FOCUS Brands-owned McAlister’s Deli, the Atlanta-based fast-casual deli chain, is looking to combine the best of COVID-era convenience and pre-pandemic experience in a post-COVID-19 world. Nation’s Restaurant News spoke with Joe Guith, president of McAlister’s Deli about the company’s investment in technology like tableside ordering, and how they’re merging the in-store experience with digital customer needs.
“We’re a popular lunch concept and pre-pandemic, I’ve heard from many guests how they’d never come here at noon because they did not want to wait in line, so we wanted to become more accessible to those guests,” Guith said. Being able to come in, sit down and order from the table seemed like a good idea and now today people don’t want to have as much interaction they don’t want you to touch their credit card and stand in a line, so that becomes even more relevant.”
Other technology investments include the implementation of curbside pickup and a relaunch of the McAlister’s Deli app to reduce guest friction and moving away from a surprise and delight platform to a transparent rewards structure.
“It wasn’t so much the investment in dollars but how do we leverage that platform to do different things during the pandemic to allow us to thrive,” Guith said.
Watch our video for more insight from McAlister’s Deli.