Restaurant And Hospitality News – March 23, 2015
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, Olive Garden is set to pilot call-ahead seating, advice on how to leverage mobile technology to optimize work flow, the importance of patent trolls for restaurateurs, and ways some top CEOs are empowering their employees to meet guest needs.
Olive Garden Testing Web Check-In and Call-Ahead Seating
Although the Olive Garden is not yet ready to begin taking reservations, the Orlando-based chain is piloting a program to allow customers to call ahead or check-in online to be added to the existing waiting lists, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The pilot is being run at 13 Central Florida locations, and Rich Jeffers, spokesman for parent company Darden Restaurant, explained, “We want to extend a level of convenience for our guests. We’ll see how it works and continue to evaluate it over time.” Darden has been exploring the call ahead option at 11 of its local Longhorn Steakhouse restaurants, and decided to give it a go at Olive Garden as well. “You still wait the same amount of time,” Jeffers explained, “but you can wait while you are doing something else.” Darden joins other chains in the industry such as Outback, who already have the call-ahead option in place.
Using Mobile Technology To Optimize Work Flow
This article from QSRWeb examines how mobile technology can be leveraged to optimize work flow. From using tablets to orchestrate seating, order taking, and collecting payments; to using mobile devices to optimize delivery fulfillment, restaurants can make use of mobile technology to increase efficiency and raise profit margins in their stores. According to the GE Capital 2014 Chain Restaurant industry Review report, more than two-thirds of restaurant operators used social media applications in 2014, highlighting the importance of digital marketing and social media as the true differentiators in the fight for restaurant market share. Restaurateurs need to leverage social channels via mobile technology to drive revenue and engage customers. And, as this article reminds us. It’s all about the customer, so restaurant operators need to figure out how to use mobile technology to cater to them.
Patent Trolls: Why Restaurant Owners Need To Pay Attention.
This article from QSRWeb examines the rise of patent trolls, “firms that buy obscure, general or vague patents with the sole purpose of extracting licensing arrangements and settlement payments by threatening businesses and companies with claims of patent infringement,” and discusses their relevance for restaurant operators. Since restaurants are often dependent upon specific technologies in their industry, patent trolls that target them could have costly repercussions. To combat these attacks, the National Retail Federation has launched United for Patent Reform, a coalition designed to pursue legislation to curtain abuse of the patent system by such patent trolls. Co-chaired by NRF and Oracle, the group is comprised of retail, hospitality, and technology associations and companies. “Patent trolls have abused our patent system with their coercive bribery schemes for far too long,” according to NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French. “There is strong consensus in the business community and in Washington that patent reform legislation is needed to end the patent troll racket. The White House, Supreme Court, and Congress have all signaled that patent reform is necessary and now is the time to act.”
CEOs Talk Empowering Employees
This article from SKIFT examines the trend of hotels to transition away from guidebooks and guidelines to better learning how to empower their employees to adapt their services and relationships with individual guests. The article is based on interviews that were part of the Future of the Guest Experience ebook, which examined the thoughts of CEOs on topics from technology and marketing to fees and training in order to extract a picture of the future of hospitality through their eyes. At Hyatt Hotels, Mark Hoplamazian explained, management “completely scrapped” their on-boarding process that was focused on rules and regulations of employment, in favor of “a much more values-based and culture-based approach to how we introduce people into the Hyatt family,” using “a compass instead of a map” to get where they are going. And David Berg, of the Carlson Resider Hotel Group, said that “one of the things that I think we’re quite unique in is unleashing the power of our people and really allowing our individuals to bring their unique skills and capabilities into the workplace.” The article focuses on ways to think “outside the box” when it comes to meeting the ever-changing needs of hotel guests.