with profits declining 5% and officials warning of a further earnings retraction in the quarter underway for the company, which also franchises Qdoba fast-food restaurants.
The kiosks were mentioned during executives’ account of how they plan to counter the negative economic trend. President Linda Lang noted that orders placed via the kiosks tend to exceed the chain’s check average, an experience reported by other chains that have tried the devices.
Analysts participating in the conference call repeatedly pressed Lang and her team for more details. What operational impact did the kiosks have? (“It definitely helps with our order accuracy,” said COO Paul Schultz.) And exactly how many stores are currently offering the self-serve devices?
Another question dealt with the higher sales volumes of some newly opened Jack units. Lang’s response was not totally clear, but her comments suggested that those stores sport a kiosk as part of an updated look and layout, including a more efficient kitchen.
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