Cell phones and personal digital assistants, or PDAs, are in use everywhere, and foodservice operators should benefit from this growing interest among consumers and workers in having access to information or services anyplace and at any time.
Already on the radar of many strategic thinkers, this mobility trend will only grow in importance in the years to come. It is very much on the minds of FS/TEC exhibitors, presenters and attendees.
Still, what exactly are we talking about?
From the customer’s point of view, Internet connectivity is a hot button, hence the trend towards restaurant companies offering Wi-Fi wireless Web access within their establishments. But connectivity is no longer enough for many consumers who now worry about bandwidth and whether their wireless Internet access is fast enough for gaming or multimedia purposes.
Consumers also want mobile access to more of their vital services, such as their bank accounts or their personal collections of documents, photos and music stored at remote sites.
They also want seamless connectivity, even to the point where they are buying cell phones that automatically switch from cellular signals to Wi-Fi and back again as their devices detect different networks.
Consumers, or foodservice customers, also are looking to be able to place food and retail orders from their mobile terminals.
What’s more, I’m sure they would love on-demand access to restaurant information and special offers and even to be able to communicate directly with the servers, host stations and managements of the establishments they patronize. This is all quickly becoming possible, is now applicable in some situations and, in the near future, may be a requirement to successfully compete.
The same trends and possible outcomes for foodservice are likely in the area of payments using hand-held devices, a practice that is much more popular in other parts of the world.
Global positioning satellite, or GPS, tracking is an example of a technology that now is becoming a popular optional function in all sorts of phones and PDA’s. This technology may ultimately play a key role in permitting foodservice customers to “opt in” and literally become a part of a restaurant’s operating environment.
For many employees, instant access via cell phone or PDA to information, such as shift schedules, training information or benefit options, is desirable. Text messaging is becoming a communications method of choice for many people and may yet play a larger role in at-work exchanges between employees of all ranks.
Some restaurant managers already receive text message alerts at work or at home generated by business intelligence programs or equipment-monitoring applications when machines or people are operating outside of specified parameters. And they long have sought access via their portable devices to business intelligence reports and performance dashboards pertaining to their areas of responsibilities.
Text messaging between consumers and restaurant employees or marketers also is growing in popularity, as is evident by the number of trials involving e-coupons and texted promotional offers.
Because so many customers and employees have some sort of communicating mobile technology with them at all times, the foodservice operator has the ability to stay in touch and tailor messages to individuals. This customization capability is possible because many mobile device functions require unique identifiers, such as a cellular number or text identification string.
At some point in the future, the sharing of the unique identifier in a person’s mobile device may trigger an automatic linking of that individual with personal preferences as indicated by a self-created profile or earlier purchases.
What makes the rise of mobility and some of the possible ancillary benefits mentioned above inevitable? A growing consumer hunger for convenience and the pressure to create forms of “universal identification cards” for national-security purposes, among other factors.
Mobility will be the key to many of the technologies and capabilities we want or we will require in the future.
I maintain that future will be here sooner than you think.
