{"id":30775,"date":"2023-01-24T16:49:19","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/?p=30775"},"modified":"2023-08-24T17:17:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T11:47:50","slug":"duncan-muir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html","title":{"rendered":"Building A Customer-Centric F&#038;B Business &#8211; A Conversation with Duncan Muir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meet Duncan Muir, the senior director of F&amp;B and Retail of Bateel International \u2014 a renowned Middle-Eastern brand known for its dates, caf\u00e9, and retail business. Muir has spearheaded the F&amp;B operations of the brand, leading it to a decade of success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite spending most of his life handling the F&amp;B aspect of sports facilities, he didn\u2019t let the challenges of building a retail business deter him. His successful career is the result of dedication, following a customer-centric approach, and communicating with the customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Muir went from being a law aspirant to a hotel management graduate, leading a food brand. What inspired this journey? And how did he keep himself going, considering restaurants weren\u2019t a big trend then? Read along as we discover more about Muir\u2019s journey of expanding Bateel, a retail business, into a customer-centric restaurant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Conversation with Duncan Muir, Bateel\u2019s Senior Director, F&amp;B and Retail<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This episode on Restrocast with Duncan Muir, who we had a chance to speak with after the successful opening of the 20th Bateel store in Dubai. In this podcast, Muir talks about his journey from sports facilities to retail business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He told us how following a customer-centric approach, listening to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/restro-gyaan\/tips-to-collect-restaurant-customer-feedback.html\">customers\u2019 feedback<\/a>, and diversifying, among other things, shaped his career. He also discusses the relationship between brands and aggregators.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"j0SEsfM6euA\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Leading with Customer-Centric Strategies and Empathy - Duncan Muir | Restrocast\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/j0SEsfM6euA?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Entering the F&amp;B Industry<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The story of how Duncan Nair entered the hospitality industry is unexpected, to say the least, considering that he was aspiring to be a lawyer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like any other teenager, Muir wanted to save money so he could buy a car. So he started working at a local hotel in the UK. He enjoyed it so much that he thought of making it a career.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI like this. It\u2019s social. It\u2019s good fun. I love food, being surrounded by it, and getting to meet people and work with some great people. I thought, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this is good<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d Muir says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From there, his focus shifted from a courtroom to a hotel. He studied hotel management at Strathclyde \u2014 one of the best universities in the UK. He then went on to do a graduate program at Hilton, only to realize restaurants excited him more than hotels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe hotels are fascinating places, but the restaurants are where the action is and where the passion for food is,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet for several years, he managed the F&amp;B operations of various sports facilities such as Creek Golf and Yacht Club. \u201cA lot of my experience has been in sporting facilities in the Middle East, but always in F&amp;B, whether it\u2019s food restaurants or food retail,\u201d says Muir.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you might ask how the F&amp;B of a sports facility\u2019s F&amp;B differs from a restaurant. According to Muir, you have a sitting population in a sports facility \u2014 people using the pool, playing golf, or simply enjoying. If you\u2019re at a restaurant, however, you must create traffic.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communication With Customers<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/resources\/franchise-outlet-vs-independent-restaurants-which-is-the-better-route.html\">independent restaurant<\/a> is like working on a blank canvas. You have to be creative and extremely consumer-focused. You have to be resilient and resourceful to get the customers in and to react to situations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is why, at Caf\u00e9 Bateel, Muir and his team change 40% of the wholesale menu every six months, and introduce a new dish every month. Muir says your loyal customer base enjoys this newness everytime they revisit your restaurant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These changes are also communicated to the customers. Bateel\u2019s marketing team sends out updates and its influencer community and social media makes sure everyone knows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While it\u2019s easy to lose focus in an industry as dynamic as the restaurant industry, your end goal should be to benefit the customer. They use the feedback system to keep their menu dynamic and customer-centric while maintaining the brand image.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhether it\u2019s your marketing approach, your systems of operations or everyone should remain whatever you do, think of the customer\u2019s perspective because, at the end of the day, we\u2019re nothing without our customers,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From Retail To Caf\u00e9<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bateel is the only gourmet organic date producer and seller in the world. So imagine the ripple of surprise when it opened its first caf\u00e9 in the United Arab Emirates in 2007. It has been so successful, though, that it has since spread to other nations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what drove Muir to diversify a well-known retail brand into the most prestigious restaurant franchise?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, it was the excitement of owning, developing, and operating the brand with greater accountability, he told us. Their excellent new product development (NPD) team helped them face the challenge head on \u2014 developing all their dishes and drinks. The brand has been consistently changing its menu every six months, even during COVID-19. Doing so has helped them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/posist-product\/how-to-achieve-effective-customer-engagement-for-restaurants.html\">engage customers<\/a> and avoid menu fatigue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Importance of Feedback<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For restaurateurs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/posist-product\/5-ways-can-use-feedback-management-boost-restaurant-business.html\">customer feedback<\/a> is crucial. The restaurant\u2019s goal is to give the customer a relaxing and enjoyable experience that will result in higher revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen you get multiple, multiple feedback of the same thing, then there\u2019s obviously <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">something very actionable there,\u201d said Muir.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Bateel\u2019s, they follow a scientific approach to decision-making. They look at the sales mix trend, collect online and offline feedback, and analyze the performance of all operations. This feedback is then categorized into two forms. One is with all the feedback going around the internet about the restaurant. In contrast, the other is the traditional feedback filled with all the verbal feedback received from customers at the restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019ve tried with tablet-based systems, and that\u2019s been fairly effective. But still, the conversation between the manager and a guest provides us with the most detailed, I think, feedback we can get,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Relationship Between Brands and Aggregators<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Food aggregators act as mediators between clients and restaurants, providing access to customers to their favorite dishes online. Customers can place orders via their apps or website and get the food within minutes of ordering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aggregators have rapidly infiltrated the restaurant industry, significantly taking up a proportion of the restaurant\u2019s revenues. According to Muir, the industry needs to value and respect them as a revenue channel because they drive business revenues at the end of the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, Muir also believes that there is a question about ethics in how they operate. \u201cThere is a huge problem with driver and road safety \u2026 unfortunately, the business model that the aggregators and the last-mile operators have is that they only pay the drivers per delivery. So what it does is it creates a culture of I need to get these deliveries done as quickly as possible \u2026 So they want to try and do as many deliveries as possible, which means they take more risks on the road and they drive quicker,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duncan Muir is also the general manager of Foodmark Group. He is a member of DRG\u2019s Advisory Board, supported by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and has served as the senior business manager at Carluccio\u2019s &amp; Mango Tree and as F&amp;B Services Manager @ Hilton London Metropole.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Muir believes that commercially driven people and people with business acumen should explore the restaurant industry before branching into other industries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet Duncan Muir, the senior director of F&amp;B and Retail of Bateel International \u2014 a renowned Middle-Eastern brand known for its dates, caf\u00e9, and retail business. Muir has spearheaded the F&amp;B operations of the brand, leading it to a decade of success. Despite spending most of his life handling the F&amp;B aspect of sports facilities, [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":30783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[810],"tags":[3095,3094,3093,3085,3096,3038,597,3039],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Building A Customer-Centric F&amp;B Business - A Conversation with Duncan Muir<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this episode on Restrocast with Duncan Muir, Sr. Director - F&amp;B Retail at Bateel International, talks about his journey in the industry.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building A Customer-Centric F&amp;B Business - A Conversation with Duncan Muir\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In this episode on Restrocast with Duncan Muir, Sr. Director - F&amp;B Retail at Bateel International, talks about his journey in the industry.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Restaurant Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheRestaurantTimes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-24T11:19:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-24T11:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/blog-feature-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"982\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Prachi Ahuja\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Prachi Ahuja\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html\",\"name\":\"Building A Customer-Centric F&B Business - A Conversation with Duncan Muir\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-24T11:19:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-24T11:47:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"In this episode on Restrocast with Duncan Muir, Sr. Director - F&B Retail at Bateel International, talks about his journey in the industry.\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/foodpreneurs\/duncan-muir.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.posist.com\/restaurant-times\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Building A Customer-Centric F&#038;B Business &#8211; 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