Throughout the pandemic, alcohol sales rose sharply with people stuck at home. Quickly, places that had to close in-person service were granted temporary permits to sell bottles for pickup and delivery. Now that the world is reopening, though, you’ll have to recapture guests in a new market to maintain brand loyalty. Self-service taprooms are growing more popular for this very reason.
The Appeal of Self-Service
When restaurants and bars shut down indoor service, they also developed digital touchpoints for customers to order from. Whether through an app or website, customers have more options to order and pay however they’re most comfortable. Self-service lets them customize each order to their exact specifications, especially with features like the ones you get with orderOS. Enable automatic upselling through the branded mobile app we create just for you, so you don’t have to worry about the loss of face-to-face contact. Meanwhile, the customer still gets exactly what they want.
Even as we progress forward, self-service is projected to stick around for a long time. The way you deliver that experience is the only thing that’s changing. As taprooms open back up, switch from mobile apps and websites over to physical devices that make ordering and buying beer more convenient. Customers will be lining up to visit your brewery this summer.
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Self-Service Taprooms
While restaurants may turn to Self-Order Kiosks, breweries are going about it in a different way. Forty-six states have passed laws allowing people to dispense their own beer at licensed establishments, who then charge by the ounce. This gives customers control; they can choose which flavors to sample and pour as much as they want from each. Controlling the experience factors heavily into customer satisfaction.
This is great news for businesses trying to get off the ground or back onto the market after the pandemic. Business owners still struggle with very thin profit margins so drawing in new customers helps them circumvent some of these hurdles. Self-service taprooms also work within COVID restrictions: With built-in social distance measures, this style may need a few touches to personalize it for whatever works best for your brand. Nonetheless, it’s a huge step toward full reopening as we combine customer expectations with safety and innovation.
And it’s worth the investment. As we’ve seen throughout COVID-19 with things like online ordering and self-service, when people get comfortable with a convenient method, they like to stick with it. Getting your own self-service machines will still appeal to them long after you bring back regular operations, too. Workers don’t have to worry about being replaced by robots. Servers will stick around to hand out food while bartenders help those who prefer face-to-face service, anyway.
Watch Taprooms Recover
As we get back to normal, breweries will be looking for innovative ways to meet their customers’ changing needs. Self-service taprooms are one way to go about that safely. To meet the growing demand of a larger crowd, equip your taproom with the best hospitality tech has to offer.
