Personalisation is becoming increasingly more important for hospitality venues to get right. Our recent GO Technology research report into consumer views on personalisation in hospitality revealed that 80% of consumers are now interested in some form of personalisation from the pubs, bars and restaurants they visit, presenting hospitality with a variety of opportunities to drive further engagement and loyalty from their customers.
As with age, our findings highlighted some key differences in approaches to personalisation between genders. So, are women more likely to engage with personalisation than men?
Our research discovered some notable differences, in particular the difference in engagement with personalisation in both men and women, and what types of personalised experiences they are more likely to make use of.
The findings also included interesting differences in willingness to share data with brands, meaning a different approach may need to be taken for data collection methods.
Discover the differences in engagement with personalisation between the genders.
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Talking tech: hospitality tech terminology explained
Want to know your AI from your EPOS? We understand that hospitality technology can be intimidating and some of the terminology is, frankly, baffling, so we’ve created this jargon-busting glossary of terms to help licensees make sense of it all.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
In pubs, this happens when arguments and theories become more spurious the longer the night goes on. In tech, it means intelligence demonstrated by machines rather than humans or animals. Advanced Google searches or Alexa answering your questions are both common examples.
Augmented Reality (AR)
It’s reality but not as we know it. Augmented reality is an interactive experience of the real world enhanced by computer generated information. Still not clear? Remember when loads of people were using their smartphones to find Pokémon? That was augmented reality. It can be used in pubs to provide customers with venue information that can be accessed with their phones, such as details generated on menus or pump-clips about food and drink.
Backend
Tech circles will affectionately refer to this as ‘under the hood’. This is the bit of the computer which allows it to operate and is not typically accessed by the user, it includes data and operating systems.
Click & Collect
Prior to the pandemic, the practise of buying online and collecting at a venue was more generally associated with retail and the weekly shop. Smart pub operators pivoted during enforced closure periods to sell meals and drinks online that customers would collect at the venue. For many, it has provided a valuable and continued revenue stream.
Connected Technology
This one is as simple as it sounds. Connected technologies are devices that connect to each other and the internet, making business more efficient. This could be a tablet connecting to your EPOS system to monitor payments and bookings or the way a smart phone links to a watch.
Customer Database
A means of storing all the metrics about your customers and how they interact with your business. Using a variety of channels like reservations, loyalty and WiFi to build and maintain your database allows you to glean insights about your customers and thus personalise their experience of your brand. If the data shows the majority are veggies, maybe hold off on that steak night! This data is often stored in a CRM system.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
Ensuring customers are happy and want to come back for more is essential for any pub. CRM systems are designed to help you do this by managing the touchpoints you have with customers so you can communicate effectively. They do this by using the data from your customer database.
Customer Experience (CX)
Also known as the customer journey. This is the entire experience a customer has with you, from finding you online, making a reservation, entering the building, ordering, eating and drinking – all the way through to writing a positive review and sharing that experience with others.
Contactless Payment
Contactless was something we all got used to over the course of the pandemic. Payment wise, customers now expect to be able to pay using contactless in pubs so they can avoid entering their PIN number or trying to find some loose cash. Contactless includes both physical cards and mobile payment devices using Apple or Google Pay.
Digital technology
A catch-all term for basically everything involving computerised technology. It also covers data captured in binary digits. We’re talking smartphones, social media, laptops, desktops, digital photos, EPoS (we’ll get to that) and much, much more.
EPoS
Newcomers to the trade may well wonder what this acronym means. It’s short for Electronic Point of Sale (as opposed to PoS, which covers the likes of posters, beer mats and table talkers). However, EPoS is so much more than just a fancy till system these days. A modern EPoS includes all the tools a business needs to help you run your business better, faster and with as little effort as possible. Find out more about our customisable EPoS solutions for independent pubs here.
Handheld Ordering
Taking the EPoS system to the table with a connected handheld device has many advantages. It dramatically speeds things up, reduces the potential for any errors from either memory, notebooks or inputting into the till and can give a superior guest experience! (Think: a table ordering drinks before their meals, and having those drinks arrive before they complete the ordering process!)
Integrated Payment System
The important bit – receiving your hard-earned money! This technology ensures servers always charge the correct amount and sends that money directly to your bank. Simple. As this technology progresses, you’ll find it built into EPoS, Pay-at-Table devices. handhelds, kiosks, apps, websites… and likely wherever the next frontier takes us…
Integrated Technology
A suite of technological solutions that link and work seamlessly together to help the smooth running of the business. Zonal works with a number of partners to offer various solutions to help pubs and the wider hospitality industry.
Inventory Management System
This is a digital system that controls your Stock and Order process – from supply chain and recipes and menus to stock counts and reports. Such systems help operators keep a close eye on things and spot where savings can be made and margins improved.
Online Booking
A software system to allow customers to make reservations online, before they visit you in person.
Order & Pay
The ability to browse the menu on your phone, make your choice and pay, all while at the table or in a seat. Another area of tech that became more familiar from necessity due to the pandemic, but is now a customer expectation.
Platform
Not just the stage from where your resident quizmaster asks the questions or your karaoke singers star, but also technologies that provide systems or services. Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and (of course!) Zonal are all platforms.
Property Management System (PMS)
A software system for hotels and venues with rooms. It can encompass facilitation and management of a range of requirements such as: bookings (availability, rates and channels); check-in / out; finance and invoicing; room maintenance; customer details; staff rotas and wages; marketing and point of sale.
PoS Terminal
The tangible device that houses your EPoS software, be that behind the bar, at a host point, in the ticket office, at reception and even at the table (see handheld ordering). Check out what Zonal has on offer here.
Purchase to Pay
This is the term that describes the end-to-end journey of placing orders with your suppliers. It can enable teams to see what’s in stock, what’s on order, when orders are due for delivery and invoices that need to be paid. A Purchase to Pay system can reduce over-ordering and significantly improve margins by sourcing goods from the best supplier at the cheapest price..
Mixed Reality
The next step on from augmented reality, where the real world and virtual reality are combined together to create new experiences. Think, sitting in a pub and enjoying a pint with friends – except they are in another pub…
Real-time Booking
Technology that allows customers to make online reservations with you at any time of day or night and receive immediate confirmation. Connected technology can take this to the next level by giving an ‘in-session’ view of availability for those last minute booking types!
SEO
Not the boss of the company, but probably even more important. Your SEO is ‘search engine optimisation’ and getting it right improves your visibility and presence online.
Server
A pivotal role in all hospitality businesses around the world! Not dissimilarly, in tech a server takes orders and delivers the right thing, to the right place, at the right time! It stores applications, files, web services, email and customer databases.
Stock & Order
Running low on stock? Got a big event coming up? Stock and Order describes the process of tracking what lines you have in stock, on order and what you will need to replenish.
Table Management System
Paper diaries are great. Online Bookings are even better. And Table Management makes Online Bookings the best! A good Table Management system will automatically assign your bookings to the most suitable table, allow hosts to plan and refine the session allocations and make greeting and seating a thing of beauty. Using connected technology can even give a hosts live course status’, automatically assign loyalty numbers and even ping pre-orders directly to the kitchen! Check out how we can help with this.
Tech Stack
All the bits and bobs together… The combination of technologies used to help run a range of processes within a business. This is sometimes delivered by a single platform (like Google or Microsoft – you may hear a business described as a ‘Microsoft House’ which means their tech stack is mostly provided by them), or by a multitude of providers. Choosing the right ‘stack’ is essential for a business and will be determined mostly by the technology experience levels it holds, and how well this tech works together.
User Experience (UX)
A term that has as much relevance in hospitality as it does to technology. User experience, often shortened to ‘UX’ is used when talking about how easy, effective and enjoyable a device or service is for the person using it. Something tech and hospitality providers strive tirelessly to get spot on.
Voice Recognition
Many of us are now familiar with asking Alexa, Siri or Google for answers to tricky homework questions or weather forecasts. We would anticipate a proliferation of this kind of technology within hospitality both for customers and staff.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Another piece of the reality puzzle, where users are immersed in an entirely simulated environment. Examples are already appearing in hospitality via gaming experiences and is likely to grow in the on-trade. This could be used in training programmes or even allow customers to enjoy a version of your venue from anywhere in the world.
Web Ordering
Not just for those Halloween decorations. It’s another catch-all term that covers ordering via any web-based platform. It includes how your menus can be made available on third-party apps and website.
Wireless
As simple as it sounds, the ability to communicate over distances without the need for any wires or cables. There are many technologies that can provide this, most notably: Wi-Fi; Bluetooth and 4/5G. Different situations and locations will suit a certain wireless type, so it’s always a good decision to get some expert advice.
Zonal has a wide range of technology solutions designed to make life easier and businesses more profitable. Find out more about our range designed specifically with pub tenants and licensees in mind, here!
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Teens & Tech: Always on – the teenage view of social media and what this means for hospitality
Our recent research among teenagers and their attitudes towards technology and hospitality shows how teens are using social media, and how operators will need to consider their own use of social media if they are to engage with this demographic.
Social media is central to the way teenagers communicate. With 95% of teens now owning a smartphone, and 52% admitting to being ‘always online’, it won’t come as a surprise to hear that social media plays a dominant role in daily life for many.
Having a Facebook account that gets updated once a month isn’t going to cut it. Teenagers live on social – 68% of teenagers ‘always use social media’ – and are likely to find you there first. Our research found that 42% visited a venue after seeing it online, so your reach, engagement and the impression (as well as impressions) you make, are only going to grow in importance.
With 42% of the ‘always online’ group admitting to visiting a venue because they’ve seen it on social media, and 25% visiting because it would look good on their own platforms, ensuring that you’re maintaining an attractive presence across your social media platforms will be integral to enticing this demographic through your doors.
For more insights into teenagers’ thoughts on hospitality and technology, download the full report Face-to-Face Time: The teenage take on hospitality and technology.
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Teens & Tech: Online vs in person – What teens want from socialising
Teenagers are extremely comfortable when it comes to technology. That we all know.
Whilst these digital natives are dab-hands at digital communication, they also crave face-to-face contact when it comes to socialising with friends. Less than half of the teenagers we asked (45%) agreed that hanging out with people online is as good as meeting up in person.
And, somewhat more surprisingly, teenagers don’t want phones at the table:
“I feel like it distracts people. The worst thing is when you’re out with someone and they’re just on their phone the whole time.” – 14 year old
But it doesn’t end there.
The rise of competitive socialising presents a unique opportunity for hospitality to enhance these in-person experiences. 92% of Brits aged between 16 and 24 class themselves as gamers, so providing new and exciting – as well as more traditional – forms of entertainment in-venue could be key to engaging with this demographic.
Our surveys and focus groups with more than 500 teenagers aged between 13 and 17 revealed more eyebrow-raising findings – download the full report to read more!
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Teens & Tech: Decisions, decisions – how teenagers decide where to eat and drink
Our recent research among teenagers and their attitudes towards technology and hospitality reveals the top factors that influence their decisions on where to go to eat and drink:
- Quality of food and drink
- Cost
- How a venue looks and feels
- Availability of healthy options
- Availability of WiFi
- How good food or drinks look on social media
While social media and the availability of WiFi are significant when it comes to deciding which café or restaurant to visit, so too are more traditional factors. Quality of product, high standards, atmosphere, what your friends think, are all highly relevant to Gen Z, just as they are to the Millennials, Gen X and the Baby Boomers before them.
The availability of healthy options also ranked high in importance for many teens, perhaps being indicative of a more health-conscious generation? And whilst traditional factors still rank highest, access to WiFi and shareability on socials clearly indicate a potential shift in priorities for next generation hospitality consumers.
As with any of demographic, understanding why teens choose to visit a venue will be key for operators looking to attract them into their venues, now and in future.
Our surveys and focus groups of more than 500 teenagers aged between 13 and 17 reveal more eyebrow-raising findings – download the full report to read more!
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Teens & Tech: Hunger games – the teen appetite for virtual reality
Our recent research among teenagers and their attitudes towards technology and hospitality reveals their appetite for virtual reality experiences.
According to Statista, 92% of Brits aged between 16 and 24 class themselves as gamers and, if they are playing games at home, surely there is a role for this in venues?
56% of teens like to be among the first to use new technology, and unsurprisingly this still applies when it comes to entertainment.
A significant number (66%) of all teens are interested in in virtual reality tours and experiences of venues (rising to 73% for the group classed as ‘always online’), a percentage that dwarfs the number of venues currently using it in their businesses. Even those who are ‘rarely online’ have an interest in this area, with 57% saying they would be interested in VR gaming and 53% interested in using it in their work.
A not-insignificant 45% of teens also considered socialising online to be just as good as face-to-face, so allowing those that do crave face-to-face experiences to connect with absent friends in virtual reality spaces and gaming experiences presents a great opportunity for hospitality to position itself as central for hanging out, both in-person and virtually.
With McDonalds recently filing ten new trademark applications to open restaurants in the metaverse, a virtual hospitality industry may not be as far away as we think…
For more insights into teenagers’ thoughts on hospitality and technology, download the full report Face-to-Face Time: The teenage take on hospitality and technology.
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Teens & Tech: Have your cake and eat it – the fine line between personalisation and privacy
Our recent research among teenagers and their attitudes towards technology and hospitality reveals how data collected by businesses is a source of some conflict for teenagers. On one hand, we have 58% of teens telling us they’re more likely to buy a product if it is tailored to them specifically, while on the other, only 33% are comfortable with brands keeping track of them by the things they buy.
Even fewer, 27%, are comfortable with data being gathered from their social media accounts. They seem to want brands and businesses to understand them but without their online habits being monitored via traditional data collection methods.
However, there are signs this could change. While only 14% of 16-17 year olds are comfortable with data being gathered via their phone being tracked, this percentage increased to 24% for 13-15 year olds. This is a possible indication of more tolerance in this area coming through.
Providing personalised customer experiences, which many teens want, along with tracking their online habits – which most are not comfortable with – will be a delicate balance for venues looking to make the most of this developing hospitality trend.
Our surveys and focus groups with more than 500 teenagers aged between 13 and 17 reveal more eyebrow-raising findings – download the full report to discover more!
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GO Technology Consumer Research: Make it personal
Personalisation is much more than knowing your customers’ first names or birthdays, it also provides an opportunity to stand out from the crowd, establish trust, understand your guests better, and drive loyalty.
But as the world slowly gets back to normal after the past two years, it’s clear that consumer behaviour has changed in a fundamental way. As customers establish new habits in restaurants, pubs and bars, personalisation is fast becoming an expectation rather than a ‘nice to have’, with the desire to be treated as an individual rather than a number.
But what elements of the customer journey do they expect to be personalised? And how open are they to sharing their personal information?
In our latest exclusive consumer research report in collaboration with CGA we discovered what customers expect in terms of personalisation, how the approach to personalisation differs according to age and geography, and how to overcome barriers to personalisation.
Download the full report using the form on the right to discover our original findings.
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Five ways to tally your tech with the demands of next generation customers
Teenagers are extremely comfortable when it comes to technology.
It doesn’t take a genius to work that one out. Anyone with a teenager in their family will understand how essential smartphones and games consoles are for the way they socialise and communicate with each other. Social media is as central to their lives as the telephone and newspapers were to their grandparents.
In fact, recent research we conducted with revealed that 95% of teenagers own a smartphone and 65% believe that technology has a positive impact on society.
So far, so unsurprising.
However, the surveys and focus groups that we conducted with more than 500 teenagers aged between 13 and 17 also revealed more eyebrow-raising findings and provide the hospitality industry with much to ponder.
The good news is that, while teenagers are dab-hands at digital communication, they also crave face-to-face contact when it comes to their leisure time.
Less than half of the teenagers we asked (45%) agreed that hanging out with people online is as good as meeting up in person. Our focus groups were peppered with phrases such as: “I go out to socialise and have fun with my friends. It’s about having fun and making memories” and “Facetime is the next best thing, but it doesn’t beat in-person.”
Teenagers want to go out to socialise, and the reasons that attract them to a venue are much the same as the generations before: atmosphere, quality food and drink, good value, a backdrop that will look good on social media…
OK, so maybe the last one is a newer thing, but it serves to highlight an important point: while technology is not the be all and end all of a visit to a venue, it is a significant factor that should not be overlooked.
The trick for operators is understanding how to ensure technology enhances rather than dominates their guests’ experience. Here are five findings from our research that should help operators achieve exactly that.
1. Cash is no longer king
In fact, according to the teenagers we spoke to, it may not even be a thing for much longer. More than half (56%) don’t believe that anyone will use cash to pay for things in 10 years’ time. Whether that’s prophetic or not, operators should invest more into cashless payment options, explore payment apps, and potentially look into the world of crypto currencies.
2. Social media marketing
Having a Facebook account that gets updated once a month isn’t going to cut it. Teenagers live on social – 68% of teenagers ‘always use social media’ – and are likely to find you there first. In our survey we found that 42% visited a venue after seeing it online, so your reach, engagement and the impression (as well as impressions) you make, are only going to grow in importance. Operators will need to keep on top of emerging platforms and ensure that their venue provides a backdrop and theatre that is worth posting about. If operators nail this, they will be welcoming content creators and influencers into their business who could do a large part of their marketing for them.
3. Experimental entertainment
Entertainment in hospitality has evolved over the years while staying true to its traditional roots. Tech advances have given games such as darts and crazy golf a new lease of life and enhanced viewing and listening experiences when it comes to live sport and music. We do not anticipate a virtual reality headset on every available table anytime soon, but that’s not to say operators should not look at the opportunity in these areas. More than 90% of 16 to 24 year-olds class themselves as gamers (according to Statista), so it would be unwise to overlook this market. As one 17-year-old male told us: “I think I’ll want to try new things, I don’t want to be stuck in the past.”
4. Super slick integrated systems
Some forms of tech are simply a given. You have to have good Wi-Fi for a start. Similarly, as we have noted above, cashless payment is pretty much an essential too. Much of society has come to expect table service, the ability to book online and scan to see an online menu. Providing fully integrated systems will allow staff to focus on customer service and ensure guests receive the optimum experience they crave. Further to that, teenagers will not just be your customers but also your workers. Virtual and augmented reality may have a place in your entertainment offer, but equally, they could play a part in staff recruitment, training and virtual tours of the business.
5. Tailored offers and deals… but tread carefully
How data is collected by businesses is a source of some conflict for teenagers. On one hand, we have 58% of teens telling us they are more likely to buy a product if it is tailored to them specifically, while on the other, only 33% are comfortable with brands keeping track of them by the things they buy. Even fewer, 27%, are comfortable with data being gathered from their social media accounts. They seem to want brands and businesses to understand them but without their online habits being monitored. This is an area where operators will have to make smart and considered judgment calls.
While there is bound to be a degree of ‘suck it and see’ to find out what works in individual businesses, it is clear from our research that the next generation of customers, thankfully, are keen to socialise and interact face-to-face.
Technology is bound to play a big role in enhancing that guest experience.
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Exclusive offer for Zonal customers: Get Toggle FREE for 90 days!
Toggle is the Hospitality Commerce platform. You begin by building a webshop with the support of their team. Afterwards you plug in your Zonal EPOS & other tech partners. Finally, you begin selling anything from gift cards to experiences, merch & retail to hampers. Both online and in venue – Toggle can do it all.
And the best news for you – it’s free for all Zonal customers for 90 days. Join the 60+ Zonal customers already taking advantage of the Toggle platform – risk free.
Pre-Toggle, you could find yourself having issues when selling and redeeming gift cards at till point. Nightmare, right? The Toggle & Zonal integration promises a seamless gifting solution. From your online webshop to the redeeming in-venue, staff won’t have gift card issues anytime soon!
If you’ve been considering setting up a gifting channel – this is your sign! Risk free. Easy set up. Toggle even fulfils all things physical from our distribution centre, meaning physical cards, pre-packed branded hampers and merch can be sold (without you even having to see or touch the products). Effortless.
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