Covid-19’s impact on businesses the world over has been profound. The hospitality sector in particular have had to react and respond to these changes in order to stay afloat during the pandemic. When lockdown measures were lifted and the public were told they could visit restaurants during 2020, Marston’s restaurants had to revert to single-use menus to meet Covid-19 hygiene standards.
The Marston’s marketing team were being inundated with orders for the single-use menus and were finding that the demand for these was too challenging to manage and not cost efficient. Large amounts of time were being spent processing the order, which resulted in a delay on getting menus to hundreds of Marston’s Brewery restaurants.
We already worked with Marston’s on some of their other projects so it was a natural choice for them to consult with us to see if we could provide a more effective solution for producing the single-use menus.
Our brief was to produce up to 500,000 menus per week, in approximately 120 different menu types in an easy-to-use ordering process with a delivery timeframe of 2-3 days. In response to their brief, our team created a bespoke online ordering portal for each and every menu ordering option.
The portal was split into the brand categories under the Marston’s Brewery umbrella and then by split down into each type of menu, for example, Vegan, Sunday Lunch, Christmas Menus etc. We needed to build the system with fixed quantity and specifications which allowed for consistent pricing. This level of consistency and efficient ease of ordering allowed the Marston’s Marketing team to process large orders swiftly and cost effectively.
Every available menu option was uploaded into the system, along with all house names and addresses. Users were set up according to their level of authority and position. By doing it this way, we could limit the range of menu’s visible for each user and only show those that were applicable to their network of houses. There were no hidden delivery costs, and menus were delivered within 3 working days of order. The ordering process for each house was simple, cost effective and speedy enough to meet the demands of the restaurant’s using single-use menus.
Within 10 working days, our team had produced the branded portal and Marston’s were able to place their first menu order. Overall, we were able to provide Marston’s with a timely solution that’s not only reduced the physical cost of the printing of the single-use menu’s, but also removed a huge amount of administration time for the marketing department. They no longer have to manage the artwork distribution to suppliers and the processing of individual orders because it’s all automated and summed up in a weekly order update report.
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