Earlier this week, our very own commercial director Nick Liddle was invited to host a panel of experts at the Restaurant Marketer & Innovator European summit.
Bringing together a community of restaurant marketers, innovators and industry experts, the conference was a brilliant opportunity to pick the brains of some top talent.
Nick’s panel – Omnichannel: Taking Your Sales And Marketing Cross Platform – examined how the industry can approach an omnichannel model, and what that looks like in practice for some big names.
Check out our highlights from this lively chat below…
Who was on the panel?
Sara McKennedy – Commercial Brand Director at Coco di Mama
Sarah has overseen Coco di Mama’s growth strategy since 2018, expanding from 20 to 30 sites in Central London in 2019, and then to 130+ nationwide delivery kitchens in 2021.
Peter Critchley – CEO of Trison
Trison is a digital agency who have been leaders in the digital signage industry since 1998. They’ve provided fantastic digital solutions to the likes of IKEA, Whitbread, Odeon, Center Parcs, Showcase and GSK to name a few, with Peter providing decades of first-hand experience.
Ellie Starr – Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager at JustEat
With over three years at JustEat, Ellie Starr has been leading the team acquiring branded restaurant groups, grocers and retailers onto the platform.
Nick Philpot – Founder at Yolk
Nick founded Yolk in answer to the boring fast food he grew tired of eating as a strategy consultant. Yolk serves ‘fine fast food’ across London in five locations: look out for four more opening this year!
Highlights from the panel
Coco Di Mama operate five channels across their stores, retail operations and digital ordering channels.
With separate menus for their to-go, breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee offerings, the Italian chain are experts at juggling multiple channels across their brand.
“We monitor NPS religiously,” she reported, explaining how Coco di Mama maintain brand identity and affinity across their many channels.
Constant monitoring and adjusting has been an important part of the brand’s success in the omnichannel space, along with a willingness to do away with a risk-averse approach post-COVID. Sarah touched on this when describing the importance of maintaining KPIs across channels.
Want to chat with an expert about your own omnichannel strategy?
Find out what you're doing right - and how you can improve your omnichannel operation - by booking a bespoke, 15-minute consultation below 👇
Ellie Star from JustEat also spoke of the importance of adaptability for brands pursuing omnichannel approaches.
Ellie also emphasised how crucial it is to consider all your channels as part of the whole operation, rather than isolated parts to manage separately.
Yolk is still very much at the start of its omnichannel journey. They see 90% of orders in store, where they have now introduced self-order kiosks, with 10% of orders coming through delivery.
Yolk has seen a 20% increase in delivery orders through its digital order channels. Nick also praised how rolling out kiosks has helped the brand cope with the labour crisis.
Integrating orders from all their channels into one Kitchen Display System has made the Yolk operation more efficient, helps the staff avoid tablet hell, and provides new ways of reporting across multiple channels from one system.
The labour crisis is still affecting QSRs. Whilst costs everywhere continue to spiral, it’s more important than ever for operators to retain the skilled workers they have.
Including the staff in the omnichannel approach with digital ordering, and supporting them in sharing the vision, can make all the difference, as Sara continued:
Peter also emphasised the importance of creating a journey for the customer between channels that feels connected.
Got more questions about how to do omnichannel right? Book in a chat with one of our restaurant tech experts for a bespoke look at how a multi-channel approach can work for your operation.
Speak to a member of the team
Talk to the Vita Mojo team today and see how our technology can elevate your brand, drive sales performance and increase efficiency across your business. Just leave a few details and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
