How Stone Brewing Co. Delivers a Personalized Guest Experience
GoTab operator, Stone Brewing Co. is the largest brewery in Southern California with two restaurants and four taprooms located in the region. Gregg Frazer, VP of Hospitality, sat down with Joanna Fantozzi at Restaurant Hospitality to talk about How Stone Brewing Co. is making convenience technology a personalized guest experience.
Making Convenience Technology a Personalized Guest Experience
GoTab operator, Stone Brewing Co. is the largest brewery in Southern California with two restaurants and four taprooms located in the region. Gregg Frazer, VP of Hospitality, sat down with Joanna Fantozzi at Restaurant Hospitality to talk about How Stone Brewing Co. is making convenience technology a personalized guest experience. GoTab has been a big part of that process and Gregg describes how GoTab was able to support Stone Brewing through two major shutdowns that resulted in painful staff reductions.
Understanding “Convenience Technology”
Based on conversations with numerous hospitality operators throughout the pandemic, Fantozzi surmised that the key to getting over the hurdles caused by the shutdowns is what she refers to as “convenience technology”. Fantozzi says it’s become the theme of the pandemic as operators scrambled to add delivery options and contactless solutions.Gregg explained that prior to the pandemic, he had witnessed the potential of “cashless” commerce through their business in Asia and thought about how he could put it in place back in the states. They had intended to use contactless ordering to service areas of their large footprint that they were unable to staff cost-effectively. They had already started the building blocks in November 2019 using GoTab and were about to launch in March when the shutdown happened.
How to Transition Between Contactless Ordering and Personalized Experience
Per Frazer, the future for a significant number of operators will be leveraging the technology to be able to easily flex their business model. “Shifting the order entry to the customer forces you to focus on what really makes up the service,” he said. Stone made numerous operational changes. For example, making sure their Cicerons do table touches, ensuring that their hosts explain the ordering process to guests (much less necessary now that QR codes have been so widely adopted). They also use GoTab’s concierge feature to provide guests the ability to always be in touch with their servers and managers.
We’re soon to see a shift where contactless ordering is an absolute competitive advantage for those restaurants who are able to employ it … it has to be seamless though. The importance relies on the operator to select the right technology.Gregg Frazer, Stone Brewing Co.
Tap Room Playbook Episode 2:
When you really think about it, with everything managers need to do in a tap room, the hospitality aspect is often overlooked.
Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.
The Situation
Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.
The Solution
Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience
Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.
“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.
“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group
Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.
The Benefits
Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.
Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
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