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Restaurant taps mobile tech to boost consumer experience, save money and hone marketing

Tablets and a business intelligence service is helping a restaurant chain to not only foster more efficient customer point of sales it’s helping gleam valuable data to drive greater engagement.

Paula Suarez, director of software analysis and development for Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, explains why the company is putting mobile tech in the hands of its c-level executives as well as dining floor operations and kitchen facilities.

July 2, 2015

Tablets and a business intelligence service is helping a restaurant chain to not only foster more efficient customer point of sales it’s helping the eatery gain valuable data for driving greater engagement, hone marketing and even help track inventory, which should propel more cost savings.

That’s because Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants is putting the mobile technology in the hands of its c-level executives as well as dining floor operations and kitchen facilities, said Paula Suarez, director of software analysis and development for Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants, a franchise with more than 500 units.

The franchise’s custom-built business intelligence service, called Smoke Stack, was the focal point of a session, "Tablets: When, Where, Why and How" at the ICX Summit in Chicago earlier this week. Smoke Stack that analyzes data to help the restaurant connect with customers, which leads to sales increases. Specifically, the platform collects info from the chain’s POS, loyalty programs, customer surveys, marketing promos and inventory systems to provide near real-time feedback on sales and other key performance indicators, Suarez said.

The 'technology in a box," as Suarez described it, was born out of the franchise’s need for fast information since it’s been expanding so quickly over the past couple years.

"We experienced an enormous amount of growth and needed better insight into this evolving target market," she said.

How it works

To develop Smoke Stack, Dickey’s worked with iOLAP, a warehouse solutions company that combined data integration software from Syncsort with capabilities from a business intelligence firm and Amazon Redshift. It allows the 500-unit chain to learn about its customers but to also assess their needs, which helps them change operational behavior in real time.

All data is collected every 20 minutes and also during a daily morning briefing at corporate HQ. The process includes three steps:

1. Collect guest information then store data internally
2. Run guest data reports in Yellow Fin correlating with sales data
3. Analyze: Did sales increase or decrease; was it effective?

What Dickey’s learned

Suarez said the data collected has been priceless. Here are just a few vital data points the franchise has gleaned from the data effort:

• The chain’s average lunch guest is male, 43, drives an SUV and commutes 30 minutes to work, so the chain now considers Ford finance customers, who live 15 to 30 minutes away from a Dickey’s, as a prime advertising target.
• Female customers with children usually visit Dickey’s for a later and longer lunch on Wednesdays and that these female diners use Pinterest. To capitalize on this, Dickey’s has rolled out a Pinterest campaign where it debuts a craft each Wednesday
• One strong commonality among guests is that they play fantasy football and own dogs. This has led to the franchise putting more investment on advertising on fantasy football sites than on back-to-school campaigns, and run commercials on Animal Planet to reach their target audience.
• They are also including dogs in catering photos to inspire consumers to notice their ads.