This article outlines:
Common mistakes operators see
7 restaurant tech leaders on maximizing ROI on new investments
Final takeaways
Technology investments can either accelerate growth or drain resources. The difference often comes down to execution, not the tools themselves.
We asked leaders from Olo's partner ecosystem to share the mistakes they see most often, their best advice for turning technology into measurable ROI, and what resources they recommend to maximize technology. Their insights reveal a common theme: the highest-performing operators treat technology as an ongoing investment in alignment, training, and optimization, not a one-time purchase.
Here's what they had to say.
Josh Gurley, Vice President, Transformation & Strategic Growth, The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is a global total-beverage corporation that manufactures, markets, and sells a diverse portfolio of over 200 brands across more than 200 countries.
Even the best technology will underperform if teams aren't properly trained, processes aren't updated, or success metrics aren't clearly communicated.
One of the most common mistakes is treating technology as a silver bullet instead of a tool that supports a clearly defined business goal. Too often, restaurants adopt new platforms because they're “table stakes” or because a competitor is using them, without first aligning on the problem they're trying to solve and then subsequently designing the experience to meet their guests' needs within the context of their own brand persona. Another frequent issue is underestimating change management. Even the best technology will underperform if teams aren't properly trained, processes aren't updated, or success metrics aren't clearly communicated. The technology itself doesn't fail restaurants—misalignment between people, process, and technology does.
To maximize ROI, start with outcomes, not features. Before implementation, define what success looks like: Is it higher digital order conversion? Increased repeat visits? Reduced labor pressure? When those KPIs are clear, you can configure the technology and your workflows to drive measurable results. The most successful operators also focus on integration and iteration. Technology delivers the strongest ROI when systems work together and insights are acted on continuously, not just at launch. That's when you start to see meaningful gains: higher digital sales mix, improved guest satisfaction, better marketing efficiency, and operational scalability without adding complexity.
Peer learning is incredibly powerful. Operator communities, partner conferences, and customer advisory groups provide real-world insight that you won’t find in product documentation. Learning what actually works in similar restaurant environments can save months of trial and error.
I’d also encourage operators to lean into their existing partners—not just as vendors, but as strategic advisors. The best partners bring data, benchmarks, and a forward-looking perspective that helps restaurants stay ahead of guest expectations and industry shifts.
Brandon Barton, CEO of Bite
Intelligent kiosk ordering software designed to streamline operations, increase check size, and elevate the guest experience.
Once you’ve decided on a vendor and proven it works, go as fast as humanly possible to scale it across your entire organization. Every week you wait to deploy is lost revenue.
Be a practitioner of your own tech. If you're rolling out a loyalty program, download every competing app. Try them all. Place orders, earn points, redeem rewards—dozens of times. Find the friction points yourself before your guests do. Too many operators greenlight technology based on a slick demo without actually living the user experience. Then they're shocked when adoption sucks. Your guests will absolutely encounter issues you never anticipated—unless you've already lived through them yourself.
The best tech in the world delivers zero ROI if your staff doesn't embrace it. Period. This isn't about a 20-minute tutorial video during onboarding. Your team needs to understand the “why” behind the technology—how it makes their jobs easier, not harder. We see this play out constantly at Bite. The locations crushing it with 20% check lifts and 99% order accuracy? Similar technology as other providers. The difference is the people and the training investment behind them.
Too often, great technology gets stuck in early deployment hell. Brands pilot at one or two locations for months, overthinking every detail, while missing out on massive ROI at their other 50 locations. It’s maddening to watch. Once you’ve decided on a vendor and proven it works, go as fast as humanly possible to scale it across your entire organization. Every week you wait to deploy is lost revenue.
David Feldman, Founder & CEO at 3Owl
Building joyous web, app & kiosk experiences that drive results today and grow with you tomorrow.
Honest post-launch conversations are often more useful than polished case studies.
We see brands implementing technology in pieces instead of as part of a system. A new tool gets brought in to solve a very real problem, but it's not thought through across marketing, operations, finance, and the guest experience. On paper, the tech works. In practice, it creates friction, duplicate effort, and data that no one fully trusts. Teams stop using the tools the way they were intended, reporting becomes inconsistent, and leaders end up making decisions on incomplete information.
Before you buy anything, be very clear about what problem you're solving, what success looks like, and who owns the outcome after launch. The highest ROI doesn't come from features; it comes from alignment. When that alignment is there, the results are often better than people expect.
I always encourage operators to look beyond vendor demos and feature checklists. Some of the most valuable learning comes from understanding how systems behave, how incentives shape decisions, and how small inefficiencies compound over time. Just as important is talking to other operators who are willing to share what didn’t work. Honest post-launch conversations are often more useful than polished case studies.
The operators who get the most out of technology are the ones who stay curious, stay disciplined, and treat tech as an ongoing investment, not a one-time purchase.
Michael Snow, SEO Enablement Manager at SOCi
All-in-one platform for multi-location marketers to reach and engage their local customers across 100s or 1000s of local search, social, and review pages.
A common mistake is treating new technology like a one-time setup instead of an always-on system.
A common mistake is treating new technology like a one-time setup instead of an always-on system. Teams implement the tool, do the minimum configuration, and then stop maintaining the content and signals that actually drive outcomes. That weakens customer confidence and increasingly hurts AI-driven discovery, because search and recommendation systems tend to reward brands that look current, complete, and trustworthy.
The best advice for maximizing ROI is to remove every possible click between a customer and the action you want them to take. Make the experience fast and intuitive, and ensure the information and pathways customers rely on are accurate, up to date, and consistent wherever they show up.
Shameless plug for SEO Juice, but the key is to follow voices that connect day-to-day execution to the bigger reality that AI visibility is now essential. The specifics will vary by industry, but staying current on how discovery is evolving is one of the highest-leverage things operators can do.
Coby Berman, COO & Co-Founder, Radar
Power store locators, order-ahead, drive-thru, and on-premise experiences for your mobile app and website with Radar’s all-in-one location platform.
Spend less time building a business case and scenario planning, and more time pushing technology out in the field to operations teams and customers.
Operators need to accelerate testing and learning. Spend less time building a business case and scenario planning, and more time pushing technology out in the field to operations teams and customers, and learning what's working, where the gaps are, and how to plan for a full deployment (assuming the product is producing value). It's ultimately better for vendors and customers to prove value in the field on a scoped-down deployment—either time, number of locations, or number of users—and then move to a full deployment once the team is ready. Going zero to one hundred is often filled with anxiety, and it's a lot easier to go zero to ten to twenty to one hundred.
Devin Wade, CEO & Co-Founder, LinkedEats
An AI-powered software platform helping restaurants boost revenue, optimize marketing spend on delivery platforms, and recapture lost profits.
Technology partners have deep insights into unlocking even more value from the technology you're investing in.
We often see restaurants not communicating enough with all team members about the value and potential of new tools. Everyone has to know what it does and why we are doing it—when they do, then they will find ways to contribute to its success.
It’s better to actively test tools than stagnate in long sales cycles. Our best advice is to find multiple uses for the new tech and then lean into the one that works best. You will be able to see the most beneficial use case specific to your group this way and, by leaning into a single solution, achieve better results. We typically see an ROI of 10x to 20x for each of our SaaS product suites.
Finally, read as many blog posts as you can and talk to experts on the subject within other restaurant groups. Solicit input from technology partners who have partnered with or who are offering collaborative solutions with the technology that you're leaning into—in most cases, technology partners have deep insights into unlocking even more value from the technology you're investing in.
Darien Terrell, President & CEO, DeliverThat
Nationwide delivery management partner that specializes in high-value catering orders and brand-protective setup.
One of the biggest mistakes restaurants make is signing up for platforms or tools based on hype rather than a clear understanding of their own operational gaps.
One of the biggest mistakes restaurants make is signing up for platforms or tools based on hype rather than a clear understanding of their own operational gaps. Strong sales teams, social marketing, and compelling demos can make any platform look like the answer, especially when operators are under pressure to move fast or keep up with peers.
But too often, restaurants skip the step of identifying where their business is actually struggling and what needs to improve before signing up. Operators can get locked into walled-garden technology that limits integrations, restricts access to data, or forces them to operate inside a closed ecosystem.
Before implementing a new platform, operators should clearly define:
- What decision, metric, or workflow this technology should improve
- What manual processes it should eliminate
- How it increases visibility, control, or consistency
DeliverThat's perspective is that technology delivers the most value when it fits within an ecosystem rather than trying to replace one. Platforms that integrate cleanly into existing, healthy workflows enable operators to consolidate data, standardize fulfillment, and adapt as their business evolves.
Operator-to-operator conversations, especially those that include lessons learned and missteps, are invaluable when evaluating new technology investments. Before signing with a new technology, ask for a client list (past and present) and make phone calls. And, conduct 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins with the teams who should benefit from the tools or service to assess whether the new technology is truly increasing efficiency and guest experience.
The pattern across all these experts is clear: technology alone doesn't create ROI. What creates ROI is intentional implementation, continuous optimization, alignment across teams, and a willingness to test, learn, and adapt. Whether you're investing in kiosks, loyalty programs, or catering platforms, the operators who win are the ones who treat technology as a living system that requires attention, training, and integration—not a set-it-and-forget-it solution.
