September 2017 - inresto

Specialist Spotlight: Raminder Bakshi, Hospitality Expert, Entrepreneur and Chef

Posted on 25/09/2017 by inrestoblog

Having more than 24 years of experience in the field of F&B and hospitality, Raminder Bakshi is famed as a “Young Turk” from his early days. His farsightedness and leadership helped him set up food courts, hotels, resorts and restaurants with unmatched hospitality.

At present, he is founder of The Baking Lab, The Art Culinnaire and The Fruit Boutique. The Art Culinnaire provides concepts to help hotels, restaurants, kitchens, and caterers update and upgrade their services and infrastructure. He has been associated in the past with brands like Hyatt, Sodexho, Hilton Group, etc. He has also provided his expertise to notable hospitals like Fortis, DHLI and Max. We at in Resto got a chance to speak to Mr. Raminder Bakshi and ask him about his insights into the F&B industry.

Q. What, according to you, are the five industry secrets every restaurant must adopt for success?

In order to activate each and every one of the profit drivers, you must implement a set of tools or systems that are customised to your business. These systems must be strategically positioned to gain the maximum effect for your business. There are 7 systems that you must implement for the 6 profit drivers to be activated, these systems include:
1. Marketing
2. Branding
3. Key performance indicators and time management
4. Organisational development & Business Structure
5. Finance & its Systems
6. People Management Skills & Training

Within these 6 systems lie the growth formula for success. If you implement a plan to incorporate each of these areas, your business will grow very rapidly. This is one of the most important areas where business owners get trapped. The trap is a catch-22 as the majority of business owners don’t have the time to implement all the systems to help their businesses grow. However, it is those business owners who invest the time to develop systems in their business that benefit in the long run as their business then runs on autopilot. To develop your business to that stage, you must be able to analyse, optimise, systemise, document, and track business successes and failures.

Small to medium-sized restaurants have always been and always will operate in a cut-throat environment, and unless you take the steps to map out your pathway to success, your business will always own you and not the other way around. Plan for success, and succeed in your plan.

Q. What are the industry trends that you see taking off in the next five years? Also Please include your thoughts on the growth of restaurant management technology in this section.

1. Health And Wellness Top The Menu:
As baby boomers accept their collective aging, dietary issues gain momentum not just for themselves but for their children

2. The ‘next’ Cuisine:
My vote goes to Peru. Its government is promoting the cuisine, which is a fabulous fusion of Italian, Japanese, Indian, Spanish and indigenous cookery. It will certainly be a part of the next wave of specific regional cookery. Nobu came from there; it’s hot, spicy, and with creative flavours.

3. Chef-driven Restaurants:
Celebrity chefs are hanging their names on reinvented restaurants. More chefs are following this exercise in “brand extension.” When you get “Sautéed snapper with edamame dumplings in a ragout of mussels” in a chef-driven restaurant, you know that the category is being redefined.

Hotels, restaurants and shopping centres laying big money on these chefs because they’re competitively desperate to draw crowds.

4. Ethical Eating:
“Fair trade” and “sustainable” are terms gaining traction with restaurant chefs and Indian consumers. People aspire to
feel ethically comfortable about the food they buy: they want uncaged chickens and their eggs, humanely raised animals and environmentally friendly packaging. They’re looking for locally grown products that reduce the global warming impact of moving food around the world.

5. Izakayas:
Tapas making way for Japanese small plates. Restaurateurs are opening Japanese taverns, called izakaya, all over the world. These are homely places emphasizing modestly priced Japanese hors d’oeuvres washed down with oversized bottles of beer and overfilled glasses of sake. Some of the food may be unfamiliar, but people are willing to risk $5 or $6 to experiment. You’ll find izakayas in London, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, LA (where, predictably, they’ve morphed into fusion menus). I’m sure it won’t be long before they come to India.

Raminder Bakshi has certainly created a niche for himself in the F&B industry. His diverse experience in domestic and international markets makes him a one-stop solution for all food industry related glitches. We are so glad we had a chance to chat with him. Want to find more about Mr Raminder Bakshi, visit here.

Want to know more about inResto? Click here.

Through Thick And Thin: How to Nurture Customer Loyalty That Lasts

Posted on 19/09/2017 by inrestoblog

Loyal Diner: ‘Hey, do you want to go have waffles? I have a coupon with 50% off desserts’.

Prospective Diner: ‘That’s a pretty generous discount. You must be a regular visitor at their restaurant’

Now that’s a delightful conversation clearly highlighting the benefits of customer loyalty programs.

With competition brewing on all sides, it is important to engage your customers by giving them a positive restaurant experience while offering them perks that show you care about them. After all, you are 50% more likely to sell to a repeat customer than a new one. In a study done in the US by the National Restaurant Association, 57% of adult consumers are more likely to visit restaurants that offer loyalty programs. We feel that metric is probably quite close to the Indian scenario. Doesn’t it make sense to emphasise nurturing our relationship with our existing customers over acquiring new ones?

There is always a potential pool of customers, but how would you target the ones that would remain loyal to you?

Identify and engage

According to statistics, chances of a customer being loyal to your restaurant increases by 80% if they return for a third visit. With consumer sentiment shifting constantly, it becomes all the more necessary to make sure their experience is authentic and personalised which will, in turn, increase your chances of gaining loyal customers.

A simple text message has proven to be useful in driving customer traffic to restaurants. An SMS doesn’t just limit itself to fancy discount coupons, but is an effective medium in forming a communication between your diners and your restaurants. Customers are over four times more likely to open an SMS than an email, making it the top choice for customer service.

Plus, research shows that 91% of people keep their mobiles closeby throughout the day, and most of them read their text messages.

The success of your restaurant, thus, lies in identification, engagement and customer retention. A more personalised experience, based on understanding of the basic customer needs and imbibing your restaurant with attributes for customer satisfaction will convert your satisfied customers into devoted ones.

Incentives and reward programs

Did you know loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase?

If you truly want to build a loyal customer base, offering perks and incentives to your diners is one way of keeping them happy.

One good example of this practice is the airline and hotel industry, who reward points to their frequent customers which later translates into some kind of discount, gift card and other special treatments.That’s why passengers prefer flying a particular airline or staying at a hotel offering them the maximum points.The much popular coffee chain, Starbucks, in addition to their reward program, engages the customers to use their app to place order, pay and even access streamed music. With earning stars being a part of the Starbucks loyalty reward program, customers can later redeem these stars as rewards like free coffee.

Gain loyal customers with a problem-solving approach

Who isn’t looking for a loyal customer? With technology, you can reach out to them in ways that weren’t possible before. A usual discount offer has no charm anymore and customers expect a specifically crafted and personalized plan. Personal gestures in the form of birthday and anniversary cards and wishes, or personalised gift cards on special occasions, can delight them and improve the probability that they will come back. Restaurants everywhere need to engage in this practice as 80% of your future revenue will come from 20% of your existing customers.

Divide and delight

Smart and targeted communication is another key approach that helps in creating opportunities and experiences for the customers.

Segregate your customer base depending upon their needs and use. There are always a bunch of spenders, looking for quality service, then there are the loyalists, who’d love you for your brand value and would stay loyal, no matter what. The ones who do not like burning a hole in their pocket and are big on savings would hunt you for your amazing deals. Strategize to make sure you have something to offer to each category.

inResto Loyalty

This service that caters to all of these segments of your customers and gives you the option to appreciate each of them based on their preferences and behaviour. The loyalty program has three avenues:

Visit based: Offers that include a free starter or a beer after 3 regular visit to the restaurant.
Expenditure based: Earn 1 point for every Rs.100 spent and redeem all collected points at a later stage as discounts, gift cards or coupons.
Punch Card Based: A coffee on the house after you have bought 4 of them.

Conclusion

Dining, over the years, has turned into a personalized experience, thus making customers an integral and crucial part of the restaurant business. It can cost 5x more to acquire new customers than to keep current ones, so retargeting campaigns and loyalty programs are essential in a robust, cost-effective growth plan. This makes inResto Loyalty an essential tool that can help you nurture stronger relationships with your customers, thereby helping you build consistency and confidence, delighting them at every turn. Plus, the controls are in your hands. You take the calls. Want to find out more about the product? Click here.

8 Hacks to Stay in Touch with your Customers Without Spamming Them

Posted on 18/09/2017 by inrestoblog

We all get myriad notifications and emails from every corner. Each message is vying for our attention while trying to avoid getting automatically thrown into the spam folder.

With the evolution of technology, there are countless ways by which you can get in touch with your customers, but we mustn’t get overzealous. Today, we’ll share 8 hacks that can help your messages get through and capture your audience’s attention without spamming them.

Send the right message at the right time

While it may seem that sending bulk SMS and daily emails gives your customer regular reminders.The only thing you’re probably not doing to repel your customers even more is making 100 calls to them in a day. By doing this, you’ll only get added to their block list. With the right messaging at the right time, you can get into their heads instead of their junk folder. For example, know when your customers are expected to go out on weekends and vacations, and shoot them a dine-in offer at your restaurant. You may also provide special month-end offers when a major section diners’ wallets are close to empty.

Find out your customers heard about you

Figuring out the platforms that led your customers to your door is essential. Was it facebook? A newspaper? Your website? A restaurant discovery app like Dineout? One way to get the answers to questions like this is through the inResto Feedback app, which has a section on the feedback form asking your diners where they found out about your restaurant. When you find the answer, invest in that platform.

Get smart on social media

If your diners heard about you on social media, then it’s best to get more active on the most popular platform. Of course, posting too frequently can spam your followers’ feeds and give them a reason to unfollow you. Instead, focus on creating relevant and interesting conversations. Quality over quantity, always! Ideally, put up one post daily on the relevant network(s). Make sure the strategy used for each platform is different. For instance, keep Instagram photo-centric instead of posting a lot of text – which works better on Facebook. Twitter is a great place to get feedback and have conversations. Investing in promotional ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can also yield great results. Find out more about nailing the social media for your restaurant here.

Get on the web

A dedicated website is essential nowadays if you want to have a distinct presence outside restaurant discovery platforms. Whenever a prospective customer hears about you and searches for your business online, having your own site will certainly be an advantage. Plus, you will be able to send them browser notifications without making them download an app. If it’s done right, with solid SEO and SEM, you could get a great response.

Consider making an app for your restaurant

Speaking of apps, they could be a great tool to stay in touch with and engage your regular customers. People usually think twice before downloading apps to take up their precious memory. However, if you have made a good impression in the restaurant, you can encourage them to download an app and then communicate offers, celebrations and events through push notifications. As always, inResto WLA can help you create your own apps and websites.

Reach out to those at home

If your customer isn’t coming to your door, go to theirs. Popular restaurants like Chili’s and Barbecue Nation prefer to push home delivery offers instead of dine-in discounts. They have upscaled their business by reaching out to a larger segment of customers who prefer home delivery over dining at the restaurant. We think it’s a great strategy and a worthy investment.

Create relevant and engaging communication

It’s good to think out of the box but irrelevant content can backfire. Your messages should let the personality of your brand shine through and be in context of the event or promotion you’re talking about. Make them relevant and fun to read. One well thought out message is worth more than 10 random insignificant messages that just talk about discounts.

Encourage Crosswalking

Encourage your diners to try your brand’s other outlets by giving them outlet-specific offers. This will help you create buzz about your other branches – which may well be closer to some of your regular customers – resulting in increased awareness. We are sure this is something you will definitely be happy about.

It is essential to make your diners feel invited and special by starting a conversation with them. However, there is a thin line between conversing and spamming, so make use of the tools you have to understand your customer better. Insights from inResto Feedback can help gauge what works and what doesn’t. Use that in figuring out what you say and where you say it.

Do your customers love the music you play? Talk more about your events and live performances. Did they find you on twitter? Increase your presence and invest in promotions there. Use inResto Campaigns to re-engage with diners who haven’t come over in a while and reward regular customers with a loyalty programme that doesn’t just offer discounts, but also privileges and freebies.

These are all tools you can use. But the tools are only as effective as you make them. Be sharp, be empathetic, think out of the box and, more than anything else, make the customer feel special to get those high conversion rates you desire.

7 Facebook Tricks Your Agency Won’t Tell You!

Posted on 15/09/2017 by inrestoblog

You might have tried every trick in the book, but if you’re still not gaining new followers on Facebook, you’ve really got to rethink your current strategy. Showcasing your dishes, restaurant interiors and broadcasting events are some of the most common tactics, but you really need to go beyond these basic practices to stand out.

Share 360 Degree Photos & Videos

Showcasing your restaurant through interior shots is now passé. The new trend is to put up short videos of your restaurant as the cover image or to have a 360 degree image of the restaurant. All you need to do is; use a 360-degree camera to capture a panorama photo and then upload it as a regular image. Facebook’s algorithm would automatically convert your image into an interactive one.

Get Table Reservations Straight From Your Page!

It’s time to upgrade your “Call Now” button on your Facebook page to a “Book Now” one! Some reservation management systems, like inResto, can now put a Booking widget on your Facebook page, through which your followers can reserve their tables. All those reservations can then be tracked and managed through the inResto app. If the bookings reflecting on inResto are unattended, we’ve have our concierge team to take care of them too. As of now, we’ve powered Facebook booking widgets for over 400 restaurants.

Go Live!

Whether you’re sharing a sneak peak of your kitchen or your chef talking about your signature dish, live videos on Facebook get a much larger viewership as compared to normal photos and videos. In case of live videos you can add tailor-made filters, get live reactions from viewers, share it in a group or event besides much more. It’s a really good medium to share your brand’s personality. You can also make a very professional live video using Facebook API.

Ride the Trend

Recently, the liquid nitrogen fiasco in Sector 29, Gurgaon, India, was all over the news, and anybody who talked about the matter would get noticed. So, major news in the F&B industry or even simple topics like National Egg Day or National Whiskey Day could get you eyeballs if you tried a small engaging activity around it. It could be something as simple as a post, sharing a recipe or promoting a special dish available at your restaurant.

Share A Recipe

Offering an interesting cooking tip or an easy recipe could also hook your followers to your page. You needn’t spill the beans on your signature dish, but even if your chef gives a recipe of “How to make pancakes in 5 minutes” or DIY tacos, it would keep the ball rolling. All you need to do is give them something distinct, delightful and useful. Pro tip: The more decadent the food, the better.

Go Behind The Scenes

Flaunt your staff and chef to your audience through Facebook in different ways. You can shoot a short video of your signature dish being prepared or give a snippet of your daily kitchen regime. It portrays that you’re transparent and have a dedicated team behind your restaurant’s success.

Target & Retarget Diners Through Ads

Running facebook ads won’t be any good until you’re targeting the right audience. Facebook allows you to create your very own custom audience based on locations, age groups, interests, etc. You can also run special campaigns to retarget users who’ve visited your page. This is a great way of creating recall and if your offer or creative is catchy enough, users who’ve shown interest before would definitely pay you a visit!

If you’re apprehensive about what will work, let us tell you how Dineout achieved 6X increase in bookings, 80% lower cost per conversion, 3X increase in return on ad spend and 5X growth in overall diner base. The secret behind our growth was personalization and more importantly understanding at what point customers were turning away. After closely looking at the roadblock and segregating the audience, it was just a matter of conveying a different message to custom audiences as per their needs.

Since Facebook included Dineout’s growth through ads as one of its success stories, we’re proud to say we know what worked for us and how!

Apart from these hacks, if you post interesting content, engage your followers via quizzes and giveaways, and respond to all comments, you’re already on top of the basic tactics!

Food Service Industry & Supply Chain Management Software

Posted on 07/09/201728/06/2021 by inresto

The food service industry is witnessing a major disruption caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. Diners have become quite hygiene conscious and prefer to order food online over visiting restaurants.

A recent trend that has gained traction is that of Ghost kitchens or Cloud kitchens. It’s a delivery-only restaurant where there is no concept of dining space.

According to Euromonitor, ghost kitchens could create a $1 trillion global market by 2030. Hence, implementing a modern day supply chain management software is the need of the hour as the food service industry needs to connect the various elements in supply chain and ensure timely delivery. Here are 9 key advantages of Supply Chain Management Software:

Effective procurement

Providing best quality food to the customers is of prime concern to any food service establishment. With the help of cloud based SCM platforms such as inresto SCM, you can manage procurement effortlessly. The system provides smart insights to take timely decisions regarding the vendors who can provide quality materials at better rates.

Centralised fulfilment

If you are a restaurateur running multiple outlets, preparing food at multiple kitchens adds on to the expenses. The platform help you in fulfilling all your requirements from the central kitchen that leads to enormous cost savings. It’s from the central kitchen that purchase orders are sent to the relevant vendors.

Real-time visibility

For those restaurants engaged in providing food delivery at customer’s doorsteps, SCM software adds more visibility to the delivery operations. It helps track the real-time status of the food trucks and aids in better co-ordination with truck drivers and delivery staff.

Analysing driver performance

Delay in food delivery can be caused to various reasons such as inefficiency of drivers, incorrect routing etc. Automated SCM platforms help you compare the performance of drivers and take necessary corrective actions.

Cut down overall grocery cost

Wastage of kitchen resources poses a major challenge for restaurants. It’s not a cause of concern anymore, as the application enables optimum use of kitchen resources. It also leads to a significant reduction in overall grocery cost and requirement. Pilferage can also be cut down to a major extent.

No more disgruntled customers

Running out of food materials and handling the dissatisfied customers is a common problem faced by restaurants. Inresto provides you timely alerts on minimum threshold quantities pertaining to all the outlets situated at different locations. Hence you can plan in advance and replenish the stock on time. It relieves you from the nagging problem of facing disgruntled customers.

Helps in proactive decision making

Even before problem arises, the food service establishments can come up with a solution. This is made possible by the intelligent insights provide by the SCM platforms. Capturing the real-time data help you track the incorrect product pickups or returns. As it involves dealing with multiple distributors, you will easily get to know which distributor is running short of inventory, the current location of the trucks and the estimated time of arrival. Having all the information beforehand helps save a lot of overhead expenses.

Accurate forecasting

The sales projections provided by SCM platforms help food establishments to make all the arrangements in advance. Accurate forecasts can also help you immensely in the future expansion of your restaurant. It also provides forecasts on cost affects because of changes in commodities, volumes and other processes.

Better control on invoicing

When the processes are managed using manual efforts, handling a vast amount of distributor invoices is a tedious task. As the process is automated in SCM platforms, it helps cut down manual efforts to a large extent and improves the overall productivity of the team.

Parting Words

Gone are those days when managing supply chain was chaotic because of the excessive dependency on manual work. A robust supply chain management software has become an imperative as the food service establishments are cashing in on the boom in home delivery services. It helps in better co-ordination between suppliers, vendors, customers, delivery staff and various other elements in the supply chain. It also helps you gain a clear advantage over the competition.