TGI Fridays Date Night At Home

Success does lave clues and at TGI Fridays one of the success clues includes online ordering, the casual-dining chain has seen take-out sales grow 45 percent.  Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® has pontificated portability since 2001 while assisting CyberMeals and Food.com roll out the first national Online ordering for chain restaurants.

Caroline Masullo TGI Fridays vice president of digital and e-commerce stated “Online ordering is a proven sales driver for Fridays, so we are going all in on making it easier than ever for our guests to recreate the Fridays experience at home,” “We are investing heavily in digital technology because, as an iconic brand, Fridays must evolve along with the lifestyle of our guests,”

Back in the day date night was at a TGI Fridays no you can still have a TGI Friday’s date night with the same great food only in the comfort of your home. When TGI Fridays deployed a chatbot on Facebook Messenger that answers customer questions, such as finding the nearest restaurant. It also offers reservation capabilities at some restaurants. The chatbot, created with Conversable, has been expanded to Twitter and delivery.

Masullo continued “Everyone today, regardless of age, is looking for convenience and efficiency…And our guests in particular want that convenience and efficiency paired with the fun, social, carefree experience they get every time they walk into a Fridays restaurant.” Here are some facts from TGI Fridays:

1.       The average online order ticket is 7.2 percent higher than an in-restaurant ticket.

2.       Guests younger than 40 years old account for more than 60 percent of all delivery orders.

3.       Guests who order online visit 51 percent more frequently than those who only visit in the restaurant, among non-cash, credit and debit card users.

4.       More than 70 percent of online orders in the last year have come from new TGI Fridays customers.

5.       Forty-eight percent of new Rewards program members in 2017 are Millennials between the ages of 21 and 32.

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869

Subway Facebook and Bot’s

Following the digital lead of Domino’s Pizza yesterday Subway restaurants announced that they yesterday that they were launching a bot for Facebook Messenger to further revolutionize their digital footprint. Technology and retail foodservice are inseparable according to the team at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Subway’s bot was unveiled at the F8 Facebook Developer Conference. The bot allows fans of the global restaurant chain to order a sandwich or salad customize it with bread, cheese, vegetables, and sauce choices and pay on any device that supports Messenger. Then users of the app can pick up their order from any of 26,500 Subway locations in the U.S. in 15 minutes or less.

The quick service restaurant sector continues to adopt technology that empowers customers and their smartphones according to Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. This is the latest innovation from t Subway which already allows web and app ordering — was announced with digital partner Agilitee, and billed as a big deal in the restaurant industry.

Carman Wenkoff, Subway’s chief information and digital officer stated “Our bot for Messenger was just deployed in more than 26,500 U.S. Subway restaurants — the largest deployment of a Messenger bot in the restaurant industry,”… “We’re proud to offer our guests an innovative new way to order and pay outside the restaurants. This is a new initiative in the ongoing quest to enhance the guest experience.”

Wenkoff explained “To use the bot, first, get hungry. Then launch the Messenger app, visit Messenger.com or visit Facebook.com/subway and tap “order now.” The bot will ask for the user’s location to find the closest restaurant before guiding them through the sandwich construction.

Success does leave clues and Subway is expanding customer relevance with this new digital service to save customers time.  Consumers are dynamic not static and customers must be as well.

Do your marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.