Restaurant tech: Love it or hate it? Consumers from four generations—Gen Z, millennials, Gen X and boomers—get candid about their dining preferences and attitudes toward technology.
further away. Many brands that have added self-service kiosks said they are now thinking about redeploying some workers as hosts or greeters to help customers navigate the ordering experience, for instance. There is some data to support this approach. According to Technomic, customer satisfaction is 4% lower when the person orders online versus in person. Brands with kiosks tend to have lower satisfaction scores. “Culturally, we expect some hospital - ity,” said Rich Shank, VP of innovation at Technomic. “We advise brands to be available wherever the customer wants to interact with you,” whether that’s through an app, a kiosk or an employee at the counter. Despite broad agreement on that topic among the generations, there were some notable differences between age groups. The Gen Zers were far more
likely to use technology when given the choice. Riley has 18 food apps on her phone. Claudia, also 22, has 32. Both had more apps than the rest of the group combined. And they were more motivated by loyalty programs and the promise of free food. “Even if it’s my first time trying a place, I would be likely to go download their app and see if they have a reward sys - tem,” Riley said. At the same time, even the youngsters want to have options. Asked whether they’d visit a coffee shop where you could only order from an app, all but one (Claudia) said they’d walk out and look for the nearest Starbucks.
FSTEC 2025 | 39
Powered by FlippingBook