Restaurant of the future, coffee, technology

Analysis

The restaurant of the future

Creating the next-generation customer experience

For restaurants to evolve, understanding the next generation customer is critical. And the next generation customer is already here. What can restaurants bring to the table to appeal to this ever-evolving tech-savvy customer? A recent survey of restaurant customers and executives, conducted by the Deloitte US member firm, unveiled some crucial improvements restaurants can make to drive customer loyalty, guest check, and a differentiated experience.

The restaurant of the future in action

The next-generation customer is technologically savvy, connected, and expecting concierge-level service around every corner. For a restaurant, investing in digital enhancements that are tightly coordinated and work in concert, will help to create the restaurant of the future that appeals to all of the senses of this hyper-connected mentality.

Restaurant brands who succeed in this transformation will understand their customers, capitalize on digital technology options and analytics, and seize upon the opportunity to engage customers in a highly personalized way. Doing this well can have tremendous impacts in driving increased dining frequency, check size, customer conversion, and loyalty.

Creating a restaurant’s “digital DNA” requires a view broader than the four walls of the restaurant location. The next-generation customer relationship spans five stages of interaction—the “5Es” that begin and end far away from the restaurant itself: Entice, enter, engage, exit, and extend.

By bringing responsive, integrated digital experiences to each of these phases of interaction, a restaurant can build deeper relationships with more customers. It’s the value and nature of these relationships, not just the applications driving them, that can help flip the switch that transforms a traditional restaurant into the restaurant of the future.

View the archived Dbriefs webcast, The restaurant of the future: Leveraging technology for competitive advantage, to learn more.

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The “5Es” in practice: Walk through the next-generation customer journey

Please click on each icon to follow the next-generation customer through their journey.

Next generation guest experience: What did customers say?

Our methodology

In 2016, Deloitte surveyed 3,000 Millennial and approximately 1,500 general population high-frequency (2+ visits per week) guests who visited Quick Service Restaurant, Fast Casual, and Casual Dining locations. In a separate part of the same fact-finding process, we carried out over 20 interviews with restaurant industry executives to discuss their organizations’ current and desired levels of digital technology strategy, adoption, and plans ahead. Finally, we hosted a roundtable discussion of restaurant industry at Deloitte University in Westlake, Texas.

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Media contact:

Courtney Flaherty 
Manager
Deloitte Services LP
+1 203 905 2708

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