A Peak Behind the Curtain with Tim Wekezer - Co-founder & CEO of Waitrr
In this video series, we will be talking to professionals in the F&B industry, who will be providing us with a background on their areas of expertise, as well as tips and tricks, which could be useful for restauranteurs. Waitrr's co-founder & CEO had the opportunity to chat about Waitrr and gave us a peak behind the curtain about his and Waitrr's origins.
You can listen and watch the video here
Transcript
Valerie:
Thank you so much for joining us today Tim. I’ll just jump right in. So how about you tell us a bit more about your professional background, and how it has shaped you into developing Waitrr.
Tim W:
Alright, so I have been in the F&B industry since the age of eight. I was really thrown into the industry. I am the son of restaurant owners. So I almost had no choice, but to grow up with the whole industry, starting at this very young age, I helped my parents serve tables when I was very young, but I really worked for all the different departments in the restaurants. I worked as a bartender. I did my chefs training.
And then later in my early twenties, I was managing some of their restaurants. So as a full time restaurant manager, I really went through understanding the different dynamics of the different departments and how it all fits together.
Valerie:
What are some of the biggest challenges that you have faced in the restaurant industry and how have you managed to resolve them?
Tim W:
I haven’t only worked for my parents’ restaurants. I had the opportunity to live, and work in different countries, and work for F&B in 6 different countries. So what I have seen is that one of the top problems was manpower, which was very consistent to me.
That really struck me, so I asked myself, what’s going on?
I noticed that recruiting, hiring and training staff, as well as retaining them is one of the biggest headaches of restaurant operators. I knew that by creating Waitrr, we would want to help with the dining-in side of the restaurants, because that is the most staff heavy side of it. So it was not the takeaway or delivery side of the operations that is complex, its always the table service. So we created Waitrr to help restaurant owners, such as my parents, to help ease the challenges that might come with lack of manpower.
Valerie:
How has Waitrr grown and changed, before, during and after the pandemic, in your opinion?
Tim W:
Waitrr had already begun growing in double digits month to month before COVID. And then the pandemic started to spread across the globe. And by 2020 we grew five times more compared to the previous year. So that was a very interesting time for us.
Even before COVID, we were just present in Singapore. And then all of a sudden, because of the pandemic, a lot of restaurants began reaching out to us for contactless menus and contactless payments. So we had people from different countries writing to us saying ‘Hey, we see what you guys are doing at Waitrr, we want to use it as well? We want to use it in the UK or France or Australia’ for example. And we said yes let’s do it!
So thanks to COVID, we became a very international company and we just kept growing since then. So it really pushed a lot of restaurant owners who may not have been as tech-savvy to actually embrace technology in order to overcome the pandemic.
Valerie:
What kind of workplace culture have you set out to build with and for your employees at Waitrr?
Tim W:
For us, it is really important to never forget who we are building for, and that we are actually solving a real problem for real people. I always like to be reminded of the story of my parents, about how they were never educated on how to be restaurant operators.
My dad is an electrical engineer, and my mom is a pianist, so they had nothing to do with restaurants. But they sort of fell into the industry. And that is actually a very typical profile of restaurant owners around the world. They basically come from different trades or jobs, but they are passionate about food, or they know a few recipes and think ‘hey let’s open a restaurant’. And that is a story that I keep hearing over and over, but that also means that because they haven’t been educated in that space, they might be overwhelmed with administrative tasks or manpower challenges. So I like to think that we are building something to reduce the headaches of operators so that they can run their businesses more smoothly. So that is one of the top things that our team thinks about when we are building new features - how would this help restaurant operators such as my parents?
Valerie:
What kind of business benefits can the restaurant industry expect from Waitrr? How do you think customers have responded to ordering and paying with Waitrr for example?
Tim W:
A home market such as Singapore, many customers were already embracing technology for many many years.
I love how Singapore is all about automation and being very efficient in different tasks. And that was already the case before COVID. So COVID of course helped accelerate things, but the customers were already very open about saying how this was a more efficient process to order, and how this eliminated the process of payments or bill splitting - this is awesome. That was already from the get-go. When it comes to other countries, especially what we have seen in Europe - we already have customers in France and Spain where the restaurant experience is on the traditional side - they really had to wait for COVID to sort of change their mindset.
I remember speaking to a few European restaurant owners, and they were saying - no this would never work. And even customers thought that it was not a personal way to order and so on. But then COVID broke out and all of a sudden they realised - hey, this is actually a really great way both for customers to order, and for the restaurant owners too - because they have more time to speak to the customers as the transactional processes are eliminated.
So it really opened their eyes, and it is now definitely growing in Europe as well.
Valerie:
How much time do you think Waitrr can actually save a typical F&B outlet staff member, during peak hours?
Tim W:
Many of our restaurant partners have reported that they have seen 40% of time saved or have gained 40% in efficiency. And so that could either mean that they have served 40% more customers during the lunch period for example. Or for example, they have said that a few of their staff members had called in sick but still managed to serve the same amount of customers with 30%/40% less staff. So we have seen both scenarios quite frequently.
Valerie:
How else does Waitrr help the staff provide better service?
Tim W:
By putting the ordering and payment process into the customer’s hands, we are basically freeing up more time for the staff. We are just taking away the transactional part of the experience. And now the restaurant staff have more time to go back to the table and ask important questions such as - how was your food? - or refill the water, or perhaps talk about a special dish the restaurant currently has. And this personalised service is what actually brings value to the customer. So we are freeing up time for the staff to actually be able to do that. I always thought these were important quality interactions. Settling the bill is not a personalised service for me - having a staff member standing next to the table with a credit card machine and asking you for the pin number or worse splitting the bill - all of this takes up so much time. And they are usually very stressed because they can see in the corner of their eyes that another table would like to order. So by eliminating that part, we can have more meaningful conversations with the customers, which is actually what a restaurant experience should be about.
Valerie:
So just to go back a little bit on your previous experience in the restaurant industry - when you first started, what was harder for you than you expected?
Tim W:
What I have seen is that inventory management is a pretty hard thing to do, as I have seen a lot of restaurants sort of underestimate the cost to prepare something.
It’s not as simple as just coming up with a recipe. There are a lot of hidden costs and overhead costs that could really make or break a restaurant. So I think managing this part is very challenging and I have noticed that many restaurants don’t do this well enough.
So I would always recommend restaurants to manage their inventory and their suppliers very carefully, plan out all the costs for every recipe and track this every single time. But I have also noticed the difficulty in staff scheduling, because you have your peak times during lunch and then dinner. It is very difficult to schedule someone to only cover the lunch hours or the dinner hours - so you have to do split shifts sometimes. It's very hard to schedule someone for an eight hour shift, while your restaurant is not busy for eight hours straight.
This is especially hard for small restaurants, as they might perhaps have a total staff count of nine of ten people. So that can be hard to juggle around. If you have a big restaurant, you might have a bit more room to schedule different staff members and rotate them. But with smaller restaurants, that can be a tough challenge. It is extremely important to find the right people with the right mindset, who understand the business, who are passionate about it and who are okay with flexible schedules.
Valerie:
So to piggyback off this advice - as someone who has had so many years of experience in the F&B industry, what advice do you have for other establishments to better the quality of service, especially during peak hours?
Tim W:
I would start with a smaller menu first. I have seen a lot of first time restaurant operators tend to be very ambitious with many different recipes that they would like to share with the world. And that can create a lot of challenges in terms of having your staff memorize these items and recommending them to customers, as well as the kitchen preparing it.
So I would definitely have to say that less is more, and have a higher quality of these few menu dishes. And over time, once your operation works flawlessly, you can increase the menu items. This will make it easier during the ordering process - for example when the staff are there to take the orders at the table - it will be less likely that the customers will change their minds at the last minute. And the second advice - I would not allow bill splitting. I believe that this is task that takes a restaurant a lot of time to complete. Obviously using Waitrr eliminates the need for bill splitting so I would definitely recommend installing mobile ordering from the beginning.
Valerie:
So basically what you are saying is quality over quantity in the very beginning and slowly build up from there. Do you have any tips for future restaurateurs or current restaurateurs on how to encourage your customers to return to your restaurant?
Tim W:
For me it is always about the personal experience. That is something that I have learned from a young age working with my parents. They taught me about the value of being a good host, and remembering for example a returning customer’s favorite dish or their favorite table or any personal details. This, combined of course with the food, is what makes them want to come back, because they had a really good time. They feel special. So if you see a returning customer and say - hey we have your favorite table ready or a special wine that is not on the menu but I am sure you will like it or I know you love this dish and we have a special dessert you might like - this will make them feel so special. So I would definitely highlight this to restauranteurs to focus on this.
And now, using technology can help this. For example, Waitrr allows you to see a customer’s previous order or the CRM platforms will allow you to see the last table reservation. This system will help you record these sort of details for the customer’s next visit. So I would recommend the use of technology in order to do this, and get your staff to look up these details as this will make a huge difference in customer service and satisfaction.
Valerie:
What is a commonly held belief about the F&B industry that you passionately disagree with?
Tim W:
We get this a lot when we speak to investors as well. So when it comes to F&B, people will say - oh the margins are very tight, you can’t make money in the restaurant space. But in the end, there are an estimated 15 million restaurants around the world. And people have to eat multiple times a day. And it is a business that is all about execution after all, and you can make money if you are very thorough and serious enough, and able to track your numbers and manage your inventory. It is a tough business, but you can absolutely make money in the restaurant space.
Valerie:
That is very comforting to hear, and I am sure that all the restaurateurs or future restaurateurs watching this will think so as well. So lastly, in your experience, what is something that everyone in the F&B industry should start or stop doing?
Tim W:
I would say have the courage to innovate more. And have the courage to push this innovation to their customers. So a client of ours, a Korean restaurant in Singapore, made everyone use Waitrr, way before COVID back in 2019, and way before contactless menus became such an enormous part of the industry.
Waitrr was, and still is today, the only way to order. And he had the courage to innovate and say - look I want my place to be very efficient and I want customer to have a great experience. And at first, it was quite surprising to all his regular customers as they were used to having their orders taken, so they thought what’s going on? But over time they realised that this was very efficient and it became natural to them.
I see a lot of restaurant owners don’t always have the courage to take such a radical step and say for example - tomorrow onwards, we will do this and force the customers to do this. But in the end, he had this vision of efficiency and a more personalised interaction by eliminating the transaction task, and it worked out! So I applaud him for doing this, and I recommend other restaurant owners to have this kind of courage to do this.
Valerie:
Yeah, that is really great! You basically have to just jump right in, and really believe in what you are doing and see what happens, and it might turn out to be a success at the end of the day. Thank you so much for joining me today, and for giving up some tips and tricks for different restauranteurs and a little bit of background on Waitrr, and how it can help the F&B industry!
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