Technology is updating and changing every single day. And currently, the food, drink and hospitality industries are in the process of being transformed by emerging technologies. What new technology will become standards and which will fall by the wayside? Today, the Guys go over what technologies to keep an eye on in 2019!
#1. Better Delivery Ordering & Tracking
Delivery is growing and is becoming more important. We have been watching delivery grow over these past couple of years and you may read a few articles that we have on the subject. For a refresher, check out the three articles below:
- Delivery is not cannibalizing your business
- More restaurants jump on the food delivery train
- Delivery is bringing back dinnertime
The subject of delivery has been growing and we do not expect it to stop. 2019 will see that delivery becomes faster and more personal for the customer. According to coverage of a recent report published by a firm in Edinburgh, Scotland, people can expect to see more GPS tracking technologies that let them follow their food with real-time movement information displayed on a smartphone screen. It will most likely mimic what Lyft and Uber show on their apps to show when a driver is arriving. Currently, customers get estimated delivery times and instructions to contact the restaurant if their food doesn’t arrive on-time. We will begin to see additional personalization and contact between the delivery drivers and customers.
One interesting aspect of ordering we are curious to see more of in 2019, is voice ordering. Customers that use Grubhub can ask Alexa to place one of their last three orders again. With the prevalence of Alexa, Siri and others like it, we think the ability to order items via voice commands spoken to smart speakers could become more of a trend many foresee.
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#2. Changes to beverages?
When you go to any restaurant, customers are offered a drink: water, soda or any other beverage. A company in North Carolina called Clear Water Manufacturing engineered an alternative — a machine that filters water, dispenses it into recyclable glass or aluminum containers and puts the caps on them.
The innovation, known as the Boomerang Water Machine, could allow restaurants to highlight a commitment to environmental sustainability, all while saving on costs. What this does is encourages people to come back to the location and return their water bottles to be sterilized and used again, thereby potentially eliminating single-use plastics.
#3.Virtual reality
The future of restaurant menu interactions will be coming in 2019. However, some folks are already experimenting with it. Augmented Reality (AR) is one of the biggest tech trends to look out for in 2019. This new form of technology will allow customers to have a visual experience like no other. AR allows customers to use their phones or restaurant iPads to view 3-D renderings of menu items. This gives customers not only an image of the food, but to view it as if it was right in front of them.
We made reference to this in one of our previous articles, ‘3 Restaurant Trends to Look out for in 2019.’  Check it out to learn more about the capabilities of AR and how it can benefit restaurants.
#4. Fully-automated restaurants?
We know there is buzz around this subject, but we just don’t see this catching on just yet. In the future, yes, there absolutely could be more automated restaurants, but not for 2019. There are pioneers out there like Eatsa, Spyce, Crave and more, but we still need that human interaction. The market is showing us this because most of these businesses are hurting and not expanding all over the country.
Instead, we see more of a surge in kiosks, pre-ordering via apps and smart-screens, as opposed to a fully-automated restaurant experience.
What restaurant technologies do you think we make a splash in 2019? Leave comments on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages!
Curious about how Custom Business Solutions can help your company? Check out their Northstar POS system and its capabilities to power and improve your restaurant!
