Will Technology Help Olive Garden Rise Again?
Olive Garden had finally decided to incorporate technology within its business to boost sales.
Reported by the Inquisitr, the chain of Italian causal restaurants will slowly introduce online ordering as well as some nifty tech–assisted table–side ordering techniques. Olive Garden’s parent company Darden Restaurants had been searching for ways to uplift sagging business and one of the most obvious techniques was to start allowing patrons to order via the web. But, the company apparently thought of selling or even spinning off its rudderless casual dining concept Red Lobster, before attempting to revive fortunes via the techniques almost all in the restaurant business are actively adopting.
Olive Garden is certainly not sinking, at least not for the foreseeable future, however times are certainly hard and the company is now actively assimilating web–based ordering. Despite the fact that the company completed successful testing of the web–based platform last year, it rolled out the feature in this month and that too for limited number of outlets.
In the company’s own admission, it will require time till August to fully extend the ability to place an order via the web, reported One News Page. However, there is another interesting option that Olive Garden will roll–out that could get people really hooked–on. The restaurant chain may place a tablet computer on every table to offer the convenience of ordering via an electronic interface rather than the traditional paper–based option.
Being an Italian restaurant, the cooking has always been focused on presentation as well as flare coupled with great taste and ambience. Technology can truly help Olive Garden to offer a visually stunning glimpse. The menus presented via tablets can easily offer multimedia driven food–items that come alive on the screen if interacted with giving patrons a strong sense of encouragement and anticipation even while ordering.
No wonder Brinker International’s (EAT) Chili’s and DineEquity’s (DIN) Applebee’s have both wholeheartedly decided to put a tablet on every serving table, in every restaurant. In fact, Chili’s will be assisted by the same company, Ziosk that is helping Olive Garden take the technological leap into the future of restaurant business.
Surprisingly Olive Garden has a flourishing take–out business too. While tablets might still be a very new endeavor for restaurants, online ordering has been prevalent for quite some time and hence could have been easily employed by the Italian restaurant chain. Though a little late, these tech–assisted options could surely help the restaurant enhance exposure, appeal and more importantly, sales.
[Images via Bing]
