Rosa’s Thai is employing technology solutions to recentre the dine-in experience, and sees potential to experiment with more “tech led” formats going forward.
The brand’s finance director, Tsara Taylor told delegates at MCA’s Hostech that the brand would “never say never” to entering the quick-service channel.
“Things cook very quickly in a wok,” she joked.
“I’m not sure we’re brave enough to go straight into a QSR type format,” however, there could be potential for a “more express”, style operation.
“We could potentially put in some kiosk type ordering, but with a mixture of full-service availability as well, depending on the location, such as in super high footfall places.
She said the Thai café concept had been “early adopters” of tech, considering the size of the business - especially around building a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
“We are still reasonably small, and tech evolves so quickly,” she added.
Since the pandemic, Rosa’s has refocused its mindset through tech, with a foregrounding of the dine-in experience.
“We are a really unfussy brand, and our venues are really casual, so we pride ourselves on being as close to Thai cafes as you could get.
“So, we’re always conscious about making sure we’ve got the right solutions, but that they are inherently hidden from visibility.
Having created a large delivery business pre-pandemic, Taylor said that tech had since been about “coming back to a normal restaurant business.”
“Deliveries should be ancillary to our dining trade.”
“The mindset shift, and getting back to that, has been where we’ve been focused on tech.”
Therefore, the brand is harnessing solutions to make sure delivery riders have minimal interaction with dining customers.
“I call it the Argos for riders; the screen outside says which orders have been completed so they stop coming into the restaurant and getting in the way of normal trade.
Taylor went on to say, “Fundamentally, we are a hospitality business.”
This means that any implementation of tech has to enable the business to improve its team’s ability to deliver a good product and good service consistently and enhance the customer journey, she added.
Without a head of IT, Taylor said, “you’re somewhat beholden to making sure that you’re asking the right questions, at the right time and have the right capacity to put those things in place.
“We did a big review last year, with a consultant to help us review what our tech stack is. What does good look like, and where are we on that benchmark?”
“We’ve prioritised certain things there, and made a lot of progress.”
