Day 6 – The Puzzle

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In yesterday’s blog we established where to start the journey of increasing your restaurants sales by starting with your most important customers, the frequent ones, now let’s talk about HOW to gain their information.  

What does it take?

First, it takes a software.

Second, it takes an offer so good they’d feel stupid saying no to it.

Third, it takes a marketing campaign to us that data correctly

And, last but not least it needs TRAFFIC.

Today, let’s talk about the first step, a piece of software capable of housing your customer data and helping you use it.  

My journey into restaurant marketing software started in May 2015.  It was that April when I launched our first marketing campaign on Facebook for National Pretzel Day For Hofbrauhaus.  The idea was simple, prove to my clients that we could drive sales through a Facebook post.  What happened after that was HUGE.  We drove $18,000 in incremental sales in 1 day. 

The client was stoke and their new love for digital marketing was kicked off.  But then it hit me, who the heck used the BOGO pretzel promo.  Yes it drove sales, but by who?  

And it hit me.  What if I knew who those customers were and could control their marketing journey.  Easy enough, onto the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago.  There were 4,500 booths, surely a marketing firm existed that had exactly what I needed.

WRONG!

There wasn’t a single company with a solution that would do what I wanted, so I created it.

From 2015 until 2017 I worked on what I called the ROI Engine, a solution to help me with gathering customer data and taking them on a journey to spending more at the restaurant.  By 2023 we’d done it in a big way, but that we knew there was MUCH more to do.  

And that’s when we acquired a powerhouse int he restaurant marketing software business,  Repeat Returns.  In was November 2023 and the vision now much bigger.  It w was to build an industry first restaurant ONLY marketing platform that assisted in this and more.  

So back to the topic at hand, you need a product like Repeat Returns, one that allows you to collect customer information at a level deeper than just an email.  

For the past 7 years we’ve used a custom template we built in ManyChat, a tool that integrates with Facebook and Instagram Messenger.  Many of you will use your restaurants Point Of Sale system, and that way work.  But whatever you use, below are the questions you want to answer about your customers.

You must get their:

Name

Visit Frequency

Phone Number

Email

Birthday

Tomorrow we talk about your ASK!

 

Day 5 – The Puzzle

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So, where does driving sales start?

What’s the first step in your journey to driving massive sales to your restaurant?  

It starts with customer data, aka a customer list.  But more importantly, it starts with building a list of your best customers, “your frequent ones.”  A database is one thing, but a database of your best customers is another. 

There are three ways to grow your sales and the first is by driving your best customers in more often or getting them to spend more money on their regular visits.  And in order to that you need to know exactly who they are.  Worst case scenario you need their email address.  But ideally you’d have your restaurant’s best customers: name, email, cell phone number and birthday.  Then and only then can you really build a meaningful relationship with them and drive on demand sales from the easiest set of customers.

So that means you need to create a plan to get this information from your customers.  There are three logical places to start.  First is inside your restaurant, with your team and point of sale, or a marketing database software.  Second is from your website and online ordering.  And the third place is your restaurant’s social media pages.  

Now you know where to get them, tomorrow we talk about HOW to get them.

P.S. My drawing of puzzle pieces each day hasn’t gotten any better, go figure, it’s only been a few days 🙂


Day 3 – The Puzzle

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Day 3 – Friday April 5th, 2024

L.M.S

Lead, Market, Sell

That’s my mantra as the LEADER of my companies.  

I have to LEAD my team.

I have to MARKET by brand.

I have to SELL my vision.

This is what I aim to do every day, let’s break it down piece by piece.

LEAD 

Leader =  someone who others will follow. 

Think about that statement and then think about your daily life.  Do you want your team to follow you?  Are you healthy in your mind, body and spirit?  Are you a person they should follow?  I had this exact question with myself December 25th 2023 as I looked in the mirror.  I was 20-25 pounds overweight.  Yes, to my team I was “in shape”, but I was not in shape to me.  And I certainly wasn’t leading.  A leader would be absolutely YOKED!  RIPPED.  IN OBVIOUS SHAPE!  Not, kind of in shape.  Or at least working their ass off to get there.

I always reasoned with myself that I was far enough ahead of most people as my reasoning for living my version of a “healthier” lifestyle.  On that day as I looked in the mirror and looked into my soul I told myself enough was enough.  I needed to start LEADING in a big way.  If soft drinks are bad for you, then why am I an occasional drinker of them vs never?  If donuts are bad for you, then why am I walking around with one?  

 

So on that day I decided I need to start LEADING when it comes to fitness and nutrition.  It’s been 3 months and 1 week.  I’ve not had a cookie, donut, cake, soft drink, etc.  I’ve cleaned up my eating.  One month into this change I cut out all energy drinks.  I want my team, my friends, my family to see that I am willing to make uncomfortable changes.  If I can’t and I continue to do what WE shouldn’t be doing, then how can I expect them to stop? 

 

On top of that, there are other areas I’m working on.  

 

Being a kind leader, a compassionate leader, being a leader that listens and isn’t afraid to be wrong.

 

Every day I’m asking myself, is the person I’m putting in front of myself someone I’d follow?  

 

MARKET

 

You’re not a restaurant owner.  

 

You’re a restaurant marketer! 

 

At the end of the day if NO ONE walks through your doors and hands you money, you’re out of business.   It doesn’t matter if you have the best food, service and location.  

 

If you don’t SELL FOOD, then you go out of business.

 

So that means you need to get off your ass and MARKET every waking minute you’re awake. 

 

The owner 100% must be marketing all day every day.  When I see you at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago you should be rocking your gear.  When I see you pull up to a pee wee football game you should be in a wrapped vehicle and rocking your gear.  

 

There’s not much more to say here.  Your job should revolve around marketing your restaurant every chance you get.

 

SELL

 

Every day sell your vision to your family, friends, employees, potentional employees, bankers, vendors and customers.  

 

GET THE PICTURE?  Every ONE!

 

You should be SELLING your vision every day.  Why can’t most restaurants find staff?  Because no one wants to work for just another restaurant.  Heck, growing up we were told “if you keep doing that you’ll end up flipping burgers.”  

 

If you want employees to be knocking down your door every day, build something special and they SELL YOUR VISION to them! 

 

 Scream from the mountain tops who you are, what you’re doing and WHY!

 

CLICK HERE and buy the book Vivid Vision.  It’s a short read and I can promise you, you won’t regret it.  

 

As the OWNER you need to paint a picture of your future that’s SO BIG it scares people.

 

It scares them because it’s so big and awesome.   The Starbucks we know today started with a VISION for 50 stores.  This was at a time where coffee shops that we know today did not exist, it wasn’t a market.  So 50 was, HOLY SHIT land.  Today they have over 38,000 worldwide.

 

Do you think their early investors and employees would have been stoke to work at a regular coffee shop?

 

You need to build a vision and sell it to everyone who will listen.  They need to know you’re not just another burger joint.  That you’re doing something special.  

 

Something they’ll want to be a part of.

 

…see you tomorrow. 

 

P.S. Make sure you read blog #1 in this series to understand the terrible art work and mission 🙂