The rise of smart security in restaurants
The rise of smart security in restaurants
Until recently, the words ‘security system’ conjured up a particular image: one involving old-fashioned CCTV cameras and burglar alarms, which providers installed, maintained occasionally, but beyond that had little involvement in. But with the rise of AI, security systems have come on in leaps and bounds. We’ve seen a shift from one-off hardware installations to more of a ‘security as a service’ approach, powered by AI-enabled cameras linked with advanced security software and analytics.
At a time when restaurants are under mounting financial pressure, the new capabilities of these smart security systems have major implications for loss prevention as well as for staff safety and morale. Let’s take a closer look at some of the things they can help you with.
AI detects people, not motion
Not long ago, motion-detection CCTV camera recording seemed clever and storage space-saving, but things have moved on since then. The thing is, an air conditioning system being left on or a car driving past outside isn’t a security threat – a person inside your store is. But both can be detected as motion. And advances in AI mean that security cameras can now tell when it’s a person entering your premises and so start recording only when it’s a genuine potential threat, reducing false alarms and saving time and inconvenience.
Fast footage retrieval and reporting
Gone are the days when you’d have to spend hour after hour trawling through CCTV footage trying to find one or two minutes of footage relevant to a particular incident. Smart security systems can do this automatically, saving huge amounts of time when building a bank of evidence to give to police. This makes investigation management a whole lot easier, so it’s a valuable weapon in your loss prevention arsenal. Not only that, but with their ability to record and automatically log incidents, smart security systems make accident reporting a piece of cake as well – no more time-consuming paper-based reporting.
Facial recognition
Though it’s come up against its fair share of ethical concerns, facial recognition technology is undoubtedly here to stay and has a variety of potential applications in your restaurants and outlets. Perhaps the most obvious is recognising repeat offenders entering the building and alerting staff, but it’s helpful in other contexts, too. For instance, if you have a contractor coming in to service the oven out of hours, AI can verify their identity using facial recognition before providing access. It can then tell you how long they’ve spent at your premises, so you can match this up with what you’re being billed for and query excess charges.
Staff protection
Whether you’re a chain of high-end restaurants or a nationwide QSR brand with outlets open around the clock, staff protection has never been more important than it is today – a time when antisocial behaviour and shoplifting (both of which also have a major impact on staff morale and retention) are on the rise. Rather than simply capturing CCTV footage or triggering burglar alarms out of hours, smart security systems are now able to play a much more active role in keeping your staff and stores safe. They can do this in a variety of ways, enabling remote monitoring, two-way communications with different parts of the store and remote de-escalation when staff are under duress.
Store optimisation
Another major benefit of smart security is the clever analytics it can provide you with. If you’re finding there are queues building up at one of your QSR outlets, for example, footfall heatmap analytics and queue abandonment data could give you the numbers you need to optimise the layout of your store to help maximise revenue.
And that’s just the start. Our V5 smart security product does all this and much more. Already used by the likes of Greggs, it’s revolutionising the restaurant industry by teaming up existing security equipment with our own software, developed in-house by our team in response to everything our restaurant clients have told us they want.
To discover more information on how iFacility CCTV can help your business drop us a call at 01749 600 600 or drop an email to hello@ifacility.co.uk.