In this #snack we cover our top 5 areas for hospitality brands to focus on to kick ass in 2022.
We’ve chosen these 5 topics after interviewing over 100 senior hospitality executives in 2021. What keeps them up at night? What is at the top of the board level agenda? Why?
These are the mission critical areas that will separate the winners from the losers over the next 12 months. So strap in, take notes and more importantly act (quickly) on the below.
1. OWN YOUR DATA
There is a data revolution happening in the restaurant industry right now. After pivoting to omni-channel sales models to navigate 2020/21; restaurants have experienced the need and difficulty (delivery aggregators don’t like to share) in getting access to their customer data.
How do you know who a loyal customer is when you can’t physically see them? When do they order? What do they order? How often and how much vs other channels?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. In each of your internal systems lives the data that can revolutionise your brand’s performance.
From measuring team productivity and sentiment to going deep on food waste – all of this information is at your fingertips.
Make sure whatever products/systems you are using give you access to YOUR data andmake sure you have a simple (and automated) method to collect, analyse and action it.
2. GET REAL ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
The world needs to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Climate change and sustainability initiatives have gone from being in vogue to being mission critical.
The restaurant industry is a huge contributor to carbon emissions. It produces over 1.3 billion tonnes a year in food waste – picture the carbon footprint on that sh*t heap.
Look at your own stores, are you really making an effort to reduce your footprint? How many tonnes of food do you waste each year? How many single use latex gloves or blue rolls do you use? Too many and I don’t know, are the answers.
Beyond the ethical responsibility your business has, it is going to become a legal one soon. Get ahead of the curve.
Getting real about sustainability will also show your employees and your customers you care for more than just bottom line profits. Treat sustainability is a competitive advantage. People want to buy from and work for businesses that strive to make a positive impact.
3. OFFER A CAREER NOT A SHIFT
Much has been written about the Great Resignation from the hospitality industry. TL;DR – workers in the sector are quitting their jobs at 2x the average rate.
We’ve covered what to do in the face of the current labour shortage and how to become an employer of choice to compete for talent effectively.
The reality is that significant ongoing investment (time x thought x money) is needed to recruit and retain great people. If your business is going to thrive in 2022 and beyond, you need to offer a sustainable and attractive career path.
Start by reading our blog posts above .
4. SWISS ARMY KNIFE YOUR STORES
The last two years have been all about flexibility. The majority of brands jumped headfirst into online sales to keep the lights on. The experience has also shown the future revenue potential of offering omni-channel sales in each store.
Your customers expect to be able to transact and enjoy your menu wherever they want and this isn’t going to change.
In order to maximise the potential of each of your restaurants, you will need to deliver an awesome product experience to both offline and online customers at the same time.
Blending offline and online has proven an operational nightmare for most brands. Service kitchens that were designed to cater for a well-defined in-house seating plan are now over capacity at peak times due to the additional (uncapped) off-premise demand.
Traditional store designs just won’t cut it. Big brands are now rethinking what a restaurant means and so should you. This new swiss-army knife approach to service is best summed up by Shake Shack 2.0 and of course our snack on the restaurant of the future.
5. EMPLOYEE NPS MATTERS MORE THAN CUSTOMER NPS
Businesses obsess over Customer NPS scores and rightly so. The value of a happy, loyal customer’s word of mouth is well documented. As is the impact of not-so-happy detractors.
But we at Nory take a different lens, we propose that your internal team NPS should come before your Customer NPS. Here us out…
What are the ingredients of kick ass dining experience? Great food? Awesome service? The answer is obviously all of the above.
Your team have influence on your Customer NPS – not you, not your Ops team, not whatever tech you’ve brought in to get real time customer feedback – it’s down to your restaurant teams.
Surely then, it’s a no brainer to get regular, detailed feedback on your team’s sentiment. What’s working that you can double down on? Or what’s causing your high LTO, unhappy teams and poor Customer NPS?
Focus on delivering the most awesome experience possible for your people – they will do the same for your customers.
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There you have it! Nory’s top 5 focuses for hospitality brands to kick ass in 2022.
If you would like to talk to us about how Nory can help with actioning your data, reducing your food waste or empowering a happier, more productive workforce then drop us a line at [email protected]
