Marketing Your Restaurant Series - Ninth Tip
Get Customers to come back: Develop relationships with your Customers
As noted in Get Customers to Come Back: Loyalty counts, creating a sustainable loyalty program to reward your most valuable Customers is imperative to maintaining the relationships that will help you succeed. In our last business tip of the series, Get Customers to Come Back: Developing relationships with your Customers, restaurant owners should liken the process to courtship and proceed through flirtation to commitment.
Because not all restaurants can be all things to all customers, there are going to be those guests who, lured in first by a good marketing strategy, simply don't return. As opposed to a first-time customer, who is happy with his experience and eager to return, the one-time guest has been failed by the restaurant. While you may never know the cause of the one-timers disappointment, customers dissatisfied by their food are usually easier to turn around because servers can see who isn't enjoying their meal and offer to exchange or re-cook a dish. Customers dissatisfied by service, or who feel ignored or just not welcome, will just disappear taking all chances for a long-term relationship with them.
What's the first thing we do when meeting people we want to see again? We tell them! We also get their contact information, specifically, their email address. Marla Adams, owner of Babette's Café in Atlanta, slips a card in the check portfolio where she asks for contact information, and the dates of the customers' birthdays and anniversaries. She also leaves space for comments. She also pools the cards for a chance to win a $50.00 gift certificate. What's important to developing her relationships with new and regular customers is that she's secured a way to stay in touch.
With contact information, restaurant owners can thank customers for their business with a follow-up email in which they offer an incentive to visit again. When choosing the kind of incentive you want to offer, consider what brought the customer in for his first visit. If he was responding to a promotion or a Groupon-type deal, his incentive for returning should be focused less on price and more on value. If your restaurant's unique personality is that of a friendly neighborhood spot, invite first timers to an event where they can meet your regulars. People responding to reviews or word-of-mouth recommendations can be given a coupon. If the guest was a referral, be sure to thank him and your mutual friend.
Like any promising relationship, the sooner we reach out, the better our chances to connect will be. That said, blasting off an auto-email reeks of insincerity. Consider batching your emails and sending them out, customized if possible, a few days after that first visit. By the way, assure customers know that you will keep their information private.
Long-term relationships, whether personal or business-oriented, are based on trust and compatibility. Get to know your customers as people and let them know you by fostering a sense of community or oasis. Again, how you do this depends on your restaurant’s personality. Family diners, breakfast holes, bars and pizza joints are magnets for regulars. Post photos of patrons, meetings, and events you sponsor and encourage new customers to join in. Evan’s, a diner in Decatur, Georgia collects snapshots of customers pets and then selects one a week as the “favorite.” The happy owners get a free entrée.
Create a special event for one night of the week that families can use to create a tradition. This could be as simple as Moms-Eat-Free nights or even game nights.
Large-scale promotional events like the free Queso Day held by Moe's Southwest Grill may be out of your restaurant's range, but it does pay to look at what the chains are doing and create your own with modifications. What's interesting about the Moe's one-day-only event (where customers are offered a free six-ounce serving of queso dip) is the sense of urgency generated by the advance marketing on Facebook and the company's website. Also, what started as a thank-you to existing customers morphed into a great promotion to capture new customers. The company reported a 50% spike in business following its first Queso Day. Another chain, Tropical Smoothie Café of St. Petersburg, Fl., gave away up to 500 free smoothies at each of its 300 stores around the country to customers wearing flip-flop sandals to celebrate Flip-Flop Day. Look around your restaurant and community, keep abreast of upcoming events and pick one to build an event around.
Twitter, which is essentially mini-blogging and posting, is an important part of restaurant marketing because it gives owners a chance to listen in on what people are saying about your restaurant. It gives you an opportunity to join in and assist or clarify what’s being said. The beauty of social media is that people only spend time following and “friending” businesses they are truly interested in. Don’t forget to invite testimonials on both Facebook and Twitter and then reward those customers who refer friends and family.
Finally, once a relationship blossoms into a kind of “going steady,” it’s time to introduce the new friends to the old. Throw a party! Family restaurants might offer themed nights to make up for being closed on key holidays. Neighborhood restaurants can welcome back those regulars who have been traveling over the season but are home just in time to need an easy meal and catch up.
To Conclude: There may be no other business as deeply involved in the daily lives of its customers as restaurants. In their ability to both feed and nourish the stomachs and souls of their customers for many years, restaurant owners and chefs, wait staff and dishwashers all provide the comforts of a real community. As with all solid relationships, seek to know, understand and provide for your customers and they will provide for you in turn.
THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE. Consult with a financial advisor, accountant or attorney before making important decisions in these areas.
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