Restaurant News Roundup: November 2017

November was filled with plenty of newsworthy restaurant industry topics. It was hard to narrow it down to just a few but we think you’ll enjoy our choices. Below is a recap of restaurant news that hit the wire in November.

Data: What Diners Want from Customization

Customers are willing to share their information with operators for a more personalized experience in return. As technology evolves so do the opinions of diners about sharing their information to personalize their restaurant experience. More than half of consumers say they’d be more likely to participate in a restaurant’s loyalty program if rewards were customized based on their preferences. But over 35% of diners said they were interested in loyalty program promotions less than once a month. Read the full survey results here.

Survey Answers Some Key Third-Party Delivery Questions

Data from SeeLevel HX, a survey firm, provides some insight on how different third-party delivery providers stay up. SeeLevel conducted a large consumer survey and collected data from over 1,400 mystery shoppers across the county to see how users of third-party delivery engaged with those delivery providers. The third-party delivery providers that were compared to each other are UberEATS, Grubhub, Postmates, and Doordash. A couple of big data points include speed of delivery – how long did it take for your food to be delivered, early or late – did your delivery show up within the quoted time frame, and the average delivery fee for each company. Read the full survey results here.

Four Big Challenges for Restaurants Right Now

Nation’s Restaurants News predicts four major challenges restaurants can face in 2018. Although these are challenges for operators, they can create big opportunities for revenue. One pain point NRN forecasts is employee retention. TDn2K’s People Report shows that limited-service front-of-house workers have a turnover of 154 percent and management turnover ranges between 40 and 50 percent. Another trend for 2018 will continue the discussion on off-premise dining for restaurants. Restaurants are seeing the off-premise business incremental but determining how it fits into their brand will be the challenge. Read the full story here.

Outfitted for Off-Premise

The demand for take-out and delivery is forcing operators to act fast in order to stay competitive. While some operators are trying to learn how to implement, others are approaching delivery systematically. Operators are culling orders directly from the POS to their kitchen display systems, taking the manual input of orders out of the equation. Ensuring that orders are tied directly to your kitchen automation system is how managers are able to keep up with the demand. Read how Red Robin, BWW and other operators are implementing delivery here. Subscribe to the blog for more interesting restaurant content!

About the Author

Chrisea Chosta is QSR’s Product Marketing Manager. Chrisea graduated from Western Kentucky University and works to launch new product initiatives and develops product resources. In her spare time, you can find her spending time with family, her chocolate and black labs, and aimlessly walking down every aisle of Target.