Domino’s Pizza has been experimenting with autonomous delivery vehicles for a number of years. As of spring 2021, they have launched a pilot program in Houston, TX. Once the robotic delivery car arrives, customers will enter a unique PIN on its touch screen to retrieve their pizza.
In the spring of 2021, White Castle announced its new partnership with Miso Robotics. Their offering named “Flippy” has been cooking burgers at Cali Burger since 2018.
The Jetson’s age of technology used in a restaurant is no longer in the future. It is here, now. With robots in the kitchen and on the road delivering our food, what is next for technology used in a restaurant?
Technology used in a Restaurant that makes happier, safer, and healthier employees
It is easy to think of technology used in a restaurant in the context of how it benefits the customer. What about the employees? This is important to consider since great employees make great food. If we want to keep eating well at restaurants, we must also consider the daily experience of the kitchen staff.
The future of technology used in a restaurant must include developing new equipment which eliminates redundant, unpleasant, or unsafe tasks. Every kitchen has a handful of duties that no one wants to perform. These rolls are often reserved for the proverbial “low person on the totem pole.” Imagine in the future, the technology used in a restaurant kitchen that makes those tasks easier and safer. Envision new equipment which eliminates your dirtiest or most redundant tasks altogether.
Foodservice equipment manufacturers and restaurants can work together to develop tools for the future. These will range from basic ergonomic improvements of kitchen utensils and tools, all the way to fully automated or even robotic cooking equipment.
The technology used in a restaurant that helps the kitchen staff will create opportunities for more value-added roles.
The technology used in a restaurant that delivers higher quality experiences at reasonable prices
We have all had amazing meals at many different price points. Often it is the high level of service that separates the most expensive restaurants from all others.
The waitstaff is usually industry veterans and phenomenal at their jobs. They know the full menu, never miss anything, and give you plenty of attention, but only when needed. Restaurants with this level of service have no choice but to charge more. The additional staff and the quality of the staff simply cost more to offer.
Great service does not have to be limited to expensive restaurants. Technology used in a restaurant that streamlines back of house operations can mean fewer staff members required to run the kitchen. In this case, a restaurant can assign them to more service-oriented customer-facing roles. Creating these front-of-house positions can significantly impact your customer experience in a positive way. With this application of technology used in a restaurant, the cost to serve a meal has not changed, but the enhanced quality of service can greatly improve the customer experience.
Technology used in a kitchen can be as simple as going from using knives to prep vegetables, to using a fruit and vegetable slicer. Imagine a task that kept an employee busy for half a day, now being done in an hour. A few simple innovations of this sort could call for one less staff member in the kitchen. This staff member can now be added to the front-of-house service team. Again, the cost to operate the business has stayed the same but the customer experience could be significantly better.
Now, imagine how fully automated or robotic cooking equipment could further accelerate this idea.
The future of technology used in a restaurant will place more focus on the staff. This creates a win with happier staff and a win with pleased customers, which creates an obvious win for any restaurant.