Restaurants have long been run on basic reporting and gut feel. Now data and ana-lytics are transforming consumer expecta-tions across industries, making the ability

to predict rather than react essential. Restaurants must do the same. According to Hospitality Technol-ogy’s 2017 Restaurant Technology Study, improving business and customer analytics is now restaurant operators’ second-highest ranked strategic goal for tech investments. But transforming from a gut-based culture to one that blends instinct with analyt-ics is not easy. Here are some common roadblocks, and how restaurants are overcoming them to build a strong foundation to enable optimal use of analytics.

CHALLENGE: OVERCOMING A GUT-BASED CULTURE

+ SOLUTION: Build confidence in data with small wins that address the restaurant’s most pressing needs. Starting small also enables the operator to fine-tune data management processes and structure so it’s ready for expanded analytic uses, according to Altametrics (www.altametrics.com). The company notes this is a good time to consider where analytics activities will take place, recommending that deeper dives occur above store.

Chief commercial officer Ryan Russell and his wife are working hard to transform the sixty-year-old Highway Inn (www.myhighwayinn.com) into a lean, analytics-based organization. After waiting a few months to establish baseline data, they asked man-agers to schedule labor only via Altametrics’ Zip Clock software. When Russell discovered that they were still relying on paper, he had to force the new process. By exporting and analyzing that data, Highway Inn has

made changes to staffing and shifts and can more accurately forecast labor demand. The operator is also applying analytics to food costing, menu man-agement, loyalty and marketing.

Russell is shifting culture by sharing those in-sights. “They trust us when we take them through the numbers; we communicate to staff every quarter so they see we are moving in the right direction.”

Mooyah (www.mooyah.com), a Punchh (www.punchh.com) customer, manages its franchisees’ ex-pectations so they do not under- or over-deliver on the company’s developing analytics capabilities.

“We’ve structured timelines and communicated them to our system of when we’re going to roll out various capabilities,” says Natalie Liu, VP marketing.

Unpredictable consumer spending was frustrating for Real Mex Restaurants (www.realmexrestaurants.com) and led to the company having trouble accu-rately forecasting labor or generating enough rev-enue to invest in the business. The company began using an advanced labor forecasting engine from HotSchedules (www.hotschedules.com), which result-ed in six percent increases in productivity and social guest ratings respectively. The chain was also able to optimize its shifts.

“Guest experience improved dramatically,” Dessi Sarabosing, senior vice president, finance and ac-counting, says. “Sales and sales per labor went up significantly.”

CHALLENGE: DATA IS TOO HIGH-LEVEL

+ SOLUTION: Collecting the right data is the foun-dation of good analytics. Many call POS the center of restaurant operations, so to support analytics the POS must collect granular data and integrate well

1 3 • JULY/AUGUST 2017 • WWW.HOSPITALITYTECH.COM

B U S I N E S S S O L U T I O N S B R I E F By Lisa Terry, Contributing Editor

EMBRACE THE POWER OF DATA AND ANALYTICS TO GAIN INSIGHT INTO BUSINESS TO GROW

AND BE MORE INNOVATIVE

EMPOWERING INTELLIGENT

RESTAURANTS

EMPOWERING INTELLIGENT

RESTAURANTS

with other solutions. Restaurants must also imple-ment analytics-friendly processes: Failing to require each server to associate with an individual order, for example, means you can’t analyze server perfor-mance and identify best practices and training needs.

Among the reasons Crazy Pita (www.crazypita.com) chose an Agilysys (www.agilysys.com) POS — and is upgrading to the enterprise version — was to track modifiers and substitutions, which help drive menu modifications, says Medhi Zarhoul, founder and owner of the growing three-unit chain. They are also using the system to analyze labor and food costs and monitor transaction trends in real-time.

“I want to know what sells, when, the time, and lo-cation, because it helps me make better decisions,” says Zarhoul, including how to add online ordering and delivery in a made-to-order operation.

Restaurants must balance detail with expediency, advises Altametrics. Don’t force servers to designate individual fountain items if you won’t ever use that data, for example.

Another critical step is cleaning data, such as re-solving item identifiers from different POS systems. Consultants or vendors can help cleanse and normal-ize data so insights are accurate.

CHALLENGE: IT’S HARD TO PULL DATA TOGETHER

+ SOLUTION: Create a roadmap toward integrated systems. Mooyah delayed its analytics project by

nine months after concluding that its current POS would not integrate well with other data sources. They selected a cloud-based solution, Brink from Par (www.partech.com). “We quickly saw that the real value was going to be to have a solution that was fully integrated with the point of sale system and our online ordering partner, where we would actually be able to learn so much about what [customers are] ordering, not just when they’re coming into the restaurant,” says Liu.

Kona Grill (www.konagrill.com) is looking to inte-grate its POS, loyalty, customer WiFi and social data to support its developing analytics program, which they will use to address things like menu and labor management and location selection. They already use Egnyte (www.egnyte.com) to make data more accessible and secure. To build an analytics founda-tion, they started by making decisions about where to collect, aggregate and cleanse all that aggregated data — in house or at an outside provider — a key consideration since more granular, time-phased data quickly becomes a big data challenge.

Kona Grill then looked at providers and tools, pri-oritizing those with subscription-based offerings and dining industry experience.

“Each provider wants to be that one source for all truth,” says Glen Holroyd, director of IT. “The devil is in the details. A lot say they can integrate, but can they do it in real-time?”

Analytics must be able to draw from multiple sources to offer the most value. Operators must con-sider the ecosystem of POS integration partners, and

1 4 • JULY/AUGUST 2017 • WWW.HOSPITALITYTECH.COM

B U S I N E S S S O L U T I O N S B R I E F

Pictured Above: Mooyah hired an analyst with an econometrics degree who found that customers who downloaded its

app spent twice as much as other guests.

1 5 • JULY/AUGUST 2017 • WWW.HOSPITALITYTECH.COM

open APIs, when building out analytics capabilities.Avero (www.averoinc.com) advocates collect-

ing data via a neutral analytics tool that can inte-grate using industry standard protocols, backed by a strong service organization that can adapt to the mindset of chefs to understand the business prob-lem. Many organizations have too much data, but it’s isolated in siloed systems.

CHALLENGE: LACK OF IN-HOUSE

ANALYTICS SKILLS + SOLUTION: Developers are working hard on UX so their analytics tools are easier to use for non-analysts. But restaurateurs are still finding a need to go beyond these tools, particularly when aggregating data streams from multiple applica-tions. Highway Inn’s Russell prefers to export flat files to Excel so he can do deeper-dive analysis.

Mooyah took it a step further, hiring an analyst with an econometrics degree along with statistical analysis tools to dive deeply into data, analyze his-torical trends and make projections to help lead the business in the future.

HotSchedules believes that accessing multiple streams of data — even on-time and at the store-level — is just one hurdle. Managers need a system that can take data and turn it into proactive insights to act on throughout the shift.

CHALLENGE:NOT KNOWING WHERE TO START

+ SOLUTION: Start with needs. Consider hiring a consultant to identify areas of low hanging fruit/biggest pain points. Because food and labor costs dominate the budget, these are a common target.

Quick wins are a smart strategy to prove value. Avero recommends starting with beverages, such as morning coffee and orange juice — both high margin items that table service wait staff forget to add to checks. Analytics identifies those serv-ers, to drive training and increased profits.

Mooyah’s analyst was able to determine early on that customers who downloaded its app spent twice as much as other guests, a finding it used to encourage franchisees to push app downloads while getting them excited about analytics.

“They’re not going to be sold overnight but they’re cautiously optimistic and excited about everything we’ve shared so far,” says Liu.

CC’s Coffee House (www.ccscoffee.com) lever-ages its Par Brink POS system as part of a mis-sion to make richer and deeper usage of data and analytics for strategic planning.

“We must stay on top of trends and find where to incorporate them, if at all, into our business,” says Celton Hayden, Jr., president & CEO. “This causes change. Our ability to use data and ana-lytics in the decision-making process allows us to remain flexible across our strategic growth, never growing dated or out of step with what our guests expect. This can range from menu additions or deletions to operational hours and store design changes.” HT

Pictured Above: Kona Grill is developing an analytics program to address menu and labor management and location

selection by harnessing data gathered by integrating its POS, loyalty, customer WiFi and social data.

13.BSBtls 0717_v1.indd 15 7/27/17 4:50 PM

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

High manager turnover has plagued the restaurant industry for years. According to restaurant industry research firm TDn2K’s 2017 Recruiting and Turnover Report, a poor work/life balance is one of the top reasons managers quit.

Restaurants need a two-pronged approach to solve this problem. They need to make the job more manageable and rewarding, and they need tools to enable newer managers to perform like more seasoned managers so they are better prepared to drive success. Fortunately, there’s one solution to both problems: empower managers with proactive data and analytics.

Data and analytics can transform the job by removing manual tasks, eliminating memorization and equipping managers with the right data at the right time to make better decisions. When managers are equipped to work smarter, they make decisions that save money, reduce turnover, boost customer satisfaction, increase revenue and raise everyone’s morale. That’s the kind of success that keeps great restaurant managers successful and on the job.

Data: At Your Manager’s ServiceThe daily life of a restaurant manager, even a general manager, can be chaotic. They are perpetually juggling a multitude of tasks from ordering and receiving inventory, managing compliance, and scheduling employees, to meeting with maintenance or handling payroll. Add to the times they get interrupted when things go wrong — an oven breaks, the power fails, employees call in sick, they discover champagne stock was miscounted last night. Some of these are preventable with good data. Others can be more efficiently addressed if the right information is easily accessible and available.

Problems persist if that data is buried in multiple systems, available only in basic, after-the-fact reports or not at all. Some restaurants have tried to get at it by layering reporting, business intelligence tools or basic task management over those systems, but it usually takes a long time and a lot of resources, and ends up being inflexible and of limited value.

We take detailed, just-in-time data for granted in our everyday lives. Think of the smartphone in your hand right now. It wakes you up in the morning, tells you how to dress for the weather, what time to leave to avoid traffic and when to slow down because there’s a cop ahead. So where’s the system that helps managers plan for the expected and handle the unexpected? The missing link is an intelligent operating system that’s integrated with all restaurant systems to provide just the right data at the right moment to enable good managers to become great business leaders.

Good Data Empowers Good ManagersAn intelligent restaurant management system is like a manager’s playbook — but better. It’s like having your brand’s top performer standing over every manager’s shoulder, advising them what to do about every planned and unplanned event. Even better, it also factors in analysis of data collected from systems across the operation and above store that even the best managers have never had before. So instead of wasting on-hand inventory, the system could suggest a limited-time offer. Or, if weather suddenly changes, the system could notify a manager and give them a recommended forecast and staffing adjustment.

The big difference between a “regular” application dashboard with alerts or a digital checklist of to-do items versus an intelligent restaurant management system is that it:

Solving High Manager Turnover with Data & Analytics

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

W H I T E P A P E R

13.BSBtls_HotSchedules.indd 13 7/27/17 4:51 PM

• Consolidates all the info managers need in one place,• Uses data and learning to recommend steps to address problems, and• Alerts managers to take action before indicators become issues.It’s all based on better use of data and continuous learning.

Making Labor Management SmarterOne area where an intelligent restaurant system really delivers is in labor. That’s a pretty complex area for a manager, one that typically requires lots of manual, time-consuming work both creating and coordinating with other scheduling managers. A manager must develop and then adjust schedules as demands shift — all while keeping best practices, trends, compliance and employee satisfaction in mind.

When those things are automated based on advanced analytics, managers no longer have to spend time tracking down every little detail and then attempting to interpret them side-by-side in separate reports. For example, an intelligent restaurant system can:

• Dynamically recommend scheduling, inventory and ordering changes based on shifts in weather forecasts and past performance during similar weather.

• Automatically apply local labor rules so managers don’t have to monitor and intervene, such as enabling California employees to schedule paid time off past the cut-off.

• Base scheduling for minors around local school calendars built right into the system and alert the manager when the minor employee punches in too early.

• Ensure the sub that claimed a bartender’s open slot has a current alcohol certification.

It’s all thanks to intelligent labor management, forecasting and compliance. These smart systems apply advanced algorithms to labor rules, drivers and best practice data from across restaurants. The result is a blueprint that empowers managers to optimize staffing to drive revenue, as well as customer and employee satisfaction. Information and suggestions are served to the manager’s phone at just the right moment for quick, informed decision-making.

Analytics Empowers Managers to SucceedBy automating tasks, removing the guesswork and providing actionable alerts, an intelligent restaurant management system removes the pressure on managers to keep multiple,disparate rules in their heads and enables them to be proactive rather than reactive to problems. Ultimately, this empowers them to succeed. As they see steady improvements, they gain more confidence and satisfaction. Those are the kind of results that keep managers happy and in their jobs.

Real Mex Sees Real BenefitsBefore Real Mex Restaurants (www.realmexrestaurants.com) began using Activity-Based Forecasting from HotSchedules (www.hotschedules.com), they saw consumer spending as unpredictable, and therefore had trouble accurately forecasting labor or generating enough revenue to invest in the business. With an advanced labor forecasting engine, productivity and social guest ratings each jumped 6% and the chain was able to optimize its shifts. “Sales went up. Our guest experience improved dramatically. And sales per labor went up significantly,” Dessi Sarabosing, Senior Vice President of Finance and Accounting says.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

13.BSBtls_HotSchedules.indd 14 7/27/17 4:51 PM