Now that we have started building your restaurant’s customer database for your best customers, it’s time to talk about the OTHERS!

But first, let’s talk about WHY.

There are 3 ways to grow your sales

1st – Get your best customers (AKA Frequent or Loyal ) to visit more often or spend more when they do visit (like buying an appetizer or dessert)

2nd – To find NEW customers

3rd – To bring back lost customers.

The importance of knowing exactly who your customers are is massively important.  In the blog 2 days ago I talked about creating messaging in your emails that talks to the customers based on WHO they are.

I commonly teach restaurants about not sending the same thing to every customer, they need a unique journey in your marketing.  

Now it’s time to develop a plan for customers who’ve never been to your restaurant, NEW customers and what I like to call the “sometimes” customers, you know the ones you haven’t seen in a while.

This is where an amazing offer comes into play, you have to have a HOOK to get the to raise their hand.

Let me tell you a great story about a recent case study we did with a client.

We have a client who owns a restaurant point of sale company and 4 restaurants.  We ran a customer acquisition campaign for him to showcase what our Acquisition Engine and Retention Rocket programs can do.  These 4 restaurants have been using Repeat Returns for many years and it works great for them.  But like all restaurants, there are LOST customers inside their database.  

At the conclusion of the test he noticed something major.  There are A LOT of customers who were already in his database but had not visited the restaurant, WHO we found through our Facebook Retention Rocket campaigns.  These are social media campaigns designed to get people to comment. Then once they comment we drive them to Facebook Messenger to engage them to gather their information.  He was amazed the number of LOST customers we found through this tactic, and especially the ones that walked into the restaurant within a week.  

Gaining the info from your FREQUENT customers is much easier than others, you get most of that information through your POS or your restaurants online ordering system.  

But new and lost customers aren’t coming going to be found that easily.  

For starters, new customers haven’t been given a good enough reason to raise their hand.   And lost customers, well, ARE LOST!  How awesome is it that Facebook campaign asking locals to tell us who’s going to win the “BIG GAME” that Sunday got customers who’d stopped coming to his restaurant two years ago, to not only comment, but come back for a meal.  

It’s what makes me smile, it’s GOLD!

But here’s another part of the equation.  By getting them to tell you how often the come to your restaurant, or the fact they never have, you now can have a different conversation with each one of those customers. 

New customers need to know your hours, directions and to get indoctrinated to your menu.  Lost customers need a hug and high five.  And when you know who they are, you can easily craft these messages in order to customize their experience with your marketing.