QSR December 2022

DIGI TAL INNOVAT ION

sion through a holistic architecture that uses data from each part of the process to inform decisions. It was battle-tested at ClusterTruck, delivering more than 3 million orders during the last six years. “I stepped into the CEO role because the Empower Delivery software is exactly what I have been looking for these last two years while writing the book,” Sandland says. “Empower Delivery is software purpose built for the delivery-optimized restaurant,” she adds. “It enables faster delivery times, higher quality food, better margins, lower prices, and less complexity.” Broadly, Sandland believes the industry is headed for a period of consolidation after five years of breakneck innovation. Point solu tions could be acquired into larger entities that offer more end-to-end technology suites for restaurants. “SaaS was exciting for smaller players because it leveled the access playing field to great technology,” she says. “But it does tend to create a lot of complexity, and independents and smaller restaurant chains don’t always have the staff to keep track of so many different pieces of tech. As more holistic suites become commonplace, the playing field will be further leveled.” And the next big trend? Automation, but not in the sense of robots replacing humans. “As we’ve seen in cars, electrification and smart augmentation of human operators are pre-conditions to automation,” Sandland says. “I think we will see increased adoption of electric cooking equipment, smart ovens, and software that increases human productivity in the restaurant.”

channel in favor of serving the in-store guest. But for the past few years, the digital experi ence at Wingstop couldn’t be a bigger 180. More than 60 percent of the chain’s sales are now digital, and the long-term goal is to digi tize 100 percent of transactions. The concept took a big step forward in this endeavor with the opening of a 1,300-square-foot digital-on ly restaurant in Dallas. The store is optimized for carryout and delivery customers; if one didn’t order ahead they can use a QR code to order inside the store. “It’s not exactly easy to do this kind of transformation,” Androes says. “It requires a lot of foundational work. You can’t just have a digital business and have that underlying technology deprecating at the store. So there was a good solid two years of converting the system to a common point-of-sale system, making sure our menus were aligned across every single one of our stores, so that when we did layer on top these extensions to our brand like a digital business, it had the right founda tion to be successful both for the operators and the guests.” For Wingstop, Androes says the next fron tier is building its digital presence internation ally. The brand is repeating some of the early steps it took while reimagining the domestic business. The goal is to make the right initial decisions so the fast casual can grow the right way in terms of store count and operational capabilities, “unlike a lot of the pizza players where their growth got ahead of their technol ogy investments,” Androes explains. Androes also recognizes that sometimes technology can be too much. Wingstop strives to have a simple and efficient model, and its rule of thumb is that a solution can’t stand in the way or add a bunch of steps to existing op erations. Even though sales are now a majority digital, it takes the same amount of time for a worker to prepare a web/app order as it would if they rang it up at the in-store POS system. Androes says there are a number of initiatives Wingstop turned down over the years because they didn’t pass a multi-step test of—can it be easily adopted into operations, is it good for franchisees, does it work well for customers, and is it worth it from a cost and complexity perspective? Some of the things that didn’t make the cut in the past include automated pickup lockers and AI phone service technol ogy. At the time, Wingstop chose not to pursue this infrastructure because either the technol ogy wasn’t quite there or the cost model didn’t make sense. But, with business changing significantly in the past two years, includ ing the labor environment, the fast casual is taking a fresh perspective at resolving phone ordering issues. “Using machine learning and AI solutions as well as call centers, and it’s under different conditions, that technology may make sense yet again,” Andores says, projecting Wing stop’s potential future.

Meredith Sandland Empower Delivery C E O , A N D C O - A U T H O R O F D E L I V E R I N G T H E D I G I T A L R E S T A U R A N T

EMPOWER DELIVERY

Sandland, who along with Carl Orsbourn, co-authored the Axiom 2022 Business Book Award Winner, “Delivering the Digital Restau rant,” came to restaurant technology through development. Her first large-scale tech project was digitizing market planning at Taco Bell, a brand she helped build 1,000-plus units for as chief development officer. “We created sales forecast models, cannibalization models, and data visualization tools using the latest data sources like mobile phone traffic,” Sandland says. “Now, these approaches are an expected part of an advanced real estate strategy. The big change? The SaaS-ification of our industry. Even a one-unit restaurant can access the tools huge chains historically spent millions building internally.” Sandland’s next exposure came through Kitchen United, which she joined as employee No. 4 to create its business model, raise initial capital, and serve as the public face of the GV backed disruptor. “To work, a ghost kitchen must have a top-notch digital ecosystem because, by definition, most consumers are accessing the food digitally,” she says. “What we see now is an explosion of MarTech and OpsTech. On the MarTech side, companies are creating digital relationships with the con sumer—everything from the third-party mar ketplaces, which are really just food-specific search engines, to CDP and loyalty platforms like Bikky and Thanx. On the OpsTech side, players like Galley and Restaurant365 are infusing technology into the back-of-house.” In September, Sandland and co-founder Chris Baggott announced the launch of a new venture—Empower Delivery, which is the soft ware that powers vertically integrated virtual restaurant and ghost kitchen ClusterTruck. As a SaaS company now available to all, Empower Delivery enables restaurants to profitably and sustainability serve the delivery occa

Celeste Stevens KFC

U . S . M A N A G E R O F D I G I T A L C U S T O M E R E X P E R I E N C E A N D E N G A G E M E N T

KFC

Celeste Stevens, KFC U.S.’s manager of digital customer experience and engagement, loves her role’s intersection between marketing and technology. She is responsible for guests’ technological journey across CRM, e-com

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DECEMBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com