Reimagined new normal business strategies for foodservice giant in 2 weeks

COVID-19 has enforced a radical change and the foodservice industry is struggling to pivot in a flash. The goalposts have quickly shifted from taste, variety, and a high-touch in person service to safety and hygiene. In the new normal, the industry is forced to play and win in a scenario which is very different from the past, as cultural shifts and changes in consumer choices & spends set in.

The ChallengesThe challenges for the foodservice industry are multifold and captured below:

1. Responding to dynamic cultural shifts with agility – The cultural shift in consumer dining choices has been unprecedented. A staunch example is Europe, one of the hardest-hit regions by COVID-19, where eating out has been a cultural norm. In the new normal, a consumer is no longer expected to start the day with tea/coffee in a Café, indulge in lunch at a Bistro, stroll around to have cake in a Salon De Thé, and end the night with dinner in a Brasserie.

Instead, restaurants are expected to actively transform themselves into ghost kitchens – toprocess food for home deliveries or takeaways in a no-touch/frictionless delivery model while maintaining utmost hygiene standards.

2. Ability to generate fast and cost-effective business visibility – Historically, restaurants did not leverage technology as a service model to actively reach out to their customers. Majority of the customers came in for a dine-in experience, while home deliveries were mostly taken care of by aggregators. In the post COVID-19 world, the dine-in footfalls have minimized and operations are now more focused on takeaways and home deliveries.

In addition, ensuring that the revised WHO standards for food safety are met and advertised can help foodservice businesses regain customer trust. Given this scenario, restaurants are now more eager than ever before to leverage technology to ramp up positive visibility, generate user awareness, and process orders.

3. Responding to dynamic shifts in consumption trends with agility – In times of uncertainty, consumers tend to go back to simple, tried & tested, and comfort food. Also, customers will prefer to order three-course meals and meal kits so that families can plan for an entire day of leisure at home. This could result in restaurants skimming down infrequent or exotic SKUs, and sticking to the core SKUs that work well with their customers.

4. Ability to innovate on promotions – In the new normal, restaurants will have to find aggressive and innovative ways to create customer stickiness. The solution might be something as simple as free deliveries, or as outlandish as bundling food deliveries with groceries and toiletries. Bold promotional strategies to engage customers will be launched, and the solutions will need to be scaled up based on quantifiable results in hand.

The SolutionCOVID-19 has changed the foodservice business landscape as we knew it. In order to combat these changes, the client recalibrated its business strategy from being focused primarily on offering food solutions to restaurants, to pivoting their model to help restaurants navigate the shift in customer needs. They leveraged Mindtree’s digital platform to come up with innovative & cost-effective ways to help restaurants re-engage with its customers, and adopt a new operations

model with minimal downtime. This helped restaurants leapfrog from a high-touch in person model, to a no-touch digitally assisted service model.

Below are the salient features of the digital platform:

The Benefits1. Fast and cost-effective business visibility – The platform helped restaurants use social

media to create fast, easy, and cost effective business visibility in the market. The consequent leap in user awareness helped businesses get on wheels for the new normal.

2. Data models for hyper-personalized menu inspirations – The client leveraged the platform to effectively inspire restaurants with impactful SKUs and recipes by quickly learning from any shifts in consumption and cultural trends.

3. Data models for bespoke marketing campaigns – The client was able to create right campaigning and dayparting models for restaurateurs by quickly learning from restaurant traction data.

4. Scalable across geographies – The platform is now live in multiple countries across Western Europe, and will go live in countries across the Middle East, South Asia, and South America shortly.

The ChallengesThe challenges for the foodservice industry are multifold and captured below:

1. Responding to dynamic cultural shifts with agility – The cultural shift in consumer dining choices has been unprecedented. A staunch example is Europe, one of the hardest-hit regions by COVID-19, where eating out has been a cultural norm. In the new normal, a consumer is no longer expected to start the day with tea/coffee in a Café, indulge in lunch at a Bistro, stroll around to have cake in a Salon De Thé, and end the night with dinner in a Brasserie.

Instead, restaurants are expected to actively transform themselves into ghost kitchens – toprocess food for home deliveries or takeaways in a no-touch/frictionless delivery model while maintaining utmost hygiene standards.

2. Ability to generate fast and cost-effective business visibility – Historically, restaurants did not leverage technology as a service model to actively reach out to their customers. Majority of the customers came in for a dine-in experience, while home deliveries were mostly taken care of by aggregators. In the post COVID-19 world, the dine-in footfalls have minimized and operations are now more focused on takeaways and home deliveries.

In addition, ensuring that the revised WHO standards for food safety are met and advertised can help foodservice businesses regain customer trust. Given this scenario, restaurants are now more eager than ever before to leverage technology to ramp up positive visibility, generate user awareness, and process orders.

3. Responding to dynamic shifts in consumption trends with agility – In times of uncertainty, consumers tend to go back to simple, tried & tested, and comfort food. Also, customers will prefer to order three-course meals and meal kits so that families can plan for an entire day of leisure at home. This could result in restaurants skimming down infrequent or exotic SKUs, and sticking to the core SKUs that work well with their customers.

4. Ability to innovate on promotions – In the new normal, restaurants will have to find aggressive and innovative ways to create customer stickiness. The solution might be something as simple as free deliveries, or as outlandish as bundling food deliveries with groceries and toiletries. Bold promotional strategies to engage customers will be launched, and the solutions will need to be scaled up based on quantifiable results in hand.

The SolutionCOVID-19 has changed the foodservice business landscape as we knew it. In order to combat these changes, the client recalibrated its business strategy from being focused primarily on offering food solutions to restaurants, to pivoting their model to help restaurants navigate the shift in customer needs. They leveraged Mindtree’s digital platform to come up with innovative & cost-effective ways to help restaurants re-engage with its customers, and adopt a new operations

Focused CX designAn easy-to-use digital

platform where restaurants were able to self-onboard

without any user training or prior IT knowledge. This resulted in accelerated restaurant aggregation

during pilot phase. More than 300 restaurants were

on-boarded in a record time of 10 days.

High end-user satisfactionThe platform is

human-centered and responsive to enable

customers to easily search, navigate, and place their

orders seamlessly.

Data warehousing integration

The platform has been integrated with data

warehousing systems across multiple countries and captures the various nuances of customer &

restaurateur flows.

model with minimal downtime. This helped restaurants leapfrog from a high-touch in person model, to a no-touch digitally assisted service model.

Below are the salient features of the digital platform:

The Benefits1. Fast and cost-effective business visibility – The platform helped restaurants use social

media to create fast, easy, and cost effective business visibility in the market. The consequentleap in user awareness helped businesses get on wheels for the new normal.

2. Data models for hyper-personalized menu inspirations – The client leveraged the platformto effectively inspire restaurants with impactful SKUs and recipes by quickly learning from anyshifts in consumption and cultural trends.

3. Data models for bespoke marketing campaigns – The client was able to create rightcampaigning and dayparting models for restaurateurs by quickly learning from restauranttraction data.

4. Scalable across geographies – The platform is now live in multiple countries across WesternEurope, and will go live in countries across the Middle East, South Asia, and South Americashortly.

Go-To-Market in two weeks - With a pandemic on hand, Mindtree helped the client go digital in an unprecedented turn-around-time of just two weeks. Leveraging its accelerators and industry knowledge, Mindtree delivered a platform which is scalable, cost effective and future proof to more feature innovations.

Mindtree [NSE: MINDTREE] is a global technology consulting and services company, helping enterprises marry scale with agility to achieve competitive advantage. “Born digital,” in 1999 and now a Larsen & Toubro Group Company, Mindtree applies its deep domain knowledge to 300+ enterprise client engagements to break down silos, make sense of digital complexity and bring new initiatives to market faster. We enable IT to move at the speed of business, leveraging emerging technologies and the efficiencies of Continuous Delivery to spur business innovation. Operating in 18 countries and over 40 offices across the world, we’re consistently regarded as one of the best places to work, embodied every day by our winning culture made up of over 21,000 entrepreneurial, collaborative and dedicated “Mindtree Minds.”