What Today’s Consumers Want: Personable, Human Experiences and a Reason to Give Loyalty

Technology can have a wonderfully effective application in the restaurant industry. In fact, we explored a few such applications in a recent post. However, before we get too excited about installing all the latest tech advances, it’s important to keep in mind that technology can also create an experience that is rather cold and impersonal for the consumer, which can actually end up inhibiting your relationship rather than building it.

People Want Personable Experiences, Not Cold Transactions

In fact, according to the Futures Company, 81% of today’s consumers say that companies are becoming too inhuman and impersonal when it comes to connecting with their customers. If you think for a moment about your standard interactions in the checkout line of any given store, you’ll see an obvious example of this in action. How often do you even make eye contact with your clerk, let alone make any personable conversation? Most of us are so busy answering the numerous questions we get from the credit or debit card machine in front of us that we barely even notice the person facilitating the exchange.

The important thing to recognize is that even though people appreciate the conveniences technology has to offer, they still want to make a human connection with the businesses they interact with.

Don’t Let Your Restaurant Fall Prey to ‘Transactional Coldness’

While the restaurant industry has some inherent guards against this phenomenon of ‘transactional coldness’ due to the fact that at least some level of personal interaction is generally required to take orders and deliver food, this effect can still creep in if you’re not on guard. Watch out for over-stressed or under-engaged staff slipping into robotic scripts, even on greetings and goodbyes.

Guests are also getting quite sensitive to being given a ‘sales pitch’ which can feel like you’re just trying to get more money out of them. Instead, upselling is best done only as a result to understanding the needs and expectations of the guest.

This need for a personal connection extends to employees as well. Staff wants to connect with supervisors on a personal level as well, and facilitating this connection drastically improves an employee’s sentiment about the business – which, in turn, facilitates the consumer experience at your establishment.

Technology and Good Old Fashioned Hospitality Should Co-Exist in the Restaurant

While technology can be useful on the levels of gathering better data about your consumers and staying connected with them when they aren’t physically in your establishment, it’s not a substitute for truly listening and learning about the people who are supporting your business. That goal can only be achieved by good old fashioned hospitality techniques such as knowing your customers by name, greeting them with eye contact, a warm handshake, and sincerely trying to make a personal connection with them.

The bottom line is that it is the quality of your interaction with your customer that makes or breaks your relationship with them. The ideal is to have a successful marriage between the conveniences of technology and the personable feeling of warm hospitality. Businesses that can make this marriage successful are then able to leverage the advantages of both worlds.

Leveraging Social Media and Mobile Apps in the Restaurant

Everyone knows that social media campaigns can be powerful tools to build your reputation and brand loyalty. Most people are also aware of the ever-increasing role smartphones play in helping potential customers locate businesses and decide whether or not to give them their patronage.

What many businesses are struggling with is the creation of a successful campaign that harnesses these technologies effectively. Not everyone uses mobile tech yet and social media campaigns can be difficult to obtain meaningful metrics from, making it difficult to determine if your return on investment makes your effort worthwhile. Nonetheless, you can’t afford to ignore the potential that either of these technologies offers in terms of customer engagement and the building of brand loyalty. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Using Social Media Properly Starts With Understanding What It’s Really For

Getting social media to be an effective tool for your business has a lot to do with how you use the technology. The number one mistake that businesses make with social media is taking too strong of a ‘sales’ approach in their attempts to connect with customers. The key point to keep in mind about social media is that it’s meant to be a social platform.  This means that people are using it because they want to connect and share personal experiences with others; they’re not using it so they can be blasted with advertisements and haggled about buying something.

As a business, the best approach to social media is to think about it as a tool to make friends with your customers. It’s a platform where it’s O.K., even expected, to be less formal and more friendly.  Posts should be value-oriented, delivering information you know your customers would be excited to have.

Your posting frequency matters too. In fact, a recent study in the Restaurant Social Media Index 2012 Consumer Report found that brands who published more than six promotional posts per week, had an opt-out rate of 8% from social customers!

The Power of Images in Social Media

Sometimes one good image can be a far more powerful tool to catch people’s attention than any number of text posts could ever be.  Images also have a longer staying power in people’s minds. Think, for instance, how much more likely you will be to remember that such and such restaurant is running a lunch time special on burgers if you actually see a picture of said burger looking totally delectable beforehand.  Platforms like Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram can be particularly powerful tools toward this end, since they are image-focused and shares are user-driven. Mobile platforms such as Yelp and FourSquare have recently beefed up their image sharing capacities as well, adding to the increased importance of images in restaurant marketing campaigns.

Mobile Apps That Build Restaurant Loyalty and Engagement

Given the increasing use of smartphones and mobile technology, it would be folly not to at least have a mobile version of your website enabled. Even better, build a free mobile app that your customers can download to their devices to stay in constant touch.

Several restaurants are using this technology is very effective ways. Krispy Kreme, for example, has an app that alerts users anytime their ‘hot now’ sign is on at their favorite Krispy Kreme location, allowing people to know exactly when they can show up and get their favorite doughnuts freshly baked and piping hot. Denny’s recently ran a mobile campaign where they gave users a digital ‘badge’ each time they ate at a new Denny’s location. The first user to visit a Denny’s in all 50 states was given free Grand Slam breakfasts for life.

These are just a few examples of how you can utilize mobile technology to inspire engagement and loyalty from your customers. If social media and mobile technology is not yet a well-developed aspect of your marketing campaigns, now is as good a time as any to leverage these technologies to your advantage.

Technology in the Restaurant

In our day and age, a business can’t survive long without adapting to the ever changing technology that barrages it. While you might think that food should remain relatively unaffected by the latest gadgets on the market, many restaurant owners have found that creative leveraging of new technology has significantly boosted their bottom line. Here are the highlights of some of the most interesting technological uses in the restaurant.

Mobile Payment Platforms for the Restaurant

It is estimated that the worldwide value of mobile-payment transactions will nearly quadruple over the course of the next three years as more and more consumers utilize their phones and tablets to pay their bills. The forecast is that the mobile payment market will be worth around $617 billion with a total of 448 million users by 2016.  This represents a huge demographic that, as a restaurant owner, would be wise not to ignore.

Unfortunately, there is not, as yet, a one-size-fits-all mobile payment platform. Different establishments are experimenting with a variety of different platforms to find the one that is best suited to the restaurant industry. The three biggest platforms in use right now are Square, Isis Mobile Wallet, and MCX.

Several restaurants have seen increased enrollment in their loyalty clubs when they adopt the use of mobile apps. These same institutions report vastly improved data gathering as well.  Integrating your brand with mobile payment platforms allows you to consolidate your mobile payments and mobile loyalty programs into one easily accessible platform.

Tablet PCs for Digital Ordering and Loyalty Rewards

Tablet PCs have become increasingly popular for a variety of uses in the restaurant. Some establishments hand them out in place of menus to allow digital ordering and at-table payment. Others are using them to give customers digital rewards tied to their loyalty programs when ordering certain items in-house. Several restaurants have found that the use of a tablet menu increases their sales of food and wine and has dramatically increased the use of ‘mix and match’ promotions for menu items.

Of course, tablet PCs have also found wide use as a tool for servers and hostesses to increase and efficiently deliver orders, track reservations, and increase consumer satisfaction with customer service.

Wi-Fi Bars, iPad Jukeboxes and Other Tech Amenities in the Restaurant

While the preceding technologies were used more for function rather than entertainment, these technological advances are equally important to meet consumer entertainment satisfaction requirements as well. Having Wi-Fi Internet available is particularly important, and some restaurants have gone so far as to create ‘Wi-Fi’ bars to encourage customers to linger in their establishments longer. Having outlets available to allow consumers to re-charge their devices is also particularly popular.

Having both plugs and Wi-Fi available can drastically increase the flow of traffic through the doors of the business. Other restaurant owners have employed technology in a more entertaining way – by providing iPads that will play personalized jukebox stations while you dine, or by using those same tablets to run a quiz bowl or other fun game that diners can play while they eat.

There are numerous choices a person could make when selecting the right technology to integrate with a business establishment like a restaurant. It’s smart to analyze the trends and figure out how to integrate technology that is both efficient to install and beneficial to customers to use.

Up and Coming Food Processing Technologies to Keep Your Eye On

Considering the growing level of industrialization in food production and the globalization of food supply and trade, it’s no surprise that food safety has been a topic of increasing importance. Recent years have garnered a host of new and improved food processing technologies that stand to significantly improve food safety, as well as increase shelf life and reduce environmental impacts. Here are the main technologies that have people excited.

High Pressure or High Hydrostatic Pressure Food Processing

High pressure processing, also known as high hydrostatic pressure processing or ultra high pressure processing, is the application of up to 87,000 pounds per square inch of pressure to cook food products. It can be done with or without heat and has the effect of rendering microbes inactive as well as altering certain food attributes to achieve the desired quality.

This technology helps retain the quality of the food as well as maintaining natural freshness and extending the microbiological shelf life. Because high pressure processing causes minimal changes in the freshness of the food, it is preferably to thermal technologies.

An additional advantage is that this method of processing can be done at ambient or refrigerated temperatures, thereby eliminating funky flavors that can arise as a result of thermal processing.  High pressure processing is, therefore, particularly useful for heat-sensitive products.

However, like any technology, high pressure processing can’t be used universally. It does not extend the shelf life of foods such as vegetables or milk which are low in acidity, although it does kill food borne pathogens such as listeria or salmonella, which such foods can harbor. High pressure processing is similarly poorly suited for foods like strawberries or marshmallows which have internal air-pockets and are easily crushed, as well as dry solids which don’t have enough moisture to make high pressure processing effective for microbial destruction.

Microwave Heating as a Food Processing Technology

Although microwave technology has been around for a long time, there have been numerous advances in recent years which make this an important food processing technology to utilize.  Microwave heating has many well-known applications in food processing already – tempering frozen foods for further processing, pre-cooking meats like bacon for institutional use, and drying of pasta products.  Compared to conventional methods, microwave heating significantly reduces processing time, as well as improving food quality and reducing environmental impacts. Thanks to the fact that microwaves are transparent to plastic, this technology is also put to use to process pre-packaged food products.

Ultraviolet Food Processing Technology

Ultraviolet food processing is perhaps the method that has garnered the most attention recently in terms of emerging technologies. Ultraviolet light is particularly effective against air-borne pathogens and is used to control microbial hazards through the treatment of air, non-food, food contact surfaces, processing water, ingredients, raw, and finished products.

Meat processing facilities in particular can benefit from installing an ultraviolet system in their establishments, although studies still need to be run to determine cost-saving measures for energy and water processing, as well as the assurance of enhanced food safety utilizing the method.

There are several other emerging food processing technologies that are worthy of consideration, but these are the three big ones that are on everyone’s mind right now. As our global market continues to expand, we can expect more discussion and enhanced safety regulations to be put in place.

Restaurant Industry Food Trends to Watch in 2013

One of the interesting things to watch from year to year is the shift in which foods consumers can’t seem to get enough of. Some of this year’s food trends aren’t anything too novel, and others are rather surprising. Here are a few examples of what to expect.

Savory, Sour, and Asian Influence in the Restaurant

For years, dishes which are known to be tart, acidic, or bitter have been neglected by mainstream dining establishments. Not so anymore. Don’t be surprised if you see a plethora of new sour and savory menu items popping up. From fermented sausage to new spins on sauerkraut and desserts, sour is taking its day in the limelight. New methods of creating savory fruits also fall under this category and chefs around the country are dehydrating, pickling, fermenting, grilling, salting, and generally manipulating the flavor of fruits that we normally eat raw.

Asian foods taking the place of traditional American comfort food is another big trend this year. Whether it be the spicy, fresh flavors of Thailand, the tart taste of Korea, or the soothing concoctions of Vietnam, don’t be surprised to walk into an American diner this year and see delicious, Asian-inspired flavors on the menu.

Sophisticated Snacks in the Diner

Another surprising trend forecasted for 2013 is the fact that many restaurants are now offering snack options on the menu. Snacks are loosely defined as something that is not a meal, but can be purchased and consumed in three minutes. These days, people often snack their way through the day, taking food where they can grab it quickly in between their busy schedules. In fact, many people even consider a couple of snacks eaten together as a meal.

As a result, restaurants are finding that they can easily cater to this crowd simply by adding a few quick-grab items to the menu. While a snack used to mean a bag of potato chips, many restaurants are upping the ante by offering sophisticated snacks like glorified mini-burgers or shakes, upscale dips or crab cakes at a low price to consumers on the go. Popcorn, in particular, is enjoying a boost in popularity as a snack this year which given its low price, is a particularly easy item to add to your snack menu.

A One Diner Fits All Approach, Leaves No Diner Behind

Although there is still plenty of demand for upscale dining which provides a very specific fare, most casual dining establishments are finding that it is lucrative to cater to the needs of each individual demographic of consumer that enters the establishment. This means having something on the menu that will appeal to the vegan and vegetarian crowds, the gluten-free crowds, the weight-watching crowd, the budget crowd, etc, etc.

Being more flexible about the fare that is being offered and attending to the dietary needs of the various types of people who frequent the restaurant goes a long way toward building loyal clientele.

The forecast for the restaurant industry bodes well for this year, and we will continue to see big shifts in industry trends. You can count on health, portion sizes, and dining customization to remain at the top of the list, as well as an influx of new and exotic flavors that can’t be easily created at home.