How to harvest data from booking and ordering systems

Technology permeates most areas of operations in restaurants today. From virtual queueing to table management systems, tech now plays a role before the customer arrives, during their visit, and even after they leave.

Two of the most common are online booking and digital ordering systems.

While these solutions have significant benefits for customers such as ease of use, consistency in experience and providing the ability to engage with a restaurant in their own way, they also present huge opportunities for business.

Online booking and digital ordering systems

Online booking systems are one of the most adopted technologies within hospitality. These systems allow customers to book a table and enquire about reservations online. We’ve likely all used one before.

Digital ordering systems are a slightly newer phenomenon and marginally less common, but most people will have used one to order food or drinks before. These solutions can range from QR codes which allow customers to order through their phone, to self-service kiosks, which have been normalised by QSRs like McDonalds and Burger King, and are now appearing in other casual dining settings.

Using customer insights to enhance experiences

When a customer books a table online, they give operators key information about the way they like to dine. Pre-visit, these systems enable people to disclose accessibility requirements, birthdays, location, contact preferences and party size; information which is extremely valuable to restaurants.

By collecting and analysing information relating to the customer’s booking, especially for repeat customers, you can learn what type of experience they want, and enhance your customer service and offerings to deliver these experiences. Information like what time of day they like to visit, how often they dine and with whom, and even how far in advance they make their bookings, can help you understand their behaviour.

If a person usually makes a reservation on a Tuesday for the weekend, you can begin targeting them with marketing material and deals on Mondays and Tuesdays, putting you front of mind for when they may be making a decision on where to dine. If they often visit in groups, you can ensure they receive marketing deals and vouchers related to group discounts. This level of insight is key for operators looking to gain a competitive advantage.

This is just one side of the coin though. Kiosks and other ordering systems present yet more opportunities for data collection.

When a customer orders through the kiosk or mobile ordering platform, they are showing the operator which menu items they like most, how they prefer to pay, what they like to drink, whether they have any allergies. This information is critical for enhancing customers’ in-visit experiences, and again makes it much easier for brands to target people with meaningful campaigns.

A joined up approach

So, now you have this customer data, how do you make the most of it? The key is to analyse the information and use it to learn about your customers’ behaviours and make data-driven inferences.

The key to understanding your customer base is in their behaviour. Once you know how they like to engage and interact with your brand, you can begin to craft and enhance experiences which specifically target them as individuals and their needs, increasing repeat visits, growing brand loyalty and driving up business. This is critical in what is an ever-increasingly competitive hospitality space.

If you’d like to hear more about how kiosks can help grow your sales, get in touch with one of our team at [email protected] or +44 (0) 1865 632643 to discuss the benefits of our specialist experience management system, three rocks XMS.