DCRS Solutions
Enticing Customers Back With Your Loyalty Program
Does your restaurant have once-regular customers you haven’t seen in a while? Then it is probably time to start focusing efforts on getting them back.
A simple, yet effective method to entice customers back is by using your restaurant loyalty program to offer special deals and incentives.
Update Your Loyalty Program
If your loyalty program is seeing less use, it is probably out of date and needs to be brought into the modern era. If you use punch cards for your program, ditch them. Customers often forget they have them, so the potential rewards often go to waste and there is no way to track how well they are doing.
Instead, switch to a cloud POS system like Toast or MobileBytes, which will allow you to keep your program updated with the latest software.
If your restaurant has multiple locations, you can consolidate information across sites, allowing customers to accumulate and spend rewards wherever they decide to stop by.
Get Your Marketing Up To Speed
There’s no point having a loyalty program if it is not being marketed correctly. Make it visible: Take advantage of your social media account to engage your followers, post about it on your website, run an ad in the local paper, and put signage on your tables.
You can even send out a text message or email to those customers you have on file announcing your new loyalty program and a reward if they come back.
Finally, make sure that your servers are well-versed in the rewards and benefits of your loyalty program so they can spread the word at work and abroad.
Have Rewards Customers Want
Offering a free half-sandwich as a loyalty reward? Boring, and not what customers want.
Have a rewards tier to keep people coming. Make them think “I really want this [reward] and will save up my points to get it.”
If offering merchandise like a branded t-shirt, make sure that it will fit into your restaurant’s budget. An example tier could be:
- 20 points: 5% Discount on a purchase
- 40 points: Free item upgrade (medium to large, for example)
- 50 points: Free order of a small menu item like a side or appetizer
- 60 points: Free branded item like a t-shirt
Of course, modern cloud POS systems allow you customize the tier to a system that works best for your restaurant.
You can also take advantage of offering referral rewards, which gives a loyalty customer who refers someone to your restaurant a reward in the form of a discount, or free points.
You can find plenty of examples out there of companies successfully implementing a loyalty program to keep customers coming back for more. If you are losing out on regulars, it may be time to give your loyalty program a refresh.