When I talk with restaurants about marketing, there is a heavy focus on new guest acquisition. Not saying that’s wrong, I'm just admitting it's tough and expensive.
There’s no guaranteed bullseye framework that finds your ideal guest, brings them where they spend 2x your AOV, leaves at 5 star review and then comes back every week for the rest of their life.
(Side note: If this does exist and you know about it, hook a brother up!)
On the other hand, there are a lot of much less expensive, easier to execute proven retention marketing moves you can make to help nurture guests into becoming fanatics.
That’s why I like retention so much. If we can decrease the amount of customers who only visit once, we’re in a better place. Right?
I've gotten A LOT of great retention insights and plays from my good pals Hamed Mazrouei and Eric Miller from Milagro. So rather than just gank their ideas, I suggest we co-author a framework on how to do this specifically using waitlist & reservation tech.
If you are a full service restaurant, this is for you!
Here are their ideas with my notes sprinkled in:
STEP #1: Capture Guest Data
You have to collect guest contact data. This is the fuel needed to execute these playbooks.
Make sure your Waitlist, Reservation or Table Management app captures and builds a CRM (database) of your guests including their first name, last name, mobile number, and email. This is super valuable information to leverage to drive more frequency.
More visits = more sales = more tips = less problems in the business. We all can agree on that, right?
PLAYBOOK #1: Get Guest Feedback On Every Order
You can increase 5-star reviews with feedback automation. Here is how it helps you increase your 5-star reviews on Google, Yelp and Social media apps
After your guest has an in-store dining experience, an automated text is sent to them asking for their feedback.
When the guest leaves a 4 or 5-star review inside the feedback system, the system recognizes that and then directs them to share that 5-star experience on Google, Yelp or social media.
This will increase your 5-star reviews, therefore making your new guest acquisition more effective because Google will prioritize your listing based on brand reputation. Higher positive reviews also build instant trust by providing social proof.
When the guest leaves a 1, 2 or 3 star review within the feedback system, that is automatically sent to the store manager so you can make it right and win back the guest.
For those times that things didn’t go well because maybe the wait time was long, the server was a little slow or the food was delayed because the kitchen was backed up, asking for feedback before the guest leaves a 1-star review prevents it from happening.
PLAYBOOK 2: The First Time Visitor Campaign
Decrease the amount of 1-time guests by enrolling all first time guests in a “First Time Visitor Campaign.”
The goal of this campaign is to drive increased repeat visits, here’s how it works:
Upload the guest contact information you have been collecting with your wait list / reservation platform into a CRM where you can set up automated marketing to messages to them after the visit.
Set up these messages in your First Time Visitor Campaign:
After the First Visit
Example: Thanks for visiting Handcraft Burgers, here is a buy one get one free burger on us! See you soon!
After the Second Visit
Example: Nothing beats a BOGO deal, right?! Come in and try our amazing cheese fries! Btw, here is a coupon for a free one on the house
After the Third Visit
Example: We love our guests, we are thrilled to have you as a guest in our restaurant. Here is a free soft drink on your next visit. Cheers!
This campaign aims at turning that 1-time visitor into a habitual guest of the restaurant, therefore increasing sales & profits while reducing that guest acquisition cost.
Here is an example of effective use of this campaign to increase retention after 4th visit.
Acquisition + Retention = Increased Profits
Market place apps like OpenTable, Yelp, or Rewards Network are a great tool for guest acquisition (even though they are very expensive).
On average, a restaurant pays $2,500 a month for OpenTable, 25% for DoorDash and UberEats, and 14% for Rewards Network.
These are great channels to acquire new guests, however, the magic to lowering your acquisition cost is to turn those 1-time visitors into frequent visitors.
Here is how to combine acquisition with retention marketing to make more money and lower that cost:
Use market place apps to acquire new guests
Use a central CRM tool to gather guest contact information
Automate Guest Feedback through a guest experience management system
Automate Guest Retention campaigns through an automated marketing system
Guest acquisition is expensive, not much can be done about that, so maximize on it by using built-in automations to bring some of those guests back without a cover fee or additional expense.
We built SmartWAIT to help restaurants
Automatically build a CRM of your guests
Increase your 5-star reviews through proactive guest feedback
Turn first time guests into frequent guests
Increase sales
Want to learn more? Send me a message [email protected]
Thanks Hamed! As a marketer, I believe our North Star Metric is CRM growth. The more guest contact data we have, the more we can do with it.
These playbooks will definitely help you do that!
If you’re a quick serve or fast casual restaurant, you can use the same methodology, just use online ordering and kiosk for guest data capture in place of waitlist and reservation apps!
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Do you need help with any of this? Send me an email [email protected]
- Rev Ciancio
WHAT DOES REV DO?
*I help restaurants to build guest marketing programs.
*I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing.
