Interview with Marcus Gan, manager of EagleWings Loft and EagleWings Cinema

In this video, hear about Marcus' experience running EagleWings Loft and EagleWings Cinema in Singapore. Learn what makes EagelWings group so successful, how they've leveraged technology and hear Marcus' tips for restaurant success.

Tip: for those who prefer to read, the video transcript is below :)

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Transcript

Intro: Hello everyone. Welcome to this video organised by Waitrr. I hope you guys are doing well. I'm just here to explain a little very very quick what we are doing. So we are interviewing restaurant owners, restaurant owners that use Waitrr in their restaurants to get some insights not only for us to improve as a company but for you guys as well.

So I hope you guys will get to some rich insights with this video. And the first person we're going to be interviewing is the restaurant manager in EagleWings, a well known restaurant in Singapore. I'm not going to talk too much, I'm going to let him introduce himself. So let's go to the video.

Tell us about yourself: My name is Marcus. I've been with EagleWings Group for the past seven years, since 2017. EagleWings Loft was first established back in 8th of August 2018. It's a restaurant that actually came from the nautical theme. So we actually initially had owned a yacht. 

They are Eagle Wings 1 and Eagle Wings 2. They are Catamarans and from there we cater a great variety of food from Western to Asian fusion in the yachts themselves. And then subsequently we decided that only people that actually charter the yachts get to enjoy the food.

So we decided to open a nautical style theme restaurant at King Albert Park at KAP Mall. And that's how it all started and I came in as a restaurant manager and subsequently, as the group got bigger, was promoted to theatre manager. Handling the restaurant operations at the same time, building up the entire group.

What was the biggest challenge your restaurant has faced? I believe the biggest challenge was to meet every customer's expectations. Everyone has their own preference of food, taste buds, and of course, manpower. That is also one of the biggest challenges we have in the F&B industry and it's well known for the fact that. It's very hard to get manpower in this industry itself.

How we overcome it is to rely on certain apps, certain programs, for example Waitrr and to implement it to ensure that operations can still operate without the necessary manpower.

Can you share an example of how feedback has led to a significant change in your restaurant? I would say my biggest feedback was inconsistency back in the days when we first started the restaurant, you know, where SOPs were still not in place. That was one of the biggest challenges where we had to communicate with the chef.

Luckily enough, my chef and myself, as well as the team, have been very diligently ensuring that all the SOPs are followed and all these years, consistency has always been the key to ensure that we even won the Foodmaster Award.

Any tips on how to encourage customers to come back? I personally feel, service is the number one factor for customers to come back. If we can't actually give the most courteous service, when a customer walks into the restaurant, they are never coming back. Of course secondly, your food has to be of a certain standard. You can't be selling food that is not up to par at a price point that customers don't feel they get value for money.

What is something that everyone in the F&B industry should start (or stop) doing? I would say, you gotta plan your restaurant story. In fact, you need to plan your whole entire operations before you actually start a business. There are many restaurant owners that just want to rush into opening their business. They gather certain dishes, but there's no careful or thorough planning.

These businesses will eventually fail. It's all about planning in a restaurant to make it work. From the start, when you open a restaurant, know your branding, the story of your business, the food that you're serving etc. You need to be very clear what your goals are.

Also, don't wait for it to happen then realise all this doesn't work out, then change your style. This won't work. You need to plan your entire business well enough knowing which route you want to go.

Consider if there are awards that you're going to go after to bring your business to the next level. And of course, marketing, is definitely one of the most, most, most essential business tools in every single restaurant. Without marketing, no one knows about you. The gimmicks all have to be in place.

How often do you update your menu? My staple food, I do not do changes - such as my carbonara, my bolognese, my risotto, pizza. These are my staples for everyone who loves them. While we create new flavours once every three to six months. And from there we use the order quantity and  analyse to see what's selling well and what's not. And through all these data points we can better plan and we know what's meeting the taste preferences of our customers.

How has the pandemic affected your restaurant? I think back then when the pandemic was happening, everyone was panicking. We were forced to close the business for dining in. Essential services like ours were only allowed to do delivery to our customers. And those times were very tough. I would say it actually made restaurant owners think creativity. How could we actually survive during a crisis that wouldn't allow customers to dine in - with only takeaway and delivery allowed. We had to make good use of whatever tools we have on hand and try to at least break even for the month.

Do you have any tips for handling peak hours? It's not a really tip, but I think timing is essential. During working hours people can't come out for very long. If your food is delayed, no one will come back. I think this is important for restaurant owners to take note of during peak hours.

What future trends do you predict for the F&B industry? I personally feel the tourism in Singapore is slightly dipping. Many of our locals are traveling overseas since the border opened. Cafes in future might face some economic crises. But I personally feel if you are constantly creating new dishes and being innovative, you will be able to sustain the business here in Singapore.

Any additional tips you can share with us? I would say running a business isn't easy, but it's definitely worth the challenge.