12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

My target segment is restaurant owner's and managers between the ages of 25-40. I believe this segment of people understand the true value of technology and what it can bring to their business. 

Interview 1: Restaurant owner of a local BBQ restaurant (Age 32)

In this interview, I had the chance to speak with a local BBQ restaurant owner. His situation is a little different because a lot of his foods are already prepared, but he still sees the need of offering quicker service to his customers. He told me that he offers a happy hour in the early evening, and that is when his place gets extremely busy. He says that everyone comes after work to get drinks and BBQ, and  during this time it becomes difficult to serve everyone immediately. Due to the fact that his happy hour is only a couple of hours long, everyone piles in at the exact same time. He says that he has been trying to gather possible solutions for some time without adding a ton of payroll. He made a good point in saying that nobody would come to work just for a couple of hours, and he would not need all of the extra people he would have to bring on for an entire shift. 

Interview 2: Restaurant owner of a diner (Age 38)

In this interview, I had the chance to speak with the owner of a local diner. In this interview, we discussed what his busiest times were. He told me that Saturday and Sunday morning are his peak times during breakfast. He says that during this time, he has the most issues. He currently has a POS system in place where he can tell how many customers walked out and when, and he noted that he suffers the most customer walk outs during the weekend breakfast hours. He blames this on everyone piling in at one time, and not everyone being attended to in a timely manner. He has looked into possible solutions to this problem by speaking with other restaurant owners. 

Interview 3: General manager of a local sports bar (Age 26)

In this interview, I had the opportunity to speak with the general manager of a local sports bar. He says that his busiest hours are during big sporting events. He says that during a big MMA fight, football game, or basketball game, sports fans pile in to watch the games and buy drinks and food. He says that the crowd he gets during this time are often rowdy, and often times make scenes when they are forced to wait excessive times to order their food and drinks. He has tried looking into a solution to this problem by discussing with his cousin, who also owns a sports bar in another state. He believes that implementing technology in his bar would ensure that customers would be satisfied as they could order drinks as they please without being forced to wait for a bartender. He also believes this would bring in more revenue as more drinks would potentially be ordered. 

Upon these 3 interviews, I learned that restaurants face the biggest issues during their peak times. Each restaurant had their own peak times and reasons for it, and would all likely benefit from adding technology to their customers dining experience. The three people I spoke to all seemed to be aware of the issues, and were interested in any possible solution that I presented. They all concluded that a change was needed to ensure that all of their customers leave satisfied.