PUTTING THE SECRET IN SERVICE
MEET THE STARTUP THAT SPIES ON YOU IN ORDER TO HELP YOU GAIN BETTER HOSPITALITY
It’s a personal dossier Ethan Hunt would envy, a virtual manila folder crammed with intimate intel, from your workplace, home address, relationship status, favourite drink (Negroni on the rocks; Hendrick’s, please), and even the last time you got a promotion. This report is no impossible mission, though: It’s your profile on Seven Rooms, a startup that aims to be the CIA of VIP CRM (customer relationship management), putting the secret in service.
For US$250 to $1,000 a month per location, restaurants, and clubs can subscribe to Seven Rooms.
The goal is to become the ultimate digital maitre d’ or doorman, discreetly remembering everything about everyone.
VEGAS, BABY
“I’d need five interns in an office, filtering through this and that, to do what Seven-Rooms does — it’s more cost-effective, and lucrative,” said Dean Tsakanikas by phone from his New York office. Tsakanikas runs VIP relations for the invitation-only elite guest program LDV Lifestyle. He characterizes the service as “Facebook meets LinkedIn meets Open Table, all on one platform. Fedor Banuchi, vice president for entertainment of the Cosmopolitan resort in Las Vegas, said it’s helped zero in on VIPs, because “when you have a large business, it’s very difficult to identify who your best customers are,” he said.
MICRO-TARGETING
Seven Rooms is capitalizing on two trends. There’s a growing niche of restaurant-focused CRM software. Seven Rooms is also borrowing the idea of translating online presence into real-world influence from startups like Klout. Some hospitality vets, though, aren’t enthused. “Everything this system does, my father did with his own two legs, hands, and sheer will,” said restaurateur Marco Maccioni. “This is trying to make a robot human.”
CUTTING THE VELVET ROPE
Chief Executive Officer Joel Montaniel says the mission is “to make anyone feel like a regular, even when they’re not.” Admittedly, tracking diners isn’t new—it’s long been the mark of an impressive maitre d’, and some restaurateurs have created their own proprietary systems: Danny Meyer, for example, uses secret codes and three-letter acronyms such as f.t.d. (first-time diner), while Keith McNally follows Standard & Poor’s-style credit ratings with fewer than 20 people achieving the most coveted AAA, including Vogue editrix Anna Wintour.
PRIVACY CONCERNS
There’s is a lingering question. Seven Rooms doesn’t offer a feature whereby names can be centrally removed from the database. The company instead suggests contacting venues directly, or adjusting settings on social media to deny its algorithm access. The first question most people will ask, however, isn’t how to be removed, but how to shortcut to toptier status. The best way to reach the seventh room of Seven Rooms is surprisingly analog: old-fashioned politeness.