A marketers guide on how to manage the hospitality guest experience and remote guest relationships in preparation for post-lockdown trading.
With the beginning of a plan emerging to allow hospitality businesses to start welcoming guests once more on the horizon, it's important to work out how to deliver the best in-venue experience for your customers. Having transparent safety and distancing measures in place is of course the ticket to play but that in itself may not be enough to encourage guests back. Outside of the actual products consumed - the food and drink - people seek out hospitality venues to sample the overall experience: the vibe and energy of the place. Be that entertainment, live music, the ambience, live sports or simply the buzz that's generated; for many guests this represents the soul of the venue and their primary reason to visit.
So how do you deliver this with physical guest distancing measures in place? In truth it simply won't be possible in the short term to deliver a truly authentic experience from a social stand point. Nonetheless, the music should be 100% on point, the guest service and welcome should be exemplary, and the lighting, ambience and brand touchpoints need to resonate. From a food and beverage perspective, presentation standards need to deliver the 'wow' factor. Focus on delivering as much of the experience as possible with the promise of more to come. Nostalgia is a powerful emotion and people are yearning for a return to the way things were. You have the opportunity to begin to build greater loyalty with a rounded content strategy and in-venue sensory experience above and beyond the transactional aspects.
For larger venues this may mean operating with a more overt, roaming style of entertainment, whilst for smaller venues the intimacy itself can be leveraged. Private dining and entertaining spaces will undoubtedly be sought after. In many ways this about turning your softer brand intangibles into tangible reasons to visit.
From a planning viewpoint, below is a list of steps to aid this process:
Step 1 - define what it is that creates the magic for your guest. The trigger that earns their good will and makes them an advocate for your business. Take time to understand your super fans and what makes them so. With this understanding you can build a picture as well as content themes that will appeal to their aspirations and sense of self. There will undoubtedly be short-term behavioural shifts where safety and proximity overrides most other considerations but people will always want to identify with like-minded brands, that convey their world view or influence their self-identity and individuality.
Step 2 - do you need to reevaluate your guest profiles? Customers and friends of your business may be trying to rebuild a savings cushion over the coming months and years after losing out financially during the pandemic. There is undoubtedly going to be a vastly reduced number of international guests, whilst the 'silver affluent' market may well be forced to isolate for prolonged periods. Even families with parents and younger children may be less frequent visitors due to travel concerns or perceived difficulties in controlling younger children away from the home. Get to grips with how this will affect your business over the coming period and make plans for how to fill the gaps.
Step 3 - review your overall proposition. This doesn't mean dismantle it and start again, but rather to take a fresh look at what is assumed and reconfigure things to get through the immediate reopening and early trading periods. Know your historical sales mix, your greatest hits and understand the differences in trading patterns across across all day parts. Factor in the instability of food prices for the forceable future and make sure margins are not too thin to absorb fluctuations. Operationally, fixed costs are going to need to be reduced wherever possible as venues struggle to become profitable with reduced capacities. Therefore consider implementing a new value proposition and overcome objections with great marketing, a great product, 'added value' touches and honest, authentic guest comms.
Step 4 - develop a solid comms strategy and use the full marketing mix - focus on the product, talk about the experience, have a flexible pricing strategy, blend in well thought through promotions, consider the best channels at the best times of the day - bear in mind that social media usage patterns will have altered dramatically during lockdown. Make your voice heard, make it unique to you and clarify how you will cut through the noise. Finally do not flood your guests but plan a consistent structured plan over a period of time and reevaluate as you go.
Step 5 - use discounting sparingly. It can be tempting to cut margins and slash prices to drive footfall but by doing this you could be digging yourself a hole that you won't be able to climb out of. Guest priorities will centre upon safety, the experience and the quality of the product. They understand that the world has changed, we are in a new reality and that costs need to be covered. Remember, people have been denied something that previously they may have taken for granted - use that. Focus on 'added value' rather than discounting. This may actually be the catalyst for you to rebuild a solid value proposition if you had been overly-reliant on discounting pre-lockdown.
Step 6 - plan in phases. Full recovery to pre-lockdown levels is a tough standard to set. Be realistic and understand what numbers you need to hit to break even and what success will look like. Consider what you will do in the event of a second or third wave? Have the ability to ramp up and ramp down according to the advice given to the wider public.
Step 7 - your tone of voice is vital. It's important to be true to your self. We are being flooded with saccharine advertisements saying 'we are in this together', 'we are here for you' and 'we care'. All of this is important and will help build empathy but equally businesses have to try and 'own' their space and escapism is just as motivating a factor as people become jaded with the situation. Humour also needs to be used considerately. It's about balance, a lot of guests' livelihoods have been shattered and loved ones have been taken, so tread carefully and avoid appearing flippant. Ultimately, light heartedness and deprecation can provide some much needed levity and stimulate a warmth to your brand but it needs to be well considered.
Step 8 - focus on ways to surprise and delight when the guest does make a visit. That may be a free cocktail, aperitif, chocolate or an offer to come back and enjoy a discount on a subsequent visit. Whatever the gesture is, the guest is sure to appreciate it and it will go a long way to building long-term customer value.
Step 9 - work as a team. Make sure you have feedback loops with the front of house teams and the serving staff. Have an open dialogue with procurement, the chef brigade and the operations management to understand what is working, what is not and what can be improved upon. This extends to your supplier network - they will be keen to support your business and your marketing plans and could offer fresh solutions that you hadn't considered.
Step 10 - work with experts. From copywriters, to designers, brand consultants and marketing agencies. There is a lot of support out there and the true value of working with experts is in the different perspectives that they can bring to the table, whilst leveraging learnings from other clients, sectors and businesses. Collaborate, share and learn from experts and traditional competitors. The industry as a whole needs to survive for individual businesses to thrive so engage and share best practice.
Step 11 - build new partnerships fast. Increase your digital and distribution footprint by working with a network of third party partners. The trick is to maintain consistency of message across an increasingly fragmented network of channels and work to build a consolidated viewpoint of your guests and their behavioural traits. Commercial brand partnerships are also a great way to stimulate PR, attract new guests and appeal to new audiences.
Step 12 - track everything. Measurement of all key initiatives, channels and campaigns whilst tracking different customer groups will be invaluable to understand behavioural trends. With a greater reliance on digital payments, pre-booking and technology, there is a huge opportunity to build an in-depth portrait of your guests centred on data. The numbers don't lie. Use them, understand them and feed them into a centralised CRM platform to build guest insights and inform future campaign objectives.
To start with, there may well be oscillating trade as scares come and go. By planning and preparing for different scenarios with a toolbox of solutions to call upon, you will be as well prepared as you can be. Be brave. Invest in your brand and trust that the market will come back in due course.
Ultimately, your business needs to hang in there to be around to capitalise on trade roaring back once the pandemic has truly subsided and/or the population is vaccinated. The end of the beginning has started, now be prepared to fight to reclaim your guest base whilst striving for a new one.
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