Blog

Capturing customer loyalty is everything in the service industry. Sure, getting people in the door and buying your product is the immediate goal, but making them happy and keeping them coming back for more is the long game.

Grabbing a quick bite to eat used to mean pulling up to your favorite fast food restaurant for a burger and fries. But with the rise of food and beverage purchases from convenience stores (c-stores) over the past few years, this assumption is no longer.

The look, taste, and reputation of convenience stores (c-stores) aren’t what they were 10 years ago—and they’re not going to be the same 10 years from now. For the past decade, c-stores have been improving and innovating their food and beverage offerings...

In the age of cross-channel shopping, no touchpoint exists in a vacuum—and customers have elevated expectations for integrated brand experiences. With 73% of consumers using multiple channels during their shopping journey, single-channel excellence is no longer enough.

When customers experience disjointed channels, they see a disconnected brand. And if the stats are any indication, they’ve been seeing a lot of disconnected brands lately.

Life is hard—dinner shouldn’t have to be. That’s the basic principle that’s been driving the convenience economy in the restaurant industry for decades. Today’s consumers are ordering through mobile apps with food delivered right to their doorsteps—but a lot can happen in between.

One of the best parts about our annual SMG Forum is the opportunity to hear from some of the most innovative minds in the CX industry. This year, we had the honor of welcoming keynote speaker Chip Conley, former Airbnb Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy, who wowed our audience with his powerful insight on market disruption. On today’s blog, Chip takes the reins and expands on this hot topic.

Imagine: you’re having a “can’t-leave-your-desk” day at work, when you realize the leftovers you brought from last night’s dinner suddenly sound stale compared to something fresh from that new restaurant everyone’s raving about. Thanks to third-party delivery vendors, there’s an app for that (actually, there’s quite a few!). While this convenience is great for you as a consumer, it can present hurdles for you as a business owner—especially if your location is already slammed at lunch and not fully equipped to handle delivery orders.

We all know how difficult it is to change your work habits. That’s why SMG is always trying to find new and innovative ways for our clients to get the data and insights they need, without disrupting their day-to-day jobs. When we launched the smg360® mobile app, we thought about how we could build a tool that adds the most value for clients’ employees by providing more convenient access to the data and insights they need, ultimately making their jobs easier.

SMG is looking forward to spending time at this year’s MUFSO conference in Dallas, seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones. Every year we leave with our brains buzzing, ready to put everything we learned into practice. MUFSO gives us a chance to meet with top restaurant industry leaders, innovators, thinkers, and doers. We get a chance to step into our clients’ shoes—so we can know more about their business, and how to help them prepare for what’s on the horizon.