Celebrating the Return of an Industry Staple: The National Restaurant Association Show (NRA)

In his recent guest blog post, Revel’s Chief Strategy Officer Chris Lybeer reflects on Revel’s attendance at the National Restaurant Association (NRA) show, one of the biggest stages in the foodservice industry. In case you missed his last blog post, Chris shares more on the importance of making data-driven decisions, and highlights two of Revel’s latest enhancements and additions to our suite of reporting products.

Reflecting on a Foodservice Event Two Years in the Making

After a two-year hiatus, we just witnessed the highly anticipated return to the biggest foodservice industry event of the year: the National Restaurant Association (NRA) show. 

Just last week, 28 Revelers from across the country gathered in Chicago, IL to help represent Revel at NRA in our massive 1200 square foot booth. Revel Integrated Partner Como also co-exhibited with us on the heels of an exciting product launch—more on that later in the post.  

Featuring expert-led sessions unpacking the latest industry challenges and advents, alongside a showcase of industry-leading brands (like Revel!), NRA is a great way for restaurateurs to learn about what's new in their industry. In this blog post, I will share some of the timely announcements and topics that we think led to the heavy foot traffic we experienced in our booth. Let’s reflect together. 

Heading to NRA on the Heels of Two Product Launches 

Leading up to the NRA show, Revel issued two major product announcements that our team is very excited to bring to market. For anyone interested in adding a delivery revenue stream to their online ordering solution or building upon their loyalty offerings, these two announcements will be of extra interest to you. 

Introducing Driver XT™ powered by DoorDash Drive

We announced a partnership with DoorDash Drive, DoorDash's white-label fulfillment platform that enables direct delivery for any business. Through the partnership, Driver XT powered by DoorDash Drive allows Revel clients to offer delivery without having to manage and operate a fleet of drivers. 

Driver XT fully integrates with our Online Ordering XT™ solution, and clients using that solution will receive more information on how to take advantage of the exciting new offering.

For operators who haven’t had the time or resources to launch a delivery service for their restaurants—I get it! But you’re missing out on major dollars if you’re passing on delivery. Request a demo of Driver XT if you’d like to learn more. If you’re already interested in adding this solution to your off-premises revenue, click the button below to get started today.

Drive Repeat Customers with Revel Loyalty XT™ Powered by Como 

On the heels of our Driver XT announcement, we also issued a press release announcing Revel Loyalty XT powered by Como leading up to NRA. 

Loyalty XT is an affordable, in-house loyalty solution tailored for small to midsize businesses. This new solution will soon be integrated with the Revel point of sale (POS) platform, and clients will be able to use this comprehensive toolkit to drive customer loyalty, reward their regular customers, and build rich marketing communication programs. I hope clients jump on the chance to create an even more seamless customer engagement solution with Loyalty XT. 

You can read our press release below, and this one sheet offers an easy-to-digest glimpse at this fully-integrated loyalty solution. 

Key Takeaways from NRA

We heard from hundreds of operators at NRA and got the opportunity to learn what they’re experiencing firsthand in their restaurants. This kind of information is extremely valuable for us—in fact, it helps inform our product roadmap for months to come. 

Here are some of the topics and questions that our account executives and product managers reported discussing the most with clients and prospects alike: 

• Integrated kitchen management: “How do I ease the burden on my staff and automate kitchen management as much as possible?”
• Native online ordering and delivery management: “I’m missing out on over 30% of my off-premises sales due to third-party players. How do I bring online ordering and delivery management in-house?”
• Scalability: “I’m planning to open 10 more locations in 2022. How does Revel make it easy to scale my business?”

Of course, this only touches the surface of the great questions we received from the increasingly tech-savvy operators we’re seeing in the restaurant industry. I’m excited about the direction that the industry is headed: one that relies on technology to offset operations burdens so operators can focus on their quality of service and brand experience. 

Until Next Year

We felt fortunate for the chance to showcase our platform live for hundreds of restaurateurs interested in learning more about our cloud-native point of sale (POS) platform. We closed the show with many new relationships and leads. I’m also hugely grateful for the group of Revel colleagues who represented our company and industry-leading platform on one of the biggest stages in foodservice! 

In case you weren’t able to make it to NRA this year, or if you have additional questions after meeting us at the show—give us a call or email info@revelsystems.com and we’ll be in touch!