Do you have a plan to guide you through a tech crisis?

While technology has opened the door to new revenue streams and other capabilities for restaurants, it has also created vulnerabilities that can play out in public. In March, McDonald’s experienced a system failure that left customers in pockets of the world including Australia, Japan and the U.K. unable to order food. Panera went through something similar, with its digital ordering channels down over multiple days in March. These risks require restaurants to have comprehensive, tested crisis management plans outlining the steps that all levels of the organization must take before an emergency (to best prepare for one) and in the aftermath of one (to get the business back on its feet with minimal disruption). This can help ensure that the business is ready with an alternative action plan, knows what information to share with various stakeholders at key points, and has support in place who can guide the business back on track as quickly as possible. Looking at your business, have you considered how you would respond to various tech-related crises, whether that may be a widespread outage or a cyber attack? What support might you line up to help you? The technology you have adopted may be new enough that you haven’t had to manage its failure yet, but having a carefully considered plan in place before you actually need it can help you navigate more smoothly through an emergency if and when one happens.