The last 12 months have seen a surge in adoption of digital ordering across the hospitality sector. And for good reason – these solutions have delivered on the safety and efficiency needs of both consumers and operators through the pandemic.
And it seems that consumers have developed a real taste for them with a remarkable 81% of 4,400 respondents to our recent survey saying they want to continue using mobile ordering post-pandemic. A key factor behind this is that 91% of respondents believe that mobile service is as good or better than traditional service.
Is your business ready to serve them?
So if mobile ordering is here to stay, the question is, as we look towards the end of restrictions and a brighter future for our sector, how will these solutions evolve?
“At Crave, we believe the coming years will see the advent of intelligent mobile service, using data and human intelligence to provide an even better, more personalised service, seamlessly blending digital with human service, while providing hospitality businesses with the tools to significantly increase sales and profits.”
Crave Founder and CEO, Gareth Hughes
Crave is on a mission to deliver the Intelligent Mobile Service vision and our 12 years of experience means we can help hospitality businesses embark on this journey.
Read on for a summary of the four key themes covered in our whitepaper “HOW TO PROFIT FROM INTELLIGENT MOBILE SERVICE” and click here for your copy. We outline the opportunities opening up for hospitality businesses and how a combined data and human driven concept of Intelligent Mobile Service is the next step in the evolution of mobile ordering that will enhance person-to-person service, customer experience and profitability.
Imagine being able to offer your customers what they want, when they want it? Using proven methods of effective menu design, presenting upselling suggestions and dynamically changing menus for time of the day or day of the week can influence customers’ buying decisions and help you sell more of those high margin items. Whatever the rhythm of your venue, optimising your menu and knowing how to best present the right products, at the right time will not only improve your user experience but your financial performance too.
With mobile ordering in the hands of your customers, unprecedented insights can be gained and utilised to get personal with customers, both in and out-of-venue. Use data to empower staff to deliver the personal touch, create a unique ordering experience and drive tailored promotions to build relationships with personalised experiences like never before.
With 84% of our survey respondents wanting easy access to their favourite items, 85% likely to try personalised suggestions and 87% wanting easy access to their dietary preferences there is a clear desire for a personalised mobile ordering experience. Those hospitality venues that can respond to evolving customer needs and provide a convenient (and personalised) ordering experience are going to delight customers and thrive.
Engagement starts with a great customer experience and that is at the heart of Crave’s ethos. A mobile application has to be easy for both consumers and staff alike to ensure adoption and with 91% of users saying that they find ServeSafely Easy or Very Easy to use it’s clear that the renaissance of QR codes are a great enabler in this digital transformation.
Our survey results also illustrated the opportunities for customer engagement mechanisms to be incorporated into the mobile service solutions of the future such as loyalty schemes (90% in favour and 79% likely to try new food or drink items if they earned extra points) and food ratings and reviews (78% in favour and 74% likely to try items highly rated by others).
Data is the common thread, the enabler. As with online ecommerce businesses, the data that can be generated from mobile ordering interactions with customers can be huge and disparate.
But digital service and data should not be used to create a barrier between staff and customers, quite the contrary. That’s where human intelligence must always come in. Understanding when and where to apply data analytics, how to derive actionable insights and how they should be used to optimise the customer experience and maximise profits.
Every hospitality business strives to attract new customers, increase visit frequency and spend per head, as well as control costs whilst also delivering a great service that drives customer experience, engagement and loyalty. We believe the next step in the evolution of mobile ordering solutions will help deliver these often elusive objectives for operators.
So download the whitepaper today and find actionable insights to thrive in an industry where mobile service is now not only expected, but preferred.