Mi 'N Tea used AI to create Super Bowl deals. | Photo provided by: Mi 'N Tea
About four years ago, Kim Dew and her brother Troy helped their parents realize their lifelong dream of opening a restaurant.
Mi 'N Tea debuted in April 2020 in Philadelphia's Manayunk neighborhood. It wasn't an ideal time to open a restaurant, but the banh mi and bubble tea concept survived the pandemic and is now thriving, with plans to open his second location soon.
Still, even without a pandemic, running a family-owned restaurant is never easy. Mr. Dieu is in charge of marketing for Mi 'N Tea, but was often so busy working at the actual restaurant that he had little time.
“I was working 12-hour shifts and couldn't find time to sit down and plan my campaign,” she said.
And even though she can carve out an hour to set up a mass email, usually once a month, she has no way of knowing whether people are even clicking on or taking advantage of the promotions she's created. I still didn't understand.
So Dieu wanted to try out a new tool from POS supplier SpotOn, which uses automation and artificial intelligence to create marketing campaigns.
To use Marketing Assist, operators enter basic information such as the restaurant's cuisine, marketing goals, and transaction preferences. The tool then uses AI to generate emails and social media posts that include photos and copy.
SpotOn, which works with small and medium-sized restaurants, says it is the first POS company to offer this kind of functionality.
Marketing Assist helped Mi 'N Tea market more in less time. Dieu would spend hours setting up a single campaign. She currently spends about 30 minutes every few weeks creating multiple promotions.
“Just putting text in there, putting images in there, laying everything out saved me a lot of time,” she said. The tool can also identify promotional opportunities, such as holidays or sporting events, and create offers around them.
For example, last month, Mi 'N Tea used Marketing Assist to send emails related to the Super Bowl to customers. Titled “Are you ready?”, he offered guests his 5% discount on orders and encouraged them to “buy a banh mi to enjoy the game!”
AI-generated offers from Mi 'N Tea. | Image provided by: Mi 'N Tea
This isn't unique, but many small restaurants don't have the time or resources to fend for themselves, says SpotOn CMO Kevin Bryla.
“For independent restaurants, this is a great way to get in the game,” he said.
Marketing Assist costs $95 per month on its own, or even less when bundled with other SpotOn features.
This comes as restaurants increasingly look to AI as a solution to labor issues. According to a recent survey conducted by Square of his 2,000 operators. Amazing 98% They said they believe AI can solve staffing challenges. Another report from TouchBistro found that 9 out of 10 full-service operators are already using technology that can automate tasks typically performed by humans.
This coincides with a flood of AI-powered products that promise to help restaurants with everything from answering phones to baking bread. But this new technology boom raises big questions. Will it work?
SpotOn says AI-generated emails receive more clicks and redemptions than human-written emails. Marketing Assist emails have an open rate of 9.55% and manual emails have an open rate of 7.79%. Braila said this is because AI is constantly learning and improving.
“One of the things we train the AI on is what are effective subject lines? What words and languages open up?” he said. “With more training, you'll get better at optimizing things like headlines and photos.”
Mi 'N Tea has also noticed changes since handing over the marketing reins to AI, including increased sales and better visibility into campaign performance.
“I'm able to really quantify what I'm pushing out,” Dew said. In a recent email, he said 400 people opened it and 36 people redeemed the coupons inside. The hit rate was almost 10%.
Braila said AI is now a key element for technology companies and will continue to play a larger role in all businesses. But he doesn't expect restaurants to become experts in the field.
“AI is advancing so fast and so diverse that it's very difficult to stay on top of it, especially for small and medium-sized businesses,” he said. “Technology providers need to make it simple.”
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