Restaurant Delivery is Slowing, What's Next for Owners?
Updated: Oct 5
Many restaurants say consumers are dining in more and getting less delivery, despites DoorDash and Uber Eats still keep growing.
It's Time to Build an Irresistible Restaurant Brand
Restaurant business is all about relationships. Customer engagement comes down to making a connection. Connection means trust. Without trust, there is no transaction. Brand trust means loyalty.
Here are my branding tips for regaining your customer loyalty.
1. Focusing on the Consumer
Getting to know your target audience allows your marketing to be finely targeted. Your brand identity should speak to your target market, addressing their specific needs in a language they can relate to. In this way, your message can cut through the noise of competing brands. How a brand is perceived in the market is what I'm passionate about. Understanding the consumer's needs and behavior to ensure that the service and product falls in line with their brand and resonates with current and potential customers.
2. Boost Customer Royalty Program
Building customer royalty program is a great way to build cash flows safety nest. Remember loyal customers usually buy more and are often willing to pay more. They refer others to your establishment. At the same token, this saving you the marketing and advertising costs of acquiring customers significantly. By increasing customer retention can boost your bottom-line profit by 25% to 100%.
Customer Royalty Program Ideas
Offer value to your customers
Loyalty program rewards
Birthday surprises
Give First-Time Purchase Discounts to Attract New Members
Reward Referrals to Build Your Customer Base
Award Points to Promote Spending
Celebrate Special Events with Rewards and Limited-Time Offers
Devote Yourself to Customer Service
Food connects us all. Food connects us to each other, to our own pasts and identities/memories, and nature and its original. Best of all, food connects us to the world around us. Again, eating is a social thing.
Knowing who are we targeting is the driving force during the concept development phase. Finding ways to build a strong emotional connection with our customers to make them engage with our brand is crucial. We believe that building an emotional connection is personal. It builds on the consistent positive customer experience that we provide.
Building an Emotional Brand Connection Is a Big Deal. So Devote Yourself to Customer Service
We want every single one of our customers to feel like they're V.I.P customers. Our food, our presentation, and our superb customer service reflects our sense of pride and passion for what we do. We want to be the place where our staff is known for their personal touch—a place where we know our customer's, what they like and dislike, and even their favorite drink.
4. Leverage Your Website to Become a Revenue Driven Machine
It's time to maximize your online presence to its fullest potential. I mean now. It's time to take your business to another level. Your website is the most effective and efficient way to build and professionalize your brand to its fullest potentials. Integrated marketing is a complete way Of looking at business marketing. Remember your online presence is way more than just a web design. Through well equipped website, your busines should benefit from it with...
This is where you expand and growth through online ordering, increase in sales, brand awareness, and customer engagement.
This is where you nurture sales through customer loyalty program, repeat customer tactics and special promotions.
This is where you connect and build new leads. Improve your customer relationships, customer insights and feedback to improve upon your brand.
This is where you build your customer lists and contacts.
Need Help on Your Website? Contact me: Click here
5. Start Boosting Your Cash Flow. I Mean Now
Can your business survive a cash crunch? In addition to monitoring your restaurant’s cash flow from week to week is necessity, but also having a Basic Fundamental Understanding of Your Cash Flow Activities is a good way to start.
Your cash outflows for a restaurant usually consist of cash spent on operating costs, money used to buy assets and money paid to financing sources, such as dividends distributed to investors. The basic rule is when your cash inflows exceed your outflows, you get positive cash flow. And in terns, this increases your cash account and provides money to grow your business.
A. Monitoring your numbers. First, monitoring your cash flow allows you to see how your sales, and the corresponding cash flow, ebb and flow over time. At the same time, it also makes it easier to create an accurate forecast of your sales and cash flow projections. As a business owner, tracking your cash flow on a weekly can highly beneficial the foundation of your restaurant business. Understanding the fluidity of sales cycles is very necessity.
B. Monitoring your Budget. A budget is the cornerstone of any cash flow management plan. Knowing your numbers also including knowing where are you revenues are coming from, what sells most or to least favorite items. Learn to manage your budget. You must budget seasonally to be on top of things.
6. Having an Exceptional Online Menu
Your Menu is one of the selling tools for your restaurant. In fact, it's so essential part of your point of sale. Update your menu seasonally. Keep track of what your customers order most and which menu items will generate the most profit for your bottom line and highlight those prominently. Keep the favorites and signature dishes on the menu as a focal point. For our menu, I put our big ticket items at the center area. This would be the first things they see when they pick up the menu.
In addition, you should also use seasonal special items as a way of introducing new menu items to your customers. We like to periodically come up with different campaign through out the season for our table advertisement menu stance. There is one important thing restaurant owners should understand is to avoid the trap of wanting to be all things to all people. It's because by trying to put too many items on the menu to please everyone, not only it's time consuming to look through your entire menu, this drive up food costs, but can also confuse customers. So learn to say no.
Restaurant marketing collateral design, ideas and tips
7. Evaluate Your Table Menu
Customer always have an open mind on your new introduced items. Not only new item sounds exciting, but it also tells your customers that your restaurant keeps evolving. People do not buy things by chance. Even so-called impulse purchases are still adding value for the consumer. By having a platform to showcase your new products right Infront of them gives customers more chance to be see them. This is where your digital menu comes in.
Menu Is a Content Driven Machine with the Right Strategy. Your menu now can turn into content driven machine without big budget marketing.
Everything you do on your online presence or at the table are meant to help to sell more and boost your customer experience. When customers come into the restaurant, they want to be acknowledged, listened to, request to be met, and require personal attention. In most cases, recommendations from staff are a must. Your digital menu helps build a better brand relationship between the two.
Your Menu Can Be a Content Driven Machine with the Right Strategy
This customer relation translates into better brand experience, stronger customer loyalty, increases referrals and ultimately better brand exposure. Your menu now can turn into content driven machine without big budget marketing. Think about it, let customers do all your content for you simply by being great at what you do.
Makes the ordering process easier
Orders are ‘right’ all the time.
Keeping the costs of your marketing budget transparent
Improve your customers relationships and loyalty
Online website menu is mobile friendly
Improve your understanding about your customers base
Increase customer base
Makes it easier for future promotions, give away, and upcoming events.
Boarder your restaurant brand awareness
8. Measure Your Weekly Business Overall Performance
Daily Occupancy: Paying attention to the trend
How Do Your Customers Know About You?: Search, Referral, Promotion Ads etc..
Overall Customer Satisfaction: What is the percentage?
Repeat Customers: Improved or not?
Online Engagement: Increased or decreased?
How's Your Website Visits: Increased by how much?
Online Weekly Orderings: Increased by how much?
Your brand identity should speak to your target market, addressing their specific needs in a language they can relate to. Getting to know your target audience allows your marketing to be finely targeted. Good brand story begins from its purpose, core values, and mission. Good brand sells benefits, not product. Strong brand sells solutions and follows its strong core value. How a brand makes people feel, that's how people remember your brand is a result of your brand identity.
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"Hi, I'm Chez. Your brand identity should speak to your target market, addressing their specific needs in a language they can relate to. Getting to know your target audience allows your marketing to be finely targeted."
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