Which things make people enjoy themselves while dining in a restaurant or staying at a hotel? Is the taste of food a unique decisive factor? Certainly not! If that were the case, people would visit again and again the same restaurant even if the service was poor but that doesn’t happen. Are there more drivers of customer satisfaction? Well, we can name a few: the wine list, the ambient decoration, the music, the service quality, and the prices. If the perceived total value reflects the price paid, customers are satisfied and some call it “value-for-money”. The point is: a mix of factors shapes the overall customer’s view. One could also argue that a single detail can spoil the overall impression...

By customer experience on-premises we mean the sum of experiences a guest may have while staying at a hotel or dining in a restaurant. We refer to the time spent in-between check-in and check-out or arrival and departure of guests. In principle, a guest’s customer journey begins earlier, from the time one searches and books a room or a table. But the experiences gathered during his/her stay or meal are the ones that matter the most because they impact customers’ view of the business. Happy customers are more loyal but also act as good ambassadors and spread good word of mouth. A good reputation increases sales and safeguards the viability of the business in the long run. To put it simply, customer experience is vital for the business itself!

Is there anything to change in today’s customer experience in a restaurant or hotel? This question arose in our minds in Simply Better and explains why we created it. For us, the answer is a definite yes! We mention real-life examples, that probably are known to the reader: customers facing difficulties in understanding a menu, tourists having trouble communicating with the staff, order errors, forgotten details, delays until bill collection, the surprise of the bill total, delays in ordering more items and getting them in time, very few or a bit dirty menu catalogues with boring descriptions, menus not visible in the dark, too much paper and plastic used and wasted after prices change, high risk of touching printed menus during the pandemic.

In the era of mobile technologies, going digital is the right and best way forward not a trend of modern times. Traditional ways of doing things just work but businesses cannot “fly”. During peak hours or when staff is not enough, businesses should realize that they need to be more organized and run things in a smarter way using digital tools to remain competitive. They need digital tools to reduce the staff’s effort and at the same time ensure that customer experience, at least in terms of ordering and servicing, is excellent.

Paying attention to customer experience does not mean that we care only for guests and neglect the business itself. On the contrary, we care for the experience of the staff members serving the customers. Happy staff means better customer service. This is a virtuous cycle that at the end of the day means happy and loyal customers who will write good critics on social media and recommend the business to friends.

So how do we improve the customer experience on-premises with the solution of Simply Better? Well, using our web application, customers can use their smartphones to read a beautiful, multilingual, digital

menu and order themselves what they like whenever they wish during their stay. Our solution addresses most of the pain points that were mentioned above. It saves time and money for businesses and makes customers happier. A simply better, digital experience in Hospitality and Tourism, for staff and guests, is our key motto. There is much more to say about the business benefits that come up due to our digital tool, but this will be the topic of future posts