fbtechreview.comMARCH 20208in myviewRestaurant Analyst: The Critical Job that Doesn't Exist`Hospitality professionals are swimming in data yet rarely have the time or resources to transform information into income. With many restaurateurs mired in the pursuit of providing great food and service, data-driven decisions are often dwarfed by the qualitative musings of chefs, managers and emboldened Yelpers. The ability to break this mold, however, can be the difference between long-term success and imminent failure.The Opportunity: The days of a restaurateur getting away with making business decisions based on intuition alone are over. Technology developments, often borrowed from other industries, have created an opportunity for restauranteurs to dive deeper than ever into the makeup of their customers' demands, employees' performances and key operational metrics. With access to this information readily available (and economized), data analysis has become a necessary tool in not only making profitable improvements, but in fighting to stay relevant in an increasingly competitive market as well. Take the evolution of menu analysis, for example. In the past, operators would weigh product mix reports (quantity of menu items sold) against recipe costs to measure success. If Restaurant X's meatloaf was the highest-margin, highest-selling menu item,that's what was promoted. And if the low-margin crab cake was at the bottom of the report, the chef would be inclined to drop it from the menu. But while these decisions are founded they could very well be suboptimal.Enter companies like Upserve and TableUp that combine geo-fencing and other CRM tracking tools, with point of sale data to glean complex insights about how customers interact Peter VentiBY PETER VENTI, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, REALFOOD CONSULTINGTechnology developments, often borrowed from other industries, have created an opportunity for restauranteurs to dive deeper than ever into the makeup of their customers' demands, employees' performances and key operational metrics
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