Why Are QSRs on College Campuses?
College students want a lot of the same things from food service as everyone else. Speed, efficiency and ease of use are amongst their top priorities. Fast food saw their opportunity and have started expanding to college campuses around the country. Grubhub, for example, has invested in robots that autonomously deliver food around campuses like OSU. Students can also turn to the QSRs popping up in college towns all over.
Why College and Fast Food Goes Together
When people head to university, they start emerging as a major consumer for the first time. This is the age where businesses really look at a new generation as a viable demographic. As a whole, these students are stereotypically low on money and time. Between classes, homework and part-time jobs, fast food is a quick stop at bargain prices.
From a business perspective, more fast-casual brands are seeing the value in moving onto campuses. For starters, cost of operations is generally lower in those areas. Also, setting up directly where your target customers learn, work and live guarantees daily foot traffic. That gets you noticed.
New QSRs don’t necessarily need a storefront, either. Open a food truck or local delivery services made for late-night cravings. Alternatively, move into a central part of campus, like the food court or student marketplace. When they can see your signage from a popular hangout spot, they’re more likely to indulge on a regular basis.
How QSRs Can Appeal to the Market
Expanding onto college campuses only works as well as your best advertising. Right now, younger generations seek businesses that share their values: Green practices, ethical business, fair worker treatment and digitization. The most successful QSRs rely on at least some of these. For example, a healthy, plant-based fast food restaurant would do well with some young consumers.
However you decide to commit to their causes, social media is one of your best tools for spreading the word. Posting regularly keeps the algorithm recommending your page to relevant audiences, but you also need engagement. DM guests, make polls, post about your amazing team, and offer promo codes and sneak peeks on your channels. This incentivizes them to follow you. Then your digital marketing appears right on the social feed they view most.
QSRs and New Customer Management
As you grow your base and scale to a new site, you’ll want all that data collected in one system. With eatOS Point of Sale, you can compare between locations to gain insight into the new venture’s progress. We also manage customer profiles, securely saving data for quick reordering and relationship management. Efficiency and flexibility are built into our POS so you can run your restaurant better as you expand into college campuses.
eatOS offers an all-in-one cloud-based eco-system exclusively for restaurants. From Point of Sale to Contactless Ordering, Pay & Order at Table, Kitchen Display System, Customer Facing Display, Online Ordering APP / Website and Workforce Management there is everything to help a restaurant succeed no matter the size. Click Here to Schedule a demo to learn more about how your restaurant can make a smooth transition into the world of restaurant technology made simple.
