We're hitting the road all year long in 2024. It'll be a year full of tourists, panelists and sponsorships, and we can't wait.
Restaurant365 Transformation Tour
Boston, MA
February 8
GuestXM Best Practices Conference
Dallas, TX
February 26-28
Restaurant Leadership Conference
Phoenix, AZ
April 14-17
Food on Demand Conference
Las Vegas, NV
May 4-6
National Restaurant Association Show
Chicago, IL
May 18-21
Restaurant365 Transformation Tour
Denver, CO
June 20
QSR Evolution Conference
Atlanta, GA
September 4-5
FSTEC
Anatole, TX
September 13-15
Restaurant365 Transformation Tour
Fort Lauderdale, FL
November 7
Restaurant Finance & Development Conference
Las Vegas, NV
November 11-13
See you soon.
We're hitting the road all year long in 2024. It'll be a year full of tourists, panelists and sponsorships, and we can't wait.
Fishbowl is delighted to announce new enhancements and features on our Fishbowl Guest Relationship Management platform. As Fishbowl GRM grows, we’re empowering restaurant pros with the tools for nailing guest engagement, acquisition and marketing automation.
We have expanded the number of resources available in our Connections Marketplace, leveraging dozens of partnerships with the companies that restaurants rely on most. We pull data from these resources – like POS, Reservations, Third Party Delivery, Online Ordering and more – to power our GRM platform. We’re thrilled to now offer integrations with Olo, Toast, Upserve, a Lightspeed Company, Brink POS, Resy, OpenTable, Tock and Spendgo.
Fishbowl GRM users can now turn their guest WiFi system into an acquisition, engagement, and loyalty engine. With Guest WiFi, restaurant marketers can identify new and returning guests; access their data; build a marketing database; and drive revenue with interactive landing pages, rewards and real-time promotions that are compelling and personalized.
Rather than having to write long search queries, Fishbowl GRM utilizes AI to let users find specific groups with ‘spoken’ English. Marketers can simply ask the database a question, or type in a sentence describing the information they want; and then create a targetable segment for use in marketing automation.
Fishbowl GRM customers can create a fully-branded online ordering experience hosted on their own sites. Manage, update and publish menu changes with a simple click, across web, mobile apps and other digital channels. Online ordering includes guest support; and supports loyalty programs across all the restaurant’s transactional platforms.
Online ordering represents a pivotal channel for guest acquisition, seamlessly integrating on-premise and off-premise transactional data. This integration furnishes a comprehensive 360° view of guest interactions, enhancing Guest Relationship Management strategies.
Fishbowl is delighted to announce new enhancements and features on our Fishbowl Guest Relationship Management platform.
Valentine’s Day is three weeks from today. Here are some quick tips to share the love and help your messaging stand out.
Holiday-themed messages outperform everyday messages, and Valentine’s Day is the ideal occasion to promote your restaurant. In 2024, more than 30% of National Retail Federation survey respondents planned ‘an evening out’ — that’s business you should capitalize on.
Some considerations to ensure you get the most love (opens) for your Valentine’s Day promotional email messages this year:
Personalize the experience for recipients to get a bump in open rate anywhere from 25-35% or more!
Emails with subject lines that included Valentine’s Day messaging get another 4% or more higher open rate.
The best time to send your emails is the week before Valentine’s Day week. Holiday messaging open rates for the first week of February (2/1-2/7) were 39% higher than the open rates for the week immediately leading up to Valentine’s Day (2/8 – 2/14).
Get all the love you deserve this Valentine’s Day — and if you need a little help with your Restaurant Marketing, the sweethearts at Fishbowl can help
Jynessa Mason, VP of Data & Insights at Fishbowl, gives tips for to help your valentines email stand out this year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) Consumer Inflation Report released today shows that Full-Service Restaurant (FSR) prices ticked down markedly to 8.2% year-over-year (YOY) vs 9.0% in November. This is a significant change, as FSR inflation has remained consistently within the range of 8.7% to 9.0% YOY for the past 8 months. Limited-Service Restaurant (LSR) prices, up 6.6%, dipped slightly from November’s 6.7%, but continue on a soft downward trend versus the ~8% peak from Nov-Feb year ago.
On the whole, this result is reasonably good news for restaurant consumers. These improving trends are consistent with our internal forecasts as we believe that deceleration is likely to continue across the year, particularly as we lap prior year acceleration and peaks over the coming months. While restaurant price inflation will remain elevated in comparison to historical norms in 2023, LSR and FSR inflation rates near 4-5% by year end are possible, barring unexpected developments.
Consumer wage growth (+4.6% YOY) along with easing gas prices will continue to offset a portion of the pressure on household budgets, although housing inflation and high levels of credit card debt are likely to keep demand for food away from home somewhat muted. The Food at Home (FAH) CPI index, a measure of grocery prices, price inflation at 11.8% in December which continues a downward trend from the 13.5% in August, also easing household pressure from the summer peak.
Be advised that there is broad regional variation in these national numbers that will impact smaller brands differently depending on their geographic footprint. And while we are nowhere near back to normal, the directional change evident in these reports should be factored into your menu and pricing plans for 2023 and beyond.
Read about the latest Restaurant Price Inflation Update, the key takeaways, and why this result is reasonably good news for restaurant consumers.
Data Storytelling is a way of organizing your data in a way that helps you segment audiences and reach guests when they are most likely to make a purchase decision about food.
But what’s the best way to get those data points in the first place?
Working with more than 48,000 restaurant groups and 215 million unique guests, we know the way to encourage someone to share information is empathy — consider what your target may be thinking; ask the right questions; and listen carefully.
To ask the right questions, try to identify the wants and desires of the different audiences you serve:
To be remembered whether I was a one-time visit or I’m a frequent eater.
A feel-good memory when I enter my favorite restaurant or a new establishment, and they make me feel like a friend, or even better, a VIP.
For a restaurant I chose to choose me back.
To pick my own seat — just like an airline enables me to select a seat, I want that same option when I eat out. Do I prefer booths? Maybe I like sitting on a high-top with views of the city? Maybe I always sit at the bar?
Having options reminds me why I like a specific restaurant over another.
When a guest asks what I recommend, I want to create value and increase my tips by suggesting a dish based on their stated preferences, instead of just offering what I like or what the kitchen says is popular.
At the same time, I’d like to be able to make informed decisions based on a guest’s allergy or dietary restrictions — and I’d like to know those even before the table is seated.
And if I’ve seen those guests before, it would be great if I had a method of remembering a past experience to ensure a great encounter this time, and dissipate any leftover friction from a previous visit.
Understand everything I can about my guests’ preferences, and collect essential guest data to enhance the restaurant experience.
Make it easy for my team to enhance the guest experience.
Know why someone loves us, what makes them come back and where can I improve so we can continue filling table.
Have sight lines into which guests (and how many) have dietary restrictions. How does this affect reservations, menus and other insights?
Understand how to create better, more relevant promotions to different kinds of guests seeking distinct dining experiences.
Every story has a beginning, middle and end. With the right data restaurants can anticipate how an encounter will go even before the story starts, so you can guarantee a happy ending, and many many more over time.
Data Storytelling is a way of organizing your data in a way that helps you segment audiences and reach guests when they are most likely to make a purchase decision about food.
In an era of increasingly discerning diners, economic uncertainty and unprecedented challenges, restaurant operators face the daunting task of having to continually adapt to their patrons’ ever-changing tastes.
One powerful strategy among industry leaders is the adoption of Guest Relationship Management (GRM) tools, like Fishbowl GRM. These innovative solutions empower restaurateurs to optimize the guest experience, streamline operations, and foster profound customer loyalty.
Fishbowl GRM is a versatile platform that centralizes and manages customer details, effectively turning them into actionable insights. We can pull all your data – like Point-of-Sale, Reservations, Online Ordering, Delivery and more – if you have access, we can connect these inputs to centralize and organize fragmented information into cohesive, high-resolution guest profiles.
Those profiles lead to insights, and by leveraging them our restaurant partners can craft highly personalized dining experiences, ensuring that patrons feel valued and understood. For example, GRM can keep track of guest preferences, dietary restrictions, and even special occasions, enabling restaurateurs to cater to their diners’ unique needs and foster deeper connections.
GRM tools can significantly improve operational efficiency, and facilitate targeted marketing initiatives. With Fishbowl GRM you can create and execute customized promotional campaigns that speak directly to guest preferences. In turn, this drives guest retention and helps generate a more steady stream of revenue.
GRM benefits extend beyond data-driven capabilities. Fishbowl GRM can also foster a culture of continuous improvement within the restaurant. By providing real-time feedback on guest satisfaction, Fishbowl GRM helps operators identify areas of strength and opportunity, to fine-tune their offerings and service. This ongoing process of refinement ensures that your restaurant remains relevant to your target market.
A key selling point for Fishbowl GRM is that unlike traditional CRMs, it’s a mighty GRM, made exclusively for restaurants, built for the way you work. It puts your guests at the center of your business, and continually reinforces your connection to them.
In an industry where the margins for success can be slim, Fishbowl GRM serves as a valuable ally for restaurant owner-operators. It helps you navigate the complex dining landscape with greater insight and foresight, enhancing the dining experience for patrons while simultaneously boosting your bottom line. In the end, embracing GRM is not just a smart business decision; it’s a recipe for long-term success in the world of restaurant hospitality.
In an era of increasingly discerning diners, economic uncertainty and unprecedented challenges, restaurant operators face the daunting task of having to continually adapt to their patrons’ ever-changing tastes.
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