Does mobile enhance customer experience, or distract from it? According to a study by Maru Matchbox 69% of millennials take a photo (or video) of their food before eating. While millennials are changing the way we eat (and consume media), brands are missing opportunities to use digital to ultimately improve the restaurant experience.
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Source: Maru/Matchbox.
Dirty Bones Launches Instagram Kits
Dirty Bones restaurant in London’s Soho is encouraging customers to Instagram their food by providing them with all the means to do so. The ‘Instagram kit’ includes a portable LED light, multi-device chargers, clip-on wide-angle lenses, tripods and selfie sticks, all designed to help punters get the best possible ‘professional’ picture.
“More and more people are also using Instagram to help them decide where to eat, so as a restaurant group it’s key for us to make sure that people are getting the best possible shots of all our dishes and drinks,” says Dirty Bones.
Customer Expectations and the Mobile Revolution
Through a survey of over 2,000 adults in the UK, we revealed current consumer attitudes towards their smartphones and their impact on everyday life.
Key findings:
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31% of consumers use their smartphones in shops to make calls or send messages
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23% do the same in restaurants
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Less than 11% use their mobile phones to engage with the restaurant or shop, or to enhance their customer experience.
The Digital Disconnect and Missed Opportunities
Customers are using smartphones consistently, yet brands are failing to mobilise this channel to increase customer engagement with their business. Our research reveals strong consumer appetite for mobile in retail and restaurant experience, yet consumers often experience discrepancies between online and offline messaging.
While consumers are frequently using their phones for social and entertainment purposes whilst shopping and eating out, businesses rarely make use of this opportunity by engaging with their customers through mobile.
Customers were twice or even three times more likely to use their phone to send messages and make calls, listen to music and check social media in-store than use it to locate a product in-store, redeem a promotion or pay for products.
Similarly in restaurants, 16–24 year-olds reported using their phone in a restaurant up to four times as frequently to send messages or make calls, take photos of friends or their food, or check social media compared to redeeming a promotion or paying for their bill.
Using Mobile to improve the Customer Experience
According to Eagle Eye customer experience research, over two thirds of consumers said they would find it ‘helpful’ or ‘extremely helpful’ to be sent discount vouchers to their phone whilst shopping, and nearly a third said it would enhance their shopping experience. Meanwhile, over half said they would consider downloading an app that made it easier to pay and redeem promotions in-store.
Top 3 methods for utilising mobile:
1. To personalise promotions
A single customer view allows you to identify how often individual customers dine and what they like to order off the menu, then create digital promotions based on this data.
2. Location-based triggers
Utilise geo technology to engage customers as they interact with your business. Use Eagle Eye Engage to issue tailored digital coupons to customers while seated in your restaurant.
3. To increase loyalty
All Bar One teamed up with Eagle Eye to create a digital loyalty app that offers customers tailored rewards via their smartphones. Via the loyalty app users can reserve a table at their local branch, access exclusive recipes and collect tokens on their digital stamp cards. Find out more in the Mitchell & Butler’s case study.
Find out more about Eagle Eye’s digital promotions platform and get in touch for tailored advice to improve customer experience at your business.