Loyal clients are affordable – it’s six times harder to attract new clients than to please the loyal ones;
Loyal clients bring more money – they spend 5% more than non-loyal customers, and they visit the restaurant 20% more often;
Loyal clients bring more people – 82% of loyalty program members referred at least one person to their program. 42% of them referred four or more;
Loyal clients are the last leaving – when things get tough, the loyal clients may be the only escape plan. They may continue to order for a while, even if things are not so good as before, so they can help the restaurant survive a crisis situation. More importantly, they constantly give feedback on things to improve or on the areas where the restaurant has lately become sloppy.
How to grow a loyal base through client lifecycle promo profiling:
It is our core belief that when it comes to online sales, a straight path to success is to find a way to be disruptive. Time and time again restaurant managers demonstrated to us that the best way to create loyal clients is to keep it simple, keep it real.
Our proposed approach on loyalty (as on everything else we do) is meant to provide a simplified experience for a straightforward single-unit or mini-chain restaurant setup with basic needs and limited management staff involved.
We call this client lifecycle Promo profiling and what basically means is to “play” the promo deals game in such a way that most of the food clients from the first order to the 10th or 20th, remain engaged and are eager to order more often and more things from the restaurant.
There is no single way to do this. It all depends on what type of benefits the restaurant is able to offer, to what type of clients etc.
Here is a collection of ideas, hopefully, they will provide some inspiration.
Goal 1: have more people become clients
Setup an “x% off on your first order” promo deal for new clients >> promote this in the online space (e.g. Facebook ads +Google ads) plus flyers distribution (returning clients won’t see it).
Goal 2: have more people order 2nd time, even if they were not happy and they do not plan to order again
A follow-up email + promo “tell us how was your first order experience and get a $off coupon code that you or a friend of yours may use” >> get feedback to improve >> people that were really upset will “blow some steam” directly rather than leaving public bad comments, and even if they do not wish to order again, they may give the earned coupon to a friend.
Goal 3: have more of the returning people increase their order value
Enable/show them value deals like “free item on a menu”, “combo deal”, etc.
Goal 4: have more people inviting their colleagues/friends to order together and increase even more their average purchase
Enable/show them value deals like “buy one get one free”, “family deal”, “meal bundle”, etc.
Goal 5: reward big spenders
Invite people (that have ordered at least x times) to tell their birthday in order to receive a % off coupon for everything they order on their birthday date.
Goal 6: reward frequent buyers and make them order even more often
Invite people (that have ordered at least x times) to specify which is their favorite dish in order to receive a % off coupon that they can use every time they order to get % off on a particular/preferred item (e.g.only this year) .
The life-cycle can go on and on by segmenting and properly rewarding and engaging in an authentic manner with each type of client, while usage terms remain simple and straightforward.
