In the restaurant world, an omnichannel experience refers to providing a cohesive experience when it comes to branding, ordering, and payment. A customer ordering online and picking up in store shouldn’t experience any hiccups caused by miscommunication between an ordering app and a restaurant, for example. It’s your job to make the entire experience seamless.
Providing a seamless customer experience pays off according to Aspect Software, which found that businesses adopting omni-channel strategies achieve 91% greater year-over-year retention compared to businesses that didn’t.[1]
Customer expectations for restaurants to create omnichannel experiences have also risen with 87% of customers thinking brands need to work harder to create a seamless experience, according to Zendesk.[2] And if there’s one thing the service industry has taught us, it’s that the customer is always right.
So when diners are jumping from mobile device to brick-and-mortar restaurant to laptop screen and back again, how are restaurants able to create consistent omni-channel experiences? Customer management tools, like Como Sense, can help to connect disparate mediums into a single centralized platform, making customer management across channels a cinch.
Ready to implement an omnichannel strategy for your restaurant? Here are three ways to ensure a consistent experience across channels, enabling you to meet customer expectations and your business goals:
Creating an Omnichannel Experience for Diners
1. Get Personal
A seamless experience should be a given when it comes to omnichannel engagement, but that experience becomes all the more powerful when it’s personalized. A loyalty program that is well integrated across all your channels — allowing customers to earn and use points and rewards in store and via your app and website — gives you a chance to collect valuable personal data about customers and to engage with them in a relevant way.
This data can be used to target marketing campaigns to deliver the right message at the right time and to similarly personalize face-to-face encounters for increased customer satisfaction and retainment. Luxury retailer Burberry, for instance, has reported a 50% increase in repeat customers thanks to this type of personalized customer experience.[3]
Learn more: Como Research: Loyal Customers Visit Businesses At Least Once a Week
2. Offer Convenience
Today’s diners have hectic lives, and they expect a quick and convenient way to order and pay, seeking out options to order ahead, skip the line, and make payments via mobile wallet to save a few precious moments.
One of the top reasons consumers are using new technologies like mobile apps for online ordering is to order, pay, and have their food waiting for them when they arrive, according to the NPD Group. Moreover, fifty percent of consumers expect that they will be able to purchase an item online and pick it up in store or restaurant.[4]
A leading example in customer convenience is Starbucks, which is now taking in 30% of transactions via mobile payment thanks to its mobile ordering platform that allows customers to order and pay ahead of time to skip the line.[5] Affording your customers these types of conveniences through omnichannel engagement is a surefire way to get them coming back time and again.
3. Go Mobile
Speaking of mobile, it is unwise to underestimate the power of mobile payments today. Business Insider Intelligence projects that mobile online ordering will be a $38 billion industry by 2020, so if you haven’t optimized your mobile app for engaging customers, now is the time.[6]
Update your app to include brick and mortar location info and menus, and allow your diners to pay through the app and to access their loyalty rewards. Much of the success of Starbucks’ mobile app and payment system has come thanks to its linkage to its loyalty program, with rewards members representing approximately 18% of customers and driving 36% of sales.[7]
It’s clear that addressing your customers across all channels is a valuable tool for getting their attention, but unless you can manage these channels in a centralized platform, you’re simply working with a multi-channel approach. A true omnichannel experience provides a seamless experience through integrated communication, and you can optimize this approach by pulling restaurant data analytics to personalize customer engagement and foster convenience through mobile accessibility.
Ready to build a seamless omnichannel experience for your customers? Download our free guide to learn how to adopt a winning omnichannel engagement strategy for your business
Want to share your new found omnichannel experience knowledge with your team? Use the provided slide deck to get your team on-board and start thinking about aligning your various sales and marketing channels.
Sources:
- https://www.business2community.com/marketing/15-stats-explain-omni-channel-just-buzzword-0896737#1OspOidbGp54HiDv.97
- http://d16cvnquvjw7pr.cloudfront.net/resources/whitepapers/Omnichannel-Customer-Service-Gap.pdf
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/09/25/the-amazing-ways-burberry-is-using-artificial-intelligence-and-big-data-to-drive-success/#7e6808af4f63
- https://www.nrn.com/consumer-trends/what-restaurant-consumers-want-digital-tech
- https://digit.hbs.org/submission/starbucks-mobile-app-a-winner-in-bridging-the-retail-digital-divide/
- https://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-orderings-major-fast-food-impact-2016-4
- https://digit.hbs.org/submission/starbucks-mobile-app-a-winner-in-bridging-the-retail-digital-divide/
Liran heads Como’s Product and R&D divisions, responsible for developing the product strategy and roadmap, and overseeing all aspects of research, development, business intelligence, and innovation.
