Amidst a chaotic external environment, we aim to dramatically improve productivity throughout the company and transform ourselves into a highly profitable organization that can counteract cost pressures by incorporating DX into all areas of our operations.
In January 2022, we launched our company-wide DX Promotion Project and assigned full-time DX personnel to all departments. We are promoting significant business reforms and training future human resources for DX. As we are now in the "Living with COVID-19" era, people are becoming stricter regarding eating out. As a result, the Skylark Group will make maximum use of DX to propose a new type of service for family restaurants that encompasses not only eating out but also home meal replacement and home-cooked meals.
In addition, with the low birthrate and aging population, we aim to create a society in which diverse human resources can work in a variety of ways by computerizing our stores and central kitchen operations in anticipation of future hiring difficulties. In the restaurant industry, there is still much more room for IT and digital technology utilization. We will promote DX in earnest to create new value in the restaurant business.
Creating New DX Experience in which Humans and Robots Collaborate
Introduction of Floor Service Robots
The Skylark Group plans to introduce floor service robots mainly at Gusto and Syabu-Yo from the end of 2021. We plan to have approximately 3,000 robots in operation throughout the Group by the end of 2022. The collaboration between humans and robots is contributing to improved employee productivity by allowing employees to spend more time on improving customer satisfaction and reducing the number of steps they have to take.
In particular, senior staff will be able to reduce their workload by using robots to bring food and beverages to guests. In addition, the utilization of floor robots reduces the difficulty of the work involved and allows foreign staff to also play an active role, leading to the creation of a workplace where a diverse range of human resources can work comfortably.
Introduction of More Advanced Digital Menu Books Models
Our digital menu books (self-service ordering terminals), which have been introduced at approximately 2,500 stores, including Gusto, Bamiyan, Jonathan's, and Syabu-Yo, beginning in March 2020, will be replaced with more advanced models. The content of the digital menu book is gradually changed to meets the needs of a wide range of customers in terms of ease of use and visibility. The digital menu book is also equipped with a button that allows customers to request to have plates removed from the table, which also supports communications with customers who do not want to make contact with staff.
POS System Upgrades and Introduction of Cashless Registers
In order to provide a pleasant store experience from when customers enter until they leave, we will substantially upgrade our cash registers in 2022. In addition to replacing manned POS cash registers to make accounting operations smoother, cashless cash registers will be introduced at all stores so that customers do not have to wait to pay the bill. We will continue to explore new IT and digital services to make mealtimes as fulfilling as possible for customers.
Improving Our Dedicated App for Delivery Personnel
We employ our own delivery personnel to maximize sales through deliveries, focusing on providing orders as fast as possible and delivery quality. To help facilitate deliveries, we make use of a dedicated app for delivery personnel. The delivery route is displayed by the app when an order is received, making it possible for even new delivery personnel to make deliveries without issue.
The app also enables crew members at the store to check the position of the delivery driver, position of destination and distance to destination using GPS, allowing them to provide efficient support if required. The app has led to improved retention of delivery staff, shorter delivery times, and expansion of our joint delivery business across multiple business categories.
*The Skylark Group ensures that delivery personnel thoroughly comply with the Road Traffic Act when using the app.
Increasing the Functionality of the Skylark App and Enhancing Our Digital Marketing Capabilities
The Skylark app was launched as a service to consolidate and integrate the Group's various business categories. It has been used by over 16 million customers, with around 8 million registered members, and approximately 10 million data records being collected every day. We are advancing the automation of various features including improving the precision of coupon delivery linked with weather and temperature data, measures for individual stores, effective utilization of store usage histories and behavior histories, and responding to Twitter, other social media posts and e-mail in order to implement personalized marketing efforts in real time. We are also investing energies into branding utilizing social media, such as our official Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts.
The Group had been operating take-out and delivery sites using a separate membership base. However, in 2021, we made possible for users to place take-out orders through the app. We intend to improve convenience for our customers by also integrating our home delivery base in the future. In March 2022, the Group made it possible for customers to also place online orders through the official app. We will create a one-stop service that allows customers to enjoy all services within the app, including a special passport for customers aged 60 or older, in order to increase the frequency of store visits and to convert customers into loyal customers.
Promoting DX at Store Back Offices, Headquarters, and Central Kitchens
The Skylark Group is working to improve productivity by automating back office operations at stores, including the partial automation of food and supply ordering, offering employment contract in electronic form, and building prototypes that automatically create work schedules according to predicted numbers of customers and weekly schedules. As new work styles such as teleworking and remote meetings take hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Skylark Group is also implementing business reforms that make maximum effective use of IT and digital technologies, such as promoting the use of chat and TV conferencing applications on a group-wide scale.
In addition to updating its merchandising systems to support the diversification of its business operations, Skylark is also encouraging a shift towards the use of cloud solutions and open systems for systems infrastructure that can support mergers and acquisitions, as well as enhancing security.
In addition, we have taken measures to make our company-wide system infrastructure more robust in preparation for recent cyber security threats and have enhanced security training for our employees. The Group will continue to increase customer convenience and employee productivity by utilizing IT and digital technologies to enhance our corporate competitiveness.