Throughout the pandemic, Inspire Brands began rolling out new technologies to help ease digital customer convenience, from contactless payment which began testing at Buffalo Wild Wings in September, to an order-ahead platform with mobile app capabilities, which will roll out to all Arby’s restaurants in the first quarter of 2021 after a pilot test, which began in November.  As these new technology capabilities are introduced, one of the biggest challenges, Inspire Brands chief information officer Raghu Sagi said, is figuring out which technology investments are the best fit for which of their now-seven brands (with the recent acquisition of Dunkin’ and Baskin-Robbins). “For example, we already have a strong, robust app for Buffalo Wild Wings and Sonic too,” Sagi told Nation’s Restaurant News. “The way we look at it is, ‘what are we learning from our other brands?’ And we’ll introduce some of those features, but the app has to be unique to what Arby’s guests would need. Then eventually, the platform will be able to support all of these features for all of the brands along the way.”

Over the past four months, Inspire Brands has developed the pilot test of Arby’s order-ahead platform which will be added to their mobile app in 2021. The order-ahead features started a pilot at 10-12 restaurants in November. One of the most important aspects of the order-ahead feature, Sagi said, is its personalization capabilities based on customer data. “That is what allows us to be able to give, based upon the user’s order history and their preferences, personalized orders, recommendations, and menu suggestions,” Sagi said. “Reaching the guest wherever they are and providing the best guest experience is a fundamental premise of how we think about personalized technology.” Buffalo Wild Wings, meanwhile, began piloting their contactless payment program over the summer, and it’s currently available in 30 bars in the Atlanta and Minneapolis regions. Eventually, contactless payment will be integrated with their app and rolled out nationally, though Sagi did not have a timeline on when that will happen. Guests can access contactless payment inside the restaurant, either through a link via SMS or by scanning the QR code on their receipt. Sagi aid they have found that the text message option is the most popular among guests since it offers the most convenient experience with the least contact. “Guests have told us they like that they now don’t have to wait in line to pay, so that’s just one more use case from this technology,” Sagi said. Sagi added that with these new technology capabilities, they will begin building a “multi-tenant platform” for all of the Inspire Brands. However, he would not extrapolate on the latest technological advancements or integration capabilities coming to Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John’s, Rusty Taco, Dunkin’, or Baskin-Robbins. Inspire Brands is the second-largest foodservice company in the U.S. by locations and sales, totaling nearly 32,000 restaurants in 60 countries globally, with $26 billion in sales. – Source: NRN.