There is no denying that digitalisation is a new revolution. At a time when technology is taking over all aspects of society in an exponential way, not introducing it into the management of companies is a clear mistake that could lead to their disappearance. But we cannot forget that the incorporation of technology is a challenge for any type of company and sector. This study analyses the importance of digitalisation in traditional restaurants and its influence on the management of marketing policies using case study analysis. Therefore, the aim of this study is to show how digitalisation for order management in these companies can also be applied to marketing policies. This is because, by monitoring and storing the customer's behaviour in the ordering process from start to finish, it is possible to know their preferences and searches in a more concrete way. Such information enables the company to maximise its resources by applying policies designed to meet customer needs, as well as to design targeted advertising to increase the chances of success of the advertising campaign.
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More and more companies in the hospitality sector are opting to innovate in their order management systems (Modica et al., 2020). Such technology implementation not only helps to increase productivity, efficiency and control over the business' stock, but also allows data to be collected when customers place their orders (Line et al., 2020).
The systems applied for order management and data collection are diverse. The diversity is due to the multitude of characteristics that the establishment may have when implementing digital order chain systems. It is influenced by the investment budget for the implementation of the technology, type of business, location, capacity, income, etc. As well as more staff-focused ones, which are sometimes decisive, especially in family-run establishments where staff turnover is low. In this case the characteristics to take into account are the age, aversion to technology or the technological knowledge of the staff. It is important to bear in mind that these systems were implemented by large multinationals, but nowadays small establishments have also computerised their order management, in a very high proportion.
The digital revolution had already reached the hospitality sector at all levels in the second decade of the 20th century. To a greater or lesser extent, we began to hear that the survival of establishments no longer depended solely on prestige, quality or price, among others, but that technology was here to stay and to be an almost indispensable element for the viability of any hotel establishment (Filimonau & Naumova, 2020).
Implementation of software, cash drawers, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), digital letters, online ordering systems, etc. They allowed greater control of the business and increased its profitability, which in the future could determine viability, but was not entirely decisive. Everything changed when in early 2020 the Covid-19 global health crisis exploded (Belzunegui-Eraso and Erro-Garcés, 2020; Hou et al., 2020; Oliver et al., 2020). In Spain, as in the rest of the countries in the world, the pandemic has forced companies and people to change their living and working habits, since March 2020 a state of alarm has been declared and most of the establishments have been temporarily closed (Pedauga et al., 2021; Pérez-Calle et al., 2020). In the case of companies that could opt for teleworking, they have continued to operate remotely. This change has had an economic impact on companies. Quarantines, restrictions and new regulations have brought about a turning point in the digitisation of the hospitality sector.
Digitisation is no longer an alternative to be considered only to increase profitability and improve management control. The pandemic has forced an implementation of digitization (Skulmowski & Rey, 2020). Health regulations and the collective fear of using physical letters, the closure of establishments and their adaptation to take-away food or the reduction of capacity. It has made digitalisation absolutely necessary for the survival of hospitality businesses (Schaffer et al., 2021).
The technological revolution has accelerated and has been a floater for many companies, which have been clinging to it with great effort. In the case of large franchises, they have used this change to implement new, more disruptive systems that would have been criticised at other times but are now seen as positive by the customer(Hobbs, 2021). This is the case of McDonals, which has eliminated the McAuto order-taking staff and implemented an artificial intelligence system to take orders. It is also common for most franchised fastfood outlets to have virtually eliminated checkout staff and replaced them with digital ordering systems.