In the world, the hospitality industry, in particular the restaurant business, is a large, rapidly developing sector of the economy. The rapid pace of development, competitive environment obliges cozy coffee shops, noisy bars and lofts, family restaurants and country complexes to adapt to rapidly changing trends and go one step ahead of time.
While another cafe is distributing flyers, advertising on building boards, or is actively promoting its own website, its competitor, taking up benchmarking, found out that the future is interactive technologies – mobile applications can guarantee high-quality and sometimes completely free advertising – Foursquare, Swarm, Settle and Lattio.
The application for smartphones fast and affordable ways to find, evaluate or advise the institution. This movement was initiated by the well-known Foursquare application, created in 2009 based on the GoogleAttitude application. First, it captured the United States, and since 2010, and the whole of Europe.
Foursquare is a social network based on the user’s geographic location with game elements. The application helps to monitor the location of friends, leave a check-in, comment and advise the institution. Thus, virtual competition appeared as the application collects information about the total number of people who made the check, their ratings and photos. In order to support customer loyalty, institutions began to encourage their visitors for word of mouth (chekina), for example, to offer drinks or make discounts.
On July 8, 2014, the Foursquare app divided its functions, retaining the search for new places of interest, and the possibility of a chekin in establishments is now only in the Swarm app. Features of Swarm is that with its help you can see “Friends nearby”, even if they are not minted. For restaurateurs, the division into two applications means scaling “word of mouth” and the possibility of more intensive interaction with the client from two resources. Foursquare download statistics – 10 million, Swarm – 1 million.
In the summer of 2014, the Settle project entered the market. Settle is not just a service, but a payment system, thanks to which customers can immediately pay and leave a tip. Transactions pass through PrivatBank, the commission is only 3%. A startup collects accurate statistics of the most popular dishes and drinks, forms the average bill. The service is available only in Kiev and Moscow, but soon plans to enter the European market. This application does not perform direct PR functions, like Foursquare and Swarm, but the convenience of using the application and the loyalty program may influence the visitor’s decision to go to a particular restaurant. Download statistics: 500.
Recently, another application called Lattio has entered the Ukrainian market. Lattio is a unique tool for promoting restaurants and luring new visitors. For the application to work, the restaurant must install a beacon. In this case, the potential client passing by on the smartphone will display a digital menu, an invitation to come in or information about discounts. Another feature is gifts for publishing a series of photos of dishes. The application “starts” only if the potential client is located near the institution with a beacon or inside it, which practically does not discharge the battery. The application makes analytics of the number of visits to one person at the institution and the time he spent there Download statistics: 500.
The Guild of Brands decided to find out how they relate to digital ways of promoting and building loyal relationships through mobile applications in metropolitan institutions. Alexander Musatov, co-owner of TrueBurgerBar, noted that Foursquare is already becoming obsolete, and that now more interesting applications have entered the market that help build loyalty with visitors.
“Today, the popularity of Foursquare has waned. On the other hand, for us the application is one of the most important sources of information about whether our guest liked us. In the order of things there are cases when I, as the owner, go directly to a guest who checked in at a restaurant and left a review (including a negative one). This allowed me to return these guests to the restaurant and make them their regular customers “, –
Alexander Musatov
Interested in TrueBurgerBar and Lattio application. A special beacon helps to communicate with the guests on the street, before they enter the restaurant. Alexander is sure that the application is very effective in the field of local marketing, and the presence of quests allows you to fulfill the guests’ need for brand games.
As for the payment system via the Settle mobile phone, our friends from Espresso Bar have already successfully used it, and we, too, are starting to think about it, since a modern person does not part with a mobile phone. He can forget his wallet and apartment keys at home, but his mobile phone will remain in his pocket, –
says Alexander
Druzi café, loved by the people of Kiev, also supports the promotion strategy in interactive ways, as it believes that it helps to simplify the work process and improve service.
“In addition to having already become basic for any Foursquare, Instagram cafe, we tried to test Lattio and other loyalty programs at various times. Immediately, we are running Settle. And we must admit that the application was developed very cool – both for the restaurateur and the waiters, and for the user himself. And it really saves time, both for the guest and for the employees. And in moments of a full landing, even a few minutes worth its weight in gold – which benefits the service “, –
make comments in cafe.
However, in the cafe they say that not all guests are ready to trust applications that require data on the card and bills, and many do not practice payment via the Internet.
Whatever the format of the restaurant (elite, fast food, medium-sized) the strategy of building strong relationships with the client is based on the same foundation – communication. And given the rapid development of digital technology, when each with a few different gadgets, restaurateurs have the opportunity to get even closer to their guests.