Article

Building genuine customer engagement in an Instagram world

Instead of exhausting yourself trying to change customer behavior, take the necessary steps to minimize the distractions cell phones can present.

January 7, 2015

By Joe Stanton, co-founder & CEO of Elevate

Chances are you saw the now-deleted Craigslist post somewhere on social media in which a New York restaurant owner compared 2004 surveillance footage of his dining room to recent video. On average, current service time took 50 minutes longer, which the owner attributed to the presence of cell phones.

Cell phone use can gum up a restaurant’s work. Patrons won’t put their devices down long enough to place their orders – let alone converse with their dining partners. And there are guests who take so long snapping pictures of their plates that they send their food back and complain that it’s cold.

These frustrations can add up, and acting on them can be challenging. In the United States, about one-third of teens and one-fifth of adults admit to sharing online while eating a meal with others, according to the 2012 State of Mobile Etiquette Survey by Intel. Given the increasing tendency toward everything digital, there’s no reason to assume these trends will reverse any time soon.

So what’s the exasperated restaurant owner to do? How can you build genuine customer engagement among patrons whose primary focus seems to be Instagram and the online world?

Embrace it

Start by taking a page out of the playbooks of Bouley and Sarabeth’s – two New York City restaurants that have decided to work with, rather than fight against, tech-addicted customers.

At upscale eatery Bouley, Chef David Bouley goes so far as to spot camera-heavy diners and take them back to the kitchen where they can capture Instagram-worthy shots of the entire meal creation process. According to Bouley:

“We’ll say, ‘That shot will look so much better on the marble table in our kitchen.’ It’s like, here’s the sauce, here’s the plate. Snap it. We make it like an adventure for them instead of telling them ‘no.’”

Sarahbeth Levine, owner of New York’s Sarabeth’s, takes a different approach. She views tech-intensive customers in a positive light: They provide free advertising for her business.

"I'm happy to have our customers," Levine said. "They come, they Tweet, they Facebook, they bring their children. It's high energy to begin with. I mean, people are noisy even in the way they speak today."

If you do decide to embrace customer technology, consider encouraging patrons who are already active on their phones to sign up for your mailing list, fill out your customer experience survey, or even leave reviews for your restaurant on Yelp and Google Business.

Attempt to minimize distractions

Going gung-ho for technology might not be your style, but that doesn’t mean your only other option is an all-out ban. Many restaurants are adopting a middle-ground approach by encouraging cell phone usage while minimizing distractions for more traditional diners.

At Bucato in Los Angeles, chef Evan Funke has created designated cell phone areas. These sections give diners the chance to take pictures, respond to emails, and carry out other tech tasks, while encouraging everyone in the dining room to share their meals with their companions – not their phones.

Alternatively, hosts at Rogue 24, a prix fixe restaurant in Washington, D.C., politely request that guests who want to snap images of their meals do so without a distracting flash, in order to reduce disturbances to other diners. According to owner R.J. Cooper:

“I mean you can’t fight it.  Why fight a losing battle?”

Instead of exhausting yourself trying to change customer behavior, take the necessary steps to minimize the distractions cell phones can present. And do that while still welcoming guests whose devices play an important role in their lives.

Gently suggest alternatives

Beyond embracing cell phones or attempting to mitigate the distractions they can present, restaurant owners can encourage or offer incentives for phone-free meals. A number of eateries – from fine dining restaurants to deli counters – have already embraced this strategy. Here are two businesses doing it in a way that doesn’t alienate or offend tech-savvy customers:

Kuppy’s Diner of Middletown, Penn., has created what owners call the “Remember When” bucket, recalling a time when people engaged with each other – not their phones. Customers who leave their phones in the bucket while eating receive a 10-percent discount off their final bills. Co-owner Carol Kupp explains:

“It's not mandatory. If you sacrifice putting your device down or away for a half hour or 45 minutes while you eat at Kuppy's Diner, we'll take 10-percent off of your bill."

Bedivere Eatery & Tavern of Beirut, Lebanon, is another restaurant that offers a 10% discount to customers who forgo mobile phone usage. But instead of appealing to nostalgia, the business makes phone-free dining the focus of its advertising and positioning. The company’s website reads:

“Tired from going out to places where people are just sitting with a drink and socializing with their mobile phone? If YES is your answer, Bedivere is your place!"

Truly, the only wrong way to address the growing number of customers using digital devices while dining is to put your head in the sand and wish for a return to the old days. Instead of dismissing cell phone usage as an irritating fad, look at it as an opportunity to improve customer engagement – whether you do so by offering discounts to promote certain behaviors or by making Instagram-happy guests a part of the food prep process.

By looking at the opportunities tech-savvy guests present rather than the challenges they create, your restaurant will be well-positioned to take advantage of this growing class of customers – now and in the future.

Joe Stanton is the co-founder & CEO of Elevate, a software platform that makes it easy for restaurants, retailers and hotels to get immediate feedback from real customers. 

Image: Andrew McGinley (licensed under CC 2.0)