Operator Experience (OX) is broadly defined as the ease, simplicity and efficiency with which foodservice staff can deliver, scale and maintain a positive Customer Experience.
With the increasing amount of technologies entering the foodservice landscape, an increasing number of operators are faced with using many different types of software.
This requires software that not only helps the customer experience, but it should be easy to operate, scale and maintain.
Software that is gluttonous for your time creates deficits in operational efficiency. The technology you use should be so easy to operate that it’s impossible to go wrong. Training and learning should be intuitive, clear, and straightforward.
Task management (i.e. updating menus, creating new recipes, weekly item marketing) should seamlessly flow in execution. You don’t need to understand rocket science in order to create great experiences for your customers. Thus, any software used in foodservice should be easy to operate.
Things to consider and look for when purchasing software that is easy to operate:
To scale requires the software to easily be reconfigured to handle greatly increased workloads, business cases, and a variety of users. Scalability is achieved with proper software development.
Software that is ready to scale creates efficiencies that make the work easier and more impactful. Instead of having to repeat, replicate, and re-do tasks, you are quickly able to publish, create, and push information (ONCE!) to a variety of users, locations, channels, and ultimately, customers.
Things to consider and look for when purchasing software that is easy to scale:
Legacy systems are inefficient. Easy to maintain software helps enhance the efficiency of your operation and it also narrows the potential for mistakes and errors in your day to day.
High maintenance software is costly and increases with time, as the software starts to become obsolete due to changing customer requirements. Harder to maintain software makes the required skillset more difficult. As the required skillset grows, finding the right person becomes even more difficult (especially in this labor market) and the value of the software diminishes greatly.
Things to consider and look for when purchasing software that is easy to maintain:
In our third and final part of this series, we’ll explore why maintaining a balanced focus on both the customer experience and the operator experience is becoming an increasingly more important requirement for the success of your foodservice operation. If you can understand the required balance between OX and CX, you are well on your way to success!