Restaurateur Secrets

Last Updated on Friday, 15 January 2010 05:54 Written by Kevin Wednesday, 25 March 2009 09:40

Here’s an interesting concept from the US – One we’re sure could work here in New Zealand. All it needs is a simple way to build up your list of recipients through our own personalised direct mailers, smart email and purl marketing toolsets.

First, start a Birthday Program

Background story from the US – Collecting birth dates is the first simple step to a building a full loyalty program. It’s all about getting to know your customers better.

Of the top 130 restaurant chains in the United States only 7 have loyalty programs to capture customer details, birthdays and generally encourage more frequent patronage.

Why? Restaurants DO fit the bill – high-frequency patronage, pre-bookings and stiff competition, characteristics shared with hotels and airlines, sectors that already have advanced online booking, retention and loyalty programs.

For the Fifth Group Restaurants of Atlanta, for example, members spend 17% more than before they joined the program. Spectrum Foods’ Table One program in San Francisco increased average sales among their 15 restaurants by 10%. And The Palm’s 837 Club is garnering a terrific return on investment.

Stop Losing Customers!

The average restaurant loses 10-20 leads per week as the result of poor client loyalty, together with poor marketing, enquiry and paper booking processes. At an estimated $100 per customer sale ($200 for birthdays), the potential loss easily exceeds a $1,000 a week for small operators and much more for larger restaurants.

Customers actually want to be remembered – In a quantitative study by the National Restaurant Association, 50% of table-service customers said they’d be more likely to patronize a restaurant that had a loyalty or birthday program.

So, why are restaurants missing out?

An illustrative story is told by Brian Lambert, loyalty programs manager at Rock Bottom Restaurants in Louisville. Fishbowls it seems are a big thing. You go in and drop your business card in the fishbowl. Usually the restaurant manager goes in there, gives away the free lunch, and then throws the rest of the cards away. For restaurants, names are perishable. Reservations are recorded on paper, then thrown away. Customers are forgotten.

Start Collecting Data

You need a database system to collect and track customer details and for reservations. Setting up a modern reservation system is now easy and affordable.

New generation web based reservation systems make recording, managing and tracking customer reservations is really simple. And because it’s online, it can be accessed and updated anywhere, anytime. No software needed. Just a PC (or iPhone) with web access.

As well as bookings, we can then use all that collected customer data to launch slick e-loyalty programs (without expensive plastic cards), as well as use it to generate steady business with personalised postcards as above, plus smart email and SMS messaging to bring in regular clients.

Unlike clunky desktop solutions, such systems also encourage mass bookings for private events, large groups etc. It could even allow regular business clients to securely login and plan their own dates, see menus, costs and then book online.

Much more professional. More Profitable…