Crave Interactive

The food and beverage (F&B) industry has evolved dramatically following the digital transformation trends over the years. It is currently shifting to the next generation digital F&B ordering—intelligent mobile service—that integrates human intelligence and data for more personalised service. Mobile ordering for delivery, pickup, or dine-in has elevated further due to the pandemic and the need to maintain social distancing. Digital F&B ordering provides hospitality businesses with the tools to create real value through highly optimised menus and personalised experiences while increasing sales and profit. A leading provider of digital F&B ordering solutions Crave Interactive is playing a crucial role in this transformation, providing highly engaging multi-functional guest-facing solutions via tablet and mobile at hotels, restaurants, theatres, nightclubs, music festivals, and sports venues. Founded in 2009, the company offers QR code-based mobile solutions and utilises data analytics to help operators drive profitability. “Our highly customised digital service solutions help to create an outstanding guest experience and make money for operators while improving efficiency,” says Gareth Hughes, Founder and CEO of Crave Interactive.

Having been honed in the hotel sector, Crave Interactive’s AppLess and ServeSafely products are much more than just straightforward mobile order and payment solutions. “F&B operators are loving the broader functionality as well as our approach to using data analytics to help drive profitability. Our central ethos is simplicity and a great customer experience, so users love it too, with 91 percent saying it’s easy to use,” says Hughes.

ServeSafely is a highly flexible, secure, scalable platform for a wide range of F&B operators to enable mobile order and pay solutions via collect, delivery, and dine-in channels. With excellent configuration options, reporting, and ePOS integrations, it’s easy for staff and management. “With no app to download, users simply point their phone camera at a QR code for instant access (71% of users prefer a QR code-based system to a downloadable app).

With a beautiful UI, easy navigation, tipping options, and ApplePay, GooglePay, and cookies that pre-populate personal details, its super slick and easy for consumers to use,” says Nick Pledge, COO, Crave Interactive. And the company’s best practice approach achieves high rates of compliant marketing permissions so operators can engage with their customers and entice them back after their visit.

Moreover, the platform records every scroll, click, and conversion that can be analysed to optimise the menu. In combination with proven traditional menu engineering best practices, the company uses this data to influence buying decisions, increase upselling and cross-selling,and push higher margin and brand-sponsored items. Based on a personal profile derived from browsing, order and visit history, preferences and response to promotions, among other inputs, Crave will be able to personalise the menu and ordering experience. The company can also adjust and optimise the menu for the time of day or day of the week to better suit different audiences, enabling operators to maximise the potential of their offerings. “We can A/B test prices to find the optimal price points to maximise margins or volume, even at different times of the week. Upselling is an art and a science, and our years of experience and the data generated means we know how to suggest the right products at the right time and at the right part of the process,” adds Pledge.

What differentiates Crave Interactive from other market players is its twelve years of track record of serving the most demanding hospitality businesses in the world reliably. More importantly, its solutions are always highly rated by users for simplicity and a positive, rewarding experience. “Our biggest differentiator is our approach to combining human and digital intelligence to increase profits for operators and delight their customers with an outstanding experience,” says Hughes. Focusing on constantly innovating and developing its data intelligence and analytics capabilities, the company plans to add additional features and tools to help operators achieve greater profit and deliver a more compelling customer experience. For hotels, the mobile solution makes it much easier to provide contactless in-room services, avoid investment in hardware, and more efficiently service areas such as lobbies, pools, and beaches, vastly improving the F&B experience for guests. From a Geographic standpoint, Crave is already present in 29 countries and plans to further expand its footprint across various parts of the globe. “Working closely with customers to jointly adapt our products to solve their problems and create strong win-win use cases is key to us and part of our DNA,” concludes Pledge..