Shanai restaurant: using satellite navigation to boost a family business
The company
Shanai is a family-run Indian restaurant in the German city of Munich, preparing and serving a variety of traditional Indian dishes to students, families, and businessmen. The restaurant opened in 2006 with a staff of six and a capacity of 120 guests.
Shanai’s managers face the challenge of getting known in Munich, a city with over 80 Indian restaurants in different neighbourhoods. In order to gain visibility among potential customers, the restaurant was looking for a solution that would save them the important costs associated with marketing and advertising.
While considering various possibilities, Shanai’s owners came across an innovative online platform – ordofood.de – allowing restaurants in Munich to advertise special offers. Ordofood uses satellite-based information to match guests and restaurants according to location, offers and availability. Potential guests can check Shanai’s proximity to their desired location, its dishes and prices, and make a reservation online by selecting the restaurant from the list of local eateries subscribed to the system. Customers can also use the service on their smartphones and hence get to know Shanai while they are looking for a restaurant nearby their position.
Each time someone reserves a seat at Shanai through the online platform, the restaurant pays a small fee of € 0,99 to ordofood. The restaurant can choose the days in which the offers will be valid according to the workload expected.
Shanai has now been using the service for six months. Thanks to the satnav solution, Shanai is attracting enough customers to keep its tables busy, offering up to 20% discounts to new customers according to the desired capacity. Thus, the restaurant’s managers can better predict and manage the number of guests on a given day, and hence optimise workload and staff working times. The restaurant has also made itself known to more people, some of which become regulars.
“The solution based on geo-localisation made us known to a wider public and attracts new customers.” Rasil Mahamud, Shanai.
