DATA COLLECTION


Prioritizing privacy


preventative maintenance processes. Such innovations will become more commonplace, as connectivity will come bundled with all kinds of foodservice equipment. And more disruptive data-led technologies are on the way.


Shaping the customer experience Benjamin Calleja, chief experience officer at Livit, a specialist in guest experience design, works with some of the world’s leading F&B companies, empowering their brands through innovative data strategies. “There is a sense that data is important, but people don’t know what to use it for,” he says. “We start with the use case, not the data, and break the industry down into guest-facing and back-office segments and data can be used for both. For instance, I would like to always have music at the perfect volume in the restaurant. It is usually dialled up by the manager, but we can use real-time guest data – such as measuring people in and out, or how many customers’ phones are in the restaurant – to create the right volume level.” The same principle can be used to


analyze how types of music and different tempos affect consumer behavior, such as how long they stay in the restaurant. It can also be used to explore the impact of different scents or lighting conditions on guest experience. “We link data collection to ROI,” adds Calleja. “We are looking at factors that affect consumer behavior and using technology to take control out of the hands of the manager. First,


When it comes to gathering data on customers, there is a fine line to tread between operational benefit and privacy. In the US, data is more widely available than in Europe, where GDPR regulations govern data protection.


you need to understand consumer behavior, then collect the data and create the algorithm.” “Humans are good at hospitality, but computers are better at many things,” he adds. “They don’t sleep and they work 24/7, plus they understand what humans don’t need to, such as ordering, predictive analysis, inventory, music, lighting and scents.”


Where will data lead the industry? It is


hard to say, though the potential is almost limitless. Some are pushing the idea of precision nutrition – food prepared to cater for the specific genetic profile and nutritional deficiencies – and direct-to- consumer, genetically-based nutritional testing is now available.


This is a long way off, given that this


science is still in its early days, but it is one possible application of customer data. Sources of internal and external data will continue to multiply, and it is inevitable that operators will be able to make more informed choices about what to serve, when to serve it and how much to charge for it, provided they know what questions to ask.


“In the US, we track every phone that comes into a restaurant, and track it to where the owner lives and works, so we know what type of consumer you are, whether you have kids and a mortgage – almost anything – but not your name,” says Calleja. “We can also get data from credit cards or even cars. It is the profile that is important. It is only spooky when it is connected to the individual and we don’t want to do that.”


“Our clients don’t want us to know what they are making with our equipment because that is their proprietary data,” says Radford. “But we need to know how many hours a coffee grinder is running, or how much a microwave system has been used. The same principle applies with their customers, whose data must be anonymized.”


Welbilt recently worked on a burger concept in the US that trialled cameras to look at customers as they entered and make predictions about what they would order – on the basis of demographics – so prepping menu items could start early. This soon opened up a sensitive area in data usage.


“Tecso also tried facial recognition in stores to predict item selection and improve customer experience, but people are not comfortable with judgments based on visual appearance,” says Radford. “It skirts around issues like racial profiling, which, rightly, raises many eyebrows.”


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