Article

Restaurant designer to QSR brands: Will you let tech build or block customer connection?

Does your QSR's accommodation for, and use of restaurant tech impinge or improve upon your customer experience? A noted restaurant designer told a crowd at the National Restaurant Association Show last month that it's easy to slip into a pattern that puts off customers instead of pulling them in.

June 17, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Veteran restaurant designer and consultant, Steve Starr, brought a lot of heavyweight design experience to his talk recently at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago, including his Charlotte, North Carolina agency's experience plotting out restaurant environments for the likes of Panera, Swenson's Drive In and Mellow Mushroom Pizza. So his was a relatively attentive audience when he told the restaurateurs listening to remember that ultimately they really do still have the control of exactly how much technology they bring into their restaurant locations today and how that, in turn, affects the design of their stores and the customer experience overall. 

Steve Starr, President Starr Design. (Photo: S.A. Whitehead)

It was a bold statement at a show filled with not only with restaurant technology providers, but restaurant brands that have invested heavily in their products and services, including some major QSR brands whose executives identified themselves in Starr's audience. That's particularly noteworthy since Starr actually identified one of those QSR brands as experiencing some poor returns on their kiosk-related in-restaurant initiatives, as an example that all technology may not always be good technology for restaurant sales.  

Though neither that specific brand's identity, nor its potential tech problems are relevant to this story, the example did serve as a way for Starr to highlight that restaurateurs today really need to both be wary of and watchful for in-restaurant tech that impinges or outright obliterates the customer experience. 

He told the audience he spoke from experience, since his company also regularly provides food service consulting on restaurant construction and design and the effects they have on a brand's operational and management systems. He challenged restaurateurs to be brave enough in the face of increasing pressure to add more and more tech, to forego some of it if it poses the possibility of diminishing a positive customer experience

"A lot of things are changing for restaurants today with technology ... and we, as an industry, have an opportunity to decide how much technology is going to play a role in restaurants going forward," he told the audience. "Will we let it take the place of person-to-person interaction? Or will we use tech to enhance person-to-person interaction. ...

"We've always seen innovation start at the high end (pricier brands within an industry) and move down to the lower end. But now we're seeing the exact opposite with QSRs and fast casuals really driving the innovation in the business."

That also means that the limited-service end of the restaurant spectrum will lead the way on how to best use design to facilitate a tech-infused foodservice environment, beginning with his answer to a question that seemed to infiltrate every discussion at this year's National Restaurant Association Show regarding how restaurant operators can use design to create a great customer experience in a world where so much is beyond operators' control now, thanks to the necessity to employ third-party delivery providers with all their unknowns and uncontrollable. 

"Here, I always go back to good design where you build in some flexibility to your production process and make sure that it doesn't affect the walk-in experience," he told the crowd. "A lot of restaurants over the last few years have given the responsibility of managing off-premise program to the host or bar staff. I don't think I could think of a worse possible scenario because these are people tasked with creating a sense of hospitality and to burden them with such really high-volume transactional tasks is probably the worst thing we can do in the industry. ... So my advice is to really think through the process."

For instance, Starr said restaurateurs need to consider all the needs that go into their off-premise programs, from maintaining the temperature and quality of the food, to staffing the kitchen adequately and allotting the space needed to prepare and hand off delivery dishes. He said when all factors are considered, good restaurant design can in most cases, maintain or improve the customer experience while furthering the off-premise preparation and delivery process. 

A tale of 2 QSRs' use of tech

One of the questions tossed out that Starr showed particular interest in involved the types of design elements that he sees today being used to lure people back in to eat, order or just linger at quick-service brands. He said this was also an area where restaurateurs can really employ tech to draw guests in and build great experiences, rather than use these tools to separate and segment diners. 

"We as an industry have a true opportunity to make a difference in our society because restaurants have always played an amazing role in connecting people with people," he said, using his own wedding proposal to his wife as an example. "All of us have such great experiences that if ... are integrated in some way with food. 

"Now we're seeing tech that is enhancing convenience but at the same time also has the potential to take the place of person-to-person interaction. ... But I also have some great examples where restaurants have looked at tech to see how it can foster interaction."

As an example, Starr compared to QSR chains that have used tech to help with the ordering and convenience process in different ways. One brand, he said, installed in-store ordering kiosks, while another deployed team members armed with tablets to facilitate drive-thru orders. 

"One takes the place of person-to-person interaction and the other fosters that person-to-person interaction," he pointed out then asked, "Which do you think is having better results?"

The brand with the tablet-equipped team members, he said, has had "staggering" results, while the other brand he said that used kiosks alone has actually reportedly increased its labor costs to help with an ongoing problem of kiosk customer use questions that necessitated putting employees near kiosks to help visitors learn to use the machines rather than working on other operational tasks. 

Finally, the audience was interested in learning more about how to actually connect guests to each other through restaurant design. On that note, Starr said he and other designers are now seeing seating densities growing again in their designs for brands. In fact, he said many are increasingly adding community tables again. 

"Ten years ago, the area required per person was getting larger" in restaurant design, he said. "Now, it is the exact opposite."

Feature photo: iStock

About S.A. Whitehead

---

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.