Last month we held our very first ‘Ready to Serve’ event and wow, what a success! We hosted over 100 people within the hospitality industry. They enjoyed a night filled with thought leadership, networking, and got the chance to interact with some of our new features on the HungryHungry platform. 

The central point for the night was our panel, hosted by our Head of Product and Customer Experience, Denise Christie who was joined by Nick Russian, former owner of Eve nightclub, winner of "Australian Bar Awards" in 2011 and current owner of Bar Bambi and Russian Entertainment, Jimmy Hurlston, Founder and CEO of the iconic Easey's Group and Charlie Jacob, Operations and Advertising Manager at The Budgie Smuggler and Stolen Gem venues.

Throughout the panel we covered prime topics such as shifts within the hospitality industry which is changing the way businesses need to run, how consumers’ behaviours are affecting the hospitality market and what strategies leaders are taking to combat the increasingly competitive hospitality industry.

Here are our top 5 takeaways from the panel

1. Accessibility is key! Consumers are interacting differently at venues and social media and technology has played a BIG part in this. Business owners are now able to gather data from social media and other platforms to understand what consumers like, how long they dine, repeat orders and most popular items on the menu. This can be easily tracked before, during and after service.
   
   
2. Branding is crucial, before, during and after service. Charlie mentioned that business owners should use a variety of tools to get customers in the restaurant (social media platforms, events, celebrations, partner up with other venues), during service (new or loyal customer feature on HungryHungry that allows you to know if the customer hasbeen here before) and after service by sending a thank you message or email.
   
   
3. Technology is more accepted by the public. New and old generations are now more likely to research about venues before deciding about the next food adventure. By checking the online menu pictures, follow influencers, check reviews and Instagram pages before making a decision. This means there are countless new ways for business owners and managers to communicate with customers.
   
   
4. Savviness within the customer journey. New generations are now always on socials and older generations are now too. People are looking in advance, googling, looking at the venue's and food photos, reviews, offerings, and contacting the venue through channels such as Instagram.
   
   
5. Lack of skilled staff, is unfortunately still a huge struggle for the industry. We have seen QR codes, robots and kiosks coming up as a solution for it. Business owners are now working with new solutions to help with service while also reducing working days and hours can help operationally and monetarily. 

Regardless of the questions that were being presented, the recurring thought there is always space to diversify within the Hospitality Industry was always present. Whether it’s with robotic waiters, adding a golf simulator in what was previously wasted space, or changing the way your operations were previously run. There are numerous opportunities that are presented within today's day and age. Being open to those options and having those uncomfortable conversations through reviews and feedback can be a key driving factor to success. 

If you’d like to hear these conversations, you can view our video from the night below!

Our very own team also took the opportunity throughout the night to demonstrate some of our upcoming features (we love a sneak peak), as well as some that were newly launched to those in attendance. The features included: 

HungryHungry Kiosk - a new addition to the ordering capacity of our HungryHungry platform. 

Hooked Marketing - a unique addition that provides you with a wide range of solutions to help promote your venue and hook your customers back. Whether it’s direct marking, loyalty, feedback or assisted marketing which is unlike anything else in the market.

All in all, the Ready to Serve event really opened our eyes to the invaluable conversations you can have when you’re within a space that boosts everything that the hospitality industry is all about. We’re looking forward to partnering with more leaders in Hospitality in the future and we hope to see you there!

Written by Dana Ryan-Grant - Product Marketing & Customer Care at HungryHungry