Hong Kong is renowned as a "Food Paradise" where all kinds of dishes can be enjoyed. As a restaurant owner, how can you retain new customers and cultivate their loyalty among your many restaurants?
The most crucial factor is establishing a strong relationship with your customers. To foster loyalty, you would need to maintain open lines of communication and treat your customers as friends. However, as the customer base expands, it becomes more challenging to personally remember each customer's details, preferences and so on.
So, how do you do it? Implementing a Customer Loyalty Program can serve as a valuable tool for storing customer information, analyzing their preferences, and even rewarding them through tailored plans. This way, your customers can grow alongside your restaurant.
McDonald's CEO, Chris Kempczinski, highlighted the effectiveness of such a program by stating that the company's "Customer Loyalty Program," launched in the United States, rewards its long-term customers and boosts the frequency of their visits. As a result, McDonald's experienced a significant increase in global comparable sales, with a 12.7% rise in the third quarter of 2021 and a 10.2% increase over a 2-year period.
Here are the importance of Customer Loyalty Program for the Food and Beverage Industry -
1. Repeat Business
One of the primary objectives of a Customer Loyalty Program is to retain customers for repeat business. Restaurants can develop various incentives, such as reward points and discounts etc., through the Program to encourage customers to come back to their restaurants time and again.
Once a restaurant establishes a group of repeat customers, they transform into loyal patrons. These customers have developed a strong preference for the restaurant's food and are inclined to choose it as their primary dining option, even without taking the rewards program into consideration.
2. Enhancing Customer Experience and Convenience
Some customers frequent the restaurant on a daily basis, and certain staff have become familiar with their specific meal preferences, memorizing them effortlessly. Consequently, the only thing these customers need to do for making orders is take a look at the familiar staff.
We know that customers deeply value the personalized experience created by the staff's ability to remember their preferences. However, when the familiar staff is on holiday, the customers are required to reiterate their meal preferences to other staff, and this repetition can sometimes lead the customers to feel less respected.
To address this issue, the restaurants, in fact, can introduce a Customer Loyalty Program that assigns a unique QR CODE to each customer. This innovative solution ensures that even in the absence of familiar staff who remember their preferences, customers can easily show their unique QR CODE, enabling the restaurant to promptly retrieve their preferred meals and take their orders. The significant advantage of this method is that regardless of which colleague they interact with, customers can consistently expect the same level of service. If the restaurant already utilizes a Mobile Ordering System, the entire process will be even faster and more efficient.
3. Increase Customer Engagement
Through the Customer Loyalty Program, customers can enhance their involvement with the restaurant and feel a sense of belonging. For instance, when a restaurant is in the process of developing a new menu, it can leverage various social platforms to enable customers to participate by seeking their input on preferences, such as gauging their preferences regarding ingredients like green peas, corn, and carrots. Facilitating interaction is best complemented with rewards, as this can motivate customers to actively engage in the restaurant's initiatives and also entice new customers to give it a try.
Customers also have the opportunity to provide feedback on the restaurant's food and beverages. It is not advisable to casually delete negative comments, as discerning consumers will take note. Positive reviews serve as encouragement from consumers to the restaurant, motivating it to strive for further progress, while negative reviews act as reminders from consumers and provide restaurants with an opportunity to enhance and better themselves. Both of these comments are vital to the restaurant and make the restaurant more “real”.
Time to Consider…
If you are seeking a solution that can effectively manage your restaurant's operations while maintaining positive customer relationships, our integrated F&B solutions may be your choice.
Contact us today and we will provide you with professional consulting and technical assistance.
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