In this technologically driven era, beacon technology has successfully penetrated the retail industry and has revolutionized it to a great extent. Basically, beacon technology is low powered transmitters that can easily notify the nearby mobile devices to perform actions when devices cross paths.
Beacons can certainly add value to the customers experience through the devices in their hands at any given point of time. As far as restaurant hospitality is concerned, they are resorting to this technology in order to engage more guests and increase repeated visits.
1) CAPITALIZE ON CONSUMER HABITS
Beacon technology can be leveraged to capitalize on the consumer habits. For instance, a credit card network instantly discovers that consumer visits a nearby gas station before visiting a particular restaurant. With the thin information that a customer visits the gas station before visiting the restaurant, operators can send a marketing message to the customer’s smart phone to push the restaurant brand name in the mind of the customer.
2) INCREASE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES
Beacon technology can undoubtedly escalate operational efficiencies in a restaurant. For example, a customer made an order via drive thru, but what if they decide at the last moment that they want to sit inside instead and have their food? Thanks to the beacon technology, the customers can be prompted upon the arrival whether to sit inside and eat or take the order via drive thru. The decision can be made on the spur of the moment and the restaurant staff can act accordingly to make the order ready, the way customers like it.
3) ENSURES PROMPT SERVICES
Beacon technology has enabled quicker services than ever as it can alert the staff if customer is nearby and if they should initiate preparing the order. This not only allows the restaurant to be quicker and efficient in their services, orders can be winded up easily.
4) RECEIVE PERSONALISED ORDERS
Beacon technology can allow the customers to receive personalized orders as it allows a new way of interaction between the customers and the retailers. It can be used by the businesses to personalize loyalty programs to their trusted customers and information related to what a customer buys and how much can be identified.
5) DELIVERS TAILORED MENUS
Another big advantage of using beacon technology is that it can personalize and enrich the dining experience of the customer by making the use of beacons to deliver tailored menus based on the previous history of the orders. For instance, rewarding the customers who pay frequent visits, offering discounts to the customers who are visiting for the first time and encouraging them to pay visits time and again.
6) FACILITATES EASY CHANGES IN TABLE NUMBERS
While placing an order from the digital E-menu, beacon devices have aided in the easy detection of table numbers. This has enabled the staff to identify the seating location of the guests and deliver the order. Prior to the use of beacon technology, human intervention was required to change the table numbers. This non-automated process resulted in a delay in guest experience, but with the help of beacon technology, changing the table numbers was no more a manual process.
7) BETTER ALLOCATION OF STAFF
Beacon technology can help in the better allocation of staff and services as it has the ability to collect the gigantic amount of untapped data, calculate transaction behaviours and the busiest hours throughout the day along with the number of visits and repeated customers. It can also help to determine how many customers are actually engaged in their loyalty programs. This allows the restaurants to give a more enriched and a valuable experience to their customers.