Gen Z: how generational changes are influencing hospitality
When it comes to technology, the attitudes across different generations can cause quite the divide. In hospitality, business owners can often be caught up thinking of how they prefer to work, rather than how those around them would prefer to work.
In some cases, this means sticking with manual processes involving pen and paper or spreadsheets. The trouble is 30% of our customers and workers are Generation Z whose expectation levels are forever growing when it comes to using technology, and 30% are Millennials whose thought process is along similar lines.
Rather than creating a war of the generations, though, wouldn’t everyone benefit from taking a moment to understand each other and find a more efficient and productive way of working and servicing customers?
As technology makes the world a smaller place, it’s likely that generational changes will become obvious quicker, and emerging generations will have an increasingly bigger influence on the world around them, as both a consumer and an employee.
Gen Z are growing up to be a hugely influential generation - having grown up with information at their fingertips and a large amount of communication done sharing and influencing on social media.
They have grown up in a time where technology has and still is taking enormous leaps and innovation has never been more present.
A recent survey, commissioned by Access Hospitality, asked hospitality operators around the UK about the challenges facing the industry and the impact on their business operation. The results highlighted the importance of mobile technology in a fast-paced environment, not least with the rise of mobile-first Millennials and Generation Z influencing the traditional trading models with their sense of community and adoption of mobile systems.
Reservations - easy as 1,2,3
It may seem obvious, but it’s still astonishing the number of pubs and restaurants that only accept bookings via the telephone or email. Making the visit as easy as possible, as enjoyable as possible and encouraging Millennials and Gen Z to return on other occasions should be a top priority, and operators need to act now if they’re to be at the forefront of this generational shift. Not only do the younger generations not want to pick up the phone but there’s a level of expectation that now exists that they can make a reservation at the touch of a button.
As online bookings start to overtake telephone bookings and with the success of Reserve with Google is a clear example of diners wanting the booking process to be as quick and easy as possible, with potential customers being able to book directly from Google listings or Google Maps without having to leave the page.
From a back of house perspective, having an online restaurant reservation system in place reduces the chances of manual errors occurring. Taking a booking on the phone during a busy lunch hour when staff are struggling to hear the correct information isn’t a productive use of anyone’s time. And when staff must call to confirm all bookings a couple of days prior to the reservation, it’s a completely nonsensical use of labour when everyone is working hard to reduce costs and be as efficient as possible.
The future of order taking – fast, effective and informative
Lots of hospitality operators still favour the pen and paper method of taking an order however it’s naïve not to think about the benefits of having a tablet system from the server’s perspective as well as the information that can be provided to the customer at the point of order.
Consider that a lot of millennials can’t write as fast as they can use a touch screen – so the objection that it’s slower to use a tablet doesn’t really cut it. Smart tablets/POS can not only prompt servers to give more information about their dishes, but prompts can be set up to give recommendations of what dishes go with mains, which wine to pick etc.
From an operator’s perspective, however, one of the huge benefits of feeding information from the kitchen through to the POS is having allergen information to hand ensuring servers are giving accurate information which provides real comfort/confidence to not only customers but employees as well.
The announcement in June of Natasha’s Law has once again highlighted the importance of operators to have full visibility over what is in their meals in order to keep the public informed. Whilst the new law, which will require all food businesses to clearly label the full ingredients of pre-packaged food, doesn’t come into effect until the summer of 2021, it is crucial for operators to start thinking about how they do this now.
New ways to pay
The growing preference of contactless and chip n pin over cash has been well documented with experts predicting we will be a cashless society by 2043.
Similarly, although they have been around for some time, payments via apps are now starting to grow in popularity and use will only accelerate. Nobody wants to sit at the table waiting 15 minutes to pay the bill and more and more people want the ability to easily and quickly split the bill. With the growing tendency of the young to be teetotal (27% of 16-24-year olds are teetotal*) they are the generation that most definitely want the option of only paying for what they have.
Rather than setting up the tools to manage these changes individually, the most effective way to react to the influence of Millennials and Gen Z in the hospitality sector is to make sure that there is effective integration between EPoS, reservations, cashless payment and loyalty apps. Seamless integration and links to website and social media platforms together with Reserve and Enquire with Google will make sure that your venue is in prime position to maximise the potential of such a significant customer base.
Whether as employees or customers, hospitality operators ignore the growing trend towards a more technological way of working and interacting with customers at their peril.
Want to know more? Download our Hospitality Trends Report 2019 or find out more about our EPoS technology
