Building customer loyalty is a major challenge for any restaurant. While this is less costly than attracting new customers, it also creates a climate of trust, which is conducive to the restaurant’s image, and therefore to its development.
The aim of customer loyalty is to make customers want to come back to your restaurant. Beyond promotional and personal offers, develop an emotional bond and create an attachment to your restaurant.
Looking for ideas on how to build customer loyalty? Discover 7 effective ways to achieve this.
Be present on social networks and maintain your e-reputation
Today, social networks are a must, and almost everyone is present on at least one of them. Logically, then, it’s important for a restaurant to nurture its e-reputation by being present on social networks. It’s an opportunity to make yourself known, to be easily found online, but also to communicate and exchange with customers about current offers and upcoming events.
There’s no need to create an account on every social network. It’s better to target one or two where you’re sure to find your customers. The restaurateur can then decide to animate his page himself, by regularly posting content (photos, texts, videos…), but he can also call on a community manager to manage his presence on social networks.
If you decide to get started on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social network, it’s important to invest and be regular, in order to be spotted by the algorithms, and have better visibility. It’s also important to show your commitment to your customers, if only to let them know that the restaurant is open… or exceptionally closed!
Streamline the customer experience with pay-at-table and order-at-table services
A loyal customer is a satisfied customer who doesn’t want to go elsewhere for a better experience. With this in mind, a restaurant that wants to build customer loyalty must invest in the customer experience. Digital tools, such as table ordering and payment at the table, help to streamline service in the dining room, offering customers greater autonomy and more qualitative moments of exchange with waiters, and thus improving the customer experience. These solutions also have the advantage of giving the restaurant a modern, positive image.
The use of a digital QR code menu and a digital cash register also contributes to facilitating the work of staff, who are then more welcoming and available. These are all conditions for improving the customer experience and making customers want to come back.
Personalized offers
To encourage customers to return to your restaurant, nothing beats promotional offers. But this only works if the offers are tailored and targeted. For example, you can use data collected in various ways (online orders, loyalty cards, etc.) to propose personalized offers. These will make customers feel recognized and pampered, and make them want to take advantage of them. It’s always nicer to go to a place where the staff takes your expectations into account, rather than to a restaurant where you feel you’re just a table number.
Personalized offers can be proposed for a variety of reasons: to celebrate a birthday, to celebrate the anniversary of the first visit to the restaurant, to take part in a national holiday or event (Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Halloween…)… The idea here is to precisely target customers’ tastes to create the desire to come to your restaurant.
Expand its offering with takeaway, Click and Collect and delivery services
Today, and even more so since the containment and health crisis, many consumers enjoy the luxury of being able to eat their meal wherever they want, whether at home, at work, or anywhere else. The trend towards nomadic catering has become even more pronounced since the COVID crisis. So it’s a good idea for a restaurant to extend its offer to include take-away sales, and to offer them via a delivery and/or click-and-collect service.
This is made possible by the launch of a branded online store, which ensures a seamless customer experience and personalized services, thus fostering customer loyalty. Or via a presence on a marketplace, which allows you to promote yourself to customers from other restaurants. Another popular solution for entrepreneurs with several establishments, virtual food courts and dark kitchens, is the dedicated marketplace, which offers a complete, proprietary digital experience, unlike delivery platforms.
Offering a unique, immersive experience
Build a culinary concept that’s as much about the food as the place, so that customers have a memorable experience that makes them want to come back. He’ll want to share it again with other friends and rediscover pleasant sensations.
Open kitchens, colorful and exotic decor from floor to ceiling, augmented reality that transports you into exceptional worlds, events and olfactory or sensory experiences, are all avenues to explore.
Send a newsletter on a regular basis
To build customer loyalty, it’s essential that they never forget you. Nothing beats communication, and the newsletter is one of the most effective tools for your business. It allows you to play an active role in customer relations, at lower cost and with less energy. It’s all about using an email marketing strategy to encourage your customers to return to your restaurant.
You collect each customer’s email address by various means, such as online ordering via a proprietary solution.The next step is to write simple digital letters, proposing promotional offers on products and menus, or giving information such as the new menu, a signature dish, a prize, an exceptional opening…
Here again, you can write your own newsletters, or entrust the management of your e-mails to a community manager.
Having a website and working on its SEO
Many restaurateurs don’t think it’s worthwhile to have a website. And yet, this means of communication represents a major lever for developing a restaurant’s customer loyalty.
Just like social networks, websites are essential to ensure an online presence. The showcase site is a virtual window on the restaurant, just as the physical store is. It’s also an opportunity to offer an online ordering service, and thus broaden our offering.
To build customer loyalty from your website, you’ll need to position it well in search engine results. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) are interesting strategies for setting yourself apart from the competition.
Don’t have the time to invest in a website? Don’t forget to create your Google My Business listing. Quick to create and easy to update, the business card is a real asset for local visibility and customer loyalty.
Would you like to do everything you can to build customer loyalty? DOOD has developed a complete offer for you, integrated with your POS and CRM business tools, including all the strategic tools you need to improve the customer experience and develop your loyalty rate.