Deranged diners, inflation and staff shortages: American restaurants are struggling

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
Deranged diners, inflation and staff shortages: American restaurants are struggling

By any concrete rubric, restaurants in New York City are the same as they’ve always been. All the pieces are intact – there are new, exciting restaurants; there are old, exciting restaurants. According to New York Magazine, this fall is “the busiest opening season in years”.

Since the city’s vaccine mandate was lifted back in February after nearly two years of no indoor dining and limited capacity, there are have been no formal rules at all. Things are normal. Better than normal. “Every single month is our strongest month ever,” Resy CEO, Alexander Lee, told the Atlantic; it had been true for all of 2022, he said, and he saw no signs demand for reservations would be slowing down.

It is incredible, I keep reminding myself, to talk and laugh inside a room of talking, laughing strangers, eating food I did not – probably could not – cook. So then why doesn’t it feel the same? There doesn’t seem to be any single thing that’s wrong, so much as the overarching sense that it used to be better and more fun. Didn’t it?

It’s largely a confluence of two factors – inflation and the ongoing labor shortage, two unsexy forces that are being felt in all kinds of industries. But in restaurants, they are so distinctly visible: prices are high, service is strapped. It is all almost normal. Fine. Good, even. It could go on like this forever! For diners, the experience feels – not bad, so much as limp. For chefs and servers, there is a sense of suspended animation. “We just don’t know where we’re at,” says Leah Cohen, a chef with two Manhattan restaurants – Pig & Khao, on the Lower East Side, and the newer Piggyback in Midtown. “We’re in this weird limbo phase.”

In 2020, when the world shut down, restaurants became a beacon and a cause. Suddenly, everybody was talking about the service industry, about the undocumented workers who make up as much as 40% of the city’s kitchens. All at once, everyone seemed to understand the precarity of the industry, but also the transcendence of it: people love restaurants. They missed restaurants. They missed restaurants so much they made restaurants for chipmunks. There was a giddy magic in the first days of reopening, when diners were tipping wildly, and the people venturing out were just elated to be back.

“Customers went from being pains in the asses to being like, ‘We love you guys! You’re essential workers!’” laughs Cohen. “That was very short-lived.”

While Cohen’s staff are dealing with the return of demanding diners, Cohen, as an owner, is feeling the impact of inflation first-hand across the board: ingredients are more expensive, labor is more expensive, equipment is more expensive, and as a result, dinner out is more expensive.

Cohen reports that while once she charged “maybe $36” for the half-duck, the current price is $42. Recently, the New York Times broke down the increase in costs for a restaurant in North Carolina, and their reasons: Canola oil, up 159% (the war in Ukraine); a new hot water heater, up 25% (the cost of stainless steel). Diners feel the trickle-down effect.

“That’s the price we have to charge, because that’s how much stuff costs now,” Cohen says, and even knowing that as well as anyone, she understands: it’s a lot. “When I go out to eat, and I see the bill, it’s not a shock to me, but it’s something I have to process,” she says.

Paying more would hurt less if the dining experience was uniformly stellar. I would like that to be the case – everyone would like that to be the case! – but that is not the current world. “We have not come back in a form that looks anything like what we were before Covid,” one veteran server at an high-end Italian restaurant in Manhattan told me. (Like many of the restaurant workers interviewed for this story, he asked to remain anonymous to avoid potential repercussions.) “And I think the biggest reason for that is because it’s impossible to hire staff.”

The industry-wide labor shortage is old news: in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted the restaurant industry’s year-over-year quit rate was more than any other job sector, even as the hiring rate remained the same. As of September, jobs in New York City food service were still at 87% of pre-pandemic levels. Many restaurants have increased wages and reworked benefits in an attempt to attract staff, but while the improvements are long overdue, alone, they haven’t been enough.

“I mean, we hire anyone, if you’re good or bad,” says Cohen. “We just don’t have the ability not to. At some point you hire for bodies and pray and hope that some of them are good.”

In dining rooms across the city, the shift is palpable. “We had to start over from near-scratch,” says Rashaad Jones, a former captain at Eleven Madison Park, one of the city’s fanciest restaurants. “We were always hiring and always had new people coming in,” he says, “but if you have 90 people that are seasoned veterans of the restaurant training one person who’s brand new, that’s a seamless transition, versus five seasoned veterans training 150 people.”

Jones left the restaurant this summer. “It was no longer good for my body or my mental health,” he says. He’s remained in the industry, consulting on a new restaurant, and working part-time in wine.

People whose experience might have got them a back waiter job before – an entry-level position clearing and setting tables – are skipping straight to front waiter posts, the server at the high-end Italian restaurant explains; one new colleague, who’d been hired as a captain – the absolute top of the front-of-house pyramid (“that’s where the buck stops if there’s a problem”) – had only ever answered phones.

The result is that everyone is scrambling to get the new generation up to speed. “It’s very stressful,” a longtime server at a popular Brooklyn pizza spot told me. “You’re already stretched thin because you’re understaffed, so people really aren’t getting the support and the training that they need,” she says. And at the same time, “you have a lot of the veterans burning out.” Meanwhile, the kitchen line is also new, understaffed and still in training, and food is often slow, and there isn’t necessarily anyone with the institutional memory to know what a dish is meant to look like.

“It really does change the way the restaurant works,” says Sophie, 30, a longtime server at a casual fine-dining restaurant in Lower Manhattan, who estimates that about a third of people working front of house are new since the pandemic. (To speak freely, she asked to be identified by her first name only.) “It changes the culture.” It is perhaps less united that it used to be, divided by default into an old guard and a new guard, “which is kind of the opposite of what I would want in a restaurant culture, which would be solidarity and inclusivity”, she says. Jones, a classical cellist by training, likens restaurants to orchestras. “There’s all these components, but there’s a collective as well,” he says. “That whole machine is what is able to accomplish things. No one part is more important.” Or as Sophie, whose restaurant pools tips, puts it, less romantically: “We’re all making each other’s money.

“People who didn’t work at the restaurant prior to the pandemic are more real about the job,” Sophie says. “This is a restaurant job, just like my other restaurant jobs.’ Whereas a lot of folks who were there before the pandemic, myself included, are like, this is different. This is the most special restaurant job you’ll ever have.”

“I think it’s this moment. I think it’s New York,” says the pizza server, who has been struggling to motivate new colleagues. People are “just in survival mode right now”, she says. “Nobody really feels excited in their current moment or place.” I deeply understand; I am struggling to think of anyone I know, in any industry, who is deeply excited about their current time and place.

Not having the same pre-pandemic solidarity behind the scenes “makes work less fun and more stressful”, Sophie agrees. “And that’s tough, because there are so many other factors that make work less fun and more stressful.”

It is not a secret that people are on edge. “Everyone is acting so weird!” the Atlantic observed this past spring, citing what seemed to be a general uptick in deranged public behavior. In October, NPR talked to researchers at Florida State University College of Medicine who’d found evidence that years two and three of the pandemic have left Americans with “significant declines in the traits that help us navigate social situations, trust others, think creatively and act responsibly”.

“I feel like anxiety is at a real high,” says Sophie. “And it’s resulting in people being wild, getting fucked up, getting aggressive,” and while it’s everywhere, “it feels heightened in the restaurant space”. What is a restaurant if not a distillation of the vibe? The other night, she says, a guest, apparently appalled at the service he’d received, had to be held back by his friend in a manner she describes as “joking, but not really”. There have always been unhappy diners, difficult people, off nights. “But that kind of extreme emotional response to bad service in a restaurant is new.”

“There is an existential malaise that’s sort of blanketed everybody,” one Brooklyn expediter told me. “You just don’t know what the future holds. You don’t know what’s solid any more. You don’t know what you can hang your hat on. So why put in the effort if there’s no guarantee that it’s going to be there tomorrow?” He was talking about restaurant workers, but he could have been talking about diners, too. It is restaurants, but it is also everywhere: everything that felt permanent isn’t, and yet the world continues to go on, and nobody is exactly sure what happens now.

There are reasons to be hopeful. The longtime server at the high-end Italian restaurant, a 50-year veteran of the industry, is optimistic about the future. Even the staff turnover, he argues, has an upside. “There’s just an eagerness and an energy that people who are doing something that’s really new to them have. It brings a little more excitement than there might have been with more seasoned staff who’ve seen it and done it all.”

In just the last few weeks, Jones says, for the first time since 2020, he’s been able to go out and forget the last few years. “I think there’s been a marked change in how people are feeling in dining rooms,” he says. “It’s feeling better and better.” But it isn’t quite the same; of course, Sophie points out. It can’t be.

“The pandemic kind of pulled back the veil of the service industry,” says Sophie. “And now it’s hard, from both ends, to pull the veil back.”

… we have a small favour to ask. Millions are turning to the Guardian for open, independent, quality news every day, and readers in 180 countries around the world now support us financially.

We believe everyone deserves access to information that’s grounded in science and truth, and analysis rooted in authority and integrity. That’s why we made a different choice: to keep our reporting open for all readers, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This means more people can be better informed, united, and inspired to take meaningful action.

In these perilous times, a truth-seeking global news organisation like the Guardian is essential. We have no shareholders or billionaire owner, meaning our journalism is free from commercial and political influence – this makes us different. When it’s never been more important, our independence allows us to fearlessly investigate, challenge and expose those in power.

Published By: The Guardian

The Era of the Paywalled Restaurant Is Upon Us

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
The Era of the Paywalled Restaurant Is Upon Us

From private “clubstaurants” to NFT reservation tokens to concierge services, getting a table is a lot easier if you’ve got the money.

As long as there have been high-status, celebrity-studded restaurants, there have been people clamoring to get into them, working contacts, making phone calls, greasing palms. Lately, though, it can seem like every restaurant in New York is that kind of restaurant.

In the pandemic era — with hours cut back in many cases, and a public eager to eat out once again — the competition for tables has reached a frenzied pitch on electronic reservation platforms.

“Without over-embellishing, within five seconds basically all reservations are taken,” said Steve Saed, who started #FreeRezy, a free electronic forum where people could swap reservations among themselves. “It’s like winning the lottery to eat at these places,” he added.

But a new generation of tactics have emerged to help would-be diners jump the line, including latter-day concierge services, NFTs granting holders special privileges, members-only credit card perks and private “clubstaurants.” What they all have in common is that they will cost you.

“However many years ago, it was slip the host or hostess $20 and bypass the line,” said Alex Lee, the chief executive of Resy and vice president of American Express Dining. He runs the companies’ Global Dining Network, a program that offers a select group of Amex members (Amex owns Resy) access to certain restaurant perks through the reservation platform.

The program, he suggested, is just the natural evolution of that furtive $20. For an annual credit card fee in the hundreds or sometimes thousands, Global Dining Access members can obtain priority reservations at hot restaurants across the United States. “The first thing customers want is access, right?” Mr. Lee said.

But at certain members-only restaurants, a reservation alone is not enough.

Haiku, a private Japanese restaurant in Miami, makes a slightly different calculation. The restaurant accepts members by invitation only, for an annual fee, and asks them to commit to at least four reservations annually for a 10-to-12-course kaiseki-inspired omakase menu. The restaurant declined to discuss either the application process or the price.

Jeff Zalaznick, a partner at Major Food Group, was only slightly more forthcoming about plans for the New York debut of ZZ’s Club, which will feature a members-only Carbone. Like the first ZZ’s in Miami, which offers members access to a Japanese restaurant, a sushi bar, a bar and lounge and a cigar terrace, ZZ’s Club New York will bring the Major Food Group experience to the financial and social elite. (Like Haiku, Major Food Group would not disclose the fee or the application process.)

But given that the original Carbone — which recently lost its Michelin star — is already impossible to get into, is it really necessary to have an even more exclusive version just two miles away?

“One of the great things about being a private member’s club, is the fact that you really can tailor everything on the food and beverage side to your customers at an even higher level than you can, obviously, when you’re just a public restaurant,” Mr. Zalaznick said.

This means knowing what members want, and how exactly they want it: How do they take their steak? Do they prefer still or sparkling water? What is their standing order, and with which modifications?

Diners can have all those things at the London import Casa Cruz, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but for a stratospheric price tag. The top-floor dining room there is reserved for the 99 members of the restaurant’s “investor group of partners” who have paid between $250,000 and $500,000 to join.

“I think there’s a demand for curation,” said Noah Tepperberg, the co-CEO of Tao Group Hospitality, which next year is opening a private club in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, in collaboration with the restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You.

In the grand tradition of private clubs — from New York City’s Union Club to San Francisco’s Bohemian Club to the recently rebranded ’Quin House in Boston — these exclusive clubstaurants require not only cash but status.


At Lilia, the Brooklyn Italian restaurant from the chef Missy Robbins, reservations are routinely booked solid a month in advance.Credit…Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

“Restaurants began as places to show off status,” said Andrew P. Haley, an associate professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. Generally, this took place in public, where discerning diners could be seen demonstrating their discernment.

The members-only clubstaurant, on the other hand, confers another kind of status, suggested Megan J. Elias, the director of the gastronomy program at Boston University: “You can be a connoisseur among a very small number of connoisseurs.”

Mr. Saed said he’s not surprised that access is being monetized.

“Part of it tracks to the types of people that are renting in New York now,” he said. “With rents pushing over $4,000 to $5,000, I think that the proportion of people that are living here that have the discretionary income to spend are kind of more here.”

Still other restaurants — the public kind — are leaning into patronage-style programs, aiming to give certain customers premier access, while remaining open to the rest of us.

Under normal circumstances, it can take weeks or months to get into Dame, the West Village fish-and-chips sensation. But there is a workaround: Front of House, a platform designed to help restaurants sell “digital collectibles,” also known as NFTs, that grant holders special access.

Instead of lining up at 4:30 p.m. on a Monday, the one day Dame takes walk-in diners, a devoted diner could pay $1,000, which buys them the ability, with at least 24 hours notice, to book a table once a week through the end of 2022. (20 such tokens have been created; 11 have been sold so far.)

Stephanie Dumanian, a cosmetic dentist in Manhattan and a fan of the restaurant, was trying without success to make a reservation for her husband’s birthday when she found Front of House. She bought a token in July, and has been three times since. “It’s been great,” she said. “I feel like I’m supporting a local business.”

Colin Camac, a co-founder of Front of House, said the platform is simply expediting intimacy.

“I think one of the best things in the world is going into a place just like Cheers, where everybody knows your name, where they know what you like, where your martini is sitting there as soon as you walk in,” said Mr. Camac, who is also a regional director at Resy. “It’s an easier way to be part of that community if you don’t have the time to really invest in it.” In other words, anyone can be a regular, for a price.

“It’s kind of a trade secret in the concierge space that you have to build relationships, and spend a lot of time doing it, in order to deliver these very hard to get reservations,” said Peter Adams, the founder of Table Concierge.

His start-up is for people with money but not time, and a would-be diner doesn’t actually have to be a regular to get treated like one. “You could do this on your own,” he said, but he streamlines the process “so you don’t have to wake up at 8 a.m. or book at midnight.”

For a price — usually $50 per reservation per person, but it depends on the difficulty — Mr. Adams works his connections to open doors that appear closed to the rest of us. (White glove service means he will go as far as going to a restaurant in person to negotiate on a client’s behalf.)

With a week or so warning, he puts his success rate at 90 percent. You want Lilia? He’ll get you Lilia, nevermind what Resy says. “We can get you in anywhere other than Rao’s,” he said of the exclusive Italian restaurant in East Harlem.

Though he added: “But if you want to give me $10,000, I can find a way to get you into Rao’s.”

Published By: The New York Times

Experts’ Top 3 Flavor Trends to Watch in 2023

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
Experts’ Top 3 Flavor Trends to Watch in 2023

New flavor trends are emerging at the intersection of persistent food inflation and pent-up consumer demand leftover from COVID lockdowns.

According to industry experts, consumers are looking for authenticity and transparency above all else, and those values are largely dictating which flavors will win out next year.

With that, here are three of the top flavor trends experts say to watch in 2023:

1. Complex Heat

Spicy food has been gaining popularity over the last decade, but today’s consumers crave more than just heat—they want to learn about different peppers and the complexity of their flavors.

According to Spoonshot’s 2023 Trends Report, interest in complex heat “goes beyond level of heat to specific varieties of pepper from around the world, underlying flavor notes, and even pairing with other flavors.”

Spoonshot’s data shows that the complex heat trend is being driven by consumers’ growing interest in international flavors, which some experts attribute to a collective desire for new experiences in the wake of COVID lockdowns.

“What we’re learning is that this is partly about making us feel something,” Robyn Carter, founder and CEO of Jump Rope Innovation told The Food Institute. “Breaking up the monotony, amusing and stimulating ourselves.

“There are also cuisines that are trending, as consumers seek new experiences through food, where spice levels are more complex and at higher levels than U.S. consumers are generally used to—Indian, West African, etc.” Carter explained. “As those cuisines continue to go mainstream in 2023, we’ll see more complex heat ahead.”

2. Nostalgia

Coming out of the COVID pandemic, many consumers are drawn to comfort foods that remind them of simpler, pre-pandemic times. Nostalgic foods have become hugely popular over the last year, and the trend doesn’t show signs of slowing in 2023.

“In times of change and uncertainty, human nature takes us back to the things that make us feel safe and comfortable,” Dan Mesches, CEO of Sprinkles Cupcakes told The Food Institute. “Food especially has the power to do this.

“So when you start seeing certain flavors you remember having growing up or dishes that remind you of cooking at home with your family, there’s an instant connection there,” Mesches said.

Kellogg’s banked on this kind of instant connection when it brought back Frosted Grape Pop-Tarts earlier this year, a flavor that was discontinued in the 90s, when millennials were growing up.

McDonald’s also tapped into the nostalgia trend this year when it released an adult Happy Meal, complete with a plastic toy, as part of a limited-time collaboration with streetwear company Cactus Plant Flea Market. The fast-food giant is doubling down on nostalgia this Halloween by bringing back the Boo Bucket, a Happy Meal served in a familiar trick-or-treating pail, which debuted in 1986.

3. Street Food

Consumers are looking for new experiences through food while navigating a steady increase in food inflation at the same time—street food reconciles both of these truths, making it a cuisine of the moment.

“Street food carries an aura of authenticity that people right now, especially Gen Z, seek out,” Leith Steel, senior strategist and Head of Insights at Carbonate told The Food Institute. “By nature, it is accessible and carries a lack of pretense, it can also be seen as an antidote to fine dining.”

Elote, Mexican street corn, is one example of an authentic street food that reached mainstream appeal in the U.S. over the last few years. PepsiCo released Mexican Street Corn Cheetos as a limited-time offer in 2021, and Kellogg’s came out with Pringles Mexican Street Corn Crisps this summer.

According to Spoonshot’s report, chaat masala, a spice blend from North India and a staple ingredient in many street food dishes, could be the next big thing in 2023. Right now, consumer interest in chaat masala is five times greater than business interest, indicating that there is demand waiting to be fulfilled.

Published By: The Food Institute

Alcohol beverage industry facing “unprecedented” challenges but remains resilient

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
Alcohol beverage industry facing “unprecedented” challenges but remains resilient

The alcoholic drinks industry has had to deal with a “relentless series” of major macroeconomic challenges, creating “a perfect storm” for brand owners, according to analysts at GlobalData.

Speaking at an event on the outlook for the industry, GlobalData analysts highlighted a number of “major disruptions” to the alcoholic beverages value chain, including supply-side shortages of crucial ingredients and packaging materials such CO2 and aluminum, lower yields of raw materials including hops brought on by summer droughts and skyrocketing energy costs.

Over the past 12 months, the price of barley has increased by 33%, whilst aluminum prices are double 2020 levels. Shipment and freight costs, meanwhile, have increased by 80%.

GlobalData beer and cider research director Kevin Baker said because of these increases price hikes have been unavoidable for alcoholic beverage manufacturers. He warned, however, that continued pressure on consumers’ personal finances from inflation would feed into demand in the future.

“The alcoholic drinks industry has witnessed major disruptions across the entire value chain due to raw-material shortages, rising operational costs and distribution challenges,” he said. “Companies have been left with little choice but to raise prices to protect their profit margins, and therefore pass these costs onto their consumers.”

Baker added: “However, consumers have elevated levels of concern over their personal finances, which will most likely lead to a change in purchasing habits either immediately or at some point in the future.”

Citing GlobalData’s Q2 consumer survey, Baker said 84% of global consumers were concerned about the impact of inflation and their personal finances, and would likely face “tough shopping choices ahead”, with non-essential food and beverage items most at risk.

“Ultimately, the consumer will be faced with tough decisions ahead, either to spend less through trading down, buying less or switching out of the category altogether,” he said.

Baker added the onus was on beverage brand owners to mitigate concerns over the rising cost of living by “reviewing their portfolio range, from packed down, sizing and multi-pack formats to price promotions and discounting strategies” in order to ensure sales remained resilient.

Despite this, demand for alcoholic beverages has continued to rise, with GlobalData predicting volume and value growth of 4% and 12% respectively by the end of 2022, as pent-up demand following two-years of pandemic disruption outweighs the impact of inflation on consumer disposable income.

GlobalData alcoholic beverages manager David Harris said alcoholic beverages categories remained “resistant to inflationary concerns”, highlighting their credentials as “recession-proof”.

“Consumers continue to spend more on alcoholic beverages each year,” he said. “In 2016, the average consumer was estimated to spend US$230 on alcoholic beverages every year. Now, however, the average per capita spend adjusted for inflation has increased to US$245 per year.”

“Despite inflationary and geopolitical concerns, performance is forecast to pick up in the coming years, with pent-up demand being a key driver following the Covid-19 pandemic, and this will drive growth across all price segments, through to 2026.”

Published By: Just Drinks

Hotels And Restaurants In The US and Canada Can Now Highlight Their Identity

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
Hotels And Restaurants In The US and Canada Can Now Highlight Their Identity

Tripadvisor has recently announced that it is launching relevant and meaningful guidance for hospitality businesses and travelers. According to the travel guide company, this new business is listing works to make its platform more inclusive of diverse communities using its influential website and app. The new listing aims to celebrate diverse voices in hospitality businesses in the United States and Canada.

The platform states that the self-identification tool was rooted in insights shared by accommodation providers and restaurants. They overwhelmingly indicate that businesses on our platform will use the new functionality.

Tripadvisor reveals that 39% of all business owners surveyed said that the ability to showcase identity attributes on a listing page is important. They also said they would take advantage of the functionality to showcase identity attributes on their business listing page.

“Representation is extremely important to the millions of businesses listed on our platform — and to the hundreds of millions of travelers and diners they serve,” said Kanika Soni, Chief Commercial Officer, Tripadvisor. “Enabling hotels and restaurants to celebrate their diversity is yet another way we deliver helpful guidance to those eager to support these businesses when visiting Tripadvisor.”

See below for the details:

The List Of Self-Identification

Black-Owned Restaurant

Asian-owned

Black-owned

Disability-owned

Hispanic/Latinx-owned

Indigenous-owned

LGBTQIA+-owned

Veteran-owned

Woman-owned

How to Identify Your Business

Booking hotel

A business owner or operator can claim their listing on Tripadvisor, giving them access to free reputation management and brand-building functionalities like:

. Customization of business listing details, uploading owner and operator-approved photography.

. Ability to join the conversation by enabling operators to respond to reviews and access free tools to generate more feedback for their business.

. Access to key insights to help owners or operators analyze — and build on — their business performance.

. Finally, any claimed business located in the United States or Canada that wants to self-identify can easily access and select any relevant attributes in their Management Center, and their business listing will reflect that information for millions of travelers or diners to see. 

The Owner Identity Attributes

Shop-These-Black-Owned-Small-Businesses-for-Mothers-Day

Hotel and Restaurant owners in the United States and Canada can now highlight identity attributes that will be showcased on their Tripadvisor listing page. Currently, within the Management Center experience, hospitality business owners in these regions can select any of the attributes listed above.

Providing owner identity attributes is entirely voluntary and is only available to US- and Canada-based businesses. Tripadvisor informed that it does not verify the accuracy of this information.

Knowing if one of these attributes applies to your business

best restaurants

Tripadvisor says that If 51% or more of your business is unconditionally directly-owned and controlled by a person or people who identify as a member of one or more of the identity attributes outlined above, you should select that or those attributes.

This criteria applies to individual owners, individual franchise owners, as well as to ownership groups of franchised chain hotels and restaurants.

Adding an attribute to your business

Any registered owner in the United States and Canada can add an owner identity attribute to their Tripadvisor listing page via their Management Center.

Photo by Daniel Thomas

Within the Management Center, under the “Manage Listings” tab, you will see a new option called “Business Identity Attributes.”

Upon selecting that, you will have the option to click one or more of the attributes Tripadvisor is offering. Upon selecting, the attributes will appear on your Tripadvisor page within 1-2 business days.

What if you no longer wish to display an attribute on your profile?

Providing owner identity attributes is entirely voluntary and can be edited any time within the Management Center.

Published By: Yahoo!news

Don’t Let Your Loyalty Program Go Stale – Putting CX Center Table

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
Don’t Let Your Loyalty Program Go Stale – Putting CX Center Table

Here’s how loyalty programs often pan out: A customer downloads the app. They might create an account, log in, place an order, and apply a discount — or they might not even get that far. And when they close their phone or exit the order line, they never touch the app again. 

Does that sound familiar? If your answer is, “Yes, chef,” then you aren’t alone. Although the average consumer belongs to 15 or so loyalty programs, they use fewer than seven. Within a year, more than half of loyalty memberships go completely inactive — leaving your promo codes, deals, and discounts to rot away in the spam folder of history. 

In today’s digital world, restaurant and food brands need to focus on digital engagement that freshens up the overall customer experience (CX), making the process more convenient, informative, and integrated from start to finish. So how can you make your loyalty program stand out instead of going stale?  

Digital Touchpoints that Feed Customer Appetite 

More than 90 percent of companies offer loyalty programs, but not all brands see the same success with their members. In fact, eight in 10 consumers report they withdraw their loyalty from brands faster than they did three years ago. 

Thanks to expectations set by Amazon, Apple, and other customer-optimized brands, today’s consumers demand more from companies across all industries. Features like a seamless checkout process, free shipping and delivery, early access, and easy-to-use rewards have become table stakes. 

At the same time, smart restaurant and food brands understand that loyalty programs aren’t just a way to get diners in the door. They’re vehicles for building brand preference by heightening emotional connections with customers and fostering satisfaction with a purchase. Adding more discounts or upping reward points isn’t enough to achieve this deeper level of engagement. It’s not a sustainable strategy long-term, either — you’d eventually have to make your whole menu free to keep customers coming back.

Instead, successful loyalty programs focus on understanding customers and elevating their experience — and that means integrating loyalty benefits into digital touchpoints to guide a better, more satisfying experience that lines up with customers’ evolving expectations. 

What does that type of seamless digital engagement look like in practice? A loyalty app could remind a customer that they have a reward for a menu item and allow them to redeem the reward with one tap. Or customers might receive a personalized notification from a restaurant manager saying “thank you for your order” and that morning coffee is on them. 

Loyalty programs that build personalized connections with customers create emotional responses that are stronger than a simple price cut. That’s a recipe for better engagement and relationships with customers that last longer than a single interaction. And the result makes a tangible impact on the bottom line: Companies leading in loyalty grow revenues 2.5 times as fast as other companies. 

Cooking Up a Better CX

Brands that recognize the value of loyal customers want them to get the most value from their loyalty program — and they make it as easy as possible to do so. As you look to reinvigorate your loyalty program, consider these three steps to build better experiences for your top customers.

1. Seamless experiences are the standard

You may have had the unfortunate experience of standing at the counter or in line at the drive-thru, scrolling through your phone trying to find a reward, while the cashier stands silently and other customers grow increasingly impatient. Dealing with a poorly designed app is a stressful experience — and it’s one reason why many loyalty program members end up paying for their meals and leaving without using their benefits. 

The best loyalty programs take away redemption anxiety by offering a more streamlined experience. Take Chick-fil-A, for example. When a customer orders ahead, Chick-fil-A’s online checkout system will identify the order, assess applicable rewards, and allow the customer to apply rewards with one tap. This system works because it guides customers through the redemption process instead of placing the burden on them to locate and access rewards on their own.

Integrating loyalty benefits into your checkout system is a great first step toward seamlessness, but you shouldn’t stop there. Take a long, hard look at your customer journey and ask yourself how you can make every step from browsing and ordering to rewards redemption and checkout quicker and easier. 

2. Innovate with the customer in mind

If you’re a regular at Panera Bread or Chipotle, your go-to order is already waiting when you log into their apps. If you’re a loyalty member, you’ll also get suggestions for additional items that qualify for a reward. Brands that set CX trends don’t just ask what customers want in a loyalty program, they find their own ways to reduce friction throughout the process, solve common frustrations for customers, and reward their most loyal diners for their patronage. 

You can differentiate your loyalty program and its benefits from competitors by mapping out your customer journey and reducing points of friction that customers might not even know existed — whether creating more predictive experiences or giving preferential treatment to your most loyal patrons. 

For example, you might move loyalty members’ orders to the front of the queue or guarantee their order will be ready within 30 minutes. They might get bumped to the front when they make a reservation or have priority parking when they pick up their meal. Invest in solutions that meet needs customers haven’t yet thought of — and show how loyal customers get value from your loyalty program at every step of the process.

3. CX is an organization-wide initiative

Businesses often delegate every aspect of loyalty programs to the marketing department. But successful CX optimizes all touchpoints your customers have across your company. When the marketing department is entirely responsible for building loyalty experiences, you risk creating an empty promise that can’t be delivered. Your store operations team won’t be on board with the latest discounts and deals once customers are inside. Your data team won’t have the right information to customize and personalize experiences online. Your engineering team may not be able to implement that app update in time for the next promotion. 

It takes the entire organization to carry out any CX function — and loyalty programs are no different. Start by mapping out every aspect of your loyalty program and every department necessary to carry those efforts out. Providing a high-level view of your loyalty program ensures that teams across your organization are on the same page and working together to accomplish a common goal: Better experiences for your customers. 

CX is a full-course meal — and loyalty programs should be the cherry on top that keeps customers coming back for more. 

For food and restaurant brands, just having a loyalty program is no longer enough on its own (really, it never was). With so many options on the table, brands that stick with old-school methods — forcing customers to remember, select and redeem a reward on their own — are missing opportunities at best, or losing customers at worst. 

Rather than offering yet another untargeted discount, turn your attention to how customers will access, interact, and redeem that offer. More importantly, focus on how those processes build strong relationships with loyal customers, create an emotional response to your brand, and improve the overall dining experience. CX is a full-course meal — and loyalty programs should be the cherry on top that keeps customers coming back for more. 

Published By: Modern Restaurant Management

How Restaurants Can ‘Hack’ Social Media Algorithms

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
How Restaurants Can ‘Hack’ Social Media Algorithms

All social media platforms are driven by one thing—find relevant popular content for users.

In today’s world of the internet and social media, content is produced at an overwhelming rate. In a single day, there are 4.75 million items shared by Facebook users each day, 95 million photos and videos shared on Instagram and about 720,000 hours of fresh video content per day on YouTube. With all the content being created , it’s impossible for social media channels to display 100 percent of the content to a user’s feed. So, businesses often find their posts are lost in the deluge of content—especially since their content is only shown to less than 5 percent of their total audience due to social media algorithms resulting in an average engagement rate of only about 0.25 percent, according to Hootsuite. For businesses looking to engage with their customers and ultimately drive revenue via social media, knowing how to use the social media algorithm to your benefit  and ensuring your content is front and center becomes critical.

The business of social media platforms and why they need an algorithm

As demonstrated above, the reality is that there is too much content being generated to display all things to a user. Further, users have short attention spans and other priorities competing for their time.

All social media platforms are driven by one thing: find relevant popular content for users, whether a picture of a puppy, a really popular band, or a friend’s story and put it in front of them. Why? Because the truth is, active users and the time they spend on the social platform is the most significant asset of a social media platform. The platforms are all competing for that “golden” asset, the active user. Failure to bring the user the popular content, that is easily accessed and at the top of the page (their “feed”), will result in their users going to another platform–because no one wants to be bored, look at unpopular content or spend hours going through the deluge of content that is being posted every hour to find something that interests them.

Thus “the algorithm” is the most critical user facing component to the social media platform.

How social media algorithms work

According to Facebook, the platform says the purpose is to “discover new content and connect with stories they [the users] care about the most.” Social media channels like Facebook accomplish this by ranking content based on three main criteria: The people and businesses users interact with the most, the type of content users tend to engage with (for example, photos vs videos) and the amount of engagement a particular post is receiving. When a business sees that posts are receiving very low engagement, it’s likely that the posts aren’t meeting the criteria and thus aren’t being delivered to a large enough percentage of followers. In essence, all that hard work creating social media content and planning and scheduling the posts is being wasted.

Beating the algorithm by increasing your Social Gravity

The way many businesses ensure their posts will appear in people’s feeds is by boosting the posts by placing a paid budget behind it via social media advertising. In fact, a survey of business executives by Sprout Social found that 80% think it’s important to invest in social media advertising to achieve a strong social media presence. Boosting fundamentally sounds like the easy way to get more exposure, but there are several nuances to the strategy. For example, by boosting a post one area you will get more exposure would be an increase in display of the post to your followers, intuitively this would seem positive however the next question is key, “what is the quality of your followers?” If your followers are high value, brand loyal connections then this is a great investment, but if your followers have been acquired through paid exposure, or non-relevant cute pictures of puppies, then these connections are less likely to engage or take your Call-to-Action. It turns out that boosting as a singular strategy is randomly effective and the ROI is not a reliable method of engaging your customers.  What if there were a better strategy that didn’t rely on paid advertising to ensure the algorithm works in your favor?

Let’s go back to the criteria social channels like Facebook use to rank content. Number one, it’s the content that people interact with the most, quantified as  likes/reactions, comments or shares–and these elements build on each other. For example, when a post by a business is shared, not only is that person seeing it, but all of the people they’re connected with through social media. And as more people begin to see it and click and engage, the algorithm notes this engagement and delivers it to more users. A helpful way to think about this is through a term I coined: Social Gravity. Gravity is a force that attracts mass, and social media works in a similar way. A post attracts reactions, comments, shares, etc., which increases the original posts popularity (mass) and that increase then adds to the popularity resulting in greater and greater gravity with each engagement. Thus, it increases social gravity.

But imagine taking it a step further and integrating your business’s social media with other technologies to create a successful revenue-driving strategy. This is where integrated WiFi marketing comes in.

A revenue-generating advantage through integration

Integrating technologies to further customer engagement and hack the social media algorithm looks like this: A customer goes to a sports bar during happy hour and provides his name and phone number to access the WiFi. The restaurant collects that information and can utilize it to engage with the customer. While he’s still inside the sports bar, he receives a text message with a link to a Facebook post sharing that appetizers are buy one get one free during happy hour. The Social Gravity is instantly increased because his smart phone reaches out to Facebook and displays a “preview” of the post or event. The social algorithm sees that preview as activity. He’s already at the sports bar during happy hour, so this is a great post to see, and he “clicks” the link which opens Facebook and goes to the post. Again, the social algorithm then “sees” that someone has opened Facebook and gone directly to the full post further increasing the Social Gravity of the post.

But, then he likes the post and then shares it so that his friends see it too and both of these activities are “seen” by Facebook and each has a greater impact to the Social Gravity of the post. One simple text immediately becomes four measurable events that all contribute to the Social Gravity of the original post. And while at it, he orders an appetizer to take advantage of the buy one get one free deal. This is one person though, now multiply that across everyone who comes into the sports bar during happy hour. That’s a lot of people engaging with the post which ensures the algorithm will rank it higher. Not only did the sports bar not have to pay to boost the post, but it also gained revenue from the happy hour promotion.

The above example utilizes a sports bar, but the use of integrated WiFi marketing campaigns has grown across business sectors including restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, retail stores and franchises. The strategy is effective since customers enjoy having access to free WiFi (96 percent prefer businesses that offer it according to Global Market Insights) and 74 percent of people are happy for businesses to send them text promotions while using the in-store WiFi, according to an OnDeviceResearch survey. Also, integrated WiFi marketing campaigns are hyper-targeted and delivered in real-time which further ensures the right customers are receiving the right message at the right time.

A sports bar’s Facebook post promoting a happy hour special is one example. But there are numerous opportunities to integrate WiFi, social media, text messaging and even digital signage to drive engagement across social media platforms and hack the algorithms—and that’s merely the start. The end result is revenue and improved profitability from driving more customer traffic, filling seats in restaurants on the slowest days, boosting average sales or gaining larger event attendance.

Published By: QSR

Mitigating the Impact of Rising Interchange Fees

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
Mitigating the Impact of Rising Interchange Fees

While using credit cards is a convenience for consumers, this form of payment represents a major cost center for restaurants. In fact, credit card processing fees rank as thethird highest cost of doing business behind the cost of food and labor. As restaurants work to recover from the impact of the pandemic, interchange fees or “swipe” fees continue to curb their ability to grow and thrive. Although these fees can be a growth inhibitor, innovative credit card processing software, services and solutions can help drive growth and mitigate the impact of rising interchange fees.

Credit card acceptance is an essential part of doing business today as more consumers move toward cashless forms of payment. According to a PYMNTS survey of 3,250 U.S. consumers,33 percent of these consumers used a credit card for their most recent restaurant food purchase. This research, from the March edition of the Digital Economy Payments report, “Going Digital to Pay for Travel and Restaurant Dining” also found that credit cards account for the greatest share of food spending with consumers using credit cards to purchase an estimated $29.8 billion in food items in February.

A Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Diary of Consumer Payment Choice report further revealed that consumers continued to use credit cards and debit cards for most of their payments, accounting for57 percent of total payments in 2021 compared to 55 percent in 2020 and 54 percent in 2019.

As an increasing amount of consumers use credit cards to pay for dining, the swipe fees continue to mount, eating into razor-thin margins, which average about three-to-five percent in the restaurant industry. Recent credit card fee hikes are also eroding restaurant profits. In April, Visa and Mastercard raised transaction fees which are estimated to cost U.S. business owners an added$1.2 billion in fees.

Credit card processing fees have more than doubled over the last decade. According to the Nilson Report, U.S. merchants who accepted credit cards as payment for goods and services paid$105.23 billion in processing fees last year, an increase of 25.1 percent. Nilson Report data also revealed that credit cards accounted for 76.3 percent of total processing fees paid by U.S. merchants in 2021, up from 75.9 percent in 2020. 

In a recent letter to two members of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the National Restaurant Associationnoted that swipe fees averaging 2.22 percent of each transaction “can hamper restaurants’ and other small businesses’ ability to succeed.”

Rising credit card fees coupled with increasingly thin profit margins and general inflation are making it challenging for many restaurants to stay in business. To help recoup the cost of accepting cards, some restaurants are raising the prices of menu items, and others (where permitted by state law and merchant services agreement) are adding a credit card surcharge to bills. 

While restaurants have no control over the interchange fees set by card companies such as Visa and Mastercard, they can cut costs and improve the bottom line by selecting a payment processing company that tailors merchant services to the needs of each client and continues to audit those services to ensure they scale up or down as necessary. Each restaurant has unique payment processing needs and one size fits all solutions can result in overpaying for services and technology that are not wanted and/or used. A customized approach makes certain that this does not happen.

Partnering with a payment processing company that delivers services designed to inject efficiency into operations is another way restaurants can reduce their costs. A point of sale (POS) system which combines payment processing with restaurant management software can help make restaurant operations run smoother and more efficiently. Using this technology, restaurants can take orders, accept payments, organize inventory, manage team members, and grow their customer base.

In an increasingly cashless society, credit card processing fees are a high cost of doing business for restaurants and other businesses. Restaurants do not control those interchange fees, but they can better control and lower operational costs with the payment processing services and software they use to accept credit cards.

Published by: Modern Restaurant Management

TikTok is having a Big Influence on where Millennials Eat

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
TikTok is having a Big Influence on where Millennials Eat

You might have heard that TikTok is replacing Google as the search engine of choice for Gen Zers.

For millennials, the video app might be the new Yelp.

Users between the ages of 26 and 41 are apparently quick to act on cravings piqued while browsing the app. More than half (53%) said they ordered from a restaurant after seeing a video about it on TikTok, according to a survey of more than 1,100 users by marketing agency MGH.

Millennials aren’t the only ones behaving this way: More than a third (38%) of all TikTok users said the same thing.

Extrapolated out, that equates to about 52 million of the app’s 136 million U.S. users, presenting a large and impressionable group of potential customers for restaurants.

The app, which serves up an endless stream of short videos, is massively popular and continues to see double-digit annual user growth in the U.S.

It has proven to be particularly influential on users’ offline behavior. A viral pasta recipe led to a feta cheese shortage at some grocers last year, and books that get traction on the app regularly become best-sellers.

That has made TikTok an increasingly important marketing channel for restaurants. The rapid growth of Crumbl Cookies, for instance, has been fueled in large part by its more than 6 million TikTok followers. And many large chains now have a TikTok strategy.

“TikTok truly is a restaurant marketer’s dream come true,” said Ryan Goff, EVP, social media marketing director at MGH, in a statement. “There aren’t many other tools we have left in our marketing toolbox that can drive the sort of impact promised by TikTok through this survey.”

According to the survey, TikTok’s sway on users’ dining decisions can be quite powerful. Three in 10 respondents said they traveled further than they normally would to visit a restaurant they saw on the app. And about the same amount (28%) went to a place that was more expensive than their usual spots after it popped up in their feed.

The driving factor is the appearance of the food itself. Seventy-two percent of respondents said seeing appetizing food on TikTok led them to place on order.

Forty-five percent said it was a unique menu item, and 42% said the restaurant looked like a fun place to go.

Of course, the exposure TikTok offers restaurants can cut both ways. As Bon Appetit reported this week, the app has given rise to amateur restaurant critics who are building large audiences with their scathing 30-second reviews. 

Originally Posted by: Restaurant Business

How to Streamline Your Restaurant’s Workforce

Restaurant Tech Editors
-
0
How to Streamline Your Restaurant’s Workforce

Quick-service restaurants always look for ways to live up to their names.

Streamlining workflows and minimizing wait times are what keep them competitive in a digital world seeking instant gratification. To continually improve a restaurant workflow plan, restaurant operators must assess their operations periodically to ensure they’ve created cohesive environments capable of consistently producing high-quality foods. Furthermore, operators will find that improving ergonomics with tablets and tablet stands can shave time from each customer interaction and order prep, taking efficiency to a new level.

Tablets and tablet stands at these four points in the restaurant workflow plan will result in the most significant key performance indicator (KPI) gains.

1. Menu Display Options

A tablet display mount that locks tablets securely in place enables a quick-service to make digital menus visible throughout the store. Instead of one digital display behind the counter, tablets allow restaurants to feature the entire menu or to scroll through specials, combos, and limited-time offers at key locations in the dining room.

Tablets can also display order numbers and wait times so customers can find a seat and relax while they wait.

2. Stands and Tablets at the “Checkout”

Quick-service restaurants that want to deliver the dining experiences their customers seek must offer self-service ordering and payment options. Research for the National Restaurant Association 2022 State of the Restaurant Industry report found that 67 percent of U.S. consumers say they’d order and pay for food using a tablet. That statistic increases to 82 percent for Gen Z consumers and 79 percent for millennials.

Multiple options for self-service ordering allow guests to skip the line, order exactly what they want, pay using a credit or debit card or mobile wallet, and print a receipt with an order number. Having many tablets available, securely displayed using tablet kiosk stands or mounts, can significantly free up employee time to do other work, like attending to customers.

Additionally, tablets on table mounts or kiosk stands that can easily move around give managers the freedom to test locations for tablets and position them as needed to optimize their restaurant workflow plans.

3. With a KDS System

Tablets can work with kitchen display system (KDS) software to track orders, highlight food prep for specific stations, and keep the kitchen staff aware of time. Point-of-sale (POS) systems integrated with a KDS increase efficiency by displaying orders for the kitchen as soon as they’re entered.

Additionally, restaurants with third-party ordering systems like Grubhub or DoorDash can use tablet display stands to organize incoming orders better. Third-party ordering systems don’t always integrate with in-house POS software. Hence, orders may come in from different sources, often causing confusion. Having readily accessible and visible tablets can help sort through these types of orders, organizing them with greater accuracy.

Using tablets with tablet enclosures and wall mounts instead of KDS screens also give restaurants more flexibility. Tablets are typically smaller and, with VESA mounts, can work in more locations, helping managers give staff a clear view of orders and achieve the ergonomic restaurant workflow plan they aim to create.

4. Behind the Scenes

In addition to streamlining customer-facing and kitchen operations, displaying tablets can also improve efficiency in the back office. For example, a tablet display kiosk can replace the time clock. Staff can clock in and out digitally and save all data to the POS system. Efficiency and accuracy are even higher if the POS system is integrated with the accounting and payroll systems.

The Easy Way to Optimize a Restaurant Workflow Plan

Tweaking manual processes and retraining employees will only go so far toward improving performance, efficiency, and financial KPIs. Technology solutions, specifically tablets and mounts, kiosks, or stands, are an easy way to enhance quick-service efficiency, speed, and workflow ergonomics. Furthermore, they’re easy to implement, cost-effective, and can result in a faster return on investment than other options.

In the current climate, efficiency gains can tip the scales from barely scraping by to streamlined profitability. If your business is short-staffed, the right technology can help you provide excellent customer service with fewer employees. Implementing tablets and tablet stands, kiosks, or mounts can improve restaurant workflow plans and take your business into the future.

Originally posted by: QSR

1...131415...28Page 14 of 28