Lehi Business
Savor app is big deal for little restaurants
When Jimmy Watson started a small business at the end of his college career, he expected challenges, but didn’t realize just how difficult it would be to bring in patrons. Bun Boiz, a steamed bun restaurant, had a small but loyal fan base in Provo, but Watson and his business partner struggled to reach new people.
Another issue they did their best to combat was food waste. At the end of the night, they would run flash sale discounts to get customers buying more to minimize food they had to throw out after closing.
“While I was running Bun Boiz, I got a really intimate relationship with all the different difficulties and pains that are involved with restaurants. They’re super hard. Especially smaller restaurants just starting out have a really tough time with a lot ofdifferent things, from marketing to food waste and a lot of different things like that,” said Watson.
When Watson decided to step away from Bun Boiz, he knew he wanted to help other restaurants minimize food waste, so he created Savor alongside two software engineers.
The app started with restaurants only in Provo and Orem, allowing business owners to list menu items at a discount, intended to clear out food before closing. Watson noticed, however, that many restaurants were listing menu items during lunch hours.
“We noticed that a lot of the restaurants started posting these deals during the middle of the day, and we thought, ‘That’s weird because it’s the middle of the day. Maybe they have somewaste going on in the middle of the day.’ But it was pretty frequent. We talked to the restaurants, and they said, ‘Hey, we’re just using this as a way to promote our food during the day, as a customer acquisition tool on-demand,’” Watson explained. “We launched in September, and in late October or early November, we made a shift where we said, ‘Restaurants, we’re just going to help you drive customers into the store when it’s slower.’”
Savor is now used as a powerful marketing tool by over 200 restaurants in the area. By listing menu items at a large discount, usually 50% off, restaurants can bring in new customers that may not otherwise given them a try.
“It’s just a really cool way for people to go out and explore new restaurants, to get a good deal without having to really risk the scenario of, ‘I paid $14 for this food, and I didn’t like it.’ Now they can do it for half-off,” said Watson.
This benefit goes both ways, allowing customers to save big when trying new foods and allowing business owners to bring in new patrons.
“For restaurants, it’s a marketing expense for them, but it’s like the coolest marketing expense ever because you get people actually trying the food, which is the main thing that everyone is focused on. A lot of small business owners really are tied to the food, and that’s all they want to focus on. So, we’re like, ‘Well, let us take care of getting people in here and raising some of the word of mouth around your business,’” Watson continued.
The Savor app became available to restaurants in Salt Lake City in April and has since expanded to restaurants between Provo and Salt Lake.
“We were targeting the university towns first, but now we’re expanding into Lehi, American Fork, and surrounding cities. We have more restaurants in the South Jordan-Mill Creek area, and now we’re kind of closing the gap,” said Watson.
Savor has found its niche with mom-and-pop, quick-service restaurants. Watson has big plans for Savor’s future, including expansion throughout Utah and beyond and increased functionality, such as full-menu ordering and cross-restaurant rewards.
“A lot of [these ideas] have come from feedback from our users and from restaurants, finding out what’s valuable for them. I have some insight, but I’m not everyone, so I can’t speak for the whole world of restaurants or our users. So, we do a lot ofcustomer interviews with restaurants and users to figure out what features are important for them and what we’re going to launch next,” Watson shared.
The Savor app is available for iOS and Android devices and is free. Restaurants interested in using the Savor app can reach out to Watson and his team at 385-204-3227 or savor@savoreats.com for a demo and to see if it makes sense for their business. For more information about Savor, visit savoreats.com.
