Data science melds science with mathematics, and it extracts insight from mounds of data intelligence. When involved in your process, its principles align with leading restaurant technologies. Among them—machine learning and artificial may be most fashionable. 

However, for more years, data science foundations in statistics and data visualization have helped elevate brands in critical areas—from optimizing operations to streamlining strategy. Wouldn’t it be nice, if you consider it, to blend decision-making with planning and prediction?

That fruitful question is finally answered with data science. Inside that high-stakes desire, executives and restaurant leaders discover ways to predict patterns of purchasing and standardize their improvement—year to year, month to month, and day to day. 

If you learn anything from this post, know this. Data science offers a look into the past and present truth of your restaurant (or business, generally). While it cannot determine where you should or will go, it can be a protective device for your decisions. 

Use this introduction to data science for restaurant insights to grow in the way you want. Data science cannot tell you those desires—or therefore, where to achieve them. But, it is an invaluable balancing force for the committee driven with purpose. 

Key Takeaway: Though it won’t offer purpose, data science for restaurants uses statistics, visualization, machine learning, and AI technology to predict, plan, and promote success.

How Data Science for Restaurants Works

Now that you know the foundations where data science firmly sits, the next logical step tells us even more about this dynamic, interdisciplinary field. 

In data science for restaurants, seemingly infinite intelligence draws itself from popular POS systems to your CRM solutions and well beyond. Consistently, a quite amazing interplay of algorithmic calculation, data processing, and set analysis becomes crystallized into focused, specific, actionable information. 

While some systems for data science seem to work alone, others still employ data scientists to assist the discovery process. They work in similar but, of course, much more independent and visible ways. For this reason, we’ll follow their scientific steps in demonstrating the workings of data science for restaurants. 

The Steps of the Data Scientist: How to Produce Industry Insight

Data scientists first equip themselves with the right tools. We’ve mentioned a few already, such as artificial intelligence and algorithms. 

As they work with these tools, manipulating data and visualizing its secret patterns, they arrive at questions for more in-depth research. Here are some example points of interest that might lead to more insight from the data science perspective:

• Customer order cycles
• Employee retention
• Labor costs
• Order fulfillment 
• Order accuracy
• Customer surveys
• Revenue statistics

The investigation of inherent patterns in data requires this very sort of openness. In that sense, the data science allows the truth to come, and strives not to get in the way or dilute already complex truths. As naturally as that, these questions lead to further sources of information—especially when restaurant ecosystems stay firmly integrated. Then, these further sources of information contextualize and inform the surroundings of the questions asked. 

As a result, much of the work of data science rests with organization, visualization, and presentation of what always already exists inside your systems. 

It’s really not so simple to explain how these patterns, new questions, integrated sources, and sophisticated tools translate into the prediction models running restaurant empires. But, the benefits of taking this open-handed approach to information systems solves problems.  

Why Data Science Works

With such diverse tools, techniques, and technology, data science derives meanings. This is critical for modern restaurants as they face the risk of overwhelm when collecting vast sums of information “assets.” 

The truths found come from the unity in data science as it draws from almost every useful pool of knowledge (statistics, science, and so forth). These even allow scientists to experiment with new, possible data sets to understand how phenomena might unfold. 

You can see how valuable these “tests” of reality can be to build, sustain, and streamline the way your restaurant works. From these simulations, data can help answer questions about which way, operation or organizational shift, most likely leads to success by your standards.

How Restaurant Data Science Appears in Action

The transformation of the restaurant industry is as sure as the tides. The analytics tools driving those changes have been lowering food waste, improving delivery service, optimizing restaurant operations, and boosting quality all around. 

Even beyond these, data science attempts to use every available resource of information to monitor, understand, and enhance restaurants. Its purpose is usually directed at revenue alone, but the possibilities are more far-reaching—just as the data points themselves are.

Because data can track behavior and preferences while data science can enrich it with relationships, artificial intelligence has been quickly integrated. That’s why we already see large-scale restaurants taking on the responsibility of big data. These massive, complicated, and ever-increasing places of information (such as food data alone) could overwhelm those brand who are used to working in more discreet, disconnected systems. 

Restaurants who want the guiding knowledge of data science should accept that they must probably invest in new technologies built to derive these meanings. In particular, they should see the importance and prelude to insight: connecting their terminals (and other systems) to cloud-ready, AI-enhanced partners. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Data Science for Restaurants

Some executives, leaders, and restaurant owners face concern and confusion about data science for restaurants. They wonder how it could relate to them when there is already so much information to handle, orders to serve, and goals to meet. 

Others see how helpful it can be to practice opening up what might have seemed overwhelming, such as integrating online ordering or using fresh BI tools to dive into alternative directions. We suggest that restaurant can practice data science well by understanding its overall approach, and choosing tech solutions to fit.

What are best practices in data science for restaurants?

Data science is best used in situations where there is plentiful information, such as with customer order tracking and average ticket values coming from POS terminals. It’s also more effective for restaurants who are active about creating harmony in their operations through data integrations.

A large part of the strength data science brings comes from its ability to freely and openly draw from available resources as needed. You can see more about this above, but its openness toward patterns, relationships, and data points, ultimately, leads to insight. 

How can I benefit from data science as a restaurant?

By using the tools and tactics of solid data science, restaurant systems and processes improve. Its sophistication continues into all corners of restaurant operations where data is consistently collected. Results depend on the patterns found, the size of restaurant data sets, and the deeper questions asked.

For example, data science technology can help restaurants easily monitor orders, track stats, and optimize satisfaction. It can also challenge and promote other practices, according to the data fed to analysis and the interests of the data scientist or executive. 

Why does data science for restaurants matter?

Data science offers great service when you want to help restaurants grow into more stable and assured structures. While it offers many ways to organize incredible loads of building information, it also plays openly with the patterns that exist inside that data. 

This puts the insight back into the hands of restaurant leadership and decision-makers. For instance, it can help predict which customers are most interested or where marketing dollars are better spent next year.