June 2017 - inresto

7 Practices to Adopt That’ll Attract Millennials to Your Restaurant!

Posted on 23/06/2017 by inrestoblog

It’s quite evident that of late a major chunk of customers at restaurants are millennials; people in their late teens to early 30’s. The youth tend to dine out more as compared to their parents, and therefore every restaurant needs to evolve and market directly to them. Here are a few tips that’ll ensure millennials become loyalists to your restaurant:

1. Social Media Presence

Millennials spend most of their time on various social media platforms, and if you’re not catching eyeballs here, you’re losing out on a massive opportunity. The most popular ways in which restaurants engage with their customers are by creating unique hashtags, hosting contests and promoting user generated content. A strong presence on social media is definitely a prerequisite to attracting millennials to your restaurant. Find out more about how to have a successful social media presence.

2. Dining Experience

If you win over customers with an exceptional experience, they’re bound to come back! For instance, if your ambience is too overwhelming and food super insta-worthy, (we’ll come to that in the next point), they won’t think twice before planning a second visit. Ordering in is emerging as a common trend amongst the young generation, so it’s essential to stand out and give them a reason to dine out.

3. Insta-Worthy Plating & Presentation

A common practice adopted by millennials lately is taking pictures of their food and simultaneously posting them on Instagram. If your plating and presentation is top-notch, and their Instagram picture gets a bunch of likes, it’s a win-win – you’ll retain that diner and make a great impression on their followers!

4. Organize An Event

From live band performances to stand-up comedy nights and karaoke nights, events are a big hit amongst diners. Specially curated nights tend to increase footfall, help you tap into the millennial audience and retain them. You must also promote your event on social media extensively to catch hold of your target audience.

5. Experiment With New Trends

Millennials are quite enthusiastic about new trends and the fear of missing out (colloquially referred to as FOMO) urges them to be up and about, trying new things. Recently fusion food emerged as a popular trend and a lot of restaurants are capitalizing on it. Menus inspired by simple trends like Pokemon Go or Game Of Thrones also work wonders!

6. Loyalty Programs & Rewarding Consistent Diners

Diners often become loyalists when you give them a reason to come back. It’s best to run loyalty programmes by giving them a discount on the 3rd or 4th visit. Another great way of retaining diners is by rewarding the consistent ones with merchandise or free meals. The key is to keep them happy and make them feel special.

7. Promote Healthy Food

Health conscious consumers are on the rise and the best way to capture them is by making your menu transparent. Gym goers and calorie counters are always on the lookout for healthy menus. Offer healthy options, organic food and low-fat desserts to tempt millennials.

The first impression of your restaurant matters a lot, so make a good one on the youngsters and their word of mouth marketing will get you loads of business! Do you have any best-practices to share that millennials responded to well? Tell us in the comments below.

5 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Needs InResto!

Posted on 22/06/2017 by inrestoblog

In the F&B industry, outstanding service is sublime, but it is exceptional efficiency at the end of the day that paves the way for success. Enter inResto, a unique restaurant management software that makes use of technology to create end-to-end solutions for restaurateurs. It is the only open platform that successfully connects with various services across the food-tech ecosystem thereby providing holistic solutions for guest management goals of restaurants. With the advent of new restaurants opening every other day, and the competition among restaurants becoming more cutthroat than ever, inResto gives your restaurant that extra edge. Here’s why every restaurant needs to be well versed with this restaurant technology management system.

1. Because you’d rather have your customers make lines inside the bar than outside the restaurant door

inResto helps your host or hostess manage all your reservations from one simple interface. Whether the reservation comes in from your website, Facebook, from reservation platforms like Dineout, or even over the phone, they are all funnelled into inResto Reserve, where diners can be assigned tables or put on the waiting list, all from the app. This, in turn, dramatically reduces unorganized waiting lines, dissatisfied customers, and unaccounted leads.

2. Because feedback that counts needs a more dependable channel than arbitrary sheets of paper

Every critique, every word of appreciation and every opinion of your customer goes a long way to eventually fostering a fulfilling relationship with them. Often, the entire customer data is recorded using pen and paper, which usually gets lost. The feedback system via inResto on the other hand, is progressive, intelligent and intuitive. For instance, if the diner rates an aspect of their experience 3 stars or lower, it immediately shows more questions to get more details. Not only does this greatly enhance your diner’s experience, but also is a great tool to assess the performance of your servers and the departments of your restaurant.

3. Because your table inventory needs to be reinvented

inResto brings you data driven analytics that not only configures your floor and section layouts but also monitors real-time status of tables. This helps you in planning the seating to accommodate more customers, reduces the tables’ turnaround time and maximizes your seating inventory. Thus, at the end of the day you are able to utilize and manage your tables to their optimal capacity; efficiently and effectively seating more customers, thereby increasing revenues.

4. Because we strive to maximise your gains

We believe that the strongest customer experiences come from the simplest of steps. All the data collected from various platforms comes together at the inResto Dashboard that makes use of various tools and features which aids in generating more profits. The campaign management tool is one such offering that not only engages but also re-engages and retargets your customers. This makes your overall restaurant management an economically more efficient venture as re-engaging a customer for a transaction costs three times lesser than acquiring new customers.

5. Because we understand that businesses run on relationships

There is power in the concept of personalization and inResto recognises that. It provides to you an insight-based loyalty programme that helps you identify your loyal customers and rewards them for keeping them engaged with your restaurant. It also employs strong customer communication through emails and SMSes that help keep your patrons in the loop. Here, you can easily set up a customizable programme where diners can get a free beer, desserts, points for their visits or expenditure, and much more.

Summing up, consider the following scenario – delectable cuisine, ambience that provides a sense of exclusivity and services, simply on point. The customers are in love with everything you provide yet may hesitate in coming to you again.

inResto figures out the whys and the whats so that you can concentrate on providing your clientele with the experience of a lifetime, and have them coming back for more.

Here’s How Food Festivals Play An Essential Role in Marketing For Restaurants

Posted on 16/06/2017 by inrestoblog

Keeping up with the latest trends is essential for any restaurant to thrive in a market that breeds cutthroat competition with innovative restaurants that are cropping up by the minute. One of the greatest trends that have taken the country by storm are food festivals, and it’s a crucial move for marketing for restaurants. So, if you’ve been wondering if this would be a good move or not, read on.

Exposure

First and foremost, it’s essential to put your name out there. At these events, the publicity and press releases will do that for you. You can bank on them to publicise your restaurant the way you like it and you’ll also get to reach their target audience through vigorous social media campaigns both by the organisers and sponsors, as well as the visitors of the festival. In the meantime, you can concentrate on making your stall irresistible.

Reaching A Diverse Audience

Food festivals get a lot of footfalls, so you can expect to reach a wide audience. It’s also a great place to tap into new clientele and make an impression to increase loyalists. If your booth is eye-catching, service is prompt and dishes offered are exemplary, you’re definitely going to make some new foodie fans!

Learning From Competition

As the quote goes “Know thy self, know your enemies. A thousand battles, a thousand victories”. You’ve got to know and learn from your competitors. Everybody puts their best step forward at these festivals and you can really take notes from established restaurants’ tactical moves. Get an insight on their strategies and see where they’re lacking to avoid those mistakes.

Testing New Menus

A food festival is like a massive testing ground where you get to reach foodies with different tastes, so it’s obviously a great place to get opinions. This move would be great for old restaurants trying to get their mojo back and new restaurants trying to make their mark.

One-On-One Interaction With Customers

It’s important to interact with your customers to understand their expectations apart from just their likes and dislikes. Also, a personal connect is vital to build a relation with diners and make them well acquainted with your brand and it’s USP’s. Lastly, we all know nothing works better than marketing via word of mouth.

Highlighting Your Dormant USP

When we talk of bars or breweries, one cannot think beyond their cocktails and fresh beer, right? But what if your pub’s got some kickass burgers that nobody talks of? Food festivals would be the perfect place to let people know about your usually overlooked strengths.

If you’ve been to popular food festivals like The Grub Fest or Palate Fest, you already know all the benefits we’re talking about. Nevertheless, next time there’s a big food fest in town, capitalize on it and we promise you’ll notice an upswing in your clientele.

Here are 10 food festivals across India you should partake in:

The Grub Fest
The Palate Fest
National Street Food Festival
Steppin Out Food Fest
Great Indian Food Festival
Asian Hawkers Market
Sula Fest
Bangalore Food Fest
The Gourmet High Street
Bandra Wine Fest

Have you participated in food fests? Planning to? Put your thoughts in the comments.

Impact of GST on Restaurants

Posted on 15/06/201705/07/2021 by inresto

The complicated tax structure followed in India has always been confusing to the public. In order to make the tax system much simpler, the India Government came up with the policy of ‘one-nation-one -tax’. The first step in this regard is the Goods and Services Tax or the GST bill. As per the GST Bill, it will charge only a single tax on all consumers. The major benefit is that it relieves the consumers from all other direct and indirect taxes.

The restaurant industry has also been impacted hugely by the introduction of GST. As per the Week, the size of India’s restaurant industry is estimated at Rs.4.2 lakh crore and organised restaurants account for 35 percent of the industry.

The tax system prior to the introduction of GST

Before assessing the impact of GST on restaurants, let’s look at the taxing structure in the pre-GST world. During those times, there were 3 major components in the restaurant bill.

VAT (Value Added Tax) – This is the tax levied on the food consumed by the diners.
Service Tax – The component stands for the tax charged on the services provided by the restaurant.
Service Charge – It is a charge applied by the restaurants. It’s an income to the hotels and should not be confused with service tax. This element does not fall under the tax component. It is just an amount collected from the consumer and submitted to the government.

Understanding GST

Under the GST regime, the manufacturer has to pay GST on the value added, whereas the consumer will have to pay the tax only on the retailer’s margin. A major advantage of GST for traders is that the tax will remain same across the country. Thus, they can purchase the raw materials from any part of the country at a cheaper rate. From the perspective of end consumers, it is much easier for them to understand the final bill as it only consist of GST.

As per the new GST regime, the restaurants are divided into 3 categories. They are

Stand-alone restaurants
Restaurants stationed inside hotels
Outdoor catering

Standalone restaurants – The standard GST rate of 5% is applicable for all restaurants irrespective of whether it is air-conditioned or they serve alcohol or not. Under this category, the input tax credit (ITC) cannot be claimed.

Restaurants stationed inside hotels – If the room tariff falls under Rs.7,500 you have to pay a GST of 5% and the ITC cannot be claimed. For those restaurants where the room tariff is more than Rs.7,500 the applied GST is 18% with the benefit of ITC.

Outdoor catering – For all those restaurants that have an outdoor catering (not on the premises of restaurant) are required to pay 18% GST. In these cases they can avail the ITC.

It is to be noted that restaurants that come under the 5% GST slab and have an annual turnover of more than a crore cannot claim the input tax credit. Those restaurants that fall under the 18% slab can claim the ITC.

The impact of GST on restaurants

Sharp rise in rentals – With the introduction of GST, Input Tax Credit was removed. For the restaurants they cannot claim the GST paid on raw materials and rentals. As per restaurants, the capital expenses and the rental cost shot up by 15-18%.

Halt in expansion plans of multiple chains –The restaurants that were planning to expand multiple chains have kept their expansion plans on hold. Instead, they are focusing on the 5 star hotels in order to avail the Input Credit Tax.

Shift to online food delivery business – The revised tax policy has made many restaurants to start an online platform. The major benefit of online business is that there is no need to pay huge rentals, unlike a brick-and-mortar restaurant. With the help of digital restaurant management system such as inresto POS , you can easily integrate multiple platforms such as third party aggregators, websites and more.

There is absolutely no need to worry about the latest GST regime. With the help of a modern day POS, it is quite easy to reconcile the GST applicable to you.

9 Things to Keep in Mind For Social Media Marketing For Restaurants!

Posted on 14/06/201728/06/2021 by inrestoblog

The conventional marketing techniques practiced by businesses in the past have lost relevance due to the emergence of social media marketing. As per the report by Oberlo.com, 73% of marketers believe that social media marketing has been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. The finding that 54% of social browsers use social media to research products makes it more appealing for marketing your restaurant.

As with other businesses, social media marketing has become an imperative for marketing in the food and beverages industry. The following 9 tips will help you immensely in marketing your restaurant.

Strike a balance between engagement and promotion:

Run contests that offer discounts to your customers, so it leads to more likes and engagements on your restaurant’s social media profile. The promotional posts should be done in a diplomatic and subtle manner that is visually appealing to the diners. Always make it a point to find the ideal balance between engagement and promotional posts.

Be spontaneous

Rather than focusing on still images of food items, give more importance to live videos and boomerangs. The reason is that spontaneous activities gain more traction in social media. It can be a fast motion video of your chef preparing a signature dish or the bartender mixing a cocktail. Live videos grab a lot of attention among the young, vibrant crowd who frequent social media.

Cash in on trending topics

Social media is always abuzz with trending topics. Establish a connection between your restaurant and a hot topic in your city or even country. It can be as simple as serving the signature dish of your restaurant to a group of social activists working on a noble cause. Posting that photo in social media with an attractive hashtag can keep the discussion going.

Stay updated on the latest social trends and techniques

Be it posting stories on Instagram or Facebook, stay on top of the latest trends. Instead of posting normal photos, add more life to your brand by posting 360 degree photos. With the help of restaurant management platforms such as inresto White Label, you can build completely personalised website and apps and integrate online ordering.

Maintain consistency in social media posts

Some restaurants posts a lot on social media in the initial days, but gradually lose steam. A general rule of thumb is to post on your restaurant’s social media account at least thrice a week. Otherwise you stand the risk of losing engagement with your followers.

Go viral

If you are lucky enough, your posts on social media can go viral and boost your sales enormously. It can be through establishing an emotional connection with the audience, offering an irresistible deal or a food post that is absolutely jaw dropping.

Spread the word via influencers

An influencer outreach program can boost the popularity of your restaurant significantly. As per Insider Intelligence estimates, based on Mediakix data, brands are set to spend up to $15 million on influencer marketing by 2022. A superb review by influencers can help you easily gain access to a huge fan base who follows them religiously.

User generated content

User generated content or UGC in simple terms is any form of content such as photos, videos, text and audio that has been posted by your customers about your restaurant on online platforms. Reposting the UGC, prompt responses to reviews and engaging with customers can help create a loyal customer base.

Measure your success

Evaluating the success of your social media marketing efforts is quite important. Identify what is working for you and where you are going wrong. For some brands, marketing through Facebook may prove to be more beneficial, whereas for others Instagram works better.

Parting Words

As Covid-19 has caused huge losses for restaurants all over the world, social media marketing is the way forward. It not only helps you build a brand image in the virtual world, but also leads to social shares and an enormous increase in business. The need of the hour is to devise a social media marketing strategy that works best for your restaurant.