A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post in neuromarketing blog about the restaurant experience, and how you can use consumer behavior principles and embed them within this experience to get the best out of it as a restaurant owner.
Read: Customer experience tweaks that boost restaurant results
… and so today, I have decided to go through the steps of the restaurant experience as a customer in one of my very favorite restaurants here in Dubai, which is Poke & Co.
Step 1: Discovery — Word-of-mouth
It started off contemplating with my team at work on our options for lunch. It was too hot for us to go out and grab something, and so one of my work friends suggested we order from Poke & Co.
I was like, “What is that?”
My friend told me it’s sushi in a bowl.
Knowing me, and knowing that I absolutely love sushi, and knowing that I love healthy food, even more, I was intrigued.
Do you know that sushi rice has sugar? So those sushi rolls aren’t that healthy after all. But hey, having sushi in a bowl of salad, possible with zero carbs or even selecting brown rice or quinoa as my carbs base — that is just a dream come true for me.
Step 2: Food ordering
It seemed like there are multiple best sellers and already made-up bowls for you to choose from. There was also the option to build your own bowl. Oh, by the way, we used Zomato, a third-party app to customize our order. It’s my favorite, my second best is UberEats.
Oh and in case you didn’t know, which most probably you don’t know, I pretty much live off delivery. Dubai life I guess.
I wasn’t sure what to order, and so I let my friend choose for me what he loved the most. I wanted to have the best experience.
Step 3: Food Delivery
I can’t quite remember how fast it took to deliver because that was about two years ago. However, I did order it today and it took about 30 minutes from the time I ordered until it arrived at my door-step.
One more thing. Today, I didn’t use Zomato, but I ordered straight from Poke & Co website, and guess what? I got a 25% discount. How awesome is that?
So instead of saving the money, I just added extra Tuna to my bowl.
Good for me. More food to enjoy.
The food gets delivered with ice wrapped around the bowl, because it’s sushi, and I do live in Dubai so that raw fish needs to stay cool.
Oh, and by the way, you can also order through Facebook messenger or through their mobile app. I love the options.
Step 4: Paying the bill
Ordering from Zomato, you can either add your credit card or you can choose to pay using Apple pay without inserting your card information in their app.
However, when it came to ordering from Poke & Co website, I wasn’t really sure if I trust it enough. I didn’t want to put my credit card information and also I don’t have cash in my wallet.
The good news is… I had the option to pay by card on delivery and so I choose to use that as my payment method.
Step 5: Telling my friends
I guess that’s what I am doing now, I am spreading the word.
I haven’t really dined in except for their ‘pop-up’ version in Emirates Towers, which if you ask me is pretty simple. Given that there aren’t many tasty healthy quick food options in Emirates Towers, and even though it’s small compared to other restaurants, Poke & Co. is doing pretty well.
Other than that, I always ordered.
It’s tasty guilt-free food, and if I wasn’t for the fact that I can’t have raw fish every day, I would pretty much order it every day. I know there are other ‘cooked’ proteins to choose from, but my heart is weak for what I love the most, which is raw tuna and raw salmon.
My restaurant experience with Poke & Co. was based on delivery, which I am guessing is an experience to many of us who live in Dubai. Some restaurants are better to dine-in, where others are perfect for delivery, which in this case is Poke & Co.
I just can’t imagine having medium-rare steak delivered to my doorstep, not sizzling hot. Can you?