If given a choice, we would rather go
to a restaurant that conducts itself in a sustainable manner - whether it is with respect to food sourcing, handling its energy and waste, or trying to
eliminate pesticides from its ingredients. From anecdotal discussions it seemed
that we are not alone. It was interesting to realise that there are many food
lovers who would like to be informed about these parameters and there are many
restaurant owners as well who would like to reach out to such customers by
highlighting their own green/ organic/ sustainable operations. At
Climate Miles, instead of relying on anecdotal observation, we decided to do a
quick survey - for both customers and restaurant owners to share the results of
this survey with all of you. In this digital age, an important link
between the customer and the service provider is the online directory service.
These services have replaced ‘yellow pages’ both in terms of volume and quality
of content. They provide not only the names and contact details of th service
providers, but also prices, special services and even customer reviews.
Our larger aim in doing this survey was to
underscore the role of online food directories like zomato, burrp, timesfood guide in how they
'tag' eateries.
We
conducted our customer survey over 2 weeks, (primarily among restaurants in
India, customers between the age of 15 to 50 ) in order to highlight the need
and relevance of such a sub-category in the hospitality sector by understanding
customer choices. Then we contacted restaurant/eatery owners to understand
their level of interest in sustainability. Many of whom were already on the
path.
Objective of the survey:
To
gauge the following:
For
customers,
·
Apart from taste, presentation and ambiance, what else is important to a
customer when they walk into their favourite restaurant?
·
Whether customers would like the option of a “green eatery” among other
categories on popular food apps like #zomato #burrp #timesfoodguide #justeatin
#foodpanda
·
Whether such an option is important to customers and could be one of the
criteria that helps them decide between restaurants.
For
restaurants,
·
Whether restaurants would like to be a part of the emerging trend. For
those who already are, whether they would like to be recognised and highlighted
for it on food directories like zomato, burrp, timesfoodguide justeatin and foodpanda.
Let use see what the survey reveals!
Questionnaire for
CUSTOMERS (Date: 2nd October 2014)
Apart from taste,
presentation and ambiance, which of the below characteristics are important to
you when choosing an eatery/restaurant to dine-in.
a. Where the food comes from (locally sourced)
b. Whether the food is organic
c. The initiatives put in place by the restaurant to minimise
energy/water use and yet keep the guest comfortable.
d. The cutlery used at the restaurant or during take-away
(packaging using recycled/recyclable plastic, cloth, paper etc).
e. What happens to the left-over food once you have eaten
(homeless, fed to stray dogs or composted)
Among the above choices,
which would you say means the MOST important to you?
Observation:
As
seen from the above, what happens to left-overs (70%) food at restaurants is
the biggest concern for customers. A Close second is if the food served at the
restaurants is organic (69%) and finally third if the food is locally sourced
(65%). Goes to show that customers do inherently care about their own health
and the waste they generate. Packaging& Cutlery(50%) and Energy/Water Usage(53%)
at the restaurant is also relevant to them.When asked what was MOST important
to them, 38% felt that it was where the food came from.
When you lookup
restaurants /eateries on food apps (like zomato, timesfoodguide, tripadvisor, justeatin & burrp), would you like the added option of also knowing the ‘green eatery(s)
inyour neghborhood along with the preferences like vegan, organic etc?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Don’t care either way
Observation:
Highly
encouraging to know that 56% felt it is important to add a new category on food
apps to highlight “green” or “sustainable” restaurants in the area. While 42%
felt it would be great to have such a category but it is not critical.
Would a sustainable
rating be a deciding factor for your selection between two or more restaurants
with similar attributes?
a. Yes
b.
No
Observation:
The
above shows that if customers are given an option, they would ideally like
choose a more environmentally responsible restaurant. This shows the need for
such a category to inform the customers of the initiatives taken by their favorite restaurants and eateries to become sustainable.
Questionnaire for RESTAURANT
OWNERS (Date: 2nd October 2014)
Do you want your restaurant to be highlighted as a
green/organic/ promoting local produce / energy efficient /sustainable
restaurant in food directories like zomato, timesfoodguide, tripadvisor, justeatin & burrp etc.
100%
of all the restaurants we approached said YES!
Among the few
of restaurants who participated in the survey - popular
Organic / Vegan Restaurants in Bangalore, India such as Carrots, greentheory paradigm shift participated in order to spread the word about their approach
and efforts.
Others
who participated in the survey
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