Marugame Udon is leveraging tech to improve the customer journey and back of house operations as it targets rapid expansion across the UK.
CEO Keith Bird told delegates at MCA’s Hostech conference, “We’re fast growth and we want to be able to franchise heavily and quickly, so we had to make sure that our tech stack was fit for purpose.
“I think in terms of what we were trying to achieve, we tried to first of all walk in the shoes of customers to make sure we understood that consumer journey.
“And also operationally, how do you make it as easy as possible for the restaurant manager to run a really good restaurant so that you can get super efficiencies and be really intuitive for the customers as well.
Marugame Udon, which operates over 850 stores in Japan, launched in London in 2021, and now operates 10 sites across the UK.
A key part of the business’ strategy when moving into the UK market was around building a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, to create brand awareness.
Bird said that initially there was a “low level of awareness” around the concept’s key offering of Japanese Udon noodles.
“We went heavy on building a CRM and made sure that was at the core of it. And we’ve tried to build up through social media as many people preopening as possible, so that when you open up, you have nice long queues of people.”
Considering how the use of technology can help drive the businesses going forward, Bird said that a guiding principle was to be a “fast follower” of proven methods, rather than be “super innovative” in the space.
“We’re about leveraging what we’ve already got”, he added.
“If you’ve taken the time to get really good solid foundations, its replicating it through new units.
Bird added that the brand was interested by white label delivery solutions and saw potential to get more value out of its customer loyalty channel, the Marugame Club.
“For only 10 restaurants that we have currently, we’ve got about 240,000 people signed up to it.
“We still think that there’s more to go, and better ways of nudging behaviour in terms of driving frequency.”
