Will the restaurant industry have a better year in 2023 than we’ve had for the past three years? Will we still face product shortages and supply chain interruptions that began during the pandemic – as well as stalled global food shipments due to the Russian-Ukrainian war? Can we rely more on alternative food production methods since climate change is destroying traditional farming? And when the heck will inflation stop soaring?
Here are my eight predictions for the coming year. Thankfully, things look more optimistic for 2023. And the common denominator for each of these trends is that technology will be essential:
- The industry will use tech to overcome ongoing challenges. As the food industry continues to face major, simultaneous crises, including production delays, food shortages, supply chain interruptions, and extreme weather impacting crops, food businesses must rely on tech to deliver products (and promises) to customers. ResTech has morphed from “nice to have” to essential for the restaurant industry. Luckily, tech solutions have become more affordable and accessible for restaurants of all sizes and budgets, allowing them to significantly increase transparency, accuracy, safety, and quality – and compete with bigger brands.
- Quality and accuracy are critical. Making a mistake – like serving regular Caesar dressing instead of a vegan dressing to a seafood-allergic guest – might not seem like a huge deal, but anchovies could sicken (or even kill) that customer. Even if you make an error for a non-allergic customer, you’ll still disappoint (or even anger) that guest. You’ll waste food and related cost when you throw away the wrong meal and remake it correctly. And if you comp the meal, that means you’ve made it twice and not gotten paid for either one. If this happens multiple times per shift, the costs will add up over time. You’ll also have the intangible costs of poor word-of-mouth, negative reviews, and decreased traffic, lower sales, and declining customer loyalty. To make your customers feel valued and appreciated – and to boost key metrics like visits and sales – use tech tools to get customers’ orders right!
- We’ll prioritize sustainable food production. Climate change is putting traditional farming methods at risk, with extreme weather events ruining crops.In the coming year, sustainable food production, like vertical farming and hydroponics, will become more popular. Technology will be instrumental to this initiative, making farming more sustainable, building new infrastructure, reducing our dependence on foreign food supplies, increasing transparency across the supply chain, and ensuring that today’s problems don’t reduce our future food supply.
- Restaurants will manage suppliers – and boost transparency – all along the supply chain.Your restaurant may be prioritizing safety and quality efforts, but do all your suppliers maintain the highest safety and quality standards, as well? It’s good practice to track and manage supplier certifications to ensure compliance. However, manually trying to manage multiple suppliers’ certifications is messy and overwhelming. Instead, use digital tools to organize, manage and track supplier certifications in a central location. You’ll be able to clearly see which suppliers prioritize safety and quality – and avoid the ones that don’t.
- Brands will increase diversity and accountability. It’s essential for restaurant brands to prioritize diversity, equity, inclusion, and accountability. This includes hiring a diverse workforce to ensure your staff represents your increasingly diverse customer base.Treating employees fairly and equitably is the right thing to do – and it’s also essential to securing a knowledgeable, stable, and productive workforce. As a bonus, this effort will increase key metrics, including employee satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
- Restaurants will improve training. Training should be more than just telling employees to do things a certain way. Explain why the rules are in place, and they’ll be more likely to comply. Transform from a punitive culture – where employees fear “getting in trouble” for asking questions or pointing out infractions – to a collaborative one, where all employees take responsibility for upholding the highest safety and quality standards. Empower employees to ask questions, fix problems, and speak up if they see any problems. Train, practice, demonstrate, and reinforce, using tech tools to amplify training efforts and reinforce knowledge.
- The hybrid model is here to stay. Even post-pandemic, expect the hybrid of in-person, pickup and delivery to continue for restaurants. Therefore, you’ll need to implement best in class safety, quality, and accuracy protocols for each. Ensure that all your employees understand (and follow) your safety and quality protocols whether your guests are dining on-site, picking up a takeout order, or getting food delivered.
- Restaurants will embrace a “combination approach” to auditing. Traditional third-party audits largely stopped during the pandemic because of travel restrictions and other COVID precautions. Restaurants had to pivot to remote audits, having employees collaborate virtually with auditors via Zoom (or similar platforms). Brands saw many benefits to this new, virtual approach, including significant cost savings as well as more frequent audits. Self-assessments were also borne out of necessity. Now, it’s common to rely on this combination approach (in-person, remote, and self-assessment) for more frequent audits, leading to continuous improvement.
While the restaurant industry has faced endless challenges for the past few years – a pandemic and its ongoing ramifications, a war that’s disrupting food exports, climate change destroying crops, etc. – the trends for next year seem more optimistic. Tech will be instrumental in driving these positive changes, so implementing technology is the most important thing your restaurant can do in the new year.
As President of RizePoint, the longest-lasting quality management vendor in the marketplace, Kari Hensien has been instrumental in launching the company’s Ignite Supplier Certification Management solution and adding new features to make the platform even more valuable. Ignite allows companies to gather, organize, and manage supplier documentation and information in a centralized location, track status and deadlines, ensure compliance, and reduce time-consuming administrative tasks. Ignite leverages the latest tech stacks in cloud computing to deliver better speed of service, security, and performance, with shortened development cycles. For more information or to discuss RizePoint’s solutions, please contact Kari at kari.hensien@rizepoint.com.
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