ONE OF A KIND RESTAURANT CUSTOMER JOURNEY PLATFORM
What started 15 years ago as a strategy to replace direct mail and create a loyalty program has become so much more. As I learned about why Kamron started Repeat Returns in 2008 I chuckled at how similar our paths were. Here he was on one side of the game a restaurant owner creating a product to get him to the next level and there I was working with restaurants on the same concepts.
In 2023 we acquired Repeat Returns with the goals of it becoming our “go to” software for our clients. Up to that point my marketing firm, Restaurant Marketing That Works, replied on third party software to connect a complex restaurant VIP program we’d built. I saw buying Repeat Returns as our chance to own the software we used and make it exactly what we wanted for our clients.
Then I did something I don’t do that often, I waited! I sat back and watched. I learned what Repeat Returns was and how restaurants used it. I saw what they loved and hated. I saw what I loved and hated. And then after 4 months I devised a plan.
These two companies would not run side by side, they would become one. We would create the ultimate restaurant marketing platform. By taking both companies and putting them together we could create a solution to every restaurants marketing needs.
So off I ran with an idea to create an “all-in-one” industry first platform. The graphic below was my first shot at what I saw.
It all starts with a customer management software and goes from there. A VIP program driven by RR’s smart systems, customer acquisition, loyalty, review management, web development, social media marketing and finally high level coaching.
THIS WAS IT!
I’d cracked the code!
And then reality set in. Was I really createing the ultimate restaurant marketing platform, or trying to be everything to everyone while giving no one exactly what they needed. Then I looked at my desk, at the piece of paper that I’d taped to my desk that read “become obsessed…DRIVE-SALES.”
(BELOW)
The most powerful products and services created are built from necessity. They are built by owners looking to solve a problem THEY HAVE!
Recently I was in Las Vegas for David Scott Peters 2 Day Restaurant Transformation seminar and heard Bruce Earle tell the story of how Margin Edge was created. It was created by a restaurant owner looking to fix a problem he had daily that he did not see available on the market.
It got me thinking back to why Kamron created Repeat Returns, the exact same reason.
It got me thinking about my own journey and why I created Driven Media Solutions all the way back in 2008.
Then it got me thinking (I know a lot of thinking) about why Driven Media Solutions evolved into Restaurant Marketing That Works.
And finally I asked myself why I created that flier “become obsessed, DRIVE – SALES”.
I did it for two reasons, I knew that my company would only go as far as it could if I became obsessed with the sales of products, but more importantly the SALES of our restaurant clients. Since 2015 we’ve been focused on helping restaurants prove their marketing is working by showing them trackable evidence, AKA sales that happen when we send an email, make a Facebook post, etc.
And that brought everything full circle. What do I hear customers say every single day.
I need sales. Lunch, dinner, catering, upsells from appetizers, desserts, etc.
Matt WE NEED SALES
So I looked at that big fancy cool looking chart of the services I wanted to offer and said “YOU NEED TO DRIVE SALES TO THESE RESTAURANTS.” And I thought long and hard, what really does that. Meaning, what have I learned the past 16 years in running the marketing for hundreds of small businesses and what have I seen from the Repeat Returns side of things?
I looked at what I know to be true. It starts with building a customer database and having a tool, a customer database software, to help you use the database. One that tells you the whole story, not just pieces of it. A software that is built 100% for restaurants and designed to leverage technology to take these customers on a journey so they SPEND MONEY in your restaurant. Whether that’s through a VIP program, a catering funnel, a loyalty program, a birthday program, etc. By any means necessary how can we help restaurants DRIVE SALES through their marketing.
Then I thought about the biggest issue I’d seen through the years with any marketing program, attention. And attention comes from PEOPLE. Which means that no matter how awesome this software was, it needed fuel. It needed our customer acquisition program that we’d fine tuned since 2015.
And last, and probably least, it needed what I loved but it’s 100% needed NOW, BRANDING!
I thought, what if we created a platform that was 90% focused on driving sales and accidentally building brand along the way. Then we’d have the best of both worlds. We’d help these restaurant owners short term with the sales they need to thrive and survive and along the way help them build a brand that is unstoppable.
So with that, our new initiative was launched.:
DRIVE SALES
&
BUILD BRAND
Then I looked at that massive list of offerings above.
8 products that we were going to offer, and I asked myself and my team “what do we all dominate now and know 100% we can do to DRIVE SALES?”
And with that, our services offering was narrowed to 3 items.
– Repeat Returns would go from a 3 level restaurant marketing software to ONE, IGNITE!
– Restaurant Marketing That Works Acquisition program would become ONE, ACCELERATE!
– And our high end 1-2-1 collaborative coaching program would now be, DOMINATE!
And with that I give you the new company name, this is what Restaurant Marketing That Works and Repeat Returns have become…
DRYVER
Y with a Y?
Because as I said above YOU need to drive sales and we are going to help you do it, we’ll be the DRYVER!
Stay tuned…
