Payment Technology Drives Customer Adoption for Restaurants Big and Small

 

It is at the intersection of hand held marketing, mobile devise ordering, and payments that time starved consumers of all ages have become familiar with, accepting, and adopting digital restaurant and foodservice payments. If you are not looking a customer ahead, you are losing ground.

According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®’ retail foodservice operations including Chain Restaurants, Independent Restaurants, Convenience stores and Bodegas all if they are not offering digital payments today, start doing so.  

Here is the case for adding one more level of technology to you operation. According to a study carried out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in January this year, the restaurant labor force is still over 450,000 jobs below pre-pandemic levels — marking the largest employment deficit among all U.S. industries. 

In November 2022, the National Restaurant Association found that 63% of full-service restaurants and 61% of limited-service places are operating with fewer employees than needed to accommodate guests. 

At the beginning of February this year (2023), The Washington Post reported that although many industries have recovered since the start of the pandemic, 2 million hospitality and leisure jobs still remain open. 

“Hospitality is still stuck in the dark ages. High-friction ordering, slow and clunky payments, and labor challenges lead to low profitability and a poor customer experience,” notes Brian Duncan, President of me&u USA, a global leader in at-table ordering specializing in restaurants and bars. 

The labor shortage has led chefs and restaurateurs to reduce their workweeks, while some restaurant owners have had to increase the wages of their staff by as much as 20% in addition to closing earlier on weeknights. Others have even had to change their business practices to attract new employees.  

So, our Grocerant Guru® had the opportunity to ask Brian Duncan a couple questions about just who is using digital payments today. What percentage of current customers are independent Restaurants? 

Duncan continued, “For me&u this percentage is above 80%. This is primarily because independent restaurants have less red tape to make a decision and therefore can adopt new technology faster. However, quite a few corporate chains have signed on and we see this shifting to around 65% in the next 12 months.

Regular readers of this blog know that chain restaurants experiment early and often and generally get a little better deal. So, the team at Foodservice Solutions® asked can chain restaurants leverage their size for a better price? 

Duncan, “100% they can; but it is always based on volume. Price breaks usually come with chains that are ordering large volumes of a specific item. This is why restaurants are always looking to add menu items but no SKUs in order to keep their prices low while adding variety. Think of having a blue cheese burger, blue cheese on a salad, and blue cheese on a steak.”

Foodservice Solutions®, What type of training is required at the store level? 

Duncan, “The primary training required is a mental shift in the staff believing that the tool is there to help them do their jobs and not to take their jobs. Front-of-house staff can be weary of new solutions because their compensation is closely tied to the relationship with the customer. The primary goal of our staff is to gain the trust of the restaurant team showing them that the software will enhance their relationship and also put more money in their pockets.”

Foodservice Solutions®, What factors are impacting the restaurant and hospitality industries in the U.S.?  

Duncan, “Similar to all industries, there have been issues with labor shortages. Combined with the pressure to increase compensation for employees, inflation at all-time highs, and the pressure from consumers to not increase prices, it is a perfect storm. Restaurants are thinking outside of the box simply to survive in this new climate.”

Foodservice Solutions®, How can technological innovations help restaurants operate with limited staff and still increase revenue?  

Duncan, “The point of good restaurant technology should be to enhance the restaurant's ability to provide good customer service. Implementing technology that operates almost unnoticed by the customer while removing tasks from the staff that does not add value to the dining experience is the perfect solution.”

Foodservice Solutions®, How can self-service ordering and streamlined payment tools enhance customer experience? 

Duncan, “Creating great customer experiences happens when the front-of-house staff is engaging with the customer and not while items are being input into the POS or the customer is waiting on checks to be dropped and picked up. Order and pay at table solutions allow the customers to enter their own order and leave at their convenience when they have completed their dining experience all while enabling the front-of-house staff to provide an amazing guest experience.”

Technology can bridge the customer service gap when there are fewer employees available. Customers prefer to use self-service kiosks or access the menu by scanning QR codes because they can take additional time to read the menu, find new things to try, and customize their orders exactly to their preferences. 

Such technology means shorter waits at the counter, faster table turnover, and more accurate orders because the information is transmitted directly from the customer to the kitchen. Also, Pay-at-the-Table Technology cuts out the back-and-forth trips from the POS terminal to the table to process payments shaving several minutes off each table turn. 

“Manual orders are typically expensive, slow, and inefficient. Smart technology reduces labor costs, takes the load off servers, increases spending per order, and elevates the customer experience,” concludes Duncan.”   Are you looking a customer ahead.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

C-Stores Tap-N-Pay Cashierless Check-out Hits a Cord with Consumers

 

Consumers are dynamic not static and every sector of foodservice retail must adapt with consumer or risk capitulating incremental market share according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® who stated “retailers must keep up with consumer unmet need-sets and frictionless checkout / tap-N-pay is safer, faster, and fresher in the minds-eye of the consumer today.”

The large C-store chains are following the lead of national restaurant chains adopting cashierless options of payment companies the ilk of Alimentation Couche-Tard, Tesco, Wawa, 7-Eleven, with the help of companies the ilk of and MasterCard, Visa, and American Express are all working to enable fast, safe, integrated tap-N-pay (POS) system solutions.

Here is the question: are POS systems even needed any longer?  Amazon Go has proven that they are not. So, since the average age of most POS platforms across the c-store industry is 10 years or more, perhaps the oldest installed POS base of any retail segment.  We ask, are they needed? Could an app based/cloud system cashierless, POS-less system work in urban locations?

First, moving sales from inside the store to the outside of the store speeds things up.  You can do this via a branded app.  Customer relevance rest in branded apps more than ever during this COVID-19 environment, customers don’t want to touch anything or enter an enclosed space. App-check-in enables c-stores to deploy new brand messaging and new points of distribution including order-ahead, curbside/pump-side pickup, drive-thru’s and delivery.  

Battle for Share of Stomach

 

Quick-service restaurants (QSRs) with advanced check-in and order-ahead in their apps see average order value grow by 50%. Fueling apps from the major petroleum brands not integrated with c-stores miss this upsell opportunity if not tightly integrated into the total c-store experience, not just fueling. 

Check-in can provide a new level of interactivity, customization, and personalization for all consumer touchpoints.  Check-in is the branded invitation that Gen Z and Millennials expect according to Johnson. Branded apps provide a menu board, take orders with embedded payment, even act as a walkie-talkie to summon items — all activated through the autonomous check-in by the fueling app empowering consumer choice.

Consider this before COVID-19, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) reported that c-stores drove 80% of all gas sales in the U.S., with 48% of fueling customers going into c-stores and 53% buying a beverage. 

Back in the day the C-store sector was a “game of inches’, typically 180 to 540 inches from the pump to c-store door swing.  COVID-19 has pushed forward the need for technology that is handheld, digital, and branded with messaging that has additive customer relevance and edifies a consumer value touchpoint.

Don’t worry about, who owns this data, worry about getting the right message to the right person at first.  There is enough data to be shared.  Getting the right branded messaging to the consumer should be your very first concern.  

Branded relevant marketing messaging must drive you to offer cashierless transactions both inside and outside of your stores. An innovative branded cashierless strategy expands the customer touchpoints and makes your location advantage more valuable. Are you being as dynamic as you can be?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Amazon’s Day 1 Turns into Amazon One

 The customer is dynamic not static according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Regular readers of this blog have heard that refrain often.  Hanging in the main lobby at Amazons Seattle Headquarters is a big sign that reads Day One.  It’s the goal for the Day 1 sign to remind every employee to think as if ‘today’ is day one and you can do anything.

As it turns out that mission vision Day 1, may very well make grocery shopping, or any instore retail experience much faster and safer.  That is something that is top of mind today as the pandemic seems endless, and the cold / flu season is about to become center stage.

The new Amazon One, is a device that connects your amazon account and payment card to your palm for contactless shopping.  Ok, still wondering?  The device contains a scanner that records a user's palm 'signature' -- a unique identifier in humans. Users insert their payment card, hover their palm over the Amazon One, and after the Amazon One scans their palm, they are enrolled. The entire process is claimed to take less than a minute to complete and either an Amazon account or phone number can be used during signup.

Dilip Kumar, VP of physical retail and technology for Amazon Kumar says that once this process is complete, “all customers need to do to enter an Amazon Go store is raise their palm.” That’s right no need to take out your iPhone / smartphone and scan a QR code.

So, here is what is happening underneath.  Custom algorithms and machine learning have been implemented to build a map of our palms through the device. However, images are not stored locally; rather, Amazon says that prints are encrypted and sent to a "highly-secure area we custom-built in the cloud where we create your palm signature."

Human palms have been chosen as biometric authenticators as they require an "intentional gesture" to trigger, Amazon says, and palms are also more private as identities can't be ascertained just based on a handprint.  If you wanted, users can also remove their biometric data directly by accessing their Amazon account or via an online customer portal. 

Thinking big once again consider that Amazon could work in your store.  That’s right. Kumar continued "In most retail environments, Amazon One could become an alternate payment or loyalty card option with a device at the checkout counter next to a traditional point of sale system,". "We built Amazon One to offer [...] a quick, reliable, and secure way for people to identify themselves or authorize a transaction while moving seamlessly through their day."

Think about this Amazon One will eventually be rolled out to other stores, and in addition, the company intends to offer the technology to third-parties including Airports, Hotels, retailers, stadiums, and offices. I would not be surprised if a unit could be installed into your front door.

In Seattle two Amazon Go locations launched Amazon One on Sept. 29, shoppers will still have the option to enter the stores using the Amazon Go app, Amazon app or with associate assistance if paying in cash is preferred. How fast is your company evolving?  It just may come down to this.  If you can’t beat them join them.  Save your customer time.  Consumers are dynamic not static.  Don’t sit back and simply watch others reduce cost, improve service.  Jump in or get left behind.

Success does leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the consumer is dynamic not static”.  Regular readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  Our Grocerant Guru® can help your company 253-759-7869.  

Digital Natives Gen Z & Millennials Drive Complexity Free Foodservice

Digital natives Gen Z and Millennial consumers expect frictionless checkout as a standard not as something special.  Complexity free food retail today must include an ‘auto’ –‘digital’ payment option according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Regular readers of this blog know we have been touting the success of Starbucks digital payment system and the rapid customer adoption since 2015.  So, we ask what have you been doing to speed service and integrate digital payments?

As restaurant year over year customer counts continue to fall “c-store chains including Cruizers in North Carolina, Ricker's and Family Express in Indiana, and Parker's and Enmarket in Georgia, as well as convenience giant 7-Eleven Inc. are testing some type of frictionless checkout in their stores. That said they are also adding new fresh prepared meals and meal components to drive incremental business according to Johnson.

Kimberly Otocki, convenience store marketing specialist for Paytronix Systems, noted that mobile is a huge component of a consumers' day-to-day lives. On average, Americans spend 2.8 hours a day on their mobile devices, which accounts for 51 percent of their total digital media time.

 "They are spending a lot of time on their mobile devices and we see it day to day because we know when we walk down the street or our customers come into our stores, they most likely have their mobile phones out and are using them," she said.

 Mobile has become so big that the average person checks their phone 157 times a day. In addition, 90 percent of consumers use their phones inside stores while shopping.

Smartphones have changed the way we interact, the way we experience life and, because mobile devices enable consumers to get what they want in an instant, convenience views have shifted as well, Otocki said, calling it "the now factor." The numbers speak to that. For example:

·         86 percent of shoppers avoid going into stores with long lines;

·         74 percent of shoppers will shop at a competitor rather than a store with a long checkout line; and

·         41 percent of shoppers will change their minds about a purchase if there is a long checkout line. 

 "That's a lot of customers who will gladly avoid going to your store if they know they are going to be greeted with a long line or if they go in and see a long line, they will purposely avoid it," she said. "We want to make sure our line speeds are down to make sure they continue shopping with us."

This ongoing shift in consumer expectations and their definition of convenience is driving frictionless engagement.  Are you looking a customer ahead?

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant

Will Bitcoin’s Bet on Restaurants be the Bite or Buzz Needed to Drive Customer Counts

By now most regular readers of this blog know that chain restaurants perennial innovation leader Starbucks may soon allow / enable consumers to pay for their latte with bitcoin. Starbucks has become a food and beverage innovation powerhouse and technology focused company that drives customer engagement with relevance blending interactive technology with participatory food and beverage offerings according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Starbucks is extending the coffee customization and personalization experience too technology and the payment process by integrating bitcoin into the list of payment options.  Recently Starbucks announced that it will work in partnership with bitcoin exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange Inc. as it forms a new company to “create an integrated platform that enables consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on a seamless global network.”

The new company entity will be, called Bakkt, it will employ Microsoft cloud-based solutions to fashion a “global ecosystem” for digital currency, according to the Starbucks press release. “As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into U.S. dollars for use at Starbucks,” said Maria Smith, vice president of partnerships and payments for Starbucks,

Smith continued “As a leader in Mobile Pay to our more than 15 million Starbucks Rewards members, Starbucks is committed to innovation for expanding payment options for our customers.” Further operational details about Bakkt will be announced in coming weeks, according to Starbucks, with a planned launch of the company slated for November. So will it drive customer counts? Not today according to Johnson but it will added incremental buzz to the Starbucks brand and down the road it just might.  Starbucks is looking a customer ahead, are you?

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Is the Starbucks & Alibaba Partnership a Global F&B Play

Success does leave clues and when Starbucks Coffee Company and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. announced a deep, strategic “New Retail” partnership the team at Foodservice Solutions® took notice.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® stated that this partnership may be the most significant foodservice /technology partnership of 2018.

Johnson noted that both Starbucks and Alibaba are continually looking a customer ahead and that this partnership as it evolves will be the platform for growth that each of these companies is looking for it will become the new electricity that enables a seamless Starbucks Experience and transform the coffee industry in China.

This partnerships is more than delivery according to Johnson.  It is a relationship that will help Starbucks deliver coffee in China but most important it is a relationship about reciprocal technology sharing.  Alibaba Group plans to grow sales in the ‘West’ and Starbuck’s proprietary software might just the be tool to speed up that expansion according to Johnson.

Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of the Alibaba Group, believes that this partnership is again a testament to the success of our New Retail strategy. So is your company looking a customer ahead?

What is the new electricity that is driving your top line sales and bottom line profits?  Are your customer counts growing?  According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, urban clothing, grocerant consultants, coins /currency, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing. This program has all of that.

Foodservice retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Where is your new electricity?  Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Digital Payment Speeds Service Drives Sales

Legacy grocery stores have long been known by consumers as a place that it takes too long to shop at and even longer to wait in line to pay only to coaxed while in line for that last minute impulse buy the consumer really did not want according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

In a new study by Adyen found “Over the last 12 months, 86 percent of U.S. consumers say they have left a store due to long lines, resulting in purchases at a different retailer or no purchase at all. This resulted in approximately $37.7 billion lost in potential sales. In addition, $1.1 billion in potential sales have been lost when retailers don't support their customers' preferred payment methods, the survey found.

A key segment emerged in the study, coined "Spendsetters." This group loves to use technology, tends to be early adopters and represents one-third of all consumers and 52 percent of millennials.

According to Adyen, spendsetters will drive the future of retail as the key segment of shoppers who set the trends for how people want to spend and shop. The group is also the leading indicator of broader customer demands in retail experience and where the industry is headed.

Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer at Adyen stated "Retailers need to cater to shoppers by offering fast, easy and frictionless ways to pay so there are minimal lines and offer personalized recommendations and in-store deals. In other words, experience is key." Additional findings on Spendsetters from the survey include:

·         45 percent believe brand is important and are willing to pay a premium for the experience

·         49 percent love to shop

·         42 percent prefer to shop online

·         80 percent are comfortable using digital wallets

·         86 percent have left a store due to long lines

Spendsetters also have three overarching shopping demands:

Convenience

·         75 percent would shop more in-store with a "just walk out" payment experience

·         69 percent would shop more in-store with shorter lines and direct shipping of out-of-stock products

Context (personalized)

·         57 percent say the ability to check if an item is available online before going in-store would increase their loyalty to a retailer

·         53 percent prefer a store with a mobile loyalty program

·         72 percent would shop more with personalized product recommendations and coupons, based on location

·         61 percent want personalized experiences based on past purchases and preferences

Control (interaction on their terms)

·         59 percent want to use a store-branded app to pay onsite

·         80 percent are comfortable using digital wallets

·         53 percent would shop more online if they could use a chatbot with personalized recommendations

·         80 percent would increase shopping frequency online through marketplaces

The survey also examined issues from the retailers' perspective:

·         46 percent of retailers are considering cashless stores

·         67 percent see an increase in customers using their mobile phones in-store for coupons, payments and product info

·         64 percent see a need for associates to use mobile devices to better assist customers

Additionally, when it comes to luxury retailers, 85 percent see an increase in customers using their mobile phone for shopping in stores in regards to coupons, payments and product information, and 74 percent are considering cashless stores that only accept cards and digital payment.

So just what is your New Electricity? Success does leave clues www.FoodserviceSolutions.us  is the global leader in grocerant niche business development.  We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities.  Has your company had a Grocerant ScoreCard completed a Grocerant Program Assessment, or new Grocerant niche product Ideation?  Want one?  Call 253-759-7869 Email: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us