With the worldwide spread of COVID-19, the timing could not be better for the release of a ground-breaking hospitality training app that will revolutionize practices in the industry.
After a very successful European trial, the Mr Tomato app, launched in the USA, August 2020, is designed to manage the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and provides solutions to the constant struggles of the industry like effective training, staff roster scheduling, high employee turnover rates and communication with customers.
“It is critical for operators to establish trust with their customers right now,” says Haroon Elsarrag, founder and CEO of Mr. Tomato. “We believe the best way to do that is to increase transparency. You have to show your customers that you care; show them your cleaning checklist, and how often you are completing it. The other element we are very aware of is that the younger wait staff need to be entertained, in order to be trained. So we designed this to be fun to use.”
Key features of the application are:
- Gamified training of new, existing and returning employees
- Testing, certification, and motivation program for the staff
- News announcements and messaging platform
- Standards and policies implementation
- Checklists for policies and recurring procedures
- Communicating safety rules, regulations to customers
- Digital gamified menu accessible via QR codes
- Multiple locations management, administration and reporting
European restaurants that have adopted Mr Tomato have seen huge improvements in all metrics. Many restaurants used to spend 6-10 hours on the onboarding process and train new employees for more than 20 days. Mr Tomato app streamlined those processes into 15 minutes for onboarding and just 5-10 days spent on training. Due to an engaging gamified experience of memorization and training process, the staff turnover rate went from 18% down to 13% in just a couple of months. The quality of service also increased due to the fact that employees’ new knowledge adoption level increased by 15% (from 80 to 95).
“Training and engagement are the biggest challenges in the industry, and I’ve always thought communication is the most pivotal aspect of running a restaurant,” says one European operator who has been using Mr. Tomato for over a year. “Mr. Tomato has been an amazing corporate communication tool for us, and we’re already seeing its effectiveness in making our guests feel safe.”
The app can be easily integrated with many POS systems. Using the data Mr. Tomato creates an engaging branded menu a customer can view on their phone just by scanning a QR code. “The US adoption rates to QR codes is behind the way consumers in other countries have embraced them, and we believe that is going to change as a result of the pandemic—in fact, it already has,” Haroon says. “It is the only way to have a touchless menu experience. There is no other way around it.”
Having all key components of efficient management of a restaurant in one place is a key to successful scaling and development of your business. Mr. Tomato is an innovative platform that is designed to enforce training, processes, improve communications, operations and staff management and simply become a better place to eat.
