Did you know that a customer who has made a purchase in your company has a 60% chance of making another purchase in that same company?
Imagine what you could sell in your restaurant if you could get 60% of the customers who visited your restaurant today to return for the second or third time.
Once a customer has left your restaurant, it’s time to focus on ways to stay on their mind. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, it is 6 to 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one, making customer retention one of the smartest investments you can make as a restaurant owner. .
To get your restaurant’s customer retention strategy off the ground, you need to invest in a tool to empower it: a restaurant CRM system.
A CRM platform for restaurants that integrates directly into your point of sale terminal (POS) and will help you keep in touch with diners, personalize your messages according to their behavior and preferences, and help them return again and again.
What is a restaurant CRM system?
CRM is an acronym that stands for “customer relationship management” for its acronym in English.
A CRM system is the technology a business uses to collect, store, and manage information about its customers. In a restaurant, a CRM system is used to:
- Collect and store information about your customers, including shopping behavior, dietary restrictions, birthdays, and contact information.
- Stay in touch with your customers about important updates, events, etc.
- Sending personalized promotions, discounts and rewards based on your consumer behavior and preferences.
Restaurants that have a built-in CRM system enjoy the benefits of having everything in one place, allowing them to make better decisions about how to market their business, to whom, when, and for what reason.
Three Benefits of a Fully Integrated Restaurant CRM System
These are the top three benefits of investing in an integrated restaurant CRM system.
Collect customer data securely
Many restaurants do not realize how much information they have about their customers because it is not organized correctly.
It’s common for a restaurant to have a point-of-sale system, a loyalty program, and an online ordering provider, all of which independently collect information about customers. These disjointed systems are hurting your restaurant and preventing it from connecting with customers in a personalized way.
When a restaurant’s CRM system is integrated into your POS system, all the fragmented data that you were once stuck with is now compiled neatly in one central location, allowing you to create a detailed customer database that includes various data points, including sales history, visit history, and more.
Now, if a CRM system really integrates with your POS, the stored knowledge of the customers it has access to will not be limited to internal diners only.
If you host your online ordering and delivery services through your POS system, for example, the data you have about those who have used them will be stored together with the information you have about the diners who have physically come to your restaurant.
Boost your loyalty program
Loyalty programs have become more popular than ever as restaurant owners, operators, and managers have recognized the importance of customer acquisition and retention.
When your restaurant’s CRM system integrates directly with your restaurant’s POS system, it is easier to promote, manage, and grow a loyalty and rewards program.
For example, you can identify your most loyal and high-spending customers through your restaurant’s CRM data, then direct them to marketing campaigns that show your appreciation and offer them a promotion. This will allow you to take advantage of the phenomenon where a participant’s spending on a rewards program skyrockets the closer they get to redeeming a reward.
Certain integrated restaurant CRM systems allow customers to enroll in your restaurant’s loyalty program each time they make a payment.
Now, every time a customer who participates in your loyalty program pays with their credit or debit card, the loyalty points will automatically be associated with their history in your restaurant’s integrated CRM system.
Helps you create personalized restaurant marketing campaigns
The main reason you should be investing in a restaurant CRM system is to learn more about your customers, how they engage with your business, and how you can better engage with them in the future.
For that reason, you’ll want to invest in a restaurant CRM system that not only collects customer information, but also makes it easy to analyze and view this information.
In this way, you can segment your data to show who is buying what and when and use these ideas to drive personalized marketing campaigns that engage customers with promotions that they are really interested in participating in.