Day 14 – The Puzzle

A recent question I got while speaking to a private group of restaurant owners for Performance Food Group was: “How can I use coupons on the front end of my marketing to attract customers?”

This is a question I love, because it shows me the restaurant owner is looking for solutions to acquire new customers.  But more importantly, they are willing to invest in acquiring new customers.

Unfortunately, too many restaurants think that “word of mouth” will build their business and new people will magically appear every day.  We all wish that were the truth, BUT IT’S NOT!  You must, MUST, have a strategy running every day that is not only gaining the attention of new customers, but also getting them to give you their contact information to add to your restaurants customer database.

So back to the question, how would I suggest they use coupons to attract customers.

Short answer, I wouldn’t.

Coupons SUCK!  They brand your restaurant wrong and send the exact opposite message you want to send, that YOU’RE FOR SALE!  Meaning, you’re willing to pay them to eat at your restaurant one time and if you’ll do it once, you’ll do it many more times.

Offers on the other hand, RULE!  And an OFFER is exactly what you should be using on the front end of your marketing to attract new customers.  

“But Matt, what’s the difference between a coupon and offer?”

A coupon is a discount.

An offer is something for FREE that comes with strings attached, and those strings are for the exchange of said offer for THEIR contact information.  You’re horse trading.  Here’s a free burger, but first what’s your name, email, cell phone number and birthday. 

Now tomorrow we’ll dig into why you shouldn’t send your best customers coupons either.  You should send them REWARDS and incentives…WORDS MATTER MY FRIENDS.


Day 13 – The Puzzle

What makes you and me different when compared to our competitors?

My competition are MASSIVE ventured backed marketing firms and heritage media companies.

Your biggest competitors are the chains with massive budgets.

So what makes us different?  WE DO!  Our difference is US.

Those companies are faceless and their voice is that of advertisements and business catch phrases.  

This is why I feel so strongly about you and I being visible in our marketing.  Blogs, podcasts and social media video are ALL FREE and an amazing way to associate a personality with a business.  

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from restaurant owners about their comfort in doing business with America’s Best Restaurants and Repeat Returns due to the fac that they know who’s behind it, see me online every day and know I’m a phone call away. 

And that’s on a national level, imagine the power you could have in your backyard…it’s a GOLD MINE and it’s how you build a legendary business. 

Day 12 – The Puzzle

Your BODY is the next piece of the puzzle. 

Mind, Body & Spirit is a saying I live by.  Every day I need to do more to improve my mind, body and spirit.  And if there’s one of those 3 I see WAY TOO many people in the restaurant business neglect, it’s their body.  

I hear the excuses all the time “I’m too busy to workout” or “I’m around food all day, it’s so tough.”

I get it, we’re ALL BUSY and we all have those temptations every day.  And while you may have think you have it worse being around the Mountain Dew gun and fried foods, you’re also around trained chefs that can make PERFECTLY balanced meals for you everyday. 

Your body is what will unlock your ability to run faster and harder than you ever thought you could.  

What got me thinking about this was the transformation I made the past 14 ago was the past 4 days.  On Thursday night I went for a 30 minute walk while in Vegas.  On Friday night I had a tough CrossFit workout that included Ring Muscle-Ups and burpees box jumps.  On Saturday I got up and did some weight lifting with some friends from 7am-8am, did the 8am CrossFit class, did a 10am Kick Boxing class and then walked 1.5 miles with my wife (and this lady walks FAST).  And finally on Sunday I ran my 4.6 mile hill and stairs run I do every week.  

I’ll be honest, on the way down the hill for my 2nd lap I was HURTING!  I was not feeling it, but then I remembered a quote I had heard recently talking about how proud you feel after you accomplish something tough, and I sucked it up and finished the run.

Saturday alone was crazy.  I can tell you that 15 years ago the weights and MAYBE the walk would have happened, but no way CrossFit or the Kick Boxing better yet stacked on top of those items.  

This is why I can fly coast to coast in two days, speak all day at conferences, run my business and still find time for my family.  I’m priortized my body, and I’m begging you to do the same.

It’s not tough and you don’t need anything special.  Go outside and WALK.  Do some squat sits on a chair, do some situps and curl a case of coke. You don’t need a fancy gym or trainer.  You just need to move every day, a little more than the day before.  

If you’re just starting out with this, here’s a VERY easy yet highly effective workout.

1st – EVERY week you’re going to increase this by 1 minute on the walk and 1 rep on the movements

– Walk for 10 minutes

– 10 air or chair squats

– 10 pushups

– 10 lunges

– 10 situps

DO THIS EVERY DAY!  

And like I said, add to it. So in week 2 it’s an 11 minute walk and 11 reps of each.  Within a year you’ll have an hour walk and 60 or so movements to do on each and I can PROMISE YOU this one change will change your life.  

Day 11 – The Puzzle

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. 


Day 10 – The Puzzle

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“Where’s Austin”

 

Long story short, he’s at the TOP! 

 

But first, let’s talk about where this all started.

 

The date was April 15th, 2021 and I was in need of some help moving into our new offices and starting the remodel process.

 

I did what I always do in those instances, I made a post on Facebook asking for help.

 

A friend Casey tagged a guy from the gym named Austin.   Little did I know the important piece Austin would become in our company.

 

For two weeks Austin helped out in the office.  Moving desks, helping me demolish stuff and honestly, pretty much anything I asked of him. He was a beast, and when I say moving desks, maybe I should explain. The office came fully furnished and there were around 60 HEAVY wood desks, many of them L-Shaped.  There were many instances in which he moved the same desks, many times since I couldn’t make my mind up 🙂

 

Then about a month later he responded to another post I made looking for an assistant.  The decision was pretty easy, so Austin was now a full time employee. 

That was also the same month we set out on the road with the America’s Best Restaurants Roadshow.  The ABR Roadshow and America’s Best Restaurants was an idea I’d been working on for 4 years, and this time we were UPPING our game.  Instead of Matt Plapp filming on a cell phone, we were doing it RIGHT

I’d tasked our marketing director, David Schlotter, with helping me develop the show and put together our crew.  Unbeknownst to us, Austin was familiar with cameras and loved the idea of being a videographer.  So within a month I lost my assistant and America’s Best Restaurants gained it’s first full time employee (now that division has 28 just 3 years later).

So with that Austin was off and running, in fact he would end up being on the road for 2-3 weeks per month for 2 years filming at independent restaurants nationwide.  He was never sick, never missed a shoot and never complained.  He was what they call A COMPANY MAN!

During that time we created the saying “where’s Austin”.  It was a saying with multiple meanings.  It seemed like every time we were around Austin, in the office and on the road, he’d disappear.  And then later it morphed into “where’s Austin”, as in what city is he in now.  

So with that, to have some fun, we made shirts that said “where’s Austin”.  

Last week as I saw the shirt laying on my dresser I thought about his journey with me and the company.  And then I looked at the shirt and thought “he’s at the top baby!”   A guy who started off moving desks, is now helping run a multi million dollar media empire.  The saying “ride or die” was meant for him.  It gets me emotional to type this.  It’s so cool to see a guy start where he did and be where he is today.  But it’s even more humbling to know that he did that for me. 

On Wednesday April 10th I emailed myself to write the post titled “where’s Austin”, and then this happened.  

Today, at 2am I’m awake for some reason and my phone alert for our office alarm goes off.  I do the math, it’s 5am back home.  Who they hell is in the office that early I think, hoping it’s one of my peeps getting an early start 🙂

When I look at the cameras I see Austin, running through the building.  I’m thinking, shit, what’s wrong.  What’s he doing.  So I text him and find out that he’s in a hurry to catch a plane, no details.  

So of course I pry, and ask what’s up.  I’m thinking something happened on the road with one of our crews, but that wasn’t the case.  It turns out one of our vans was having maintenance done during the off week and Austin wanted to make sure it was ready for the crew Monday morning.  In fact he’s picking the van up and driving it MANY hours to get them closer to the first restaurant Monday.

WOW, are you kidding me. How did I get this fucking lucky!!!  How did I find this guy.  Damn I’m lucky.  

I always say the universe knows.  It knew that in my inbox was an email to write this blog about Austin, and it had to show me just how awesome he really was, as if I didn’t already know!

Thank you Austin, I’m glad we found you in 2021 and I’m even happier to know WHERE YOU ARE 🙂 

And my friends, that’s todays PUZZLE PIECE

 

Day 8 – The Puzzle

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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…

Day 7 – The Puzzle

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In July 1997 I decided on our trip to Myrtle Beach to propose to my now wife, Christy.  

I had a girlfriend, I had the ring, but now I needed to DELIVER the proposal.

There are two parts to this. The ACTUAL offer, what you’re giving them.  And the “ask”, how you plan on talking to them about said offer.

In my marriage proposal I had exactly that, the ring and asked for her hand in marriage.  But I also had the manner in which I did it on the beach.  

Let’s start with your actual OFFER!

This is really simple, give people an offer they’d feel stupid saying no too.  DON’T give them homework and don’t give them a coupon. 

Your job with this offer is REALLY SIMPLE.  You want to gain their contact information and the best way to do that is make it a no brainer.  This offer is not about making money on visit #1, it’s about gaining their info so you can market to them at a much higher level in the future.  And if you have their information, that’s pretty darn easy.  You are making this ask for visits 2 – 40, not the first visit.

Do not give them a coupon, PERIOD.

Do not give them homework, you know, “buy 2 entrees and a drink and get a half price appetizer.”

Here’s the formula to win the game of gaining customer data.

I like 4 offers on the front end:

Offer #1 = 100% Free item.

Offer #2 = 100% Free offer that drives a visit that might not normally happen.  Imagine you’re a lunch restaurant mainly and this is for dinner.  This is to drive an incremental visit. 

Offer #3 = 100% free item that can be added onto their visit that is going to happen, like a free appetizer or dessert

Offer #4 = Some sort of combo offer

BOGO variant.  I will say for offer #1 a BOGO can work, but here is the down side.  Let’s say you’re Ashley from my team, who’s married with no kids. If you give her a BOGO pizza you lose, she has no use for two pizzas and she never takes you up on the offer.  

As we discussed, your goal is to gain the customers data.  But your secondary goals are to drive sales where they may not exist.  Other day parts, other menu items, etc.  If you’ve ever heard my story about Larososa’s Pizza cookies then you know what I mean. They gave me a free cookie promo years ago and since then I’ve added HUNDREDS of $9 cookies to my order.  

Ok, so to wrap up.

NO OFFERS THAT SUCK!

P.S. This includes birthdays too, no one wants a damn coupon as a gift. 


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 🙂