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By Judy Mottl
It's not the easiest time to deploy spanking new technologies given budget concerns, layoffs and an economy that has people eating home more than out these days, but tech decision-makers at two New York eateries are pushing forward with mobility initiatives and reaping satisfying results.
The goal is faster speed of service, greater operational efficiency and higher customer retention. The mobility initiatives are serving up those and more at the Brooklyn Bowl and City Winery, where waitpersons can place food orders from a customer's table using rugged Motorola handsets -- eliminating wait time at kiosks to translate handwritten orders and service time in delivering food. As servers are able to stay in the dining area more they can also better respond to customer needs.
"This is a tool to increase efficiency and improve the public perception that we're responding to a customer's needs as fast as possible," said Michael Dorf, owner of City Winery.
Dorf, along with Brooklyn Bowl's Adrees Ali, Motorola mobility leaders, Digital Dining's Andre Nataf and Leebro Systems' Jason Lee, participated in a panel discussion last week on how mobility solutions are helping the hospitality industry.
"Businesses can only do so much to reduce expenses. The goal has to be to improve efficiencies and generate revenue. Using these tools does both," said Lee, whose company, as well as Digital Dining, provides hospitality point-of-sale solutions. The two vendors are Motorola partners.
Servers at the two eateries now wear Motorola's MC50 enterprise digital assistant devices -- either on a wrist or clipped to a belt -- and input customer orders and requests using a stylus on the touch-screen display. The data is sent directly to the kitchen and bar areas so orders can be put into motion in nearly real time.
That can translate into big time savings at the Bowl, a 3,000 square-foot venue that houses a restaurant, a dance area and 16 bowling lanes.
"We are experiencing more than just better service with these kinds of tools, as they let our managers have a fast read of everything that's happening in each of the areas. They provide a snapshot of how food service is going, the bar business and bowling operations," said Ali. It also means any potential issue or problem can be identified quickly and responded to in a proactive rather than reactive manner.
At City Winery, a 21,000 square-foot restaurant, the quest is to provide diners with the intimate small restaurant "vibe," and service is key to making that happen, said founder and CEO Dorf.
"We'll serve 300 to 700 people in a night and we want to make connections with each customer," he said, adding that his business is using the mobility applications outside the restaurant as well, to drive business and customer loyalty.
One related application is a "loyalty" database that will tell servers exactly what wine a customer ordered on a previous visit, and also dole out loyalty rewards to steady customers.
"One service we're providing right now is a savings on service fees for diners who buy show tickets through our service," Dorf added.
Right now City Winery has 3,000 members in its database. The business is also using the customer data to track popularity of chosen wines and to help its wine experts make better recommendations.
"The goal is to replicate an intimate setting where servers and wine experts know the customer, what they like and what they might want to try," Dorf said.
Motorola leaders say such applications and data-gathering can touch on many customer aspects in the hospitality industry. For example, night clubs can provide services that let customers make table selections or order food even before arriving at the establishment.
"There's less wait time and people get to start their night out quick," noted Frank Riso, senior director of retail solutions for Motorola.
City Winery and the Bowl are also using mobile social networking tools such as Twitter to keep in touch with customers. The social network connections provided just the right option recently to draw business in when a special guest offered to jam at the Winery, related Dorf. Within a half hour of tweeting, emailing and networking, City Winery had 500 in attendance for the impromptu jam session.
A similar event took place at the Bowl. Using the Twitter micro-blogging tool, the venue recently pulled in 1,000 customers in about four hours.
While both declined to talk specific costs for the mobile efforts, they noted that an increase in business, whether new or with repeat customers, is a great return-on-investment in the current economy.
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