Hybrid catering: 5 best practices in customer experience
05 November 2025
Gone are the days of the single-purpose restaurant.
Today, a single location can have several lives: welcome customers on site, manage Click & Collect and delivery, or combine two activities: restaurant + grocery store, café + bookshop, bar + cultural space, or something more unexpected, café + laundry.
This hybridization fits perfectly with the new rhythms of life: we want to save time, have more experiences in the same place and enjoy versatile venues.
For restaurateurs, hybrid catering responds to three key dynamics:
✔ Generate cross traffic by encouraging customers to consume beyond their primary reason for visiting,
✔ Enriching the experience by offering more than just a meal,
✔ And secure income compensating for the hollowness of one with the vitality of the other.
But for the magic to happen, all the activities have to fit together coherently. Design, visual identity, product offering, ambience... Everything must speak from the same universe.
Your hybrid venue should give the impression of a continuous, coherent journey: the customer doesn't feel a "switch" from one type of activity to another, it has to be a continuum.
5 best practices for a consistent customer experience
01. Maintain a consistent identity across all sales channels
A customer who knows you in the restaurant shouldn't feel like they've landed in another store when they order via your website, a kiosk or a QR code. Everything must reflect the same identity: graphic charter, menus, tone of voice, browsing experience.
With an all-in-one solution, all your sales channels are customized to your charter and consistent with each other. And if you manage several establishments, this consistency can also be deployed from one site to another. It's a simple and effective way to maintain your brand image and build brand awareness.
Without this continuity, the experience becomes fragmented: a customer may feel confused by different visuals or an order path that doesn't resemble the in-store experience. Consistency between your channels is the key to ensuring that your brand remains recognizable, no matter which entry point the customer chooses.
Want to find out more? See our resource ➜ All-in-one solution: the best choice for digitizing your restaurant
02. Create visible links between your activities
A hybrid site must not give the impression of having two parallel lives. Customers who come for a coffee need to see that they can buy a product in-store, while those who come for lunch need to discover a special event or complementary offer. Without a link, your activities remain isolated and you lose the opportunity to extend your consumption.
These bridges can be very simple:
➜ offer a menu that brings together your dishes and complementary products (e.g. drinks, desserts, snacks or home-made groceries).
➜ highlight automatic purchase suggestions in the customer journeyWhether from a kiosk, QR code or Click & Collect.
These gateways help to increase the average basket without giving the impression of a forced sale, while enriching the experience. The more the experience circulates, the more it will stay and consume.
03. Personalize customer communication
In a hybrid venue, not all your customers have the same habits. Some never come in for lunch, but drop in regularly for a coffee. Others won't buy anything in the store, but will always be up for a visit. food running club du mercredi.
Sending them the same messages would be counter-productive.
Thanks to data collected on your various channelsyou can segment your customers and adapt your communications.
"A customer who regularly orders from Click & Collect can receive a targeted offer for this channel, while a regular visitor can be invited to discover your boutique corner or a new evening menu."Example of the use of segmentation
This personalization gives you the feeling that you really understand your customers. It's also a powerful loyalty lever, because everyone receives messages that make sense to them.
Want to know more about segmentation? See our resource ➜ Segmenting your database: the cornerstone of customer loyalty
04. Offer a loyalty program valid everywhere
Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than accumulating points in the restaurant, only to discover that they don't apply to Click & Collect or your activities.
Worse still, offering several different programs creates confusion and frustration.
A effective loyalty program must be cross-functional: a single card, a single account and a single mechanism. Whether your customer is having a coffee, buying a product, having lunch on site or ordering online, he or she is feeding the same program.
Unifying loyalty means reinforcing the coherence of your offer, and making customers want to consume through several channels. For you, it's also a way of better tracking their overall progress.
05. Give people the freedom to order where they want, when they want
In a hybrid environment, the experience must adapt to the customer's pace.
➜ He's at the karaoke and wants to order without leaving his table? He places his order via a QR code.
➜ He's in the store and wants to add a takeaway? Same system on the order terminal.
The order must follow its activity, not interrupt it.
This level of freedom is made possible by well-integrated digital tools. And for customers, the perception is simple: they do what they want, when they want. It's this fluidity that gives the impression of a practical, modern place, where everything is designed to facilitate consumption.
"This ecosystem brings fluidity to our experience. Customers, especially those at karaoke bars, are amazed that they can order from the food court without having to go anywhere and still sing along. It's really a wow effect."Frédéric Deromedi Group CIO
Want to find out more? See our resource ➜ Digital order taking: a checklist to get off to a good start
Ready to make your venue a memorable experience?
Delivering a seamless experience in a hybrid concept is no simple matter: several activities, several channels, several routes, but a single customer who expects a unique experience.
That's what we build with our customers every day.
➜ Contact us to build a hybrid experience that's right for you.
➜ Browse our case studies and find out how other restaurateurs have already evolved their experience.
