Cherish your guests by using data smartly and successfully in your hospitality business

A new era in hospitality

Changing expectations, government regulations, staff shortages, rising costs, increasing competition. These are just a few factors that can make today’s hospitality entrepreneur feel overwhelmed. As a restaurant owner, café manager, or snack bar operator, you’re forced to constantly adapt. Thanks to digitalization, you can no longer simply rely on chance for attracting customers; nowadays, the smartphone serves as a compass. If you want to create a distinctive proposition and maintain control over your customers, you need to make decisions based on facts—that is, become data-driven. Larger companies are already taking advantage of this, but even smaller entrepreneurs can learn a lot from analyzing consumer behavior.

What can you do with data?

Using big data involves combining large amounts of information to gain deeper insights into customer behavior. You turn data (numbers) into information (insight). As a hospitality entrepreneur, you already know from intuition and experience how factors like weather or seasonal trends affect which dishes perform well. The right information, however, provides proper justification and allows you to organize your business processes more efficiently. And that translates into greater efficiency and therefore cost savings.

Data use in hospitality is therefore based on everyday questions aimed at improving your service level effectively. Do you know which dishes are the most popular? Do you know how often a dessert is ordered? Can you still remember six months after a guest’s visit that they had a nut allergy? By having answers to these questions, you attract (and retain) guests and create a better overall guest experience.

Data ensures tailored service

The advantage of 2021: there is more insight into customer behavior than ever before! Everyone has a smartphone that constantly sends signals. Guests make online reservations, leave reviews, and use social media. In your POS system, you build up an arsenal of sales data around reservations and orders—a goldmine of management information. The combination of these data trails is valuable for you as a hospitality entrepreneur. The more complete the guest profiles—who visits your business, when, and what is ordered—the sharper your service can be and the better the perception that the guest feels recognized and acknowledged.

By segmenting guests and their behavior (think location, frequency, time of day, favorite dishes) into profiles, you can create highly targeted promotions and campaigns. Analyzing spending patterns allows you to cater to personal preferences. Small efforts—like an extra point of contact or upselling—can already pleasantly surprise the guest. And that encourages repeat visits!

Data optimizes your menu

Data is valuable not only for customer retention but also for your internal business processes. The key is to avoid wasting the money guests spend by inefficiently managing logistical processes, such as ingredients for your menu (menu engineering). You need to find a balance between new dishes and the favorites that keep guests coming back. On which days and under what weather conditions should certain dishes and drinks be available? Which product categories and dishes are the best-sellers? Which have the highest margins and generate the most revenue?

By discovering your trends, you can take immediate action. If, for example, burgers are popular, you can add more extras (upselling) and boost them on your socials through a meal deal (social selling). Thanks to data, you can optimize your hospitality business based on facts rather than gut feeling.

Data perfects your staff scheduling

Staff remains one of the biggest challenges in the hospitality industry. How do you keep costs low? Your employees are the key link between your guests and your business. They interact with guests one-on-one and provide personalized service. Do your sales reports show the average spending per shift? How many upsell items do your staff sell in a day? And how do they perform compared to each other? Data makes it easier to answer questions like, “How many employees are needed on specific days or times to serve your guests?” By deploying staff optimally, you can save on labor costs while generating more revenue (less waiting time, higher average order value).

Data-driven hospitality thanks to the right BI tool

This article only describes the tip of the iceberg. Simply collecting data is not enough. Data-driven hospitality requires a different way of working. The key is knowing how to translate numbers. Data must be turned into information, which then needs to be properly analyzed to take targeted actions. The business intelligence tool DISH BI helps you visualize data in charts, bar graphs, and trend lines, giving you clear insights. Only then can you use data to drive quick changes and eliminate inefficiencies.