The recently concluded conference organised by AHAR at FHW 2015 highlighted the need and benefits of adopting technology and social media marketing in the hospitality industry By Rituparna Chatterjee
To keep up with fast-paced and tech-savvy customers, it has become increasingly important for the hospitality industry to realign their strategies to make them more social media and technology friendly in order to increase business efficiency, drive revenue growth and deliver higher customer satisfaction. Echoing this thought was Nityanand Shetty, director, Pebbles, a specialty sea food restaurant in Mumbai, at the recently concluded conference organised by the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) at the Food Hospitality World (FHW) 2015 trade show in Mumbai, which also saw the presence of Adarsh B Shetty, president, AHAR. The topic of the conference – ‘Technological Innovations & Social Media presence in the Hospitality Industry – A Must or a Myth’ – highlighted the undeniable role played by technology and social media in driving business revenues in today’s times.
Sharing the significance of social media, Shetty opined, “Social media is an effective marketing tool as it helps to increase footfalls to a restaurant and enables restauranteurs to have engaging conversations with their customers. However, the right social media platform needs to be adopted since different restaurant genres require different social media tools and content.” Elaborating more, he opined that the content needs to be dynamic and changed frequently and advised restauranteurs in the audience not to outsource their social media marketing activities to an advertising and marketing agency as the latter might fail to understand the exact requirements of the restauranteur and the image that he wants to create in the mind of his customers. The need to decide upon the restaurant’s strengths and the social media content to be communicated to the customers are other areas that restaurants need to focus upon while adopting social media as a marketing platform.
A pertinent question that was put to the audience by Shetty was the relevance of social media and how restauranteurs should reinvent themselves to keep the customers engaged. “Consumers have become more informed and so there is a need to have an online presence – have a website, tie-up with all social media marketing sites like Zomato, foodpanda, etc since these measures will enable restauranteurs to put all relevant information at the customers fingertips ranging from menu to pictures of the dishes and the interiors of the restaurants,” suggested Shetty.
Despite social media being the cheapest marketing medium as opposed to traditional forms of marketing, Shetty opined that one cannot completely eliminate the role of the latter in creating brand awareness and suggested the audience to replicate the same content for the social media marketing platform as well. He further went on to highlight the need to keep the customers updated about the latest events being hosted at the restaurant, develop a style of posting, encourage check-ins, communicate with customers through ideas, collect feedback and so on.
Going hi-tech
The significant role played by technology in the hospitality industry in today’s times is undeniable as it helps in creating the perfect dining experience. “We introduced iPads at our restaurant since we know guests would appreciate it as it helps customers in previewing the dish before ordering it. This form of visual representation helps in enhancing customer experience. Furthermore, our captains are also given iPads to recheck with the guests the dishes they have placed an order for,” stated Shetty, adding that, however the trick lies in deciding which technology will suit your genre of restaurant and accordingly adopt it.