Richtree serves up fresh content ideas for digital signage

Wowing your customers with a 20-foot video wall, hostess hologram, virtual koi pond and jump-the-line digital payment terminals means nothing if you can’t deliver the goods.

“If the food doesn’t taste great, the technology doesn’t really matter,” insists Josh Sigel, chief information officer for Richtree Natural Market Restaurants, an organic fast-food chain that recently implemented the above bells and whistles at its flagship store at Toronto’s Eaton Centre.

Sigel said the company, owned by Toronto private equity firm The Catalyst Capital Group Inc., wanted to create an “omni-channel” experience for diners that blended online, mobile and physical brick-and-mortar retail elements.

For Richtree, which competes against other food stores such as Marché, the goal of the project was to get away from the traditional food court and offer an interactive experience that was fun and exciting for all ages, while still providing high-quality food and minimizing wait times.

Most of the money for the project was funnelled into a mobile app, named The Market Pass, that allows one person to register his credit card and then add the phone numbers of family members or colleagues so that when they scan food items, they get processed to a group account.

“When you have one person paying for all those people, it makes the experience even more complicated,” said Sigel. “We historically have never seen a good solution for that.”

The e-payment platform, developed by New York-based Infusion, allows customers to purchase items remotely from their smartphone or personal computing device and pick them up on site. On location, virtual kiosks that resemble large iPhones allow customers to bypass lines by scanning a barcode on their smartphones.

The fish pond and video game wall are essentially there to mollify children while their parents relax. There are also numerous screens displaying news items and food facts to engage customers while they eat.

“They’ve created a full 360 view,” said Robert Burke, a senior account manager at Infusion, who oversaw the build. “Anywhere we walk in Natural Markets there is something where technology is enhancing the experience.”

Burke said one of the key goals of implementing mobile and Web 2.0 technology is to have a “social interaction with your clients” and “engage them on a personal level.”

Before going down a similar road, businesses should think about how their customers are already using technology and what they want from it.

“You have to accept that the social behavior of consumers is changing,” said Burke, who pointed to the “scan-and-scram” mentality, where consumers use their smartphones to price check in-store items with what’s offered online with the aim of getting it cheaper somewhere else.

“Think about how it’s changing and how you can provide them with experiences that are on brand and help you as a business.”

Burke said Infusion first conducts an “idea sprint,” which is a multi-week brainstorming strategy involving key stakeholders on the client side to come up with “cool” ideas. The process starts with about a dozen ideas and funnels them down to three or four that are workable.

“You don’t want to come out of the idea sprint with a rocket ship, you want to have something you can actually build.”

Sigel said a key for them was to answer questions such as: “What type of business problems can we solve and what type of heartache can we take out of the fast-food experience?”

In the end the solutions had to be ones that could apply equally to both Sigel’s technologically-impaired grandmother and savvy younger brother.

“They both need to be able to feel comfortable in terms of the user experiences that we’re providing.”

Most of Richtree’s technology is fairly seamless, save for the virtual hostess – Mrs. Green – who stands outside the eating area, greeting and educating customers on the dining experience offered within. The image is housed in a box that resembles one of those old Atari miniature home arcade games and is easily missed.

Sigel had seen similar technology employed by companies in Asia and thought it would work in the overall theme. The hologram, which is of an actual Richtree employee, was designed by Las Vegas-based 360 Brand Vision.

“I don’t know whether or not a hologram is something that every store needs,” confessed Burke, adding: “The concept of having some engaging in-store experiences that bring people back is something that is more broadly applicable.”