Starfleet Research has introduced the discharge of The Restaurant Optimization Playbook: How to Achieve Peak Performance and Profitability in 2026—and Beyond, a brand new research-driven eBook primarily based on market analysis involving 350+ restaurant house owners and operators throughout main world areas and restaurant codecs. The brand new eBook, made potential with underwriting help from Square, finds that at the same time as eating places undertake extra digital instruments, operational confidence stays fragile: solely 18% of operators describe themselves as very assured of their capability to forecast gross sales, labor wants, or visitor visitors on a day by day or weekly foundation.
The analysis underscores how demand volatility, labor instability, provider worth fluctuations and more and more complicated visitor expectations are forcing eating places to rethink optimization as an always-on self-discipline and never a periodic operational reset. Almost half (48%) of operators report being solely “considerably assured” in forecasting, whereas 32% admit they don’t seem to be very assured or not assured in any respect. On the identical time, enthusiasm for predictive intelligence is powerful: 74% fee predictive insights that incorporate variables similar to climate, native occasions, and neighborhood visitors patterns as extraordinarily or very worthwhile.
“Restaurant operators have by no means had extra knowledge at their fingertips, but many nonetheless really feel unsure about what tomorrow will deliver,” stated Dustin Stone, a analysis analysts at Starfleet Analysis. “This examine exhibits that the following aggressive edge gained’t come from accumulating extra knowledge. Fairly, it should come from turning knowledge into solutions sooner, surfacing points routinely, and tightening the hyperlink between choices and profitability.”
The eBook explores how main operators are constructing built-in optimization programs that join front-of-house and back-of-house workflows with real-time analytics and predictive perception. Fairly than treating expertise as a patchwork of disconnected instruments, these eating places are consolidating round platforms and workflows that seize richer knowledge at each visitor touchpoint and help sooner, extra proactive decision-making.
Key analysis findings highlighted within the new eBook embrace:
Demand forecasting stays a serious vulnerability. Solely a small minority (18%) report being very assured in forecasting, reinforcing how shortly climate, staffing points, holidays, promotions, and native occasions can disrupt operational plans.
Handheld point-of-sale expertise has grow to be a central efficiency lever throughout restaurant codecs. 72% of operators use handheld gadgets for line-busting or tableside ordering, and 47% use handhelds for curbside or drive-thru workflows. Amongst handheld customers, 79% report integration with kitchen show programs (KDS), enabling orders to route immediately to the road.
Handheld adoption correlates with measurable efficiency enhancements. Operators report:
Self-service ordering is now a income intelligence channel and never only a labor tactic. Greater than half of respondents report utilizing self-service kiosks in at the least one location, with kiosks more and more used to scale back wait instances, enhance order accuracy, and drive larger ticket sizes by visible upsell prompts and bundled choices. Amongst kiosk-enabled eating places:
Operators are demanding sooner solutions, no more dashboards. Almost two-thirds (65%) say they want sooner solutions to core operational questions on a day by day or several-times-per-week foundation, similar to why gross sales dropped, which gadgets are hurting margins, or why labor spiked on a given shift.
Exception-based administration and proactive alerts have gotten desk stakes. 78% of operators fee proactive alerts that flag KPI drift (e.g., labor %, prep time, ticket measurement, ingredient prices) as extraordinarily or very helpful, reflecting a shift towards programs that floor points routinely fairly than requiring managers to hunt by stories.
AI is transferring from experimentation to expectation. 64% of operators say an AI assistant able to answering questions on gross sales, staffing, or buyer tendencies can be very or extraordinarily useful, signaling a transparent urge for food for natural-language determination help as long as knowledge integrity and belief are robust.
Margin and price volatility are reshaping optimization priorities. Sudden provider worth adjustments impression meals prices “typically” or “fairly often” for 58% of operators. Curiosity in real-time ingredient worth comparisons is excessive, with 72% score it very or extraordinarily worthwhile. In the meantime, 63% say routinely producing plate prices for each menu merchandise would considerably enhance margin administration.
The eBook additionally contains real-world operator examples and efficiency outcomes, together with a number of Sq. Vendor Success Tales that illustrate how built-in programs can centralize management, improve loyalty engagement, strengthen visibility throughout areas, and enhance operational consistency as companies scale.
Obtain the eBook
The complete analysis findings and operational frameworks can be found in The Restaurant Optimization Playbook: How to Achieve Peak Performance and Profitability in 2026—and Beyond.
To obtain the free eBook, click on here.
Starfleet Research, the IT market analysis division of Starfleet Media, is a world chief in benchmarking finest practices for technology-enabled enterprise initiatives. Its analysis stories assist hospitality organizations optimize efficiency and are broadly thought to be trusted sources for determination makers evaluating expertise options and operational methods. Starfleet Analysis publications
