The foodservice industry is an ever-changing landscape and one of the most competitive and complex markets in the world. With over 1 million restaurants located in the United States alone, point-of-sale data is now gaining more attention as a crucial part of market research, from sales prospecting to competitor understanding. Restaurant account based analytics is growing rapidly and is commonly used to bridge the divide between sales and gain a better understanding of the foodservice market.
However, for many businesses, there are certain aspects that most fail to consider when evaluating or implementing a restaurant account based analytics system:
1. Timely Insights
Timely insights are critical for making informed decisions, yet often overlooked while evaluating analytics. Your restaurant data has to be used in real time to be valuable – it is no use relying on data that is outdated and will be superseded soon. United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization statistics show that current global consumer differences in food preferences create an ever-evolving market. Seeking timely insights into your foodservice initiatives is essential in producing a winning strategy.
2. Accurate Data
Accurate data is the cornerstone of customer loyalty, but is too often overlooked when assessing restaurant analytics systems. There are several ways to ensure that the data you are using is accurate, such as verifying that data sources are accurate and up-to-date, and that the data is aggregated correctly before being used. To ensure accuracy, it is essential to audit a data provider’s data processing, sanitation, and aggregation process.
3. Comprehensive Coverage
Data derived from one specific segment such as restaurant app usage or customer loyalty programs can provide valuable insights, but they will not paint the full picture. Professional analytics solutions can enable users to generate insights from data sets across multiple segments or layers for a comprehensive view of the market.
4. Diverse Solutions
Analytics solutions are more than just an investment in technology. A comprehensive restaurant analytics system should be built to incorporate your own solutions, such as loyalty programs, apps, and CRM, as well as third-party solutions, such as social media listening and consumer preference research.
5. Flexibility
An effective analytics system must be able to grow with your business. As you expand and diversify, so should your analytics platform by integrating with additional data sources, or providing more robust analysis capabilities. Expandability is especially important now, in a market that is continually changing and increasingly competitive.
Whether you are launching a loyalty program or trying to identify sales opportunities, the quality of your restaurant data can make or break your success. As competition increases, the most successful organizations will be the ones that invest to the fullest extent in restaurant account analytics data, that considers all of the points mentioned here.
