Customers are your highest priority, right? Getting them is important, and keeping them is even more important. So what are the best ways to keep restaurant customers? How do you foster loyalty and happiness in your customer base? Three words: restaurant loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs are rewards systems for your customers, thanking them for repeat business with specials, discounts, rewards points, or events just for them. Recent research from the hospitality industry found that 57% of adult consumers are more likely to visit restaurants that offer reward programs.
Give your customers a good reason to come back to you and make them feel appreciated by incentivizing their visits to your business. There are three key points to consider for successful implementation of your loyalty program:
1. Align Your Loyalty Program with Your Target Customers
If you own a sports bar, run game-day specials for customers who follow you on social media. Evergreen’s social media tools can help you notify fans on Facebook. You can even schedule posts to go out a day or two before game-day! You can also add a promotional image to your digital displays a week or two in advance.
2. Ensure Your Loyalty Program Pleases Customers and Promotes Your Business
Reward your customers with a drink on the house for checking in at your business. These types of rewards do more than just make your customers happy–they also promote you.
You improve your digital visibility through your business’s “check-in” activity. Reward customers who post photos to Instagram with a direct message and a discount offer–a great way to build relationships with your customers, make them feel recognized, and encourage them to return.
3. Your Program Should Incorporate Out-of-the-box Thinking
We love this example from a Buzztime article about outrageous rewards offered through loyalty programs:
“Forget coupons or free meals…Italian restaurant Vino Vidi Vici offers something a little more impressive. Any customer with 50 purchases gets his or her name engraved on a table. Customers will come back often for the chance to have their own table!”
Talk about out-of-the-box thinking! Bars are places people go to have a good time and feel good, and that motivation leaves ample room for you to play with fun and funny rewards for your loyal customer base.
No matter what you choose to do, your efforts to make your customers feel appreciated will not go unnoticed. Reward your loyal customers as only your business can do, and you and your fans will feel a happy buzz!
Evergreen is your end-to-end bar and restaurant menu software, inventory management, and social media management platform. Request a demo now to see how we’ve helped thousands of other businesses free up time and costs to serve more customers.
