Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast

Host Daniel Litwin is joined by guests Peter Seltenright, sales director for Artificial Solutions, and Austin Curry, product manager for Acrelec, to discuss the future of self-ordering kiosks. These self-powered experiences, including potential, conversational voice-powered ordering, are a critical component of powering up customer experiences – according to Tillster, 65% of customers would be more likely to visit a restaurant with self-order kiosks, and 30% said they’d prefer kiosks to cashiers if wait time isn’t a factor. “America is a little late on the adoption of the self-ordering kiosk,” Curry said. “But there are just so many benefits to having the seamless integration of being able to walk into any restaurant that has a self-ordering kiosk. (You’re) able to not only simplify the stream of making your order, but (reducing) a lot of what we call ‘order anxiety.’” Seltenright and Curry are currently collaborating on conversational AI to power that voice-powered ordering both inside restaurants and in drive-thrus, an addition that will elevate and create frictionless customer experiences. “Conversational AI is definitely becoming a very large part of our daily lives,” Curry said. Both dive into the benefits of voice-powered ordering for quick-service and fast casual restaurants (QSR), the challenges on the journey to seamless integration, factors that affect customer experience, such as tone, sentiment and language, and QSR response to this rapidly approaching technology. “We’ve been around for over 15 years doing some sort of work within conversational AI, and we’ve seen the industry change quite a bit. … What we’re focused on is really true, conversational AI,” Seltenright said. “Speaking like a human, understanding the memory and context of the conversation, not making people restate what they’re trying to do – just making it very natural.”

The wave of technology sweeping the globe is leaving no stone unturned, including in the restaurant and dining industry. In fact, technology has transformed the way we order, dine out and hit the drive-thru. On this episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast we unpack how new tech can leverage the dining experience or, alternatively, sink a business. Jeff Wayman VP of Global Account Management at Acrelec, dishes (pun intended) on the different ways restaurants can integrate new technologies into each unique business, increasing efficiency and elevating the customer experience. With over 25 years of experience, Wayman has seen his fair share of innovation. So, what tech has made the biggest impact on the restaurant industry. What has flopped? Wayman notes improvements in drive-thru audio quality and how much easier ordering and taking correct orders have become as a result. Now, Wayman’s eye is on technology that enables customer personalization, a rising trend in the food and beverage industry. Self-order kiosks are increasingly prevalent in restaurants, enabling the customer to have a flexible and customized order. Wayman said the bottom line when it comes to integrating tech into a business flow is to increase accuracy and efficiency. Every business has its own unique technological solution that reflects the brand and operational flow. Whether you’re the McDonald’s Corporation or a mom-and-pop diner, technology can play a part in invigorating the dining experience and increasing profits.

On this episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast brought to you by Acrelec, Clément Pévrier, head of digital projects for Udvise, joined Tyler Kern for a discussion focused on Udvise, founded by Acrelec to be the expert agency in digital solutions for the QSR industry. Ordering Kiosk’s were a main focus of the discussion. Pévrier stressed the importance of both the hardware and software aspects of the Kiosk. The customer experience with the kiosk is paramount, and the data derived from those orders, is important for Udvise to develop strategies, solutions, and future product enhancements to make the experience even better. Pévrier described his journey in the QSR industry where he started out as a McDonald’s restaurant crew member in France, worked his way up to store manager, and involved himself in other retail ventures throughout the years. Pévrier’s inside knowledge on the pain points for both sides of the QSR house, customers and servers, provided him with key insights and learnings he has been able to take with him to Udvise to develop technology solutions to make those experiences better. How people order today, whether it’s at a kiosk, the traditional counter, or by smartphone, are all considerations Pévrier and his team take into account when creating that customer journey. And Pévrier saw the changing behaviors of the customer as these new technologies came into play in the QSRs he worked in. “The challenge of today,” Pévrier noted, “is to deliver services to the customer with simplicity, rapidity, and in a personified way.”

On this episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast by Acrelec, Vincent Attia, Data Processing Manager for Acrelec, spoke with host Daniel Litwin, The Voice of B2B, about utilizing AI in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry. Attia began the conversation with a brief explanation of what AI is in the food service industry; in the QSR space, McDonald’s is one of the only companies who have utilized AI in their restaurants. To aid in this endeavor, McDonald’s acquired an Omnichannel Personalization Platform, Dynamic Yield, for $300 Million in the spring of 2019. While this type of AI personalization is similar to the shopping experience Amazon provides, Attia detailed how the QSR industry can deploy it in a different way. One new product introduction that Attia said is doing well in the QSR industry is the self-service kiosk. The kiosk’s help reduce the pressure on the person ordering, who doesn’t feel pressured to hurry up and place an order. QSR’s have reported a 10-15% uptick in sales due to the kiosks. Attia provided an example of a QSR formally known as Eatsa, which positioned itself as a 21st Century Automat, with a cashless, all digital order flow. Eatsa is now rebranded as a technology company, Brightloom, and has partnered with Starbucks. In exchange for an equity stake in Brightloom, Starbucks has licensed aspects of their mobile ordering and rewards technology to the QSR. Attia and Litwin discussed why QSRs are slow to adapt AI technology, and how it can provide a deeper look into analyzing areas of the QSR workflow, from drive-thru lines to fry-cook temperatures. Attia went on to explain how AI can improve bottlenecks in the QSR workflow. What many QSR’s may not know is, their existing hardware often would not have to change in order to employ these AI technologies. Attia walked Litwin through the steps a QSR must take in order to employ AI software on their existing hardware.

A great job is about more than just clocking in and out each day. More and more employees are searching for careers with purpose at companies with an international outlook and an eye on the future. At Acrelec a global company offering contemporary brand marketing, they aim to be more than just a great job, but an enjoyable place to work primed with careers that are challenging, innovative, and geared for growth. On this jobcast episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast by Acrelec, we peeled back the company culture direction at Acrelec with Amanda Stamm, Marketing and Innovation Project Manager. For those with an itch to travel, Acrelec boasts offices and projects around the world. With Paris offices in the works, overseas opportunities are within sight for incoming employees. For those wishing to stay close to home, Acrelec’s Chicago based office boasts a hip West Loop location, an updated office with rooftop, and an international city to call home. But more than just a cool urban office, Acrelec values its employees. “Right off the bat, they valued my opinion from day one,” Stamm said. Though the digital transformation company has over 1,000 employees, it maintains a small business feel by listening and learning from each other’s input. “I think that Acrelec got to where it is today by understanding ‘no idea is a bad idea’," Stamm said when asked what makes Acrelec unique. By embracing out of the box thinkers and prioritizing clients, Acrelec focuses on a future of collaboration, growth, and innovation. If you'd like to apply for a position at Acrelec, from France to the US, click here.

Integrating kiosks into a store or restaurant environment starts with a meeting of the minds. One of the most important things to understand as early as possible in the process--before implementation--is who the consumer is and what the store wants to achieve both today and tomorrow. While there are a number of initial decisions to be made before implementation for a successful return, including color, size, aesthetics and location, that discovery phase of understanding of the customer journey takes time and research to figure out. When a business takes the time to understand these decisions beforehand, it makes for a much more successful implementation down the road, according to Tyler Marpes of Acrelec America. On this episode of Beyond Technology, the Experience Podcast by Acrelec, Marpes and host Daniel Litwin get into the nitty gritty of deploying kiosk hardware in a brick and mortar environment, and what makes for a seamless integration. Kiosk implementation should not only improve guest experiences, but also improve business operations, allowing employees to handle other tasks that they might not have had time for before, Marpes said. In addition, a successfully implemented kiosk should be a “disruptive but well integrated technology.” In other words, with consumers already familiar with touchscreens, it’s important to incorporate a kiosk that is easy to use and familiar, yet stands out and enhances the customer experience.

The ease of online shopping has put a speed bump in the traditional retail experience. But brick-and-mortar stores are putting on their thinking caps, rolling out massive changes that make shopping an exciting, worthwhile experience. The retail industry is capitalizing on today's experience driven economy, integrating tech and digital trends to drive engagement and loyalty to the brand. On this episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast, we explore these technology trends in retail with Amanad Stamm, Project Manager for Acrelec. So what makes a good in-person shopping experience today, one that will keep the customer coming back for more? “It’s really all about what you can provide to your customer outside of your product," Stamm said. This comes down to curating a personalized experience for each visitor to the store. Stamm expands on this idea, citing her work with big brands like McDonald’s. In her time designing an app for the fast-food giant, she found ways to customize the experience for an enormous demographic and create an app that felt essential and effective for each customer. But Stamm attests that technology can often hamper a store’s efforts. “The technology for the sake of technology is where it all falls apart.” she said. The key to effective tech experiences in retail? — research. “Managers can sometimes be blind to the issues facing their sales associates," she said, explaining how just knowing your customer isn’t enough. Brands must also the pain points of their employees. “Nothing is one size fits all, especially when it comes to technology,” Stamm said, summarizing how each brand is different,with its own set of struggles. But with ample research and testing, technology can be a boon to business and a pleasure for the customer.

Like other industries affected by the growth of the experience economy, restaurants and QSRs are feeling the pressure to make the customer journey as frictionless as possible. Acrelec's digital ordering technology solution helps make the customer experience easy, the kitchen more productive, and ultimately the restaurant more profitable. On this episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast brought to you by Acrelec, host Daniel Litwin sat down with Côme Billerey, head of products at Acrelec, to discuss how AI is the difference-maker in smart QSR menus. Before digital ordering technology using AI, QSRs were challenged to serve the two basic tenets of food service: speed and food quality. "People were being served fast but the food was already prepared before they arrived in the restaurant," Billerey said. "Now customers expect to have the food prepared as soon as they order and still be served fast. This is where AI can really improve by driving the customers during the ordering process to personalize and also improve on the kitchen side for better production capabilities." Personalization is the key to the customer experience, Billerey said. With AI and tools such as Acrelec's Bridge, the central brain of a restaurant's software, customers can see previous orders and personalized recommendations based on the time of day and other factors that might leverage machine learning to make accurate predictions. Also on this episode, Billerey shared how Acrelec is consulting with UI and UX design companies to ensure the company's digital signage solutions are the most responsive and easiest to use for consumers.

Technology has transformed the way we shop and make decisions. With a little bit of data, a transaction can be curated specifically to each customer. Drive-thru transactions are no exception to the trend, and food and beverage giants like McDonalds and Starbucks are investing heavily in customer personalization and decision technology for their drive-thru transactions. On today’s episode of Beyond Technology: The Experience Podcast by Acrelec, we explore the benefits and hurdles of integrating personalized technology into the drive-thru market with Thibaud Denolle, director of innovation and marketing at Acrelec. The drive-thru experience has never been about creating personal connection. In response to In-and-Out’s popularization of the drive thru, Thibaud remarks ““It’s not In-and-lets-have-a-very-great-conversation-and-then-Out.” The drive-thru has always been about convenience. But, today’s drive-thru experience aims to change that. Thibaud asks “How can we build 1-to-1 relationship in the drive thru without compromising the speed of service?” “Everyone is fighting for seconds of attention,” says Thibaud of our speedy, tech driven society. “If a customer is not happy it will not hesitate to go somewhere else,” he says, explaining why it is so crucial for new technology in the dining space to be implemented seamlessly, with no impact on the stream of service. “At Acrelec we try to bring technology that does not require the staff to change their habits…” says Thibaud. Often times, new technology designed to make production more efficient can be more of a boondoggle than a benefit. Sometimes the biggest customer pain point can be the technology itself, but Acrelec’s innovations aim to eliminate the stumbles associated with rolling out new customer-personalized technology.

Over the last decade digital technology has spread into quick serve restaurants, typically in the form of digital menu boards. But only until recently have those stores been able to use digital technology to collect, analyze, and predict customer behavior. On this episode of the ____ podcast, Côme Billerey, head of product innovation at Acrelec, shares how machine learning has come to your favorite restaurant. “We are focusing on how can we improve the customer journey and improve operations thanks to AI,” Billerey said. This means using machine learning to improve the speed of service, and possibly predict orders so restaurant managers know how to allocate resources to optimize efficiency. The latest smart displays found in stores can collect data in real-time. With AI, the displays can learn the weather and forecast how many people will be in the store and what they’ll order. Billerey explained that these predictive capabilities have been used by websites like Amazon for some time, but only now are they available to brick and mortar stores. Although the technology will never achieve 100% accurate trend forecasting, “in the past years we have reached, in certain fields, really great predictive capabilities of 95 to 97%," Billerey said. Billerey divulged that he worked with McDonalds in leveraging machine learning to time cars in a drive-thru lane. First using sensors in the road and then switching to cameras, he was able to predict bottlenecks so that the restaurants could reorganize staff for better service. The experience gave him a greater appreciation for the human eye which, working with the brain, is capable of visual processing and analysis that cameras and computers just can’t do. “It should amaze people, or at least, it amazes me," Billerey said. Currently, he’s working with Intel to create more cost and energy effective solutions to process real-time data. And while AI is not hard to deploy at select sites, many startups have trouble doing so across a network. That’s where he says Acrelec is different. “We know how to scale technology on many, many different locations," Billerey said.