Restaurant technology companies often focus on features.
Sam Stanovich focuses on operations.
As Senior Vice President of Franchise Development and Alliances at Craveworthy Brands, Stanovich helps oversee technology partnerships across a portfolio of 22 restaurant brands. On Digital Hospitality at The National Restaurant Show in Chicago, he shared why the best technology partners are not necessarily the ones with the most features. They are the ones that understand how restaurants actually operate.
For Stanovich, every technology decision starts with a simple question. Will this make life easier for operators?
“We have to service our guests and our staff first,” Stanovich said.
The Atmosphere Partnership
One example is Atmosphere.
Stanovich helped roll out the platform within Big Chicken after identifying a challenge many fast-casual restaurants face. Guests spend relatively short amounts of time in dining rooms, often between 12 and 22 minutes. Traditional television programming was never designed for that environment.
Most guests are not sitting through a full television show. They’re eating lunch, checking their phones, talking with friends, or waiting for their order.
Atmosphere offered a different approach.
The platform provided sports highlights, trivia, entertainment, and short-form content specifically designed for public spaces. Just as importantly, it allowed Big Chicken to create consistency across locations while removing the burden of managing television programming at the restaurant level.
“It was a solution that would streamline our efforts and have consistency,” Stanovich said.
The ability to keep content fresh, relevant, and easy to manage made the platform a natural fit. For Stanovich, it represented something larger than a television solution. It was a partner that understood the realities of restaurant operations.
Relationships Before Technology
While operators attend trade shows searching for new ideas and solutions, Stanovich believes many technology companies misunderstand how restaurants make purchasing decisions.
Technology may be important, but it is rarely the first priority.
Restaurant operators are managing guests, employees, food costs, labor challenges, inventory issues, and countless daily responsibilities. New software must fit into that reality.
“Build the relationship first,” Stanovich said.
He believes the strongest technology partners take the time to understand an operator’s business before pitching a solution. They understand that purchasing decisions are often driven by timing, budgets, and operational needs rather than the latest trend.
Stanovich also points out that operators can only support so many subscription-based tools before costs begin to outweigh the benefits.
“We can’t get SaaS’d to death,” he joked.
The comment drew laughs, but it reflects a real challenge facing restaurant operators. Every platform needs to justify its place in the business.
Helping Operators Run Better Restaurants
For Stanovich, the future of restaurant technology is not about adding more software. It is about creating better partnerships.
The companies that succeed will be the ones that understand operators first and technology second. They will focus on solving real problems, improving efficiency, and helping restaurant teams deliver better guest experiences.
Because at the end of the day, operators are not looking for more technology.
They are looking for partners that help them run better restaurants.
