The health emergency has placed food and beverage outlets, of any type and size, in front of the impossibility of returning to ‘normalcy’ in the near future. Digital transformation is the obligatory way to react to the current difficulties as well as a unique opportunity to deliver operational efficiency and define a new virtuous relationship with the customer.
Iconic Food & Beverage, the Iconic Solution module dedicated to the world of catering, is the technological means most appropriate to meet immediate needs and future development: stay in business, recover lost revenue, grow. The game is played both inside the establishment, and outside of it, where the adoption of an e-commerce approach, universal to all phases of the restaurant’s operations, is fundamental.
This, at the beginning, can be indirect, using external platforms. It will of course remain crucial the transparency of the flow of orders and payments, to which the correct management of inventory and supplies will necessarily have to correspond. Iconic Food & Beverage ensures consistent processes, from the online order acquisition to kitchen preparation and home delivery. The operations of e-commerce, in fact, will find a valid support for integrating into the most popular management systems, such as Oracle and Zucchetti, connected to our platform.
Commercial development can subsequently turn this approach into a direct one, making it possible for an established brand to enjoy the online benefits which are often precluded to a first web presence. In order to retain existing customers, attract returning customers and generate new ones, there are several operational options. Each choice, however, must be aimed at the most important goal: personalize the relationship with the customer and constantly improve it, according to the preferences expressed and suitably acquired.
Adding a new menu item, running a weekend or holiday promotion, having a reward point system: a personalized consumer demand, by its very nature, cannot be managed by tracking a barcode. In this regard, Iconic Food & Beverage enables a higher level of detail in the menus, making each individual choice of food and services original.
Even if consumption habits have changed radically in the last year, some of these will surely be maintained over time, such as, for example, the strong orientation towards take-away and home delivery. So much so to even affect the traditional division of tasks with the creation of the new role of delivery manager in addition to that of kitchen manager and dining room manager.
As for delivery services, Iconic Food & Beverage will support the same evolutionary logic suitable for e-commerce as a whole. And this whether a brand has such a following that it can manage operations on an independent platform and has its own delivery riders, or whether it must use the technology and logistical capacity of external couriers. In either case, the double commercial proposition does not change: receive and manage customer orders via the own e-commerce website in an automatic, simple and error-free way, consistent with the typical operations of the restaurant; have available an adequate external delivery service.
A sophisticated loyalty system is another of the main features of Iconic Food & Beverage. Each restaurant is linked to the diversity of the relationship between new and regular customers, the frequency of visits, the expenditure incurred and the individual consumption and service propensities. Points, discounts, rebates, coupons and rewards of various kinds are as important as promotions and specific events to support the best possible degree of knowledge of the guest. Of course, also for the digital diner this uniqueness of the relationship must be visible and immediate and also act as a stimulus to extend the benefits to other potential customers linked to the initial diner.