By: Shane O’Brien, Culinary Consultant

Expanding your customer contact is a tried and tested way of not helping your business but responding to a pre and post-Covid landscape’s growing demand.

How can you be more accessible with changing customer behavior?

Church’s Chicken has developed a method with eye-popping results. 85% of their guests interact with the company using their mobile device, so they poured resources into beefing up their digital storefront.

“A new website, channel strategy, and mobile welcomer (location finder) were rolled out to help guests go from first impression to desired action within three clicks.”

Return business is an elusive dynamic with many factors affecting why guests return. But having an appealing, fun, and ultimately easy-to-use digital experience can vastly improve your chances. Dictating the ease of use within digital interactions is highly effective at driving return business.

In addition to their freshly overhauled web experience, Church’s took steps to develop their mobile app and email platform.

Along with a loyalty program upgrade, Church’s “launched a new customer database in order to create more personalized and dynamic communications.”

Important to note that in addition to all of the benefits that Church’s saw with their digital renaissance, “Church’s saw an uptick in adoption among GenZ and Millennial audiences, particularly following the launch of the new Church’s Chicken Sandwich.”

Digital development can help capture existing guest’s appreciation, but a large portion of the market is already fluent in social media and virtual business experiences, so it’s a win-win.

These days, all eyes are on Millennials. Why is this? For starters, the Millennial generation population is anticipated to surpass Baby Boomers in 2015 thus becoming the biggest group in the United States. In fact, they are now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. As restaurant operators, why should we care? Their spending power is $200 billion.

Here are some important values of Millennials that encourage their dining habits:

–          They dine out more frequently at fast-casual restaurants.

–          They are adventurous and like trying new kinds of foods.

–          Quality of ingredients matters: They’re likely to support restaurants that seem more health-conscious.

–          They value customizing their foods.

–          They are concerned with social consciousness and how the food they eat was raised or processed.

It is of utmost importance that your foodservice operation understands the needs and wants of this significant generation. Explore our other blog posts to learn more about Millenials’ dining habits.

Chipotle Mexican Grill photo credit: inazakira CC by-SA 2.0

After several years of reduced traffic, restaurant owners are searching for ways to drive Millennials back into their establishments. Millennials, those aged 18-34, represent a large market segment but have reduced their restaurant visits and spent more time eating at home in the past few years. Many restaurants recognize this problem and are adapting their strategies in order to regain the lost traffic. According to a new study from the NPD Group, the following dining elements are most important to Millennials:

• Unique dining experiences
• Friendly service
• Fresh ingredients

Sizzler and LYFE Kitchen are two brands that have done an exceptional job in adapting to the preferences of Millennials. Sizzler, known for its appeal to families and seniors, recognized the influential power of Millennials and revamped the menu accordingly. Not only did they conduct research studies to discover Millennial taste preferences, they also hired Millennials for top positions in their marketing and R&D departments. This resulted in the opening of a new concept, Sizzler Market Grill, which offers premium ingredients, salad ‘mixologists’, and open seating areas, all of which create the unique dining experience that Millennials crave.

LYFE Kitchen, the California-based ‘flexitarian’ fast-casual concept, is passionate about their appeal to Millennials. When opening new units, the chain pinpoints areas with a high density of young people and chooses their locations accordingly. Their next step in appealing to Millennials is the release of their new loyalty app, MY Life, this September.

For more information, read the entire article here.

Please contact Synergy Restaurant Consultants for help with appealing to Millennials and driving traffic to your establishments.