News

Toast report reveals which technologies restaurant operators are seeking

A Toast Inc. report found that technologies helping restaurant operators with hiring and training staff, Inventory management and online ordering are in demand.

November 17, 2015

Toast Inc.'s "Restaurant Technology in 2015 Industry Report" found that technologies helping restaurant operators with hiring and training staff,  Inventory management and online ordering are in demand this year.

"In the back of the house some highlights are new tech that will make food purchasing easier and more accurate; new software for recruiting staff and managing employee records; and bar technology to monitor consumption and aid inventory and costing of product," said Stephen Zagor, dean of Culinary Business and Industry Studies at The Institute of Culinary Education, in the release.

Toast surveyed hundreds of restaurateurs to learn why restaurant technology is becoming more important and what are their biggest challenges to find solutions.

Here are some of the main highlights from the report:

• Hiring and training staff is the No. 1 challenge — When asked about what the biggest challenge for your restaurant is, 46 percent of respondents said that hiring and training staff was No. 1. Restaurant owners are having a harder time keeping their staff around, and creating a culture where they want to stay. Compared to other answers to this question - speed to sale, low profit margin, marketing - this is the most human challenge that restaurants face, and shows that technology can serve as a tool to train your staff, but culture comes from the restaurant owner, the report stated.
• Restaurant technology needs advanced functionality — When asked for their top reason for replacing their existing method or software, whether that be a POS system or a pen-and-paper system, 32 percent of respondents stated advanced functionality would be key. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they currently use POS software to manage transactions and operations.
• Inventory management and online ordering are musts — Toast asked restaurateurs to rank 10 different features — from mobile wallet integration to online ordering integration — from 1 to 10. Overwhelmingly, quick serve restaurants, full-serve restaurants and bars listed inventory management and online ordering in their top three. Restaurants want to be able to engineer their menu based on their food-cost percentage, variance, and other factors. They also want a sleek-looking online ordering feature that customers can easily use. EMV integration, on the other hand, had the lowest weighted average in this question, either because restaurant operators think their chances of fraud are low, or because they're simply not thinking about it yet.

Other highlights from the report are:

• 73 percent of restaurants are planning to upgrade their technology within the year.
• 46 percent of restaurateurs look at their business reports and metrics every day.
• 52 percent of restaurateurs said "advanced functionality" and "ease of use" would be their top reasons for replacing their existing method or software.
• 50 percent of restaurateurs currently pay for two to five restaurant technology vendors.
• The top features restaurateurs are looking for in a POS upgrade are: inventory management (20 percent), online ordering (13 percent) and PCI compliance (9 percent).