Toast has officially announced the launch of ToastIQ, which happens to be an intelligence engine geared towards delivering timely prompts, personalized recommendations, and automated workflows, each component designed to transform your daily restaurant operations.
According to certain reports, built into Toast’s end-to-end platform, the stated engine effectively banks upon insights from millions of transactions and interactions across 130,000+ locations, while simultaneously combining Toast’s deep hospitality expertise and integrated platform with AI, historical patterns, and proprietary insights.
Complementing that would ToastIQ’s promise to evolve over time; something which will help it enable every role, from server and general manager to chef, in the context of operating faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
At launch, ToastIQ will provide users with features like Menu Upsells, Shift at a Glance, and Digital Chits to enhance service, while simultaneously deploying AI-Marketing Assistant and Advertising-related solutions to effectively simplify the process of attracting new guests and fostering long-term loyalty.
“Building ToastIQ required foundational advances in data architecture, AI, and on-device intelligence. From using AI models to streamline marketing plans, to syncing guest insights from reservations to handhelds in real time, to powering ROI-driven ad performance, ToastIQ brings intelligence into the flow of hospitality, service, and growth. This marks the beginning of a new stage of innovation where software evolves beyond a tool restaurant professionals use,” said Steve Fredette, President and Co-Founder at Toast.
Talk about the given features on a slightly deeper level, we begin from Menu Upsells that will come in handy for prompting staff to suggest recommended items to a guest’s order. Hence, an order of burger and fries can trigger the Menu Upsells, resulting in a suggestion to upgrade to truffle fries. This can increase check size, and at the same time, help guests discover new menu items.
This particular feature is integrated right into order-taking on Toast Go® handhelds and Toast terminals to ensure servers recommend upsells consistently. Already deployed at Atlanta-based Wylie and Rum, these menu upsells have helped the restaurant and cocktail bar achieve a 6% increase in average order value.
Next up, we have Digital Chits coming into play. After extracting guest details from Toast Tables reservations and Guestbook profiles like special occasions, guest requests, and visit history, the feature displays the information on Toast Go® handhelds and POS terminals to help staff personalize service with confidence, right from the first interaction. By replacing printed notes and verbal handoffs, Digital Chits highlight important guest details for greater impact.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in ToastIQ’s Shift at a Glance feature, which streamlines critical communication between managers and staff to deliver timely updates across Toast Go® handhelds and terminals. This means, managers can now digitally share key details like specials, low stock items, or staffing changes right from the Toast Now manager app. As for other staff members, they can access the given information when they clock in and stay informed throughout their shift, even during the busiest hours.
Hold on, there is more; considering we still haven’t touched upon the availability of an AI-Marketing Assistant, tasked with building cross-channel marketing plans, in a few clicks, that are personalized to each restaurant. More on that would reveal how the stated assistant synthesizes inputs such as restaurant data, daily sales reports, as well as menu and item performance from on-premise and Online Ordering to put-together detailed, personalized marketing plans for email, SMS, and social media.
Some of the components users can expect from this feature would include pre-designed and pre-written campaigns for holidays and events, promotions like BOGO deals and happy hours, business and menu updates, and more.
Almost like an extension of it, there is the advertising solution. This one connects ad performance directly to transactions across online, in-person, and catering orders, giving operators visibility and transparency into how digital ads drive real dollars, as opposed to just clicks and impressions. In essence, restaurant operators can easily create and manage digital ads on Google channels like Search and Maps, and Meta channels like Facebook and Instagram, directly from Toast.
For better understanding, on an average, early beta users are earning $8 for every dollar spent with ToastIQ’s Advertising solution.
