Customer loyalty: 7 original ideas for your restaurant
December 14, 2022
For restaurateurs and retailers alike, customer loyalty is the sinews of war. How can you keep your customers coming back to you instead of going to your competitors?
We've put together "7 digital pearls" so that your customers never forget you!
1/ CRM: the key to customer loyalty
Visit CRM or Customer Relationship Management stands for customer relationship management (but it's much classier in English, isn't it? :-))
It's the cornerstone of a good customer loyalty strategy. Without CRM, it's impossible to build a solid understanding of your customers.
And for this, it's essential to have a qualified customer database that centralizes their personal data and very useful information such as :
- Date of last visit
- Frequency of visits
- The average amount spent
- Their favorite product
- ...
With all this information, you'll be able to propose targeted offers tailored to your customers' consumption habits.
So how do you collect all this valuable data?
Don't worry, you don't need to write everything down in a little notebook.
Thanks to new digital solutions such as QR Code ordering and payment, all customer data is automatically stored in your database.
With just one click, you can consult the history of each customer and find out about their habits: an excellent way of quickly distinguishing loyal customers from occasional ones!
2/ The restaurant loyalty card: a reinvented classic
You've all heard of the loyalty card. The most classic is a simple card that you stamp at each checkout.
But here again, digital technology is revolutionizing the codes of customer loyalty.
From now on, the loyalty card is "virtual".
Whether your customer orders on your website or directly in your store, all purchases are recorded on his or her computer. dematerialized loyalty card.
It's stored on your smartphone, so it can be consulted at any time.
It's a great way to keep in constant touch with your customers. And, what's more, it gives you far greater flexibility than a stamped card:
- You can distribute new loyalty offers in real time
- It can be integrated into your digital menu to encourage the purchase of certain products
- You collect detailed information on your customers
- It works for all purchases: website, pay-at-table, order terminals, cash register software...
3/ Loyalty kitty: another way to motivate your customers
Every customer dreams of earning money with every purchase. Even your own!
Visit digital cashback solution allows you to credit your customers' accounts with every purchase they make from you: you choose the conditions of allocation and the duration of the kitty's validity.
With a credit to spend on your premises, your customers won't forget to visit you!
4/ Prepaid cards: the ideal way to encourage spending
Prepaid cards are an excellent way to keep customers coming back.
How does this new customer loyalty tool work?
Once again, there's no need to carry an extra card in your wallet. Prepaid cards can be fully digitized The card is then presented in the form of a QR Code, which the customer keeps in the wallet of their smartphone. When it's time to pay, they simply scan the QR Code and the bill is deducted directly from the prepaid card.
As a retailer or restaurateur, you also benefit from a cash advance to secure your cash flow.
5/ Marketing automation: it does the work for you
One mysterious word always hides another!
Behind the marketing automationthere's what we call theIA or Artificial Intelligence.
What does all this have to do with your business?
Marketing automation brings a veritable revolution in customer loyalty.
Thanks to the information stored in your customer database, you can set up marketing automations.
This is the automatic triggering of a marketing action, such as sending an email or SMS, following the occurrence of an event.
And you decide which scenarios trigger events.
For example:
Has your customer not returned for more than 1 month?
Thanks to the marketing automationIt automatically receives a message from you to come and visit you.
And the scenario possibilities are endless!
6/ Email campaigns: a sure-fire way to stay in touch
With the explosion of social networks, we often tend to neglect it.
Yet email is a powerful customer loyalty tool. It's even the preferred communication channel for marketing managers.
But don't write to your customers if you have nothing to say!
The important thing is to have something interesting to tell.
To encourage your customers to come back, you can, for example, communicate on :
- What's new on your card
- Special menus for events such as Valentine's Day or Halloween.
- Special offers such as Happy Hours
- Occasional events (concerts, tastings, etc.)
Be creative!
7/ SMS: quick and easy to send
SMS remains an excellent way of reminding your customers.
As long as you don't overdo it.
And sending SMS to your customers is a lot easier than it sounds. Some CRM platforms integrate time-saving SMS sending solutions, such as the CRM offered by Obypay.
Rule of thumb: if you want your SMS to be displayed in full, it must not exceed 160 characters.
Messages should be concise and to the point. Don't hesitate to use abbreviations to shorten the text.
So you don't miss an opportunity to build customer loyalty, ask our experts for advice. It's our job to support you and design the customer loyalty solution best suited to your needs.
