It’s no secret that the food and beverage (F&B) business is a highly competitive market. These days, consumers are spoilt for choice, with eateries available on every street corner and literally hundreds of food options ready to be delivered at the click of a button. In this busy F&B landscape, it’s important for businesses to understand their customers and what they value, in order to stand out from the pack.
So what is the profile of today’s modern diner and what do they expect when dining out? Well, the modern diner is one who is accustomed to convenience and dislikes waiting. They are used to getting what they want, when they want it. Modern diners are also a tech-savvy bunch, leveraging technology to do everything from deciding where and what to eat to ordering food and making payments. With their hectic lifestyles, modern diners are also opting to eat out more frequently than ever. To make the most of this opportunity, here are 5 tips to winning the hearts – and bellies – of modern diners!
1.Build a strong online presence
Modern diners rely heavily on the Internet to help them select their next meal. They often research new restaurants online, look up menus and read customer reviews before landing on a place to eat. Additionally, it’s also an expectation nowadays for customers to be able to reserve tables online to avoid having to wait or being told there’s no table available upon arrival. Through the strength of your online presence, customers are won and lost before they even set foot into your eatery. Therefore, it’s crucial for restaurants to ensure an excellent online presence – that is, a visually appealing and up-to-date online menu, swift and polite responses to customer reviews, as well as a seamless table reservation experience.
Through Bleudine, an innovative F&B app that helps manage restaurant operations, customers can browse through your menu offerings online, view table availability and make reservations at your restaurant through a user-friendly interface. Once reservations are made, Bleudine also makes it simple for your staff to assign tables and manage customer reservations!
2.Create a meal ordering experience that runs like clockwork
One of the key reasons people dine out is because they love the efficiency and convenience of it. So from the moment they arrive at your doorstep, you need to ensure they are seated as quickly as possible, orders are taken efficiently and the kitchen is updated and fulfilling these orders accurately. The larger the volume of customers you have, the more crucial it is that these processes are running smoothly. After all, it’s easy to understand why customers might be unhappy if they had to wait a long time to place orders or if their orders get mixed up in the kitchen.
With the Bleudine F&B app, these concerns are a thing of the past. Bleudine enables your customers to scan a code, browse the menu and place their orders from the convenience of their own table. These orders will then be automatically sent to the kitchen, where it will be queued and ready for the chef’s attention. Kitchen staff can also update the status of each order so that your waitstaff will always be ready to serve or to respond to customer queries.
3.Offer multiple modes of payment
When it’s time to pay the bill, diners today expect the option of being able to pay by cash, bank transfer, credit card or e-wallet. Contactless payments are increasingly preferred as a result of the pandemic and it goes without saying that these methods should be secure. Not providing payment options will effectively turn-off a big portion of your potential customers.
With Bleudine, you can seamlessly keep track of customers orders and bills and configure your restaurant’s payment methods to provide customers with the convenience of paying directly from their mobile devices or over the counter, using cash, bank transfer, credit card or e-wallets.
4.Never be out of stock
Don’t you just hate it when you have a strong craving for a particular dish only to be told that it’s unavailable or out of stock? These days, with 24 hour deliveries and endless options easily available, diners are accustomed to getting whatever they want upon demand. So if it’s on your menu, ensure that it’s always available to order or risk having dissatisfied customers on your hands.
Bleudine offers you the ability to easily manage and keep track of your inventory so that you never have to tell your customer their favourite dish is unavailable! As customers place their orders, Bleudine keeps track of the ingredients being used and can automatically tell you when ingredients are running low and need to be replenished or even when ingredients are about to expire. It’s like having a trusty assistant to monitor the inflow and outflows of your inventory and perfecting your restaurant operations!
5.Reward loyalty
Who doesn’t like discounts or free appetisers on the house? When you acknowledge your customers’ regular patronage of your restaurant and reward their loyalty, you can bet that they will return the favour and keep coming back for more. Consider creating a loyalty programme for your customers where they can collect points and redeem them at your establishment. Not only will this make your customers happy, it will also ensure repeat business and more dollars being spent at your eatery.
With Bleudine, restaurant managers can customise membership programmes for their customers along with attractive rewards or discounts. Customers can easily track and redeem their points using the Bleudine app. Bleudine also enables restaurant staff to put together personalised promotions for customers and notify them of these incentives through the app to compel them to visit again!
6.Bleudine is the secret sauce your restaurant needs to keep your diners satisfied!
Bleudine is an innovative F&B mobile app that enables F&B merchants to provide customers with a user-friendly food ordering platform (for both dine-in and takeaway orders), multiple modes of payments and customisable loyalty programmes. Bleudine also helps smoothen F&B operations by providing inventory management, detailed reports and rich marketing tools. With this solution being affordable and even coming with a free 14-day trial, what are you waiting for? Start your Bleudine journey today!