Beacon Technology: A Revolutionary Restaurant and Bar Marketing Tool
Imagine this. You waltz up to a local café or restaurant, sit yourself at your pre-reserved table like royalty and instantly get served with your customised menu as per your dietary requirements – almost like you had telepathically willed for it.
You enjoy your food, salt and pepper gets served as you ask for it. You pay your bill without having to queue up or wait – with nothing more than a quick swipe of your fingers. Eventually, you get on with life. How sci-fi is this?
Since the digital revolution in the 1970s, it’s taken the world another 40 years for technology to grace the service industry. If you haven't lived in a cave for the past 10 years, you won't have been spared by the conspicuous phenomenon of digital screens mushrooming across the hospitality terrain. Families are always crouching over their phones at the dining table, and singles are constantly kept busy at the bar counter waiting for their impending dates. Mobile screens are everywhere.
This also means that the end-customer's attention span is dominated by a platform that businesses can easily hop on. One famous example of this is Starbucks. It has used those great strides in technological changes to its benefit. Through its app, it has empowered its customers to earn rewards and redeem coupons – all directly from their phone.
Indeed, a recent mBlox survey reveals that four out of five consumers prefer receiving personalised offers on their phones. This has been closely linked with more sales and greater loyalty.
In other quick food and beverage spots, handing over cash or swiping a credit card has become an increasingly rare phenomenon. A quick activation of your smartphone's NFC (near-field communication) easily enables your own mobile wallet of choice. Restaurantindia.in reports that around 17% of all worldwide retail businesses serve food and beverages. This is what places the industry under the spotlight of technological advancement.
So, de-furrow your digital brow and let's have a look at how they will continue to do so. The simple and short answer – Beacon Tech.
What is Beacon Technology?
Beacon technology is a form of wireless communication used to send information to smartphones or tablets within close proximity. These beacons can relay messages, alerts and offers to apps on your customer devices using Bluetooth technology.
If you've visited spots like the Sydney Opera Bar, Rockpool Dining or North Bondi Fish, you must have been hit by the small devices that sit right in the middle of your tables. Those small electronic devices periodically broadcast signals.
Your customers' smartphones are naturally equipped to receive information from that device thanks to a pre-installed app.
Brett Sergeant, CEO of Melbourne-based Colonial Leisure Group, says the implementation of the technology in 10 of its diners across Australia means that the end-customer is able "to sit and order a beer or a meal without having to get off their seat".
Yet there's more to beacon technology that helps the food and beverage business itself. Think about all the friction points you've had to face as a restaurateur, or as a bar or café owner – your waiters being unable to attend to all your customers perpetually putting their hands up for assistance, or the inability to decide how many times it's polite to prompt indecisive customers who study the menu for more than just 10 minutes.
It doesn't stop there. You're always having to train waiting staff with changing menu items, ingredients and dietary information that can be hard to memorise, and the biggest pain of all – the cashier panicking over the sudden long line at the end of meal times for billing. Peak times are the worst!
All these interactions and bottlenecks are easily nullified via beacon technology. An experienced restaurateur will tell you that, in this line of business, every half footstep adds time. Indeed, every centimetre counts. And with waiters having to take orders and collect payments, the operations accumulate an unnecessary lead time that's easily removed thanks to beacon tech.
TIP: Customers need a compatible app to be able to receive push notifications. Promote your app on social media, and also in-store using chalkboard signs - offer a free drink or an exclusive discount to encourage downloads.
Why Restaurant Apps Are More Important Than Ever
A 2017 Deloitte report testifies that the 2013-born beacon tech was estimated to have driven retail sales worth USD$44 billion in the USA.
Stevan Premutico, founder of the mobile app Me&u, reports having experienced a 1200% increase in inquiries about the app from various types of venues – from fast casual dining and small alleyway bars to some of Australia’s largest pubs and clubs – because of the Covid-19 outbreak. The company conducted a survey in April 2020, finding that 94% of customers did not want to touch cash, and 64% did not want to touch an a la carte menu, even if it was disposable.
Other similar restaurant apps are HungryHungry, Skip, Liven, and Tayble. Some UK restaurants and bars were already peppered with bill-splitting and tipping apps such as FlyPay, Qkr! MyCheck and Zapper even before the pandemic. Their skyrocketing visibility only speaks volume about the demand for touchless trends and legal requirements of social distancing rules.
More and more restaurants and bars have become conscientious of how the implementation of beacon technology in their outlets would benefit them in the long run. GlobalData's June 2020 Covid-19 tracker consumer survey in the UK revealed that 83% of consumers admitted services that felt 'trustworthy' or 'risk-free' greatly influenced their purchase choices.
Whilst ABI Research predicted that the beacon market would double in 2016 and break 400 million orders by 2021, these unprecedented times are set to push this popularity even further.
How Does Beacon Technology Work to Benefit Your Business?
This increase in demand for beacon technology gives local food outlets a chance to cry "Hallelujah" as they can finally see the roles of their waiting staff evolve from taking mere orders and collecting payments to becoming more focused on rapport-building, establishing a connection with their customers.
But simply introducing the tech and not making work in the favour of sales would render its purpose futile. While many restaurants choose to see it as an attractive branding and marketing tool for their venue, there are significant ways in which beacon technology can bring in sales – all while introduced in an elegant and seamless manner.
According to recent Technomic research, the yearly $160 billion-generating casual dining restaurant industry saw just a 2% rise in 2019 due to the lack of embracing technology. Consumer expectations are evolving. The thirst for marketing communication and an experience tailored to individual preferences is waiting to be quenched like never before.
So, which side of this technological movement do you choose to stand on? With beacon technology having the potential of unlocking more profits than previously thought of, here are five ways it could help boost profits for your business.
1) Beacon Tech as an Enticing Offer
It may seem pointless, but allowing customers to bookmark their favourite dishes on your mobile app means that when they walk in on any day, you can automatically send them push notifications with unmissable offers on the same dish.
Every restaurant owner loves a loyal customer, and beacons make it easier to reward them. You could create a special menu or a secret dish for your most loyal customers, based on their previous orders and selections. When they enter your restaurant, push a notification to them to let them know what's special on the menu that they would love.
2) Beacon Tech as a Loyalty Program Superstar
Retail Dive's survey found that 66% of millennials research products in-store to make a purchase decision. It would only be a missed opportunity not to send a voice of influence and gear their decision-making. Me&U reports that customers end up spending 30% more than what they would have originally chosen thanks to the targeted ads.
A major UK-based FMCG company installed beacons and offered discounts to customers who downloaded their technology-enabled app, linking it to their loyalty programs and special in-store events.
A German restaurant called Mook integrated iBeacon technology with their mobile app and rewarded their customers for spending time at their venue with deals on mobile phones. That helped stratify the guests with ratings like 'addicted', 'casual' and 'connoisseur' for relative restaurant deals.
3) Beacon Tech as a Customer Experience Enhancer
For the end-customer, using their phones like a mini remote control in a restaurant or bar translates to less time wasted queueing, ordering and paying for their food and drinks. This leaves them with more time to revel and engage with staff members, who spend time building a rapport with them instead of doing the more automated tasks.
It's no surprise that Restaurantindia.in reveals a major fast food chain has witnessed an upward slope in its conversion rate thanks to beacon technology. Several studies prove that customers find it more convenient to effect a mobile payment than having to get up and pay.
Moreover, beacon technology can help guests decide when to make their restaurant booking by keeping them informed of how crowded your venue is, as well as the waiting times – either through live information or by deploying patterns of previous days.
4) Beacon Tech as Part of Drive-Thru
Beacons and drive-thrus are a match made in heaven. Guests can be prompted at the parking entrance to eat inside instead of using a pick-up or online ordering system. This on-the-spot decision means that the time spent by the customer in the outlet might increase, and they may spend more.
Beacon tech can also alert the cooking staff of the whereabouts of the guest. This would help to inform them of their order preparation time. Furthermore, a regular customer can be greeted by their first name, even by a new cashier – all of this make for a far more personal experience.
5) Beacon Tech as Part of Your Service Experiential
Experiential is the new word of business with millennials entering the consumer demographic in vivacious numbers. Recently, iBeacon technology was used to gamify the famous traditional 'pub crawl' night out by using beacons in various pubs to provide hints and challenges – and giving out special drinks as rewards.
Beacons can empower your restaurants and bars to engage customers through real-world experiences. This stands a real chance of being shareworthy social media content, which will eventually act as great publicity.
Beacon Technology Is Here To Stay
Beacon tech is here to stay, even in a Covid-free world. If it's not already, beacon technology is something your restaurant or bar business should definitely consider using.
While the term may sound futuristic and complicated, it's actually quite simple. The benefits of adapting your business with technology and the digital market will always be felt the most by those who jump on the bandwagon early.
Unquestionably, the food service industry is quickly migrating towards a contactless economy. Beacon tech has been commercially viable for the past seven years and, even if it's thought of as still being relatively new, early adopters will have the most benefits – whether by increasing staff and operational efficiency or increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
TIP: If you do decide to invest in beacon technology, there are several important factors to consider. Check the transmission range of the beacons is large enough to cover your entire venue, and remember to choose weatherproof ones if you're using them outdoors. You could also consider beacons that support more than one communication protocol - for example, iBeacon AND Eddystone - for greater versatility.
