Guest transaction data is proving to be a valuable resource as restaurants grapple with rising costs and decreasing traffic, executives at restaurant technology provider Olo said Tuesday (Feb. 25).
The company’s solutions have demonstrated this by helping restaurants generate guest transaction data and then use it to gain actionable insights, create personalized marketing and increase profitable traffic, Olo Founder and CEO Noah Glass said Tuesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call.
At a time when restaurants are desperate to increase traffic, it is tempting to revert to discounting and deals, but it is more profitable to gather guest data with the guest’s permission and use it to personalize the guest experience, Glass said.
Restaurants that do so “are going to be most efficient in their marketing spend and they’re going to be around for the long term and not just surviving challenging economic times, but thriving,” Glass said.
Olo has seen growing demand for the flywheel effect that is delivered by using all three of its solutions: Order for on- and off-premises ordering, Pay for card-present and card-not-present payments, and Engage for managing guest data, marketing, reputation and front-of-house, according to a presentation released Tuesday in conjunction with the call.
In the “Olo Guest Data Flywheel” provided by this combination, Order and Pay generate guest transaction data that Engage uses to personalize the guest experience and drive more guest transactions, per the presentation.
During the earnings call, Glass cited the example of California Fish Grill, which uses Olo’s three products to identify and understand guests, maximize marketing return on investment (ROI) through personalized communications, and drive sales.
“In six months, California Fish Grill generated a 41% increase in known guests, a 21% increase in guests they can directly market to, and $7 million of digital order revenue attributable to these personalized marketing campaigns,” Glass said.
Looking ahead, Olo expects the challenges restaurants are currently facing to continue throughout 2025.
“We continue to expect trends in the restaurant industry to be similar to what we saw in 2024: consistent growth in digital ordering, a continued need to improve efficiency to offset rising costs, and macro uncertainty,” Olo Chief Financial Officer Peter Benevides said during the call.
