Spicing up the customer experience with a unique app

Bistro Bryggargatan in Skellefteå is known as one of the city’s best restaurants. With great determination, two passionate chefs with roots in Iceland and an artistic sommelier have collaborated for almost 15 years to constantly further develop their concept. In 2020, the pandemic struck and a completely new challenge was faced: To create a seamless meeting between the physical and digital customer experience.

To adapt a pandemic to a quality experience

In the spring of 2020, the pandemic struck with full force and, like restaurant operations around Sweden, the Skellefteå bistro Bryggargatan was hit hard. Runar Larsen, one of the founders, shares how they quickly changed the classic lunch service to a Corona-adapted solution where customers placed their order at the tables and paid at a checkout. But the payment took time and created congestion. It was necessary to digitize ordering and payment, but without creating friction in the customer experience.

– We started looking at different digital solutions, but the apps that were on the market could not meet our needs, says Runar.

“I am really impressed by the result. We did not really know what we could expect from a student collaboration, but they have thought all the way and given us a solution that is very close to the end goal.” – Runar Larsen, founder at Bryggargatan

Students to the rescue

After a lunch visit, Emma Norrfors at LTU Business had an idea on how to solve the problem. She contacted Runar and told him about the possibility for the company to get help from students at Luleå University of Technology.

– We had no idea about this possibility before Emma contacted us and told us that the university has classes that need cases for the students to work on. She made sure that we got in touch with the right course coordinators and to put together a project brief.

Runar presented the project to the students at the beginning of the autumn term and was immediately taken in by a student team who undertook to develop a technical solution that follows Bryggargatan’s concept and profile. In January, the students presented their proposal.

Can digitize with customized app

Runar believes that with the students’ help, the road to launching the solution is short.

– I am really impressed by the result. We did not really know what we could expect from a student collaboration, but they have thought all the way and given us a solution that is very close to the end goal.

“I do not think that people in my industry are aware of this possibility, but I absolutely believe that if you knew how easy it is, more people would have benefited from it.” – Runar Larsen, founder at Bryggargatan

The collaboration is a win-win for everyone – the students get experience of a real case and the business gets help to solve problems in a completely new way. Runar has been inspired to pursue similar collaborations in the future to develop other parts of the company and hopes that more people will take the chance.

– I do not think that people in my industry are aware of this possibility, but I absolutely believe that if you knew how easy it is, more people would have benefited from it.

Emma says that in her role as a business developer, she often acts as a link between the university and the company. Initially, it is about understanding the company’s needs and then from there finding the right solution, matching the company with the right team at the university and developing a clearly defined project.

– Our role at LTU Business is to work to grow the business community in Västerbotten and Norrbotten. Finding companies with needs and channeling them correctly is a big part of what we do. It feels extremely valuable to us when companies see concrete results of collaboration, Emma concludes.

FACTS

LTU Business offers companies in Norrbotten and Västerbotten tailored support in collaborating with Luleå University of Technology. Learn more about how we can help you here.

Bryggargatan participated in the project Collaboration for Innovation and Regional Growth 2020/2021. The project Collaboration for innovation and regional growth (SIRT) is run by LTU with LTU Business as a partner and is funded by EU/ERUF, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, the Norrbotten Region, Skellefteå Municipality and Luleå University of Technology.