Customer satisfaction has always reigned supreme in the hospitality business – probably more than in any other consumer-facing industry.
So restaurants constantly seek innovative ways to keep their clientele happy and engaged. These days, technology plays a huge role in achieving this.
Among the tools available, Customer Engagement Platforms (CEPs) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems stand out as powerful instruments for nurturing customer relationships and driving business growth.
So what’s the difference between the two – and which one is for you?
Understanding the distinctions between these differing client engagement software platforms can help you make informed decisions about which solution best suits your needs.
So, let’s dig into the comparison between Customer Engagement Platforms and Customer Relationship Management systems – and explore how each customer engagement tool can elevate your business.
Customer Engagement Platform (CEP)
Comprehensive insight: CEPs offer a comprehensive view of your customer interactions across various touchpoints, including social media, email, website visits and more. This fully rounded perspective gives you a deep understanding of your customers’ behaviour patterns and preferences in depth.
Customised engagement: Through advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, CEPs help you create personalised engagement strategies. With the help of data-driven intelligence, you can tailor your interactions with customers – such are marketing emails and offers – delivering relevant content and offers at the right time and through the preferred channels.
Omnichannel ability: One feature of these customer engagement tools is their ability to integrate seamlessly with multiple communication channels. Whether it’s email, messaging, live chat, or social media, these customer engagement platforms put you right in touch with your customers across diverse platforms, making sure your messaging is consistent and cohesive.
Making predictions: CEPs use predictive analytics to forecast customer behaviours and identify the potential opportunities and risks for your business. By analysing historical data and trends with these customer engagement platforms, you can anticipate your customers’ needs and proactively address issues.
Automated workflows: CEPs streamline your business processes by using workflow automation, eliminating the need for manual tasks while improving the efficiency of your operations. By automating routine processes such as nurturing leads, follow-ups and customer support ticketing, your business can make the most of its resources and focus on the activities that add value.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A centralised database of customers: A CRM is a customer interaction platform that centralises your customer information – everything from contact details to purchase history and communication preferences. By consolidating data from various sources in a single place, CRM systems provide a unified view of customer interactions, so your different departments can collaborate and co-ordinate their efforts.
Sales pipeline management: By tracking leads, opportunities, and deals throughout the sales cycle., your CRM provides a real-time view real-time of sales performance and forecasting.
Enhancing customer service: The CRM streamlines support processes and supports resolutions. By tracking customer inquiries, complaints and feedback, they ensure you can deal with issues promptly, enhancing customer satisfaction and encouraging loyalty.
Managing marketing: With a CRM, you can create targeted marketing campaigns by segmenting customers based on their demographics, behaviour and preferences. Then you can use automation tools to create personalised campaigns that resonate with specific audience segments.
Integration ability: CRMs integrate seamlessly with other business applications, such as marketing automation platforms, ERP systems and epos platforms. This means your company has consistent data., even across a broad group.
Every business is different, but this is exceptionally so when it comes to hospitality, and there are 5 things you should consider when making your decision about your customer experience management platform:
Your business goals: Is your main focus customer engagement and loyalty, or are you more interested in firming up sales processes and driving revenue growth?
Customer insight: How deep do you need to go when capturing and understanding customer insights? Do you need advanced analytics capabilities to draw actionable insights from customer data, or is a centralized database for managing customer interactions enough?
Scalability and flexibility: How scalable and flexible is the platform you are looking at? Will it grow to fit in with your future plans, and is it flexible enough to integrate with other systems you need?
Your users: Who’s going to be using the system in your restaurant, and how user-friendly is it? Will deployment and training be easy?
ROI: Assess the cost carefully and determine what level of return on investment you expect to achieve – don’t forget to factor in implementation costs, maintenance and potential revenue gains or cost savings.
The expert touch
There’s no doubt that both Customer Engagement Platforms and Customer Relationship Management systems are huge assets to any hospitality business, fostering insightful relationships with customers and enabling your business to provide the kind of exceptional customer experience you need to succeed.
Both are an essential part of the digital toolkit now available to restaurateurs to sharpen up their business. They integrate in particular with epos systems that enable operational efficiencies such as tableside ordering and payment, speeding up service, and also online reservations and ordering.
The modern-day diner is highly demanding, and competition remains intense. Providing diners with the convenience, choice and seamless service they now require is essential if your business is to stand out from the rest and foster the loyalty that brings repeat business.
Ultimately, though, the key to success lies in selecting the right solution that best aligns with your business needs and empowers you to cultivate lasting relationships with your customers.
Expert help is, of course, on hand from companies such as NFS Restaurant Technology, and you should seek those who offer a consultative approach that understands your business and guides you through the maze of good decision making.
Platforms that provide you with deep customer insight are an invaluable part of this. By understanding the unique strengths and capabilities of CRMs and CEMs, and aligning them with your business objectives, they will help you elevate your hospitality business and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Restaurant operations are notoriously difficult to organise, because of their immense complexity – not only are there everyday issues of the business to sort out, but there are also the ever-evolving behaviours of customers to satisfy.
It’s not surprising, then, that the integration of restaurant management technology has become the secret of success for many operations.
Restaurant systems are sophisticated solutions designed to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences and elevate profitability. From optimising order processing to facilitating inventory management, it’s fair to say that these systems are revolutionising the way modern restaurants operate.
A restaurant management platform integrates various functionalities, including point of sale, inventory management, and customer relationship management, eliminating the need for multiple disparate systems.
As your restaurants grow and evolve, management systems offer scalability, allowing for seamless expansion and integration of additional features and modules.
In helping you grow your business in what is always an incredibly crowded market, restaurant management software helps give you a competitive edge, whether you run a single independent outlet or a whole group.
7 top benefits of restaurant management systems:
Better relationships with your customers
An end-to-end view of your business
Analysis and forecasting
Employee satisfaction and retention
Better labour and stock control
Enhanced financial management
Targeted marketing for wider reach.
Better relationships with your customers
Restaurant’s relationships with customers have always been intense and important, but since the days of the pandemic they have evolved to cater for new and changed demands.
Customers now have a strong emphasis on convenience and speed as well as on the quality of food and service you provide. Restaurant systems that include EPOS are an immense help in this area, making it quicker for customers to place their order and also to pay.
For instance, serving staff provided with Epos on a tablet or phone can send orders direct from the table to the kitchen so food preparation can begin immediately, and service is faster. There’s no room for human error, either, so fewer dishes get sent back and there’s less waste.
Once the meal is over, your staff can take payment at tableside so the customer can pay and go. It adds up to a satisfying customer experience that encourages loyalty and repeat visits.
Restaurant management systems also make it easy for customers to order online or to make a table reservation, a valuable and convenient service that also cuts down the time your staff have to spend on the phone.
An end-to-end view of your business
The complexity of restaurant operations can mean it’s tricky to keep an overview. A restaurant management system is available online and provides up to date reports on all aspects of your business from automated inventory showing stock levels to sales.
For groups, this online availability of reports is invaluable when keeping track of the position of the business at any given time.
Analysis and forecasting
Data has become the lifeblood of most organisations these days. Coupled with effective analysis, it gives insight into everything from customer preferences to your busiest times and best-selling dishes. It can even provide forecasts to help you anticipate when extra labour etc is likely to be required.
Employee satisfaction and retention
A real hot potato in the industry, which has seen such labour shortages in recent years that some outlets have decided to curtail their hours or even shut on certain days of the week.
Restaurant management systems can help you provide a healthy and enjoyable working environment that encourages valuable staff to stay and reduces the time you need to spend recruiting and training.
A restaurant order management system reduces the amount of time serving staff need to spend running back and forth to the kitchen with orders, and also minimises admin when it comes to taking reservations – when customers can do it themselves online, staff involvement is minimised.
It all allows more time for your people to engage with customers, building loyalty and creating the friendly impression they will appreciate – and it makes the working day more rewarding for your staff and encourages them to stay.
Managers can also track employee performance metrics, identify training needs, and recognise top performers, fostering a culture of accountability and excellence.
Better labour and stock control
The cost of living crisis has exacerbated problems for the industry as restaurants struggle to cope with increases in the cost of supplies and balance that with keeping customers happy.
A restaurant order management system will give you far better control of your stock, providing real-time information on inventory and also on your supply chain.
The same systems make it easier to control labour, highlighting busy and quiet times and enabling you to have the right staffing levels at the right times.
A further enhancement that keeps things running smoothly is integration with restaurant maintenance software, which helps identify potential equipment issues, enabling proactive maintenance and minimising downtime.
Enhanced financial management
Using the reports generated by your restaurant software on sales, expenses and profits, empowers you and your managers to make data-driven decisions and take measures that optimise financial performance.
By tracking costs and identifying areas of inefficiency, restaurant management platforms enable proactive cost control measures, ultimately boosting your profitability.
Targeted marketing for wider reach
Special offers can make a huge difference to your hospitality business, keeping existing customers happy and enticing those who have never tried your restaurant to give it a to.
When it comes to loyal customers, your restaurant management platform and CRM can give incredible insight into their preferences. By capturing data every time they book or eat, you identify their preferences so you can produce timely and appropriate marketing emails that you know will hit the mark.
For instance, if you know they visited last Valentine’s Day, you can offer them two free glasses of champagne this year; or you can send them a birthday greeting that will put your restaurant top of their mind when they want to celebrate.
Restaurant management software also helps you with your social media presence, alerting you to any adverse reviews so you can put the situation right immediately and put a shine on your reputation.
Conclusion
Deploying carefully-selected restaurant software represents a strategic investment in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, staff retention and financial performance – and it’s an investment that provides definite ROI.
By leveraging the power of technology, you can optimise your processes, empower their staff, and deliver unparalleled dining experiences. From order management to inventory control, these systems serve as the cornerstone of modern restaurant operations, paving the way for sustained success.
Whether your business is a bustling bistro or a multi-location group, the benefits of a restaurant management system are undeniable. And in a world where customers are increasingly demanding, staff are hard to find and competition is raging, it can give you the edge you need to succeed.
Discover more about how a restaurant management system will benefit you:
In today’s fast-paced world, customers prioritise convenience, speed, and personalised experiences, driving the escalating demand for online food ordering, delivery, and takeout. While off-premise dining boasts advantages like increased revenue, an expanded customer base, and higher check sizes, some restaurant owners remain hesitant due to concerns about losing valuable in-person customer interactions. To address these apprehensions and empower restaurateurs to elevate their online ordering experiences, here are four insightful tips for staying connected with customers in the digital realm.
Tailor Your Platform Listing and Online Menu
Consider your restaurant’s page on third-party platforms as a virtual storefront—a canvas that needs to captivate potential customers. Infuse it with the essence of your brand’s voice and personality. Craft a compelling introduction that narrates the story of your restaurant, its culinary offerings, and your vision. The menu, the heartbeat of the experience, should showcase delivery-friendly, high-quality, and customisable dishes.
Engage potential customers through visually appealing content, such as high-definition images of your culinary creations. Complement this with imaginative dish names and clever descriptions that evoke curiosity. For instance, would you prefer ordering a “Large Cheese Plate” or a “Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese Plate?” Descriptions offer a unique opportunity to let your brand personality shine in the digital space.
Harness the Power of Social Media
Social media stands as a potent tool for fostering customer interaction. Establish a connection with your followers through contests, giveaways, and user-generated content. Organise engaging photo contests, encourage customers to share their culinary experiences, and create custom hashtags exclusive to your restaurant. Use the platform to share behind-the-scenes stories, communicate hygiene measures, and introduce the faces behind your brand.
Invest time in nurturing your social media accounts to establish a genuine connection with customers. The organic growth of these accounts over time can serve as a cost-effective means to disseminate messages to your loyal customer base.
Infuse a Personal Touch in Each Order
Once an order embarks on its delivery journey, it’s essential to maintain a connection with the customer. Employ a point-of-sale (POS) system integrated with your online ordering solution to ensure precision and completeness. Timeliness and order accuracy resonate deeply with customers, making it imperative to get these aspects right.
Elevate customer interaction by personalising food orders. Consider including handwritten thank-you notes, short messages, or branded freebies like stickers or utensils. Thoughtfully branded packaging contributes to a unique ‘unboxing’ experience, potentially prompting customers to share their delight on social media.
Consider offering a ‘build your own’ meal option to provide customers with an ultra-personalized dining experience. This showcases an understanding of personal preferences without burdening your kitchen staff.
Actively Seek and Welcome Feedback
While reaching customers who utilise third-party services can be challenging, actively seek feedback through alternative channels. Utilise polls, surveys, and social media platforms to encourage customers to share their thoughts. Include a feedback card in delivery and take-out bags, complete with a custom QR code for seamless online submissions. Consider incentivizing feedback with discounts or coupons.
Monitor and respond to reviews on delivery platforms, transparently communicating actions taken based on feedback. For those with their own delivery service or online ordering app, leverage customer relationship management (CRM) data to send personalised offers, discounts, and feedback forms.
In conclusion, fostering customer interaction in the online realm may pose challenges, but it’s far from impossible. By tailoring your platform, leveraging social media, infusing a personal touch into each order, and actively seeking feedback, you can bridge the gap and forge meaningful connections with customers. Embrace these strategies not only to streamline operations but also to cultivate growth and customer loyalty in the competitive landscape of online food ordering.
The multinational craft brewery and pub chain BrewDog has become a huge hit around the world in recent years – and its well-deserved reputation is built on providing the best in customer service.
When the company planned its biggest ever UK venue – a fantastic fun venue in Waterloo, London – it required an epos system up to the job of satisfying all the requirements of a huge number of highly demanding customers.
The solution
BrewDog turned once again to its longstanding partner NFS Technology, who stepped up to the challenge.
Chris Cartmell, Chief Operations Officer for restaurant technology at NFS, said: “We’ve partnered with BrewDog over many years and are delighted to have played our part in their amazing success.
Our Aloha epos technology supports 97 BrewDogs across the UK, India, Australia, Germany, Shanghai and Tokyo, so we were more than ready to provide everything the company needed for the amazing new Waterloo development.”
The bar epos software at the new BrewDog was one of the expert NFS team’s biggest installations to date.
Chris said: “The Waterloo bar has no fewer than 16 Aloha tills, and our team made sure everything was perfectly in place for the grand opening. It was a great job for a truly great client!”
The results
On its Waterloo website, BrewDog describes the new venue: “Two floors and 27,500ft of craft beer joy inside Waterloo station, next to the iconic London Southbank.
“With a restaurant, an on-site microbrewery and 60 taps of draft beer over two bars, we’re serving some of the freshest beer in London and some of the greatest food that’s ever graced the inside of a train station.
“But why stop there? With our Grind Cafe for your brunch and caffeinated needs, a cocktail hideaway, a co-working space, a podcast recording studio, duckpin bowling and AN ACTUAL SLIDE, there’s plenty to keep you occupied while they clear the leaves off the line.”
Marugame Udon is the world’s largest udon noodle chain, with more 800 fast casual restaurants in Japan and 250 across Asia. It opened its first European restaurant in London in 2021 with a noticeably QSR-style low price point, with freshly-made noodles from £3.45.
Four further London sites were lined up before the first opened, with the restaurant in the O2 also now open, and the company has big plans for a speedy further expansion.
Marugame Udon has a global audience on social platforms ranging from Tiktok to Facebook and Instagram, and is leveraging this presence – and the power of the Muragame Loyalty Scheme – to extend brand awareness and position the offering perfectly in its new market.
Marugame Udon Chief Executive Keith Bird says: “It’s crucial to get the values and culture right.” Helping customers to feel part of the Marugame Udon community is crucial – for example, in the run-up to opening, visitors were invited to take pictures of themselves in front of a special screen to share worldwide on social media.
The innovative use of digital technology is helping Marugame Udon to establish and grow its community of enthusiasts across the UK and beyond. A unique level of integration is enabling the company to gain an extraordinarily deep insight into its customers, enabling better customer service and engagement.
The loyalty system, implemented via Aloha EPOS from NFS, is so well integrated that important customer information is automatically shared across all platforms ranging from the till to wifi and email marketing.
It means Marugame Udon has a 360 degree view of the customer’s requirements and preferences – what the company calls a ‘single point of truth’ – and it eliminates the need to repeatedly input data into different systems.
The integration makes the customer journey effortless. It enables Marugame Udon to send highly-targeted marketing emails that are sure to hit the mark – and when the customer pays, the till automatically applies any discounts. On opening, members who had already signed up to the loyalty programme were given popular offers including free noodles.
Further integration means customers are never disappointed when ordering. When a menu change is made on the till it is instantly reflected across all menu screens and collection screens, and the company is now working with NFS to extend this to delivery channels.
Customer safety is also a priority, and as well as providing allergen alerts, the Aloha EPOS system deployed by Marugame Udon offers diners the ability to input an allergen and see an online menu of dishes they can eat safely. Calorie counts are also updated through the system.
* Discover how Aloha EPOS can benefit your restaurant:
Following a stylish renovation, the Rose and Crown at Essendon in Hertfordshire is enjoying its reputation as a venue that offers local people London quality without having to travel into the capital.
With a new Head Chef with Michelin stars under his belt, the pub and restaurant has roared back from the pandemic with a fantastic offering for guests – and a new tablet EPOS system from NFS.
It’s all paying off brilliantly, according to General Manager Rebecca Starling.
“Our owners Debbie and Charles Davis found our Head Chef Alex Parker, who came out of Claude Bosi at Bibendum at Chelsea, and he has created a fabulous a la carte menu,” she said.
“We’ve completely revamped and stay true to the ideology of being a country pub. We have the pub side and the restaurant side, so we need an epos system that can handle both.”
NFS Tablet EPOS
A highly flexible and capable system was needed – and the answer came in the shape of the tablet EPOS from NFS, leading providers of hospitality technology across the UK.
Rebecca said: “Our heavy footfall means we need to be speedy on the till on the pub side when people want to come up to the bar and pay for a single drink.
“On the restaurant side, you need to be able to really hone things down if people are having a drink in a certain way or the food in a certain way.
“You need to be able to add different options – even in areas such as the coffee menu where we have three different coffees to choose from. So we’ve had to create almost two separate sites and two separate approaches.”
Stringent selection process
Debbie and Charles’ son Glenn, the company Director, decided on the NFS tablet EPOS after a stringent selection process.
“He didn’t want to go for a huge system, he wanted something that was a little smaller and more intimate,” said Rebecca. “We wanted one-on-one time with people, rather than just telephone helplines or a company based in America.
“The whole ethos of this place is growing more intimate relationships with businesses, and that’s one of the big reasons we chose NFS.
“We were also pleased with the option NFS offers to have 4G back-up in case our wi-fi goes down. I’ve worked in so many placed where the wi-fi packs up and the whole till system goes down – so the 4G offering really stood out for us.”
Next steps for the Rose and Crown
NFS swiftly carried out the deployment of the tablet EPOS system and trained up the Rose and Crown team to make the most of it. The new system is working well at the busy venue, and the leadership team are now considering further developments with the NFS tablet EPOS.
“We’re very pleased with the way everything has gone, and particularly with the direct support we’ve received from the NFS team – it’s been really good,” said Rebecca.
The famous Balans Soho Society group of restaurants and bars was about to open its seventh restaurant, in Ealing, London.
With a particularly demanding clientele – its slogan is: “A haven for the convivial” and the group numbers many celebrity guests – Balans decided to continue its relationship with NFS and deploy the Aloha restaurant management system that has already proved its worth at their other branches.
The deployment has paid off – and the group is particularly impressed with the loyalty programme it has been able to set up, with loyalty customers spending more than 40% more than non-loyalty guests.
At a glanceWho? Balans Soho Society’s new Ealing restaurant Where? London What? Aloha Table service EPOS software from NFS Why? Operational efficiency and great customer service, loyalty When? 2019 at the new Ealing branch
Balans Soho Society
Balans has always been ahead of trends. First started by business partners David Taylor and Prady Balan in the 1970s as a sandwich outlet, the group has become famous for hosting celebrity hangouts and delicious late-night dining.
Balans (now run by David Taylor) now has no fewer than seven restaurants across London and beyond, from Soho to Stratford City. Attracting the most up-to-date and savvy clientele, its menu is big on breath-taking brunches, quintessentially Balans mains and fabulous cocktails.
The challenge
Opening a new restaurant in Ealing – in the extraordinarily competitive London market – this famed group bills itself as a “haven for the convivial”.
So it knew it was crucial to deliver the same impeccable standards of operational efficiency and delicious customer service that have made its other six restaurants and bars such a celebrated three-decade success.
The results
The Ealing restaurant got off to a great start and is proving a real hit with customers with the help of its Aloha EPOS software.
“The system does exactly what we need – we find working with NFS very smooth thanks to having a key account person allocated.” – Kieran Crosby, Operations Director, Balans Soho Society
The benefits for Balans
As well as keeping operations streamlined and customer service moving effortlessly, Balans has had great success using its Aloha EPOS software to create targeted loyalty schemes and offer gift cards to enhance the customer experience.
The company believes the restaurant management software has created a big uplift – loyalty customers on average spend up to 42% more than non-loyalty customers.
“We’ve created an online loyalty programme where our customers are in control of how they use it, and that’s really helping to drive repeat visits,” says Kieran.
Balan’s staff also use Aloha Mobile to take customer orders and payments at tableside, using iPads. It means orders go directly to the kitchen for swift delivery, without any chance of human error.
Aloha EPOS software can integrate with kitchen automation to streamline food production, and the intuitive interface means it’s simple to get staff up and running on the system.
“Our FOH staff find Aloha very easy to use – the system is common in the restaurant industry and many have used it before, so they have familiarity with it.” – Kieran Crosby
Aloha has moved well beyond simple EPOS, and now creates a better-connected workflow within the restaurant and throughout the customer journey from online reservations through seating, dining, paying and loyalty – it even monitors social media reputation.
Like other users of Aloha, Balans also benefits from the business insight provided by the system. For restaurant groups, it gives an unprecedented end-to-end view of operations, with comprehensive reports including sales, labour and stock control, and accurate forecasting.
Why NFS?
NFS has a long-standing relationship with this prestigious restaurant chain, which made Aloha a natural choice when Balans was getting ready to open the new Ealing branch.
“We chose NFS because Aloha is working well in the rest of our estate,” says Kieran.
“Aloha does exactly what it needs to do – and we find it very reliable. We’d recommend it.”
What’s next?
Balans anticipates that using Aloha Mobile will increase efficiency, table turn and revenue during the coming summer months.
Watch this video to discover how Andy uses Aloha restaurant management technology to turn his business round – streamlining operations, improving guest service and increasing revenues
Watch this video to discover how you can improve the guest experience, drive costs down, reduce waste, increase revenues, gain better business insights and streamline operations
Find out how Aloha restaurant management technology offers the complete suite to increase sales, create more efficient service, measure your KPIs, drive improvements in operations and increase revenues
