Jack is an independent restaurant operator committed to not letting his restaurant miss out on post-covid alcohol beverage trends.
What are those trends? To what is he paying attention?
One major trend is that online ordering is here to stay. Jack managed to hold things steady in the midst of the toughest part of the pandemic transitioning his operation to “a branded ghost kitchen” of sorts. He ran most of his regular menu through delivery and pick up alternatives. Staff were repurposed to deliver and greet pick-up customers.
A second trend Jack is watching is ownership of the customer relationship. The use of social media continues to be important but ownership of the customer is what is really key. The leveraging of asking for email opt-ins at the time exceptional service is rendered is hugely important. Growing that email list and then using it for consistent marketing of offers, events, rewards, and special programming are leading Jack to experience higher average tabs, recurring visits by key patrons, and word of mouth that can’t be replicated via social media.
A third trend Jack is paying close attention to involves alcohol free options for patrons. Alcohol free options in the beverage menu continue to be important well past dry January. One interesting sub-category to alc-free is the increasing demand for CBD, THC, or legal limit THC <3% in all things cocktails, wine, and beer. We are seeing exciting new products come to market in this category and will likely play key roles in some of their successes.
So what does Jack do with Shared Spirits when it comes to not letting his restaurant miss out on post-covid trends?
- Online Ordering
When a restaurant comes into the Shared Spirits platform, a portion of their beverage menu becomes buyable, shareable, and redeemable, all on mobile, within minutes. The ability to market their beverage menu in a new e-commerce enabled way means that gifting, sharing, as well as business and personal marketing using cocktails, wine, and beer are as available as sharing a Starbucks gift card.
2. Owning the Customer
When marketing to a customer that eventually becomes a part of an establishment’s permanent list, the proper systems need to be in place. The Shared Spirits platform delivers the biggest spenders to establishments. Data shows alcohol drinkers are bigger spenders than Teetotallers. When patrons who are awarded drinks to share with their connections, research shows the social science law of homophily kicks in. People of a feather flock together. Jack knows that targeting the right patron with drinks to share with the Shared Spirits platform, means that people just like them will soon be visiting his establishment.
3. Alcohol free options are necessary for today’s patrons.
Shared Spirits offers opportunities to test new drink offerings with relatively no risk. How so? By adding drinks to the point of sale system and sharing them via Shared Spirits, Jack can track their shareablity, audience reaction, redemption rates, and not be charged for drinks that go unredeemed!
If watching restaurant and beverage trends is your thing, we want to chat. If it’s not your thing but increasing profits in your operation is important, we want to help.
Hit us up for an appointment. There is no obligation. We love making new industry friends.
