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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

customer data

Brightloom Raises $15M, Launches a ‘Customer Growth Platform’ to Help Restaurants With Their Data

Restaurant tech company Brightloom has launched what it’s calling a “Customer Growth Platform” (CGP). The software will enable smaller restaurants to get more valuable insights out of their customer data and translate those insights into marketing campaigns more relevant to customers.

On top of that launch, Brightloom has also raised $15 million from new and existing investors including Valor Siren Ventures and Tao Capital Partners. The company will use its new funds to increase R&D and scale its new product, which Brightloom CEO Adam Brotman calls “a really easy solution for the everyday restaurant brand.”

The move towards customer engagement software is a change for Brightloom, which up to now has been better known for its high-tech cubby system and software that manages front- and back-of-house restaurant operations. Brotman confirmed over the phone last week that the new CGP product is now the company’s main focus.

He explained that this level of technical sophistication when it comes to customer engagement has historically been the territory of the billion-plus-dollar chains (think McDonald’s or Starbucks). But these systems take millions of dollars to build and sometimes up to a year to implement. It’s an understatement to say those numbers are unattainable for most restaurants, from both a cost and time perspective. 

“That’s the problem we’re attacking,” he said. “It should not take months or a year or millions of dollars.” 

Brotman knows a thing or two about these systems, having been the Chief Digital Officer at Starbucks for a number of years. (Brightloom also licensed its previous product to Starbucks last year.) While Brightloom is obviously not mimicking exactly what the coffee giant puts its data to work, he brings an insider’s perspective to the operation, and to the overall conversation around restaurant customer data.

“The biggest opportunity is customer data,” he said of the restaurant industry right now. “That opportunity was on everyone’s minds before the pandemic. Now it’s exploded because everything is so digital.”

Brightloom’s CGP system integrates with a restaurant’s main data source (the point of sale, a data warehouse, etc.) Among the features on the new platform is a product recommendation and forecast tool called SmartSegments, which can predict what customers are likely to purchase next. The results of those SmartSegments can be imported into a restaurant’s existing software for managing marketing campaigns in order to offer customers more relevant offers, upsells, and deals. 

The platform also includes a dashboard with detailed results on different marketing campaigns and regular reports on how campaigns are performing and how they can be improved in the future. 

Brightloom says the CGP platform launched in 2020 as an invite-only beta and is now in use with about 25 different restaurant brands. For now, the smallest restaurant brand Brightloom works with has five units, while the largest has close to 1,000. Brotman says the product does not make sense at the moment for a single-unit restaurant, although that’s another challenge the company is working to solve.

Of course, software that helps restaurants leverage data only works if the restaurant actually owns the data. Right now, ownership of a lot of data lies in the hands of the third-party delivery platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats. This has been an increasingly problematic issue since the pandemic started, with many across the industry referring to the pandemic as a kind of “a wake-up call” to restaurants about what they are doing (or not doing) with their data.

Right now, most restaurants that aren’t billion-dollar chains are just trying to keep the lights on. However, the industry is not going to go backwards in terms of digital ordering. To the extent that they are able to, restaurants should be thinking about how they will put their data to use once the worst of the pandemic and its accompanying shutdowns/restrictions/lockdowns has passed.

“The more [restaurants] allow that data to be in the hands of the third-party marketplaces, the more they are giving up,” Brotman said. “I do believe there’s a value and a time and a place for these marketplaces. But restaurant owners should be aware and be careful that there’s a tradeoff.”

Popmenu Raises $17M to Expand Its Restaurant Software Capabilities

Popmenu, a platform for digital ordering and reservations for restaurants, announced this week it has raised a $17 million Series B round. The round was led by Bedrock Capital, with participation from existing investors Base10 Partners and Felicis Ventures, as well as new investors Mantis Ventures and Chapter One Ventures. This brings Popmenu’s total funding to $22.1 million. 

In a press release sent to The Spoon, Popmenu said It will use the new funds to develop new features for its platform, which currently allows restaurants to manage online ordering and menus, collect direct feedback from customers (as opposed to getting it via third-party platforms), manage reservations, and integrate with delivery and reservations services. 

Right now, one of the company’s main selling points is that it gives restaurants more control over their own branding, which is tough to do in the age of online delivery platforms and user-driven review sites like Yelp and Google. To give restaurants more of that brand control, Popmenu creates customized websites that include the aforementioned features and that allow the restaurants’ customers to upload their own photos, feedback, and reviews.

In response to the pandemic, Popmenu, like other restaurant tech companies, also launched its own version of contactless software that lets guests scan a QR code with their own smartphones to view and order from restaurant menus. 

In addition to contactless features, having more control over their own branding (and customer data) has surfaced as a priority for restaurants since the start of the pandemic. SKS panelists noted yesterday that more restaurants, from large chains to mom-and-pop shops, are starting to bring more elements of the off-premises experience back into their own control. ShiftPixy, a company that provides not just custom-branded websites but also delivery drivers, is a huge supporter of restaurant-controlled customer data. Square just launched a similar function.

Even delivery services, like Uber Eats, now offer restaurants the ability to process orders via their own websites. The catch with that last one, of course, is that Uber Eats still owns the customer data, which kind of renders the whole point of maintaining one’s own website null and void.

As more companies like Popmenu bring features to the table that put branding and data back in the hands of restaurants, there will inevitably be more pushback from third-party delivery.

Coronavirus is ‘a Wakeup Call’ for Restaurants When It Comes to Their Customer Data

Of all the tidbits of advice and information to come up in conversation with restaurants over the last few weeks, “communicate with your customers” is across the board the most popular mantra uttered.

There’s just one problem. In a restaurant industry currently powered by off-premises orders largely fulfilled by third-party services like Grubhub and DoorDash, restaurants can’t communicate directly with their customers because they have no data on who those people actually are.

One restaurant tech cofounder and CEO — namely Scott Absher of ShiftPixy — believes now is the time for restaurants to rethink the way their approach to customer data. Among other things, the crisis stemming from the novel coronavirus should be a wakeup call for these folks about how they treat their customer data — and how willingly they part with it.

Recently over the phone, he noted restaurants should “own those relationships” with customers and that “they need to rethink how they’re connecting digitally with their customers.”

Say a restaurant wants to promote pickup orders, which unlike third-party delivery can actually make restaurants a little money right now. Said restaurant might even offer some special deals or promotions for customers who order through the businesses own mobile app and opt to pick up the order. Trouble is, if the restaurant has left most of its off-premises management to Grubhub, it won’t have a way of communicating those deals in the first place. Customers may not even know the restaurant has its own mobile app that’s an alternative to Grubhub. 

Absher, who spends a lot of time talking to restaurants and has of late heard “some really frightened conversations,” believes now is the time to rethink both the concept of restaurant tech and the role customer data plays within it.

He calls this “destiny technology.” Websites and mobile apps are real estate customers visit just as they would a brick-and-mortar location. They will form opinions about their overall experience and share those opinions with others, and a restaurant should have access to that feedback much as they would have had to a comment card in the ‘80s.

“This is your new frontier,” Absher says. “It’s just as important as [physical] location is.” 

ShiftPixy has some skin in this game. Outside of being a platform for restaurants to find on-demand workers to fill shifts and combat turnover, the company also helps restaurants get up and running with delivery. Its own architecture runs behind the scenes of a restaurant’s in-house mobile app, which means instead of relying on Grubhub et al for delivery, restaurants can pay ShiftPixy a flat fee to manage the technical logistics of delivery orders and provide drivers. More important, because orders go through a restaurant’s own app, those businesses are keeping their own data.

The debate over who should own restaurant customer data isn’t new; COVID-19 just intensified it.

Right now, of course, many restaurants are just struggling to keep their doors open in some capacity. But with every new story that suggests an abuse of power on the part of third-party delivery companies, the question of who gets to own restaurant customer data (including menu prices, in some cases) becomes ever more important. And with mobile orders expected to proliferate in the post-pandemic restaurant industry, expect an uptick in solutions that promote native restaurant apps and offer businesses more control over their own data.

Report: 56% of Consumers Want to Know How Restaurants Use Their Data

Over half of restaurant customers want to know more about how restaurants use their personal information, according to Technomic’s recently released Technology Consumer Trends Report. The report, which is part of Technomic’s ongoing research into how technology is impacting the foodservice industry, looks at U.S. consumers’ preferences and demands in this area. 

Restaurant these days are testing out all manner of technological tools, from self-service kiosks to digital menu boards at the drive through to AI-powered mobile apps that increasingly rely on customers’ past orders and dietary preferences to offer the most relevant recommendations. All these tools require at least some level of customer data, as do delivery apps from the likes of DoorDash or Grubhub. 

Customers’ control over their own data is a key theme in Technomic’s report, which notes that “control over personal data is becoming the expectation.” Over half of consumers, 56 percent, want to know more about how restaurants use their personal information. Currently, less than half (37 percent) say they trust food service brands not to misuse their personal data. 

At the same time, restaurant customers seem more willing to part with personal data if it means getting an easier, faster, more personalized experience with a restaurant. As one survey respondent noted, “The benefits of using technology to order/pay for food and beverages from restaurants outweigh the risks to my personal data.”

We see this adoption in the success brands like Chipotle and McDonald’s, who wouldn’t have billion-dollar-plus digital businesses if customers weren’t willing to hand over at least some of their data. And it’s not just your past orders and address restaurants are after, either. Some, notably Sevenrooms, envision a day when any restaurant will be able to know things like a customer’s dietary restrictions, birthday, and favorite dessert, thanks to data. Others, like 5Thru, are using license plate scanning technology to collect data and make the drive-thru experience faster and more personalized for customers. Then there are ghost kitchens, which more or less run on customer data, as all orders are placed digitally.

As consumers get more comfortable parting with their personal data to navigate the drive-thru line faster or speed up food delivery times, the next big challenge for the restaurant industry will be establishing trust with these customers. As Technomic’s report noted, “. . . brands must meet consumer expectations for privacy and control over their personal data, especially as more brands leverage technology to obtain customer data to personalize the experience.”

Right now just over half of those surveyed for Technomic’s report said they want to know what restaurants do with their data. We can expect that figure to jump over the next several months as demand for off-premises experiences increases and the number of customers ordering digitally goes up. That makes establishing trust a major priority for the rest of 2020.

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