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How A Change in Perspective Can Help You Make More Holiday Season Sales: Pt. One
Some sites are perfect for the Christmas season - their products fit easily into the idea of gift-giving. But what if the products and services you offer are for small business owners? Or, as many of my clients ask, how do I survive the...
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The only...
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XBRL - A Small Cap Advantage
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Recent revelations of shady accounting practices have fueled investor demand for more transparency in corporate reporting. New regulatory rules such as Sarbanes-Oxley are also driving the need for faster and more accurate reporting of...
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Frequent Diner Programs Are A Small Restaurant Owners Marketing Department
Frequent Diner | Customer Loyalty
The History Of Frequent Diner And Customer Loyalty
Since the creation of restaurants, owners have always wanted and
needed to know who their customers are and what they like to eat
and drink. This information is vital to the ongoing success of a
restaurant.
In addition to knowing their customers they sometimes gave away
food or drinks in an attempt to buy favor with those customers.
While this worked in most cases there were no controls in place
to prevent abuse by employees nor were there any requirements
other than the good mood of the owner.
Abuse of this method of rewarding customers was rampant.
Employees would take advantage of this and give the same favors
to their friends. This drove food and bar costs skyward, while
making the employees rich through additional tips from their
happy friends.
In an attempt to control this madness someone came up with punch
cards and stamps. The abuse of the system slowed but was not
stopped. How many of us have gotten an extra punch in our cards
or extra stamps from a waiter in an attempt to get a better tip?
This happens daily in restaurants with this system.
Then came the counterfeiters of these cards and stamps. Recently
the Subway chain had to end their 20-year old Sub Club stamp
program for this very reason.
The Need To Manage Frequent Diner And Customer Loyalty
The need is great.
As the business owner you need your point of sale system to
provide accurate customer information on buying habits, number
of visits, frequency of visits, entice repeat visits and
purchases through reward programs. Do all this while managing
the programs and preventing "sweet hearting" by employees.
No small task. Especially with the creative employees that so
many restaurants employ.
The Solution For Managing Frequent Diner And Customer Loyalty
some restaurant point of sale products come standard with a
frequent diner or customer loyalty package that does all these
things and more.
Some Frequent Diner Module utilizes secure methods of tracking
your guests and their buying habits. You establish a database of
guest's information with an account number. This number can be
their phone number or any number system you desire. However, the
most popular and most secure method is through magnetic cards
with your logo on them. These cards act as a constant reminder
of your restaurant by having your logo in their wallet or purse.
These Frequent Diner Module will secure the reward programs you
put in place and preventing the employees from giving away food.
Rewards are giving only when earned through purchases, frequent
visits or for items on your menu that you wish to highlight. The
establishment of reward programs takes your employees out of the
game and puts you in charge.
You may establish multiple reward programs
and assign them to
customers on an individual basis. Not every frequent diner has
to belong to every program. You have the choice of which
customers are involved in which programs.
Reward programs can be established to highlight a new item,
feature a portion of your menu or encourage your customers to
come back during a specific meal period. Programs can be created
to reward customers after a specified number of visits or for
how much they spend.
Rewards can be a % off, $ off, a specified item free, or other
creative rewards. You have the option to have instant rewards or
make the reward good on their next visit.
The Benefit Of Managing Frequent Diner And Customer Loyalty
To You
Imagine being able to market directly to your customer base.
Imagine having detail knowledge of their buying habits how often
they came, when was their last visit, their anniversary and
birthdays. With this information you could create marketing
materials targeted at your customers and bring them back more
often.
Imagine having the ability to establish reward programs to build
meal periods that have been traditionally slow. If you need to
build your lunch business, establish reward programs based
around this meal period and then distribute your frequent diner
magnetic cards to businesses and their employees in your area.
Don't just sit back and wait on someone to walk in your door. Go
out and get them!
Imagine having the ability to highlight low cost menu items and
use them to reward customers.
In real dollars and profits the frequent diner module can
generate huge results. Let's say you have a $10 ticket average
per person with a 35% food cost. If you created a program that
rewards a customer with a free appetizer every 5 visits.
Appetizers have an average price of $4 and have the same 35%
food cost.
* If the person ate alone for those 5 visits you would have
enjoyed $50 in sales and $32.50 in profits.
* Your customer has now earned a reward of a free appetizer on
their next visit at a cost to you of only $2.60.
* This means that you have a net profit of $29.90 on sales that
were increased through rewarding the customer for repeat
visits.
* If this guest brought a date then your profits would have been
$62.40 with a cost of the program of only $2.60!
Imagine the rewards YOU will get for increased sales of your
repeat customers.
About the author:
Jerry D. Wilson is Director of Internet Sales for DirecTouch
Restaurant Point of Sale. With over 25 years of hospitality
point of sale experience, he has written several articles
explaining the benefits of touch screen and retail point of sale
software. Please visit www.directouchpos.com or
www.directretailpos.com
for more information.
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