Some of you may be familiar with me as I have helped lots of our loyal customers with questions regarding our Ben’s Friends’ Rewards program. My name is Al Olle and I oversee all things marketing and loyalty. I have been with Ben’s for 12 years; I started my path here as a server, shortly thereafter I became assistant to the president of Ben’s and eventually took over responsibility of Ben’s marketing. In the years since, I have revamped our website, created all our social media accounts, slowly but surely moved us away from traditional heavy print advertising which is what we mostly did and moved to more targeted digital solution. The idea is to reach our customers where they are, be it a newspaper, email, social media or while browsing their favorite websites.
As if things weren’t already challenging in the restaurant space, Covid 19 happened, dine in was not an option for most of us and Ben’s was going to be in a tough spot, as we did not have a reliable online ordering system. Without one, our phones and cashiers would not have been able to handle the large volume of orders, so we got to work and swiftly launched Ben’s Order & Delivery, our own platform that’s integrated with our Ben’s Rewards Program. I am happy to say that the timing was perfect, and we were able to keep you fed while allowing you to continue to earn points and redeeming your hard-earned rewards.
In retrospect, the impact covid had on the restaurant industry is incredible, it changed the way you shop and the way we as restaurant folks look at hospitality. We have learned that we must leverage technology and evolve beyond the four walls of our stores.
So, what’s next? I would love to say drinks by the beach in Hawaii, but we are busy working on some new and exciting changes to our Ben’s Friends Rewards program to keep you better engaged and more informed about your accounts. We are also working on a simpler and cleaner look for our website which is something I will be working on with Ronnie’s daughter Jaime who has some really fresh ideas and our webmaster/graphic designer Debi who will help us put it all together nicely.
I couldn’t do what I do for Ben’s without the full support and trust of one of the funniest and hardest working people in the kosher deli game, Mr. Ronnie Dragoon. His love for deli has fueled my passion for this job so I will continue to do my best for him and to help Keep The Kosher Deli Tradition Alive.
As Ronnie loves to say,
See you at the deli!
Ps. Don’t forget to order one of catering packages for the Superbowl, it looks to be an exciting game!
