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Highlighted data from Restaurant365’s annual customer survey, surrounding restaurant food and labor costs, industry trends, and the future of restaurant tech.
Each December, the Restaurant365 team conducts a survey of its customers to better understand their challenges, accomplishments, and the state of the restaurant industry going into the new year. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights that shed light on the industry’s current landscape and what lies ahead.
Restaurant365 is the industry’s leading all-in-one, cloud-based accounting, inventory, and workforce solution. As such, we have the unique opportunity to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our customers as they navigate the challenges and joys of running and growing successful restaurant companies. Â
Each year, we get the bonus of digging in further to get an on-the-ground perspective of what operators are seeing, thinking, feeling, and planning. Restaurant operators overseeing nearly 5,500 locations participated in this year’s State of the Industry survey. We’re grateful for their time and thoughts and their continued as they work hard to serve those who love great food. Read on for key stats from this year’s survey.
When asked to rank their top challenge of 2023, restaurant leaders said they struggled with familiar difficulties: food costs, labor costs, and staffing.
Participants focused on labor issues when asked to rank, in a list of six options, the top challenges they expect in 2024. Â
We know the restaurant industry is all about hustle, and survey participants said they plan to invest in a diverse array of talent and tools to help make 2024 successful. Leaders had the opportunity to select one or all options from a list of six investment priorities:
We also asked restaurant leaders to list all areas they planned to add dollars in the front-of-house. Employee incentives were the top priority, with nearly 50% of respondents planning to invest, followed by:
On the other side of the house, 2024 investments will flow towards teams and technology, with business intelligence coming in as the top investment (46%), followed by:
As artificial intelligence becomes a more significant topic of conversation in the restaurant and potential new value drivers emerge, we wanted to learn what our customers were thinking. Like other investment plan questions, we asked participants to choose as many avenues they plan to pursue.
Brick-and-mortar growth looks steady in the coming year, with 57% of respondents planning to grow, compared to 60% in last year’s survey. Twenty-five percent of respondents reported plans to open one location, 28% planning two to five, and 4% planning six or more.
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