5 Ways A Loyalty Program Apps Can Benefit for Restaurants
The great a part of running a restaurant is that you are selling a product that humans got to consume 3 times each day for his or her entire lives! However, there are many other restaurants out there. How does one confirm your customers prefer to come to yours?
While dishing up mouth-watering dishes that are too good to refuse absolutely helps, another good way to stay customers returning is with loyalty program apps for restaurants!
Offering a rewards program with a loyalty app for restaurants is an incredibly effective way for restaurants to retain customers, stand out from competitors, and increase word-of-mouth referrals (the best sort of advertising)!
Here is how a loyalty app can benefit your restaurant in additional detail…
Customer loyalty programs are an excellent way for restaurants to encourage customers to go to or order from their restaurant more frequently, turning the “occasional customer” into a “regular”.
Perhaps you incorporate a feature into your loyalty program that sends out an automatic text or email to any loyalty program member who has not visited your restaurant within the last 3 weeks. It might be as simple as, “Hi Sarah, we miss seeing your face in our restaurant! Enjoy a free entree subsequent time you dine-in with us.”
Not only does this encourage Sarah to return to your restaurant, but she must dine-in (spend money) to receive her free entree. Sarah feels valued as a customer and you have successfully retained someone who may need otherwise chosen to dine at the restaurant across the road.
2. Make customers feel special
We are all creatures of habit. People like having a “regular” or “local” and being recognized as a loyal customer instead of an anonymous patron.
In fact, a recent study found that several the foremost important detail restaurant-goers expect their local restaurant to understand is their name (65%) and their favorite drink (50%).
By offering each customer ongoing rewards for continuing to patronize your restaurant over your competitor’s restaurant down the road, you are incentivizing that customer to go to your restaurant exclusively.
Why would Sarah prefer to visit another restaurant that serves an equivalent cuisine once they don’t remember her name, don’t remember her usual order, and don’t reward her loyalty, when she will be appreciated and rewarded for her loyalty at yours?
3. Increase revenue
While offering a free product (i.e. free drink) because the reward will still encourage purchases and increase customer retention, a far better model for restaurants is to supply a percentage discount off the customer’s next purchase.
For example, “Buy 4 Meals and obtain 30% Off Your 5th Meal”.
This way, the customer remains pocket money while redeeming rewards.
4. Boost word-of-mouth referrals
Guess what happens when loyal customers consistently return to your restaurant week after week after week… they carry their friends!
The better your loyalty rewards program is, the more satisfied your loyal customers are POS systems for restaurants, the more frequently they visit your restaurant, and therefore the more they rave about you to their friends and family.
The best sort of advertising is that the kind you do not even buy, and happy customers are walking, talking billboards for your restaurant.
5. Build customer relationships
The reason that a customer loyalty program succeeds in achieving all the above points is that, if implemented and utilized properly, it strengthens the connection between you (the restaurant owner) and therefore the customer.
This is perhaps the foremost important aspect of making a successful customer restaurant loyalty app.
An effective digital loyalty program allows you to gather and categorize valuable data on your customer base, like their age, gender, spending habits, preferred foods, the frequency of their visits, which days they have a tendency to return in, and so on.
Having collected this data on your loyal customers, you will personalize each patron’s visit through targeted marketing and exclusive offers.
You can use the info you’ve accumulated to divide your customers into the busy, on-the-go regulars who swing by for a fast snack between errands and therefore the customers who wish to eat in, take their time, and lollygag around with a coffee after they eat.
Having divided your customer base into these two categories using the info collected from your loyalty program, you’ll send two different offers -something like, “Try our new takeaway chicken wrap and luxuriate in a free coffee together with your first purchase” for the on-the-go customers, and offer the longer-staying customers a promotion like, “Enjoy 50% off any dessert together with your next meal purchased”.
Your loyal customers recognize that this is often a customized offer that appeals to their individual needs, and as a result, they feel valued by your business. This instance just scratches the surface of belongings you can do to form your loyalty program apps for restaurants perform at its maximum potential.
