Big Data in Restaurant

Competition in restaurants is at an all-time high. Many restaurants are aiming to turn “data into dollars” as competition heats up. Big data has become a buzz word in many industries and restaurants are no different. Big data is perceived as being the “holy grail” of insights into consumer trends, habits and more. Having data may seem like the goal. However, the more important part is the analytics of the data into actionable items that will ultimately turn “data into dollars”.

Let's take a look at a few examples of how data can affect restaurants:

Increase Sales Using External Data

While restaurants are collecting significant amounts of data themselves, there’s also a huge amount of data generated outside the restaurant that can be equally useful. Data such as brand sentiment collected through social media, recent reviews on sites like Wongnai, latest weather/traffic reports and more.

In-store data and near-store data are explicitly linked, combining the two can open up significant untold insights that can directly impact restaurant’s bottom line.

Get Automated Actionable Data

Restaurant service is usually high in pace and velocity service. In matter of minutes, staff can change up roles from serving a customer to managing a long queue outside the restaurant. To keep up with the pace, restaurants need data that can help them predict what to do next.

Big data delivered in real-time can provide actionable insights that would enable restaurant managers to be more dynamic in their approach to managing restaurants. An ideal scenario would be where an automated system collects and analyses data to create a list of action item for managers to tackle or assign to their delegates.

Increase Efficiency By Integrating Systems

Most restaurants use different systems in conjunction together, larger restaurants might even have more than 10 systems from different software vendors that they use. Systems such as the POS system, HRMs, Payroll, Scheduling and etc are mostly from different vendors. On an individual basis, each system collects its own data for their specific part of the restaurant. There is value from the data from each individual part of the restaurant, however, if these systems were connected and integrated, there could be significant opportunities that arises whether it’d be from new reports or data models that can uncover potential pitfalls or opportunities.

Provide Personalized Guest Experience

Consumers are having more and more negotiating power as more and more restaurants vie for their money. Consumers, especially Millennials, know what they want and will search for restaurants that can provide exactly that. In addition, the role of food has also slowly changed, from a necessity to be more of something consumers choose to reflect their own personality and lifestyle.

To take advantage of this shift in trend, operators must not only personalize the dining experience but the marketing and technological experience as well,  in order to provide food that the consumers “feel good about”. As the taste of food is not sufficient to sustain customer loyalty anymore in most cases, a data-driven personalized experience is the way to go.

If you have new ideas and technology that will change the whole food industry in Thailand, please come join us in Minor Tasting The Future Hackathon and let's hack it together.

For more information : Minor Tasting The Future Hackathon