Even before 2020, front of house staffing posed challenges for the resorts. Long wait times around popular outlets could easily develop. Hourly surges in order demand — like at lunchtime on busy weekends — further strained their speed of service:
“We can have upwards of 5,000 people on the ski hill, and everyone wants to come in for lunch at noon,” said Mark Fischer, CFO & EVP at Pacific Group Resorts. “We needed a way for guests to order ahead of time while also spreading these orders out for our kitchen staff.”
For winter 2020, Pacific Group placed special priority on maintaining a safe, contactless operation. Pacific Group partnered with FanFood to implement a portfolio-wide contactless mobile ordering solution tailored to each of their five resort properties.
Pacific Group launched FanFood mobile ordering at nine restaurants throughout their properties, ranging from pizza outlets to full-service restaurants. Pacific Group quickly identified two mobile ordering service models suited for their existing operations: to-go order pickup and restaurant table service.
By scanning one of several QR codes throughout their resorts, guests can instantly access all food outlets, start a mobile pickup order, and pay via secure checkout from their phone.For dine-in, guests simply sit down and scan a table-specific QR code to begin ordering, without needing to wait on a server.
Guests can track their order’s status in real-time with the help of push notifications.Pacific Group also chose to embed their mobile ordering service into select resorts’ apps, like the Wisp Resort App:
With FanFood, Pacific Group’s resorts can manage and fulfill more orders without dedicating as many staff members to an outlet’s front of house. Since guests can order ahead from anywhere, virtually every guest’s phone becomes a point of sale. Additionally, FanFood’s capabilities enabled Pacific Group to act on initiatives to offset the revenue implications of the pandemic:
“We had our indoor capacities limited to 25%. Because fewer people could get indoors, we knew we had to offer pickup in addition to dine-in, to facilitate less guest-staff interaction altogether,” Mark said.
Pacific Group’s FanFood service model significantly speeds up the entire ordering and payment process for guests. Customers no longer have to wait around for service or for their bill. For to-go orders, guests can avoid the headaches traditionally associated with waiting on an order.
For to-go ordering, FanFood has reduced the time that resort guests have to spend waiting, away from the resort’s main activities.With FanFood’s real-time order ETAs and text notifications, customers can see exactly how long until their order will be ready.
Guests can spend more time enjoying the resort’s amenities and less time waiting by the counter:
“The platform tells guests how long it’ll take for their food to be ready. If somebody sees it will be 20 minutes for their pizza, they’ll place their FanFood order and go take another ride on the ski slope before picking it up,” Mark said.
With FanFood’s order quantity controls, the resort kitchens can protect against having to deal with massive influxes of orders. Instead, the platform updates automatically so that customers know how long the wait will be.
