Frequent diner packages abound and there’s good motive for this, says Arjun Sen, president of Zen Mango, a Centennial, Colorado-based consulting firm.
“A frequent diner program offers you a share of the shopper’s pockets house,” he says. “It additionally helps construct a behavior. Those that expertise a model three or 4 instances have a revisit intent that’s as much as 15 p.c increased in comparison with that of one-time guests.”
These packages allow eating places so as to add worth with out discounting, Sen continues. Additionally they provide an efficient software for shifting shopping for habits, for instance, encouraging larger frequency of use or visits throughout off-peak instances.
However the packages can fall quick. For one factor, Sen explains, as we speak’s society prefers its gratification prompt. Consequently, the delayed rewards that characterize many packages appeals to a smaller group of customers. The treatment? Bump up the rewards frequency and set a low threshold to get them began, he says.
That is what they did, says Nancy Reineking, director of operations at Willow Avenue Wooden Fired Pizza in Los Gatos and San Jose, California. After they first launched their program, prospects needed to spend $200 to get $20 off (they use a stamp card with every stamp price $10). 5 years in the past, they determined to decrease the rewards stage. Now, after spending $100 prospects can get a free appetizer; after 25 stamps a free entrée; and after 30 stamps a free dessert. Clients can redeem as earned or .
Reineking says this system is common, including that in a single week at their Los Gatos location, 45 stamp playing cards had been turned in.
Steve Rubino, founder/president of Rubino’s Pizzeria, with a location in Herndon and in Ashburn, Virginia, retains rewards obtainable as nicely. Clients in his program obtain a $10 reward card for each $100 they spend.
“Our prospects who use this religiously are a terrific worth to me,” he says. “It’s onerous for me to place a finger on how a lot this has bumped up gross sales; simply say that the cardboard customers are a major a part of gross sales.”
Sen believes in creating ranges of utilization/rewards. He suggests house owners consider their site visitors and break the thresholds into mild, medium, heavy and super-heavy customers, primarily based on frequency.
“Then the concept turns into shifting folks from one threshold to a different and holding them on the heavy finish of the spectrum,” he explains. “On the decrease ends, the rewards must be frequent and small, turning into extra private and privileged as you progress in the direction of the heavy finish.”
This technique additionally helps eating places differentiate their program, making it much less “me too,” an actual problem due to the proliferation of those packages, says Sen.
“To make this system actually stand out it is advisable provide one thing greater than ‘purchase six get one free’,” he says. “Begin by trying on the non-financial rewards, issues that can actually wow the shopper.”
This might embrace perks like instant seating, or shifting to the highest of the wait listing, or private consideration from the supervisor. Different potentialities could be particular presents, equivalent to a free birthday pizza or an invite to be the primary to strive a brand new menu merchandise or to attend a particular in-restaurant, invitation-only occasion. The purpose is to make this system member really feel well-treated and valued (he suggests trying to different industries that actually join with their prospects for extra concepts).
However restaurant house owners additionally should consider these packages in a different way, says James Sinclair, principal of Onsite Consulting, a Los Angeles primarily based restaurant consulting agency. Relatively than merely rewarding repeat enterprise, the first goal must be the amassing and retention of information, not interesting to cut price hunters.
“In case you have a buyer that all the time is available in Thursdays, don’t provide him a deal that provides him a reduction on Thursday, as a result of he was already coming in at the moment. Now, you’ve misplaced income on that buyer,” says Sinclair. “Don’t flip a greenback into fifty cents.”
You should outreach to prospects and drive site visitors and promotions with out taking away from the prevailing site visitors you’re getting, he emphasizes. All the worth of those packages lies of their advertising skill, getting the shopper’s consideration with a view to push them in the direction of what you wish to accomplish.
“The purpose of the rewards program isn’t for the shopper,” says Sinclair. “It’s for the restauran — disguised.”
That is the technique behind her program, says Candace Roseo, co-owner of Bella Vista Trattoria & Pizzeria in Wilmington, Delaware. She collects names, addresses, cellphone numbers, e mail addresses, anniversaries and start dates by way of the POS system, making a database of 1,000 prospects to this point that she commonly markets to.
Reward ranges vary from $100 to $500, with a free appetizer or dessert on the first stage and 15 p.c off the entire invoice on the highest. This system generates good phrase of mouth; about 25 names are added every week, a sign she’s bringing in new enterprise. However that’s not the largest worth.
“Data is energy,” she says. “If you happen to’re not accountable for the way you contact your prospects and the way steadily you contact them, nicely, let’s simply say that’s not a place I’d wish to be in.”
Rising Effectiveness
The next ideas will enable you wring essentially the most out of your program:
- Make signup straightforward and handy. Provide each in-restaurant and Web page signup.
- Educate workers, says marketing consultant Arjun Sen. When these packages fail, it’s actually because the workers doesn’t assist it. Practice them on program particulars. Reward them for signing up prospects. Put it on the market by means of workers, with in-store signage, on menus and your Web page.
- Hold it lively. Commonly promote it to members, for instance, by way of e mail blasts saying a brand new menu merchandise (mentioning that program members heard this primary), reminding them of program advantages
- Make adjustments so this system doesn’t get stale. (Instance: restaurant proprietor Steve Rubino is providing double factors nights to advertise sure classes.)
- Hold it constant together with your model when it comes to identify and the supplies utilized in this system (equivalent to swipe/stamp playing cards). All ought to improve your picture.
Pamela Mills-Senn is a freelancer specializing in writing on matters of curiosity to all method of companies. She is predicated in Lengthy Seashore, California
