Restaurant Technology Network’s Newest Workgroup Tackles KPIs

Restaurant Technology Network's (RTN) has launched a new workgroup to identify, collect and catalog Restaurant Technology Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

RTN Workgroups are where tech vendors and restaurants work together to solve common industry problems. Last year, the RTN workgroups released the Open API Framework and the Menu Synchronization Standard. Both are available online here.

The RTN KPI workgroup is working to identify, collect and catalog technology KPIs for restaurants to best align with today’s priorities and tomorrow’s possibilities

To help us tell the story, RTN members explain why now is the time to define KPIs.

Why KPIs?

“There are currently no standards for KPIs, and while large enterprises have the ability to create KPIs for themselves, smaller companies could benefit from a library of predefined metrics,” said Christoper Sebes, Partner, Results Thru Strategy.

“Many small business owners may not know where to start or how to define KPIs. As employee and consumer expectations continue to rapidly evolve and flex, this is the perfect time for our industry to align on key metrics that result in real-life actions that benefit restaurants of all sizes and types,” said Ben Pryor, Head of Innovation, SpotOn

Labor

“As the restaurant industry labor force continues to shrink and change on a fundamental level, some of the most complex and dynamic KPI's will all fall under the labor category. Whether we focus on rising wages, turnover ratios, or labor cost, the ability for operators to glean real insights as rapidly as possible will be critical to staying ahead of the ever-changing tide of regulations and market shifts,” said David Dittenber, CEO of BYOD. 

Leading Indicators

“I am excited about leading indicators, which are variables that can help identify long-term trends and possibly predict successful future outcomes of business processes," said  Phil Crawford, CTO of CKE Restaurants.

Marketing

"How restaurants recruit and retain customers is undergoing a dramatic shift in the age of food delivery, third-party ordering apps and social media. I'm excited to dive into marketing KPIs, as what may have been tried and true in the past could be completely different today," said David Gosman, Global Industry Strategist, HP.

Future Metrics

“KPIs have been around since we have been consuming data. Some of them are perfect in their simplicity, and others may be incomplete or misleading, because they didn't account for a data set that didn't exist last year. I am excited to be a part of this workgroup that will challenge the normal and seek to navigate better business decisions in this tumultuous sea of data,” said Joe Tenczar, Co-Founder, Restaurant CIOs.