Modernization Is on the Menu: How Restaurants Thrive in Today’s Competitive Landscape

There is reason to be optimistic about the state of modern dining. While the industry isn’t without its challenges, studies show there is business to be had keeping up with the dynamic trends of today’s diner. As reported by Modern Restaurant Management, demand is there and there are trends that can direct restaurants can focus on to ensure they keep pace. For example, younger generations are fueling off-premisedining, there’s more than one way to engage a diner while in the restaurant, and lunch is back as people’s schedules continue to adjust in a hybrid or return-to-office world.

There is an opportunity for restaurants that can modernize in a way that meets the needs of the diner while simultaneously overcoming food, labor, and technological challenges to run more predictable and profitable businesses. It certainly isn’t an easy proposition – but a holistic approach to restaurant modernization is critical.

Here are a few areas restaurants should focus on.

Delivering Consistent Experiences Across Each Touchpoint

Whether a diner chooses to order and eat onsite, go through the drive-thru, or complete a mobile order pick-up, delivering a consistent experience across touchpoints is vital to ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty. It would be a safe bet that every diner has had a frustrating experience with inconsistent service based on a poor counter engagement, outdated menu board, incorrect order notes – and the list goes on. This challenge is exacerbated by the speed and convenience consumers demand coupled with ongoing labor challenges that require customers to exhibit some level of grace. 

To combat this, restaurants are implementing technologies to deliver consistency – both at counter and self-serve touchpoints, as well as the integration of mobile and online ordering for a holistic experience. Deployments include flexible, remote or tableside POS or tablets, integrated and dynamic digital menu boards with live social feeds, and HD audio systems for clear communication and operational efficiency from front to back of the restaurant. These emerging areas of auxiliary or supplementary technologies are being deployed to incrementally improve key engagements along the order supply chain, which are critical to avoiding pitfalls that drive inconsistency.

Consistency for the customer also means clarity for operations. Wrong orders, incorrect allergens, and mistimed pick-up and delivery not only result in poor experiences, but they are costly for businesses. The margins are too fine for inefficiency and waste to compound challenges – not to mention bigger problems that can result from incorrect food information. The better and more consistent each customer touchpoint, the clearer information can be provided to staff to execute operations. This is why the industry is seeing a surge in consultative or full-stack services in which maximizing each digital touchpoint (and the rich, near real-time data it provides) is a business priority.

Advancement of Real-Time Analytics to Improve Operations

The digitizing of critical endpoints means that restaurants are generating and have access to more data than ever before. Even restaurants that employ a more analogue, rustic or “throwback” dining experience will use some form of technology to promote secure payment, order accuracy, or even reservation requests. That said, many restaurants still haven’t cracked the code on capturing this data effectively and feeding that back into operations to improve the dining or staff experience. 

Restaurants have many moving parts that make providing quick, memorable, and accurate service challenging. And, the holy grail of predictable decision making is made harder with today’s dynamic diner and constantly evolving dining trends. Analytics are critical to help restaurants gain visibility into traffic, order makeup, sale insights, inventory, and more. With this information, restaurants can make smarter or more calculated decisions about menu items, customer flow, and food and beverage stocks, to name a few. 

Restaurant management software is an example of a solution that brings data together into a platform or “single pane of glass” to enable intelligent decision making. With the ability to integrate with endpoints including POS, digital signage or menu boards, and payroll systems, these solutions are critical to painting a clear, concise picture of performance and provide trustworthy information to make business and dining decisions. 

Integration of Richer Support and Services

It can be challenging enough to provide a safe, healthy, and consistent dining experience without the added complexity that comes with technology deployment. In an effort to modernize, many restaurants made (or were forced to make) short-term or quick-fix tech deployments that caused headaches down the line. But, when implementing new digital ordering kiosks or kitchen display systems, it is more than just a hardware installation.

The biggest trend so far in 2025 is a desire for restaurants to balance new technology deployment with ongoing support. This ensures that each investment keeps providing benefit for both employees and diners. There is so much value to be derived for restaurants that shift away from buying hardware to investing in a full solution with services and support built in. Not only does it simplify the back office, eliminate potential points of failure, and instill confidence when choosing a partner, it allows for more strategic conversations in which value can be found in the margins. 

For example, the popularity of online and mobile ordering has led to an increase in call center needs. Restaurants meet customers where they are, giving them umpteen ways to order. That’s needed to keep pace – but then how do you service and support customers at all those touchpoints when something goes wrong? How do you troubleshoot or fix a software deployment that is shutting systems down? Who leads the repairs or replacements? Who helps guide through software updates in real time? It’s hard enough for restaurants to be everywhere – let along have eyes on everything all the time. The more consolidated approach restaurants can take to these important auxiliary services and support, the better positioned they are to mitigate risk and unlock additional revenue opportunities without having to reinvent another onboarding process.

Implementing Technology Leads to a Resilient Future 

Concentrating on consistent customer experiences, using real-time data for smoother operations, and incorporating the right new technologies gives restaurants the opportunity to meet and even surpass the changing needs of today’s diners. 

And, with professional services and ongoing support, it allows restaurants to make the most of technology investments, tackle today’s challenges, build stronger loyalty among diners, and develop more stable and profitable businesses for years ahead.