Food Service and the Mobile Revolution

What we are living in today is a revolution similar to the second industrial revolution at the turn of the century when chemicals and steel empowered mass production and electricity enabled some pretty well known advantages at home. Today we experience this with the Internet. Internet access is ubiquitous and seamless in several corners of the economy but not all. That margin, however, is shrinking at an increasing rate.

On September 17, 2013, Chili’s Grill & Bar announced that it will install tabletop screens in most of its roughly 1,200 restaurants by early 2014. The screens are essentially tablets mounted to a fixture that are loaded with a menu, games for kids, and a credit-card swipe device.  

Mobile device integration to retail suggests many positive effects on the economy. In this case and probably many more to come, integration is aimed at the consumer in the interest of company revenue. Testing of these devices shows diners often spend more per check, because they buy more desserts and coffee when the screen is present. More spending means a healthier economy.

There are, however, adverse economic uncertainties with any technological advance. Will servers lose their jobs? If so, how many and how fast? If so, what effect will down-sizing have on talent management? And if so, what core competencies will this newly renovated family dining sector demand? Chili’s executives have released a statement that their intention is not to reduce labor costs, but the effects of granting consumers more autonomy in a service industry should be obvious.

HR challenges will also develop. Human resources departments across the family dining sector will have to establish a new culture. If mobile integration is somehow hugely successful, there will be an implication of tech over service since this is essentially the message their innovation will be sending. How many customers will they lose? On the other hand, how many customers will they win? Will diners prefer tabletop interfaces the same way shoppers prefer self-scan cash registers?  

Talent management will change as well. The smaller, family owned restaurants will be wise to seek young, tech savvy startup engineers in addition to experienced servers. If the small business world catches on, catering will be gradually overrun by autonomy and talent retention will revolve around engineers with skills that facilitate that autonomy.

And finally, companies like Chili’s can start preparing for more government regulation of big data. Identification data will now surge through the restaurant industry just as it does with the banks. However now there will be very interesting information troves related to the tastes (and the gratuity) of a community.

While we’re probably not in the end of times for food service, recent developments in tech suggest there will be shifts in recruiting, analytics, and company culture for many of these organizations. But even if the menus of 2014 are touch screens, interactive, and networked to a chef’s iPad, you’d still need someone to carry your dessert and coffee from the kitchen to your table.