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We're at a precarious time for the hospitality industry, exasperated by numerous restrictions and local lockdowns, and yet it's not all doom and gloom. Many operators have turned to creativity and innovation instead, redefining their offerings to match with current consumer demand, all the while skilfully navigating within the government restrictions.
Although it is undoubtedly a tough time, operators should, where they can, take a long-term approach, because it's not just about survival. We're going through a period of great opportunity - customer demand is changing, but new habits are yet to be formed. City-based office workers are exploring local venues, finding new favourites close to their homes; difficult market conditions have lead to lots of discounts and promotions, which are allowing consumers to try new venues without 'breaking the bank'; take-away and food delivery services are booming, and many F&B operators are finding this to be a very lucrative revenue stream, especially whilst venues are seeing decreased footfall.
So, the relationships that businesses or brands form with consumers now, during the pandemic, can form a strong and loyal customer base for the future, as once new habits set, they will be more difficult to break. It's an opportunity not to be missed. Eat Out to Help Out showed us all that consumers will come out, if only given a good enough reason to do so, and now we're seeing very agile and innovative marketing from the industry to tempt customers back out again.
Pubs & Bars
Pubs have been quick to respond to the stir-crazy homeworkers' desire to get away from their "offices" (likely the kitchen table, let's be honest), and quite a few brands are now offering 'pub-desking' or 'Working From Pub' promotions. Youngs, for example has a lunch and unlimited hot drinks promotion (and a nice glass of beer or wine as a reward for a job well done); Brewdog has launched a similar 'Desk-Dog' promotion, and there are plenty of other companies with their own versions of this phenomenon.
Trying their best to navigate within the curfew, many operators are marketing offers to draw customers into venues earlier in the day. Turtle Bay, for example, recently announced an unlimited boozy brunch promotion, and a new 2-4-1 breakfast deal - a big push for earlier trade. Similarly, Revolution Bars have launched a "11am is the new 11pm" campaign, whilst extending their Bottomless Brunch to Thursdays and Fridays, in addition to the usual Saturday and Sunday offer.
Hotels
Several hoteliers, The Stafford Hotel in St James’s, for example, particularly in areas of significantly reduced demand, such as London, have put together 'remote working' packages, responding to homeworkers desperate for a change of scenery, or perhaps for workers with kids - appealing to the promise of uninterrupted productivity. Accor Hotels market their 'Hotel Office' as a chance to treat yourself to an 'enhanced' home office, with more comfort, food & drink on offer, and a chance to visit the gym during your 'daycation' - perfectly balancing lifestyle and work. How tempting!
Quick Service
With most regular office workers now being home-based for the foreseeable future, and many companies actually transitioning to a remote-first approach, quick service sites, especially in city centres, have had an extremely difficult time throughout the pandemic. Clever disruptors, Pret A Manger and Leon, have launched a coffee subscription service, to tempt people back to their sites through offers of unlimited coffee for customer-friendly prices.
Capitalising on current opportunities
Once customers are through the door, thanks to the painstaking work of marketers tempting them out with innovative and creative promotions, it's important to ensure their experience as good as it can be, to entice the customer to keep coming back. This is where we can really help hospitality companies - with over 15 years' experience in guest experience management, we are experts in growing your business through improving customer satisfaction.
We provide a hospitality intelligence platform that allows businesses to monitor and improve the customer experience and brand standards through comprehensive audits, build fully-branded guest feedback sites to help you understand your customers, manage your online reputation, analyse competitor activity, and much more. We combine a number of metrics across multiple areas of your business into one 'barometer' score, to give you a quick overview on how your site is performing and improving over time, or you can also delve deep into granular data to understand what is happening at each site, each shift. What's your best (and worst) performing part of day in terms of customer satisfaction? What do customers really think of your menu? We can help you find out.
