Customer Success: Shin Minori Japanese Restaurant

Started in 2007, Shin Minori is a pioneer of Japanese ala-carte buffet in Singapore. They are very well known among Japanese food lovers and have been awarded for their top-notch food and services' quality. With over 200 items on their menu, their vision is to recreate the flavours of Japan by bringing the freshest food to customers. And to redefine hospitality by creating an uplifting service culture so that each of their customers will remember the pleasant dining experience with them.

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Challenges 

Angeline, the founder of Shin Minori shared with us about the challenges she hopes to resolve with technology. Firstly, manpower crunch, due to the increased salary expectations of locals, restauranters are finding it hard to hire local servers. And the limitations of foreign worker permits and increasing levy fees are making it even more challenging for businesses. She hopes to ease this problem with the help of our robot waiters. Secondly, Shin Minori's mission has always been delivering quality service standards to keep customers happy. Definitely not by replacing human waiters with robot waiters, but to assist human waiters in carrying out their tasks even faster. This also gives them more time to interact with customers. Thirdly, they aim to increase productivity with the service robots in place. As it is a buffet business, human waiters often have to make many rounds of trips to the kitchen, back and fro, tiring them out. They hope for a solution to help with this tiresome job and at the same time, to increase productivity. 

 

How we helped

Shin Minori is the very first Japanese restaurant in Singapore to hire service robots, named Loco and Loca. With the latest service robots model—4-tier trays with more space—human waiters can place more dishes on each trip. Now that robot waiters are helping to deliver the dishes from the kitchen to customers' tables; human waiters no longer have to make countless trips. The setup of the service robots was done in just 2 hours, including the tables' mapping and navigation, with no interruption to the business operations. Combined with their existing e-menu, Shin Minori has successfully automated and enhanced the entire dining experience, lowering waiting time and making customers happier. 

 

Results

Servers at Shin Minori are more thrill than worried about the addition of their new "colleagues"—Loco and Loca. The service robots have helped reduce their workload significantly by taking over mundane tasks. This gives them more time to interact with the diners, getting their feedback, and bringing the dining experience to the next level. Above all else, Shin Minori sees an increase in productivity. Robot waiters benefit not only human waiters, but also customers, surprising them with birthday cakes delivered by Loco or Loca. The adoption of service robots helps Shin Minori overcome its business challenges and distinguishes themselves as a game-changer in Singapore's F&B scene.