Category: Restaurant Marketing

Drive More Revenue Into Your Restaurant Business With Customer Data

Posted on June 4, 2021 by - Restaurant Marketing, WiFi Marketing

Until now, restaurant marketing professionals have had a tough time authenticating the ROI of their online and offline marketing campaigns.

However, as customer behaviors blur the lines between screen time and storefront visits, WiFi analytics and marketing platforms have changed the game, allowing physical locations to collect real-time tangible campaign data from actual customers—whether they’re scanning menus at corner cafes or checking odds through integrated betting sites at neighborhood pubs. More importantly, when used properly, this data can provide a significant return on investment, revealing patterns that refine everything from peak-hour staffing to cross-channel incentives that keep foot traffic steady year-round.

In the past, retail and restaurant managers had to pay companies large sums of money to obtain accurate and detailed customer profile data.

While this information provides a good look into customer demographics and psychographics, there are two main issues:

  • The data collected is only a snapshot in time. If you’re looking for consistent data, you’re going to have to continue purchasing it.
  • The data collected is typically from a small sample size of customers.

Fortunately, a WiFi analytics and marketing platform can eliminate the issues. You’ll consistently receive real-time data, build accurate and detailed customer profiles, and you will see it from a very large sample size of your actual customers.

And you can do this at a fraction of the cost of purchasing data from traditional companies.

Customer profiles can allow you to make much smarter marketing decisions and engage with your customers on a more personal level, driving higher customer spend and loyalty, saving on costs, improving restaurant reputation, and boosting ROI.

Now that you know you can quickly and easily collect all the valuable data you want, let’s take a look at the actual value customer profiles can add to your bottom line.

Turning Customer Profiles into Increased Revenue

Knowing who your customers are can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your marketing strategy and results.

By collecting detailed customer profile data, you can create marketing campaigns that will speak much more clearly to each of your audience segments.

This allows you to not only define and differentiate your most valuable customers but to speak to them in an effective way that they will understand and engage with, persuading them to keep coming back.

As you’ll see below, this can make a tremendous difference in your profitability.

You’ll be able to:

  • Identify your ideal customers in terms of value, and market to them effectively
  • Classify other audience groups you may or may not have previously identified
  • Measure ROI and optimize messaging for each audience segment
  • Develop new products, services, menu items, deals and promotions

As you begin using your customer profile data to segment and effectively message your customers, you’ll see much more success increasing your per-person averages and customer lifetime values, filling your locations with buying customers, and increasing your bottom line.

Multiply Results with Personalized Marketing Messages

With detailed customer profiles gathered through your WiFi marketing hub, personalized campaigns not only become entirely possible, but they’re also easy to set up, maintain and measure.

You can target your messaging by profile information like age, gender, geographic location, visit times, length of stay and several other demographic and behavior data points with messaging that speaks to that particular segment.

According to Mindfire, Inc., a marketing automation company, in a study of 650 multi-channel marketing campaigns, personalized campaigns consistently and overwhelmingly beat out static campaigns in generating a high response rate from recipients.

And according to The Direct Marketing Association, 77% of ROI comes from segmented, targeted and triggered campaigns.

In our free guide, The Value of a Customer Profile, we go into detail around the monetary value of customer profiles, showing how a chain of 5 restaurants could increase their customer visits by an additional 480 visits a month.

Then we factor in per-person averages and cost to acquire a customer and show how just one marketing message per month could bring in an additional $80,000 in annual revenue.

We further explain that increasing customer frequency – of just 10% of their customer profile base – could take that number and increase it dramatically, to an additional $417,600 in annual revenue.

Then we factor in personalized messaging and behavior-driven marketing, and that number increases even more.

You can download the guide here to see all the details. It’s truly an eye-opening read.

Save on Costs

Not only will customer profiles help you in terms of getting customers to come back more often and spend more, they can help save you money in costs as well.

We’ve already talked about the costs of collecting customer profiles using WiFi technology being a fraction of the cost of purchasing data from traditional companies.

You’ll also save money on advertising costs. In an Ayman Farahat and Michael Bailey study conducted on targeted advertising, they found, assuming the cost per 1000 ad impressions (CPM) is $1 USD, that:

  • The marginal cost of a brand-related search resulting from ads is $15.65 per search, but is only $1.69 per search from a targeted campaign.
  • The marginal cost of a click is 72 cents, but only 16 cents from a targeted campaign.

Targeted advertisements, no matter the channel, will typically yield higher results for lower costs, dramatically reducing your cost per customer acquisition.

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By collecting customer profile data, and using WiFi analytics, you’ll be able to not only identify your high-traffic days and times, you’ll begin to be able to better predict them.

This will allow you to bring on the right amount of staff at the right times, avoiding overstaffing and loss of payroll dollars.

In addition, you’ll be able to make smarter purchasing decisions, keeping your items as fresh as possible and decreasing the likelihood of running out of a product – the dreaded ‘86’.

It’s Time To Get Started

The value of customer profiles can be seen from several different angles. With the emergence of WiFi technology, it has never been easier to passively collect this valuable data and act on it.

Customer profiles can be extremely valuable, giving you a greater understanding of who your best customers are, allowing you to speak to them when, where and how they want to be spoken to.

This drives engagement, familiarity and loyalty between you and your customers, driving solid increases in PPA and CLV and saving on costs.

With the amount of competition out there, customer profiling can be one of the easiest methods of gaining a strong competitive advantage and ensuring lasting success.

Using Customer Data to Personalize Email Marketing

Posted on May 28, 2021 by - Email Marketing, Restaurant Marketing

Personalization of email marketing messages is crucial to win over today’s savvy consumers . Personalization refers to using customer data to create much more effective email content because it can be tailored for each individual or each customer persona.

Using personalized messaging has been proven to improve open rates and generate more revenue because it allows restaurant marketing professionals to create more relevant content that will more effectively pique the interest of the consumer.

By collecting customer data through your WiFi access points, and grouping those customers into separate lists, marketers can avoid sending out a single mass-message in hopes that it resonates well with at least some of the audience.

Instead, they can focus on sending highly targeted messages to each customer segment, increasing open rates and encouraging more engagement.

How to Collect Individual Customer Data

To execute an effective personalized email marketing campaign, you’ll need to have comprehensive data about your individual customers. There are various ways in which to collect customer data, but most are either expensive or take a great deal of time and energy.

The only way to gather enough data to effectively create a personalized campaign is to use a quality WiFi Analytics platform. Using WiFi technology, you’ll be able to capture data directly from your customers when they log into your WiFi access point. This will allow you to passively gather the necessary individual customer information required for proper personalization.

Using progressive profiling, data such as name, email address, phone number, age, gender, birthday and other information is entered by the customer each time they log back into your WiFi.

In addition to all of this demographic information, the WiFi analytics platform also tracks the physical behavior of your customers, logging things such as dwell times, repeat visits, coupon redemption, days of the week and hours of the day they have visited.

With this kind of thorough and reliable data, marketers can begin using it to build powerful, data-driven targeted email marketing campaigns.

Using Data to Build Personalized Marketing Messages

According to research from Salesforce, the world’s #1 customer relationship management platform, data targeting and segmenting was used 51% more by overperforming businesses than those who were underperforming. This makes perfect sense when thinking about today’s consumers. They expect personalized messaging and they know when they’re receiving a simple generic mass-marketing message.

The simplest way to get started creating personalized campaigns is to make your customer profile data filterable. This will allow you to start building segments of specific customers based on their demographics and behavior data.

Email Segmentation for Marketing

It is important to be able to save these segmented lists so you don’t have to build them each time you want to send out a message.

Some examples of segmented lists might include:

  • Women over 30 who visited on Mother’s Day of last year
  • Any customer who has visited more than x times
  • Customers whose average dwell time is under 20 minutes
  • Men below 45 years old who have only visited your establishment once
  • Women/Men who only visit at lunchtime

As you can imagine, these specific audiences would likely respond best to entirely different marketing messages. Being able to segment your customer list allows this to happen.

While building these lists, you’ll need to be brainstorming about how to effectively engage these groups. As you go through this process, ask yourself and your team members these questions:

  • What kind of action do I want this customer to take?
  • What is the best way to reach this customer?
  • What kind of deals or promotions would interest this customer?
  • What kind of deals and promotions would this customer NOT be interested in?
  • What new products or services might engage this customer?
  • What are this customer’s pain points? Why do they need what I offer?
  • How can I attract and engage more customers like this?
  • What type of imagery would engage this customer?

Always Be Testing

Now that you have your customer segments properly defined, and you have an idea of the marketing messages and promotions you want to send to them, it’s time to get started. When you create and send your marketing message to each list, it is vital that you monitor the ROI of each campaign.

As initial results come in, analyze the results and keep them documented in your platform. The next time you send a message to each group, you’ll want to make a small change to the message. You should only make a single change to the message while testing. Send the message and compare its results to the original message. If results are not as good as the original, go back to your original message and test a different aspect of the message. If results are better, keep the change and continue testing and optimizing over time. This is known as A/B testing.

Also, don’t forget that you’re not just targeting current customers. You should also be seeking out new lookalike prospects online and targeting them in an effective manner using the data you’ve collected. These prospects should have a higher probability of becoming a new customer, providing a more cost-effective means of acquiring new customers.

Final Thoughts On Email Personalization

Personalizing your email marketing messages with reliable customer data has been proven as an effective way to deliver relevant and engaging marketing content to your customers. This adds value to their experience and can quickly improve your open rates and subsequent revenue.

Using a WiFi marketing and analytics platform to collect a large volume of the right data, personalizing your marketing campaigns has never been easier. You’ll feel confident as you make solid data-driven decisions, drive company growth and build a much larger base of loyal customers.

Restaurant Reputation Management Can Grow Your Business

Posted on April 1, 2021 by - Restaurant Marketing

Why is Restaurant Reputation Management Important?

Restaurant reputation management is a very important aspect of running a successful restaurant business.

Your reputation, online or offline, can literally make – or break – your restaurant business.

It can make the difference between a packed front-of-house with a line to get in, or a sparse dining room with too many empty seats.

This is why actively managing your restaurant reputation is crucial for a profitable, growing business.

Restaurant Reputation ManagementOf course, it is important to grow a more positive reputation. However, it is just as important to manage any poor customer experiences effectively.

This can lead to turning a poor experience into a loyal, happy patron ready to spread the good word.

A very large part of reputation management is monitoring and improving your online customer ratings and reviews.

According to Modern Restaurant Management, an increase of just one star can give a business an approximate 5-9% increase in revenue. And an increase of just one-half star would likely fill your seats during peak business times.

They also reported that 34% of diners choose a restaurant based on peer review websites.

And 53% of 18-to-34- year-olds reported that online ratings and reviews factored into their dining decisions.

Managing Online Ratings and Reviews

According to a Time.com article, customer ratings are dominated by 5’s and 1’s and largely lack anything in the middle.

This happens because most customers who take the time to leave a review either had an amazing experience or a terrible one.

Customers who had a realistic or ordinary experience are just not motivated to leave any kind of review at all.

To overcome this, don’t be afraid to ask your customers to leave a review for you online.

According to a 2017 BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey, 68 percent of consumer respondents actually left a local business review when asked to do so.

The study also showed that responding to these ratings and reviews is more important than ever.

Responding to Poor Ratings and Reviews

A study by TNS NIPO researched over 2,000 negative online customer ratings and concluded that overall 70 percent of complainants hope to receive a response, while just 38% receive one. According to TNS NIPO, the success of the response is determined by 3 factors:

  • The speed of the customer review response time.
  • The quality of the solution provided to the customer.
  • How the response is provided, and how genuine the response is perceived.

Likewise, the willingness of consumers to consequently recommend the brand again can be doubled (3.4 to 7.2) by combining these three factors effectively.

Your first thought after seeing a bad rating or review may be to fire back and defend yourself. However, this could actually damage your reputation even more.

Instead, embrace the feedback. Try to understand where the customer is coming from and respond with TACT.

  • Thank them
  • Apologize
  • Continue the conversation offline
  • Treat them

Thanking the customer will let them know that you care about your customers and reputation.

Remember that your response will be seen not only by the reviewer but by everyone else who reads the review.

When apologizing, be as sincere as possible. Apologize for either the condition, or for their experience as a result of the condition.

Continuing the conversation offline is important, but make sure to request this in the initial response. Offer your business email address or phone number.

That will let the public know that you want to work with the reviewer to make things right.

Finally, offer the guest an incentive to return to your restaurant and give you another chance.

Responding to Positive Ratings and Reviews

Responding to Customer Reviews for Reputation ManagementResponding to positive reviews can greatly improve the reputation of your restaurant.

Most business owners will simply leave positive reviews alone. However, responding to them can greatly boost the effectiveness of that review.

Make sure to respond to these reviews in TIME.

  • Thank them
  • Identify your business or location
  • Market (just a little)
  • Engage them

With any review, you should always thank the customer for taking their time to review your business.

In addition, you want to describe your business or location. For example, you can include a sentence like, “As downtown’s oldest premier Italian restaurant…”

Likewise, you should include some kind of marketing statement, such as how you provide a free drink or dessert for customers on their birthday. Make sure not to be too salesy or promotional.

Finally, it is important to engage the customer with a question, an invitation to come back, or asking them to share the word with friends and family.

The upside to responding to negative and positive ratings and reviews can make a huge difference in customer loyalty, customer service recovery, and new customer acquisition.

Ratings and reviews are just one item to focus on for effective restaurant reputation management. Here are some other things to keep in mind.

Offer Stellar Food & Drink and a Great Ambiance for Better Restaurant Reputation Management

Of course, if your food is under par, your restaurant reputation management will be much more difficult.

Always talk to your customers after they have had a chance to complete their meal. Ask them how it was.

Over time, you will be able to take that feedback and improve your overall food and drink offerings. In turn, your reputation will inherently improve.

Likewise, if your front-of-house is unkept or the wrong environment for your ideal customers, your reputation can suffer.

You will need to understand who those customers are and what their preferences might be.

Do they prefer more dim lighting? Do they want TV screens? Or, do they prefer a specific style of music?

Again, engage with your customers and make sure to take their feedback seriously.

Ensure the Best Customer Service Possible

Train Staff to Improve Restaurant Reputation ManagementAlmost nothing can damage a restaurant’s reputation faster than consistently poor customer service.

It is crucial to train all staff on how to provide outstanding customer service.

The training should include the proper way to handle any negative customer experiences.

Establish a culture of consistently great, memorable customer service.

Give your customers an experience they will remember and share with friends and family, online and offline.

Doing this and everything above revolves around knowing who your customers are, what they want, and how they behave while at your physical location.

Using WiFi Analytics For Superior Customer Data Collection

When it comes to restaurant reputation management, knowing your customers is crucial.

In addition, you will need to monitor their ratings, sentiment, and behavior on an ongoing basis.

For most restaurant owners and operators, this is a daunting thought.

Likewise, they simply do not have the human resources to maintain this type of intense data collection and storage.

Fortunately, it is possible to use your guest WiFi access point to collect the very data you need.

Even if customers do not log into your WiFi, you can gather valuable customer behavior data.

For instance, you will see data like:

  • Overall foot traffic
  • Average customer dwell times and dwell times by the hour
  • First-time visitors
  • How many first-time visitors return
  • Average customer repeat rate
  • Popular visit days and hours
  • Average customer churn rate, and more!

All of these data points can be viewed in any date span, which allows you to easily see developing or existing trends such as a spike in your churn rate or how many customers you are losing over time.

Or you might notice that your average dwell time of your customers is double at 8 am than it normally is at your location.

These types of data points allow you to hone in on potential customer issues before they make a bad review online.

In addition, for those with multiple locations, you can compare various locations or groups of locations for any of these data points for any date span.

Build Valuable Customer Profiles

Moreover, when a customer logs into your WiFi just once, all previous and future data associated with their device is added to a customer profile.

If they log in with a social media account, or multiple times, additional demographic data can be added to their profile, including:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Postal code
  • Birthday
  • Phone number
  • Individual behavior data

Since they gave their email address to log in, you can now market to that person based upon their behavior and demographic data.

Knowing these things, your marketing messages can be personalized and targeted to their interests.

You can send a message that will truly resonate with the customer.

For example, you can send a survey to customers X amount of time after they have an experience at your location.

For instance, if the customer leaves a good rating, you can respond by thanking them, and then asking them to give you a positive online review.

By building positive online reviews you will ultimately drive more new customers to your locations.

In contrast, should they leave a bad rating, you can respond with T.A.C.T, including an apology and an incentive to get them to return and give you another chance.

Over time, this survey automation and auto predefined responses will actively build positive online reviews that build your restaurant’s reputation, along with customer satisfaction, spend and loyalty.

Grow Your Business with a Stellar Reputation

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to restaurant reputation management using WiFi marketing and analytics data.

The opportunities are endless, and you can get this data for pennies-on-the-dollar compared to other data collection methods.

 

Restaurant Marketing FAQs

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8 Changes Coming to Restaurant Technology in 2023

Posted on November 6, 2020 by - Restaurant Marketing

Many restaurants just started getting their feet wet with new technologies. But then, suddenly, COVID-19 thrust the entire industry ten years forward without very much warning at all.

Some restaurants embrace the changes and move forward, but sadly some smaller restaurant chains are still struggling. Many are now out of business.

The question is this: How can restaurants compete in such a fast-evolving climate? Even after COVID-19, the industry will never be the same.

COVID-19 has transformed the meaning of consumer convenience.

While it used to be convenient for a family to merely dine-in, they must now go online to check and see if the restaurant is even open. Then, they get caught up in restaurant reviews to help them make their decision.

Additionally, more guests are checking websites to determine delivery and pickup options. Some customers worry about touching anything in a restaurant. Health food is a growing necessity. Even placing an order with a stranger invokes anxiety for some.

After a year of living like this, consumer behavior and comforts aren’t going away. Society has a new appreciation for cleanliness, germs, and convenience, and safety has a new meaning. New ordering habits are likely here to stay. 

According to Accenture, “Consumers attitudes, behaviors and purchasing habits are changing—and many of these new ways will remain post-pandemic.”

This list includes the top changes that are most likely here to stay for the entire food & beverage industry, including restaurants and coffee shops. 

electronic restaurant menus

1. Electronic Menus for Restaurants, Bars, and Coffee Shops

Many restaurants are adding “virtual menus” to their WiFi landing pages. When a customer orders, they can provide their email to log into WiFi and view the menu. This menu ordering method eliminates the need for guests to touch screens or papers that have been touched by many others. 

You can click here to see how electronic menus work with a free demo.

2. Wireless POS

Let’s face it. Writing an order down on a piece of paper and then providing it to the kitchen doesn’t just increase the spread of germs. It also increases the likelihood of misreading an order and creates more room for error. Many restaurants and bars turn to wireless point of sale systems to provide order directives to kitchens in real-time, increase efficiency, and improve guest satisfaction.

touchless loyalty programs3. Touchless Loyalty Programs

As more and more guests forget to order with their loyalty phone apps, Bloom Intelligence is experiencing an increased demand for touchless loyalty programs.

Touchless loyalty programs can detect customer visits, whether they log into in-location WiFi or not. Then, when they log into WiFi for the first time, loyalty offers are emailed based on custom visit counts. Besides increasing loyalty and customer retainment, redemption is more comfortable to remember than mobile apps. Guests do not have to order with an app to get rewarded for their loyalty, increasing customer satisfaction.

You can click here to see how touchless loyalty programs work with a free demo.

4. Touchless Ordering

Many coffee shops, bars, and restaurants turn to touchless ordering for both their customer’s health and convenience. Customers can log into WiFi on their phones by providing their email address and then receive the page to choose their order on their own devices.

You can click here to see how touchless ordering works with a free demo.

touchless ordering

5. Subscription Services

To increase recurring revenue and provide their customers with value, many cafes and coffee shops turn to subscription services. These services deliver coffee and baked goods to guests, providing them with their favorite goodies in the convenience of their own home. 

6. Delivery & Customer Pickup

Many customers have learned how convenient delivery and pickup services are, and that convenience won’t completely go away after COVID-19. That’s why it’s increasingly important to provide efficient delivery and pickup options for customers while maintaining a focus on decreasing back-end costs over time.

changes coming to restaurant technology after covid-19 coronavirus pandemic

7. Website Focus

If your website does not have online pickup options available, you are leaving money on the table. Many restaurants and coffee shops are shifting their focus to their website to keep their guests from churning to competitors. Guests want to be able to pay for pickup orders online in advance. They prefer the convenience of saving time and getting in and out.

8. Electronic Communications

If there’s one thing many restaurants have learned from the pandemic crisis, it’s that email addresses and phone number lists are gold. It’s more important than ever to reach customers where they are. Restaurants must provide the personalized and automated messaging that they need to feel valued and increase their loyalty.

You can click here to see how automated data collection and personalized campaigns on autopilot work with a free demo.

Of course, many other shifts continue to impact the food and beverage industry. The competition is rising, and reviews are becoming a higher priority. Many restaurants, bars, and cafes turn to Bloom Intelligence to provide automated positive review generation and learn more about their guests. Outdoor seating is making a big comeback. Healthy foods are in higher demand.

The success on the food and beverage industry depends on adaptability and ability to evolve.

 

aaa-recipe test

Posted on October 31, 2020 by - Restaurant Marketing

Looking to boost your restaurant’s visibility and attract more guests? You’ve in the right place.

Below you’ll find comprehensive guides for launching effective marketing campaigns tailored specifically for you. These step-by-step instructions will help you create those compelling automated campaigns that resonate with your best guests.

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5 Restaurant Holiday Marketing Strategies in 2020 & 2021

Posted on October 19, 2020 by - Restaurant Marketing

There’s little doubt that the 2020 – 2021 Holiday season will look a bit different than the rest. Indeed, Americans’ expectations when they eat out have changed in what seems like a blink of an eye. So, as restaurants begin to re-open, it becomes even more essential than ever to keep patrons safe while welcoming the New Year with a healthy revenue boost. In fact, according to Upserve, restaurants could see up to a 306% increase in sales for the holidays.

The Power of WiFi Analytics for Effective Restaurant Marketing

Posted on August 13, 2020 by - Restaurant Marketing

Now that the COVID-19 shutdown orders are being lifted across the country, restaurant owners and operators are faced with a new challenge – getting customers back through the door.

Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as placing an “Open” sign in the window. 

In these ultra-competitive times, you need to have an advantage that will set you apart from your competition.

How To Decrease Customer Churn With WiFi Analytics

Posted on May 19, 2020 by - Restaurant Marketing, WiFi Analytics, WiFi Marketing

Customer churn, also known as customer attrition, isn’t an isolated event. It’s a process that can start at any time, from when a potential customer first discovers your place of business, to when they finally become a repeat customer.

Your company’s strategy to combat customer churn must work similarly, providing an end-to-end solution — and it all starts with your data.