Indeed, this is argu- ably the greatest benefit of introducing mobile order- ing, according to Matthew Khoury, chief executive of LOKE, a tailor-made loyalty, ordering and payment app (pictured right). “Mobile order and payment technology has so much to offer by way of information on the most and least popular dishes, as well as highlighting which menu items offer the best return on investment,” he explains. “Opera- tors should use this data to help them work out who their most valuable customers are, both in terms of spend per visit and in the number of visits they make over a period of time, to tar- get them with relevant future marketing and increase the average spend per head.” Since Milestone Group, which includes the largest food hall in the north of England, launched the full capability of the LOKE plat- form, including the ability for customers to pay with their phone, order directly to their table and click and collect, while also person- alising the experience for the customer, the results have been striking. They’ve seen a 16% increase in revenue, a 53% increase in average spend via the app vs face-to-face transactions, 22,000 registered users and 18,000 transactions per month. And while data capture is still in its infancy and is only just starting to be utilised across F&B venues, Cornhill thinks those data-driven insights could shape the future of hospitality. “Ensuring your digital ordering provider facili- tates data capture is a must,” he stresses.
EASY TO ADOPT AND USE Nick Hucker is chief executive of Preoday, which provides branded mobile and online ordering technology for F&B businesses globally. He says operators always think about getting mobile ordering up and running, but sometimes don’t consider what happens afterwards. “As with any ongoing investment, your mobile ordering provider should be your part- ner, rather than someone who will sell you a product and disappear,” he says. “Mobile tech- nology evolves very quickly, and an ordering service always needs to be fit for purpose. “If it falls behind the latest trends, it will
disappoint consumers and, once that trust is lost, they might not use it again. So, opera- tors should be sure that the provider they work with has a strong track record with long-term customers – this shows that they are commit- ted to the relationship and can evolve their product in line with the latest technology.” Hospitality businesses should also be highly demanding of a solution being sim- ple to both adopt and use, adds Lionel Mar- tin, chief technology officer of Wi5, which is a mobile order and pay solution that allows consumers to make purchases on immedi- ate connection to guest WiFi in coffee shops, bars and restaurants. “Both customers and staff need to be excited about how little effort it is to get started with the solution. Native applica- tion installation, user registration, low pay- ment method acceptance, unnecessary user
28 | Technology Prospectus 2020
data capture, low reliability of the solu- tion... All of these are compound- ing barriers to adoption that will make promotion effort vain.”
PROMOTING THE SOLUTION Cornhill agrees that technology is only useful if it is understood, making staff education on
how to promote a digital ordering service crucial. “It’s no good investing in software and just
expecting customers to find it,” he says. “Effec- tive marketing is needed to create customer awareness and drive engagement. Let them know as soon as they walk through the door.” Venues might also consider creating a
project team to deliver marketing, operations and back-end management to support the suc- cess of a digital ordering service, he suggests. Some providers will take this task upon them-
selves, according to Martin. “Operators should make sure they can drive, over time, a high enough adoption rate that will significantly and positively impact their business, while their provider’s mission should be to guide them through a success plan of data-driven iterations of 1) their merchandising, and 2) the campaigns available through the solution,” he says. Ultimately, the success of a digital ordering solution is going to come down to how well the operator engages with their guest. “It’s not necessarily a technology problem; it’s more of a guest engagement problem,” Rodgers says. “Having a mobile ordering solution for the sake of having one doesn’t make it success- ful. What operators have to do is first of all
“Mobile order and payment technology has so much to offer by way of information on the most and least popular dishes, as well as highlighting which menu
items offer the best return on investment” Matthew Khoury, LOKE
acknowledge that they have to change their consumers’ behaviour and then think about how they can facilitate that change in a mean- ingful way, which could be a combination of incentives and blockers.”
The example he gives is McDonalds’ digi- tal ordering experience. “When you go into McDonald’s now you’re faced with a wall of kiosks and that’s intentional,” he explains. “Operators need to think about what they can do with their consumer base to help move them onto those channels. They’re beneficial for customers because they’re faster and more convenient, while from an operator’s stand- point, they sell more through them – that’s been proven over and over again. It’s about that belief that your customers want it and them helping them to discover it.”
FUTURE TRENDS In the year to come, the importance of trans- parency within the food industry is only
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