Case Study: Front of House
Novel x Front of House
Front of House is the new digital face of the restaurants and bars you know and love. They take signature items from your favorite spots and turn them into one-of-a-kind, off-menu digital collectibles, designed to let you wine and dine — online.
We sat down with Phil Toronto, Co-Founder of FoH and Partner at VaynerFund, to learn why his team trusts Novel to bring the restaurant industry into web3. We dive into:
The value of Novel’s seamless onboarding and ongoing client support
How Novel makes buying and selling NFTs effortless with Shopify
Why the restaurant ecosystem is overdue for a foray into NFTs
“I’m impressed by Novel’s versatility. You can onboard someone with no idea what a MetaMask is. You can also cater to a power user with a wallet full of NFTs.”
Front of House Digital Collectables
Front of House: Bringing web3 to the Restaurant Industry
Throughout the pandemic, Phil worked on a project to drive additional revenueto restaurants without their sole source of income — diners — during the heart of COVID-19.
He and Colin, his eventual co-founder, had already brainstormed multiple concepts for FoH, which started out as a wildly different idea before being shelved in March 2020.
Then, they had their aha moment and found a new spin: They could create digital collectibles to drive more revenue for independent restaurants in a way that doesn't require diners in seats.
Why Trust Novel to Bring the Idea to Life?
FoH relies on Novel to build their core function because they explicitly aim to cater to these restaurants' existing patrons: people who've likely never heard of web3 or "digital collectibles."
Novel had two key components to make that happen:
Users don’t need to have an existing NFT wallet, and it’s easy to create one if you don’t
Buyers can purchase with credit card as if it were a typical eCommerce checkout, which they're already accustomed to
Existing NFT Wallet not needed
Knowing this, the co-founders quickly decided: "This is exactly what we need to use."
“Our goal at Front of House is to drive more dollars into restaurants’ hands without relying on diners in seats. web3 puts their IP to use as a great revenue stream.”
Enter Novel: Seamless Onboarding and Embedded Support
Phil easily sums up their Novel onboarding and rollout of FoH’s web3 infrastructure:
“Once we went ahead with the Novel team, it was seamless from end to end.”
Shopify Integration: Purchase with Credit or Crypto
Dropping their first collection was drawn out on the FoH team’s end (mainly by handling partners and logistics), but Phil estimates it took two Zoom calls and 72 “painless” hours tops for the Novel team to roll out their tech once they had the green light.
He attributes that speediness to Novel’s unmatched client support.
Novel’s onboarding crew was “all hands on deck” from the get-go and quick to handle the few bugs that cropped up. Months later, he reflects on that vendor experience:
On this point, Phil adds:
“It was honestly amazing to have that hand-holding. We definitely would not have had as smooth of a launch process without the Novel team’s attentiveness.”
Novel Makes Dropping NFTs Effortless with Shopify
Every time FoH onboards a new bar or restaurant partner, the entire rollout process — from designing the NFT concept to Shopify tagging — takes little-to-no lift.
Design the artwork — Sometimes restaurants work with an artist they already have on their team. Or, they’ll ask FoH to take a stab at designing something with their assets.
Generate the NFT collection — Zero code is required, and the collection is as easily manageable as your Shopify inventory.
Orchestrate the drop — The FoH team will typically have a preview up and ready on Fridays before the collection is scheduled to drop at 5 PM (ET) every Monday.
Post-purchase management — Like with any Novel NFT, the buyer can easily link their wallet before or after the purchase, as well as resell their FoH token if they’d like.
“The level of support we received from the Novel team was absolutely incredible. They were all hands on deck with us from the moment we signed.”
How Novel Makes NFTs Approachable
As mentioned, Phil loves just how accessible Novel makes web3 for both their restaurant partners and those partners’ end users.
Namely, there’s way less lift required to onboard end users to web3 as a whole.
Create your wallet post-purchase — Phil was shocked by how easy it is for users to create and link a wallet after they've already bought the token. This also lowers the bar for access, since you don't need to have ever touched crypto.
No educational lift necessary — Without Novel, FoH would've had to set up their own resources (videos, walkthroughs, etc.) explaining how to create an NFT wallet. We saved them "the headache" of "quite a few hours" of work.
All in all, whether the customer's a web3 native or someone who barely gets Web 2.0, FoH can readily welcome them to their web3 ecosystem of restaurants.
In fact, Phil describes receiving feedback from users saying, “I can’t believe I just bought an NFT. The process was nothing like [I anticipated].” Diners never expect that buying an NFT can be just as easy as buying a t-shirt from any eCom store.
Phil also highlights how Novel’s accessibility is critical to convince both restaurant owners and patrons that web3 isn’t some “Get rich quick!” scheme.
(FoH was able to court restaurants once they made it clear that their NFTs aren't a cash grab — but another layer to enhance the existing customer experience.)
With the worst-case scenarios taking up most headlines about web3, it makes sense that people are nervous at hearing "off-menu digital collectibles."
As such, Novel’s UX, which makes both minting and buying tokens as easy as your average eCom transaction, has been pretty crucial.
Your End User Support is Powered Directly by Novel
The FoH team essentially has a 24/7 live chat going with Novel client support at all times.
It helps manage any day-to-day needs, but Phil emphasizes the value of being able to connect end users directly to the Novel experts via live chat.
“That was a big lift off of our shoulders around customer service.”
After all, like we mentioned, user onboarding, education, and post-purchase support are all essential. And they’re also time and resource drains for very small teams.
As soon as someone asks, “Hey, what do I do if my NFT hasn’t shown up in my wallet?”, FoH can easily and directly send them to Novel support for the highest-quality guidance.
Utilizing Novel to Build Loyalty in Restaurant Communities
Overall, Phil is most stoked to keep working with restaurants to implement Novel’s easy token-gated commerce function for exclusive merch, events and experiences, etc.
As for user accessibility, he highlights how easy it is to check someone's NFT wallet to determine eligibility for perks, as opposed to clunky log-ins or proof of purchase.
In Phil’s words:
“It’s just a nice, quick, magical experience for the customer.”
The collections so far have mainly provided token-holder benefits like access to reservations on short notice or during peak hours. And, according to Phil, many users have loved those privileges, reacting along the lines of — “I cannot believe this worked.”
web3 Rewards Both New Diners and Regulars
These days, most restaurants (excluding some mega-chains) have little-to-no rewards systems or loyalty programs in place for their most loyal diners.
That’s part of the reason the FoH team decided the industry was more than ready for web3.
Instead of focusing on points and discounts, FoH emphasizes rewarding a restaurant’s day-in, day-out regulars with quantifiable perks and great experiences — online and off.
Phil affirms that Novel has uniquely enabled these capabilities for the hospitality space.
New business — Bars and restaurants can attract a brand new sphere of diners (AKA NFT lovers) into their space through OpenSea.
Rewards for long-time regulars — Simultaneously, there’s no velvet rope. Someone who’s dined there for years can be retroactively rewarded for their loyalty with perks and privileges. And there’s zero knowledge of deep tech required.
“We’re really excited about Novel. It takes a restaurant’s community to the next level by providing unique access to both new diners and long-time regulars.”
