In our previous post on personalizing the restaurant experience, we touched on how personalization can benefit both operational and marketing efforts. Today, let’s dive deeper into how personalization benefits restaurant operations.
Restaurants will see massive operational advantages from personalization because it promotes both staff efficiency and guest satisfaction. Staff members who provide a tailored experience will make guests happier, boost check sizes and tips, and increase staff morale. As a result, staff members will be less likely to quit their positions for another job in the gig economy. Restaurants that implement personalization will reap labor savings, increase operational efficiency, and realize revenue growth for multiple reasons.
- Promote Faster Service
Whether it’s through a guest-facing system or server handheld device, personalization enables faster ordering. Guests can order what they ordered previously—exactly the way they want it—with the click of a button. Alternatively, a staff member can recognize the guest, pull up their past orders, and place their previous orders for them.
The other big benefit of personalization is knowing the exact dietary preferences or allergies of the given guest. This enables the staff member or guest to gravitate towards the right set of items. The result is a significant amount of time and effort saved on the part of the guest who’s trying to find the menu items that fit their preferences or allergies. By being able to pinpoint relevant menu items, guests can order much faster and get to what they want in less time.
- Lower Staff Training Times
Personalization allows even a new staff member to understand the background of a guest, without having worked there for much longer. Repeat guests enjoy being recognized at restaurants they regularly patronize. Usually, a new staff member may not have the ability to recognize them and give them that desired experience. But with personalization, new staff members don’t need to spend hours understanding the breakdown of different guests. Instead, they can pull up individual profiles and react to guests on the spot, and provide the experience they really want.
- Promote Staff Retention
With personalization, staff members of all levels of experience will be able to greet repeat guests and provide tailored suggestions on the spot. Staff who provide a better guest experience will ultimately earn more tips and be more likely to be retained.
- Increase Repeat Visits
Personalization provides guest loyalty with a massive boost. Traditionally, loyalty programs involve discounting, couponing, and other financial incentives to entice a guest to return to a restaurant. What personalization does is provide an experience-driven incentive. By identifying the guest and knowing their unique dining profile, dietary preferences and allergies, order history, and what they like, the restaurant can provide a superlative experience that other restaurants can’t provide, and encourage the guest to return.
Let’s take e-commerce as an example. E-commerce websites already know who their customers are. When consumers return to an e-commerce website, they essentially continue the experience from where they left off previously. But when returning to a restaurant, a consumer starts from scratch. This doesn’t make sense in today’s world. People expect to be recognized and remembered. Restaurants providing personalization is simply what all e-commerce websites already do well today.
- Establish a Competitive Edge
Restaurants that offer personalization have a great competitive advantage over restaurants that don’t. In today’s competitive restaurant landscape, restaurants need to treat every visit as potentially the beginning of a long-term relationship. A guest who feels welcomed, recognized, and rewarded for their repeat business is more likely to return, rather than visit a place that doesn’t recognize them. Restaurants that are able to save a guest’s history, profile, and feedback will ultimately maximize the lifetime value of every consumer who visits them.
Conclusion
Both staff efficiency and guest satisfaction are invaluable to a restaurant that is looking to maximize its savings and sales. Personalization has benefits for both sides of the order-taking book. It empowers staff to maximize their earnings, while making guests feel recognized and remembered for their patronage. In the end, restaurants will see more savings from higher staff retention, increased sales from happier guests, and a more successful business overall.
Presto’s platform offers a comprehensive set of solutions to increase staff productivity, improve guest experience, and deliver actionable insights to managers. Please contact us to get detailed product information or to schedule a demo.
