PACIFIC GROUP RESORTS
With FanFood, here’s how Pacific Group has improved their speed of service, provides guests with greater flexibility, and operates at a lower labor cost.
About Pacific Group Resorts
Spanning the US and Canada, Pacific Group Resorts owns and operates a portfolio of five premier ski resorts. Their properties see
thousands of transactions daily, so speed and efficiency are both central to delivering a seamless guest experience.
The Challenge: Staffing, Peak Service Times and the Pandemic
Even before 2020, front of house staffing posed challenges for the resorts. Long wait times around popular outlets could easily develop. Hourly surges in order demand — like at lunchtime on busy weekends — further strained their speed of service:
“We can have upwards of 5,000 people on the ski hill, and everyone wants to come in for lunch at noon,” said Mark Fischer, CFO & EVP at Pacific Group Resorts. “We needed a way for guests to order ahead of time while also spreading these orders out for our kitchen staff.”
For winter 2020, Pacific Group placed special priority on maintaining a safe, contactless operation. Pacific Group partnered with FanFood to implement a portfolio-wide contactless mobile ordering solution tailored to each of their five resort properties.
Watch Mark's Interview
“We can take in more orders
with less staff.“
Mark Fischer, CFO and EVP
@Pacific Group Resorts
Offering Resort-wide Mobile Ordering
Pacific Group launched FanFood mobile ordering at nine restaurants throughout their properties, ranging from pizza outlets to full-service restaurants. Pacific Group quickly identified two mobile ordering service models suited for their existing operations: to-go order pickup and restaurant table service.
By scanning one of several QR codes throughout their resorts, guests can instantly access all food outlets, start a mobile pickup order, and pay via secure checkout from their phone.
For dine-in, guests simply sit down and scan a table-specific QR code to begin ordering, without needing to wait on a server. Guests can track their order’s status in real-time with the help of push notifications.
Pacific Group also chose to embed their mobile ordering service into select resorts’ apps, like the Wisp Resort App:
Guests scan a QR code or pull up the restaurants through the resort’s app.
Customers can browse the full menu, view the order ETA and add selections to their bag.
Upon checkout, guests can see their order status and when it will be ready.
Streamlining the Ordering & Payment Process
With FanFood, Pacific Group’s resorts can manage and fulfill more orders without dedicating as many staff members to an outlet’s front of house. Since guests can order ahead from anywhere, virtually every guest’s phone becomes a point of sale. Additionally, FanFood’s capabilities enabled Pacific Group to act on initiatives to offset the revenue implications of the pandemic:
“We had our indoor capacities limited to 25%. Because fewer people could get indoors, we knew we had to offer pickup in addition to dine-in, to facilitate less guest-staff interaction altogether,” Mark said.
Pacific Group’s FanFood service model significantly speeds up the entire ordering and payment process for guests. Customers no longer have to wait around for service or for their bill. For to-go orders, guests can avoid the headaches traditionally associated with waiting on an order.
MAXIMIZE PROFITABILITY
Easier ordering to
incentivize larger purchases.
FASTER SPEED OF SERVICE
Waiting in line is virtually eliminated.
ACTIONABLE GUEST INSIGHTS
Where they like to order from, at what point in the day, and what they buy.
STRONGER CUSTOMER LOYALTY
More repeat orders due to ease and convenience.
More Time to Enjoy Resort Amenities
For to-go ordering, FanFood has reduced the time that resort guests have to spend waiting, away from the resort’s main activities.
With FanFood’s real-time order ETAs and text notifications, customers can see exactly how long until their order will be ready. Guests can spend more time enjoying the resort’s amenities and less time waiting by the counter:
“The platform tells guests how long it’ll take for their food to be ready. If somebody sees it will be 20 minutes for their pizza, they’ll place their FanFood order and go take another ride on the ski slope before picking it up,” Mark said.
With FanFood’s order quantity controls, the resort kitchens can protect against having to deal with massive influxes of orders. Instead, the platform updates automatically so that customers know how long the wait will be.
Boosting Revenue at a New Outlet
In winter 2020, Pacific Group’s Wintergreen Resort in Virginia opened a brand new pizza outlet, Upper Crust Pizza. Given its location, the restaurant ordinarily wouldn’t see too much passing foot traffic. According to Mark, many guests first learned about Upper Crust Pizza through the FanFood integration within the Wintergreen Resort app.
Through Upper Crust’s first month of operation, nearly all to-go orders were placed on FanFood. The in-app ordering integration helped build awareness of the restaurant by enhancing its discoverability among guests.
“Our new Upper Crust Pizza outlet did about $100,000 in revenue last season. That wouldn’t have been possible without in-app ordering,” said Mark.