Dive Brief:
- Chili’s has rolled out Ziosk tablets to over 1,100 locations, the companies said in a Friday press release.
- Chili’s previously partnered with Ziosk in 2014, but switched to Presto in 2020 until its contract expired earlier this year.
- Pay-at-table technology is increasingly becoming part of the casual dining experience, boosting table turns by allowing customers to pay and go without having to flag down wait staff. Chains like Red Robin, Olive Garden and Applebee’s have incorporated the tech over the past decade.
Dive Insight:
Ziosk said its tablets have a 90% adoption rate, meaning guests are increasingly accepting of the technology.
The tablets also come with loyalty capabilities. Chili’s has integrated My Chili’s Rewards program with the technology, which the companies said will boost guest engagement and enrollment in the program.
Ziosk offers AI-powered analytics like post-dining surveys and other interactive features that can provide insights for Chili’s team members to continue refining their hospitality models, the press release said. Guests can also play games on the Ziosk tablets.
The Ziosk platform is expected to help provide customer data for Chili’s to build more customized offers, Brinker CEO Kevin Hochman said in April during an earnings call. Over the past few quarters, Brinker has been working on tokenizing guest data, allowing it to identify guests no matter how they transact.
The company built guest profiles based on data the company had gathered over hte past 18 months and will use Ziosk to further deepen those profiles to build more customization, Hochman said in the April call.
“I think that's a pretty awesome tool — to have 9 million to 10 million guests with a full profile that we're able to market to at a relatively minimal cost versus paid advertising,” he said.
Despite the rollout of the new tabletop tech, Chili’s has pulled back on several of its front-of-house technology initiatives in the past two years, like pausing the deployment of robotic bussers. Shortly after Hochman joined Brinker in 2022, he refocused Chili’s tech initiatives on accelerating the deployment of its “Kitchen of the Future 3” equipment, which includes technology that will reduce cook time on a majority of items.
