There are 3 places to gain customer data with your badass offer.

1st & most important = In Store

2nd & almost as important = Your website

3rd & easiest, but least important = Social Media

In the 4th quarter of 2022 I decided to go work at one of our clients, Rapid Fired Pizza in Florence Kentucky.  WHY?  Because I wanted to understand a few things at a much deeper level.  One of those items was the fact that NO ONE ever opt into their program at the cash register, when buying.

How is it possible that the most important customer in your business, the one standing right in front of you handing you money, was the hardest to get to opt into the marketing programs. 

As I stood their folding pizza boxes next to the register I was confronted with the ugly truth…THE EMPLOYEES were bad at asking, if they asked at all.  Was this training, was this lack of “shits given” or were they just not good sales people.  The latter couldn’t be true, we’re not selling anything, it’s the opposite.  We’re GIVING THEM free stuff.

Then I saw this interaction

Employee –  “Hey, scan the QR code”

Customer – “Why”

Employee – “You get something”

Customer – “What”

Employee – “I’m not sure”

Customer – “No thanks, I’m good”

I’m not exaggerating, it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever watched.  As a professional sales person, marketing and business owner I was ashamed at what had just transpired.  

We had given the owner training instructions many months before on how to have the conversation. We had a digital guide and training on what they could say, what the offers were, test sequences for the employees to go through and catchy slogans to use.  

HOW did all of this fall on deaf ears, or did they just not get the training.

It was at this point in which I hopped in “do you mind if I cash out the next customer?”

Here was my interaction with the customer:

Me – “Yo, you didn’t get a dessert pizza, have you had the cinnapie before?”

Customer  (looks up at the menu in disbelief) – “No, I haven’t, looks delish”

Me – “It’s insane, you’ll love it.  And I want to make sure you get one next time, you cool if I give you a free one for your next visit?”

Customer (looking dumfounded) – “Uhh, yeah, I’d love that”

Me – “Cool, do me a favor.  Take out your phone. Scan this code.  It will open in Messenger.  Yep there it is, answer those 5 questions really quick.  FYI, we don’t spam you, we use your email and cell to send you a free perk like this from time to time.  Great, that’s all there is to it, you’ll get that free dessert pizza in a few hours along with a few other amazing offers”

Customer (SMILING ear to ear) – “ DUDE, thanks man. This is awesome.  I can’t wait.

The employee was blown away.  He was astounded.  They get what?  That’s what the QR code does?  WOW!

And with that one customer interaction, their in-store VIP Program opt-ins went through the roof.

The mistakes were apparent. The owner had failed to understand at a VERY DEEP level himself how the program worked.  He failed to OWN it and that trickled down hill to his managers and then to the employees.  There wasn’t any accountability and there wasn’t anyone monitoring the stats to see how often people joined.  

And I don’t want to hear how “this is hard.”  Your employees never wore masks before the pandemic.  Your employees wash their hands before they touch food. There’s ZERO reason this can’t get the same level of buy in, it just comes down to YOU doing your job as the leader of the restaurant.  

The good news is the digital opt-ins are much easier

1st – Your website, have a pop-up that’s in your face and to the point

2nd – Social media, have weekly catchy posts touting the program’s perks and ask people to click or comment to join. Plus, you should have paid ads running every day as well.  Look up my podcast Restaurant Marketing Secrets episode 568 to find out more about that. 

See you tomorrow…