Food for Thought: Building Better Relationships with Customers

We sat down with the Customer Launch Team Lead of North America, Rebecca Moksob, who is responsible for onboarding new customers onto the Deliverect platform, to dive deeper into answers to these questions. 

Restaurants Are Using Storytelling to Form New Connections with Customers.

Storytelling for restaurant owners is more important now than ever, as the Gen Z population has been surveyed to care deeply about brands that champion a deeper purpose. For example, restaurants like "Imperfect Eats" have focused on a go-to-market strategy encompassing an interesting backstory, a unique ambiance, and a service-oriented customer experience. The chain prides itself on using "imperfect veggies" or rejected vegetables to produce healthy yet waste-reducing food. Their customers appreciate their values and connect deeply to their overall vision. 

To win the Gen Z customers over, restaurants should first establish their deeper purpose & mission, allow that purpose and mission to be reflected in their space, and then loudly advocate for the same causes their brands are built off. 

Several facets of the restaurant industry were deeply impacted by the pandemic, one of which being overall service. With widespread layoffs came the demand to rehire as doors re-opened, requiring training new employees to ensure customers have an experience they'd want to talk about. Restaurants are going the extra mile in providing staff with proper training to complement the ambiance, encouraging customers to come back for more. 

As many customers prefer to dine in their homes, restaurants have had to optimize their resources by emphasizing shorter delivery times, outclass packaging, and adding an emotional touch to the package to enhance the overall delivery experience. Restaurants globally needed to ensure that the dine-in experience translated over to people's homes and that they facilitated retention and deeper connection.

So How Can Restaurants Balance It All In the New "Normal"?

Things are slowly moving back to normal all around the world. People are returning to cities with entirely new landscapes, and restaurants can win over new hearts if they're willing to adapt. While many people are still skeptical about the dine-in experience, restaurants are working their way into maintaining home deliveries. 

• Segmenting the Revenue Streams: For restaurants to continue maximizing both revenue streams, they've created separate spaces for food delivery and pickups vs. the in-dining experience. Treating them as two streams in two different spaces allows restaurants to optimize them and allocate resources accordingly while not compromising.

• Social media: Restaurants are spending resources to ensure their space is "instagrammable" and beautiful. Restaurants can also create online communities to build stronger connections with potential and existing customers through contests, giveaways, behind-the-scenes footage, mission-based educational content, and mouth-watering video content to people through the doors. It's all about that shareable moment for social media to create a buzz of people who want to get in on the experience they're creating.

• Loyalty Programs: These programs help make that split-second customer decision easier, bringing them back with "intention and incentive." Restaurants can develop gamification methods like stamp cards or point collection to pull customers back into establishments, overall developing more consistent foot traffic for the restaurant. It's all about becoming a favorite, and for a good reason.

Keep Them Entertained and Keep Them Around

Platforms like Deliverect have many tools to increase customer retention and keep them coming back for more through data and customization. Deliverect's online ordering allows restaurants to create promo codes to tailor them for different seasons, cuisines, special days, and more. With the restaurants in full control, they can investigate the analytics to draw new insights for future promos and offers - it's a whole new way of "getting to know the customer." The Deliverect launch team guides restaurants throughout these processes to ensure they get the most value out of the Deliverect product and increase their overall profitability. The Deliverect team bridges the gap between customers who might not be as tech-savvy and the digital age, which is the way of the future.

Want to hear more about some of the major obstacles and successes in the restaurant industry today? Check out more episodes from our Food for Thought series here.