When digital technology serves chefs

Automating customer relations, improving inventory management to reduce waste, creating images to present dishes... The benefits of artificial intelligence to support a restaurant's business have been outlined over the last few months. Except that bistro owners and restaurateurs haven't waited for AI to take advantage of digital technology. They're already relying on technology for tedious tasks, so they can devote themselves more easily to human relationships, which are far more fulfilling. Over the past ten years or so, a number of apps have been accompanying them on a daily basis. Here are the four essentials for a better understanding.

Brigad

Waiter, commis, chef de partie... We're all familiar with the recruitment problem in the restaurant sector. There's a shortage of applicants, but the workforce isn't always really qualified for the job. When you're the owner of a restaurant located in a tourist area, you may also have specific needs at certain times of the year to swell the ranks. Launched in 2016, the Brigad app thinks it has found the solution: connecting restaurant owners with staff who have chosen to set up on their own.

In other words, the latter choose to be auto-entrepreneurs and have the latitude to choose assignments that match their aspirations and organization. Brigad's directory offers an interesting pool of candidates, all the more so as each profile is verified by the Brigad team. All you have to do is enter the address of your establishment, the dates of the assignment and, of course, the position to be filled. To date, 15,000 people have seized the opportunities offered by chefs or restaurant owners.

Too Good To Go

The famous app was designed to enable any food business to sell its unsold products. Bakers were the first to put together baskets for consumers, before being joined by greengrocers. While hoteliers are already partners when they put together large buffets that can generate waste, restaurateurs too have the opportunity to recoup a little cash, if not participate in the fight against food waste. "Infact, it's become a reflex for some of the restaurant owners who work with us, because they're committed to doing their part," points out Luisa Ravoyard, spokesperson for Too Good To Go. And she adds, "it'snot so much a question of adding value to the raw material, because they know how to manage it well, but rather of selling off daily specials that haven't been ordered".

The logic remains the same: to offer consumers a third of the price. For restaurateurs, this opportunity also represents a visibility channel; app users use geolocation to locate participating merchants near them.

▶ Visit the Too Good To Go website

The Addition

While waiting to get the bill can annoy some customers, the task is no picnic for the restaurateur either. Since 2013, the app that refers to the title of Muriel Robin's famous sketch has been revolutionizing the organization of the front-of-house team with cash register software that can handle all the accounting, without necessarily being connected to the Internet. Today, L'Addition has over 18,000 users.

Ten years after its creation, the solution has integrated new functionalities in line with new customer behaviors, acquired in particular in the wake of the health crisis. After the confinements, QR codes are now available on tables for table consultation, as well as to pay the bill. This service is integrated into the application, offering as much freedom to consumers as to waiters. What's more, the latter is given more discreet latitude when it comes to tipping. A win-win result.

▶ See the L'Addition website

Zenchef

Launched in 2010, the app has become a must-have, whether you're the owner of a bistro or the chef of a gourmet table. Led by founders Xavier and Thomas Zeitoun and Julien Balmont, Zenchef has built its reputation by promising restaurateurs independent management of their reservations and customer files. The business model is based not on commissions, but on the principle of a monthly or annual subscription. Integrated directly into restaurateurs' websites and usable via a management module available on smartphones, the software does not pit digital against telephone reservations.

Customer calls can be received by connecting a Zenchef account to a telephone line. In the event of a fire, a modification or cancellation becomes less of a problem, since the team in the dining room can respond in a flash and make all the necessary changes... online. Better still, customer relations are improved, since when a customer returns, a customer file has already been created, making it possible to personalize the welcome.

▶ See the Zenchef website