The answer is YES! You can get Matt to come back.

But you need to invite him first

I am going to make this short. You need to contact Matt and tell him about your restaurant. Often. If he enjoyed his last meal with you, he will want to come back. You need to remind him of your restaurant so he will actually pick up the phone or book on your website. He has so many choices, he doesn’t always think of your restaurant first.

Who is Matt Davies?

This might seem obvious, but you can’t talk to people about your restaurant unless you know who they are. You need to collect names and emails of people that dine with you. If you are not already doing so, start today: build your customer list and talk to them regularly.

A suggestion…

Order Wizard collects customer names, contact details and permissions when they book or order on your website. We also run effective email campaigns and other promotions that get customers to come often and spend more

Give and you shall receive: Here’s a really nice way to help a good cause and get new customers for your restaurant at the same time.

Charity vouchers

Do you want more sit in customers at your restaurant? Of course you do! Here’s a couple of ways where Order Wizard gets you new customers and gets them to come back.

It just requires a one-off registration promotion from you. We can then sign them up for marketing. We are now able to contact them through the your restaurant Gold Club.

A way to get new customers from old: referrals

Customers like to book their parties on your website. Parties are made up of individuals, each of who might want to book with you later, So you cultivate them through your Gold Club – or rather, Order Wizard works on your behalf, talking to them about . When your new customers are looking to book a table, Order Wizard is ready for them.

Order Wizard encourages your customers to refer a friend from the party. We send an invite via Facebook and with the encouragement of a one-off promotion for their first booking with you they are signed up for marketing.

A way to get more repeat business: surveys

It is scary how few restaurant customers show up again after their first visit. Order Wizard’s most important job is to get more of your customers to come back. It’s our most important job because that’s how Order Wizard makes the biggest difference to your profits.  If we don’t know who your customers are, and get their permission to do so, we can’t market to them on your behalf.

Surveys are a great way to recruit people to your customer database. At the same time you get valuable feedback about your restaurant. Order Wizard will send out invitations to customers who have booked online. We just need a one-off offer from you against their next meal as a “thank-you” for completing the survey

An effective registration offer that gets customers signed up for more marketing

We recommend a one-off discount of £5 off their next meal, if they spend over £40. Nice things about this promotion are:

• It enables all sorts of marketing like the two programmes we have just discussed.
• You add customers to your marketing list – not shared with any other restaurant, of course.
• You get at least one more meal out of it.
• You don’t pay us commission on bookings when the offer is redeemed. So it’s nearly cost neutral to you.
• It’s once-only.

With all these advantages there is no reason why you wouldn’t want to run a promotion like this. But if you would prefer to do something different, please let us know.

And something for the Olympics…

Also, since the Olympics are starting up soon, how about a 2012 themed offer? Set meal for £20.12 should get customers sprinting to your door. We would be happy to promote this for you through your website and on the Internet. Just let us know.

Barry

Find out more on  www.orderwizard.co.uk

Call us for a chat on 0845 094 8487

Email us at info@orderwizard.co.uk

I was visiting one of our restaurant clients the other day. The conversation started off in a familiar way:

Restaurant Owner: Look at the empty tables. Why do people go to the restaurant up the street and not here. My food is just as good.

Barry Larson: Yeah.  But they are famous. Everyone knows them…

Him: That’s not very helpful…

Me: You can be famous too. Just like Bukhara and the Clintons.

Be famous

The Bukhara restaurant in Delhi is known for hosting celebrities such as Bill and Hilary Clinton.  After one such visit, they created the Presidential platter, which was based on the non-vegetarian dishes Bill ordered. They also created the Chelsea platter, based on the vegetarian dishes daughter Chelsea ordered.

You might wait a long time for the Clintons to show up at {Company}. In the meantime, I suggest you look for fame in a different place. You could become “the home of two breasted chicken tikka masala” or something like that. Be creative.

It’s not about tikka masala. It’s about your customers.

Start a buzz and get your customers to do the rest. Imagine your customers bragging to their friends about how they ate every last delicious bite of your two breasted tikka masala.

Better still, give them ways to tell the world about your restaurant and your famous dish.  Make sure they can give you an online review at your website, complement them on your Facebook page and maybe even showcase them in your next email campaign.  Before you know it, {Company} will be full of people anxiously waiting to tuck in to your most famous dish.

Find out more on  www.orderwizard.co.uk
Call us for a chat on 0845 094 8487
Email us at info@orderwizard.co.uk

We use the registration promotion to advertise you restaurant and its website on the internet. I encourages customers to join your Gold Club. When they register, we know who they are and can continue to market to them. This is a one off promotion for joining the Gold Club.

We recommend for table bookings, £5 discount if you spend over £40. Of course, if you would like to increase or decrease the discount or threshold, just contact us. We will be rolling out this offer over the next few weeks and if you do not wish to participate please let us know.

Also, since the Olympics are starting up soon, a 2012 themed offer might be appropriate. We thought a 3 course, set meal for takeaway or sit-in that cost £20.12 could be an interesting idea. To use this offer the customer would have to sign up to the Gold Club.

Finally, it is important to note that you will not pay any commission on orders or bookings placed using one of these offers.

Find out more on  www.orderwizard.co.uk
Call us for a chat on 0845 094 8487
Email us at info@orderwizard.co.uk

Surveys are a great way to recruit more customers and to find out more about your restaurant.

A great way of encouraging diners back, as well as getting them talking about you, is to offer them a discount, say £5, if they go home and fill out a survey on your website, telling you how them found their meal, service, etc. In order for the customer to claim their discount, they will need to register to your Gold Club, allowing us to market to them in the future. They will then be able to redeem a £5 voucher next time they dine with you with the added benefit that we will have a new Gold Club member in the system!

This may require some training of your waiting staff, just to mention to the customers that this offer is available when they receive the bill. As a bonus, you will pay any commission to us on bookings made using this offer!

Find out more on  www.orderwizard.co.uk
Call us for a chat on 0845 094 8487
Email us at info@orderwizard.co.uk

What is your Gold Club?

Your Gold Club is a reward programme available to registered members. Regul­ar customers get loyalty points for each online order or booking that they make. Your Gold Club is where members go to redeem any promotions you wish to run.

Why your Gold Club is so valuable to you

Your Gold Club gets customers to return and spend more. Indeed, it gets them to come in the first place. Quite simply, the more members you have, the more marketing  you can do .

For example, once a week you can email your members to tell them about your restaurant or take­away. Sometimes there’s an offer, if you are running one. Each email contains a link to your online ordering and booking page. Gold club members clicking those links add about 7% to your turnover.   But the value of the emails is much greater than this. Many customers don’t click the link but go direct to the ordering page. They also order or book later. The purpose is to get them to think of you first when they want a meal.

Here’s more Gold Club value: members spend about 7% more than non-mem­bers. And they come more often.  Each Gold Club member is worth another £90 or so of repeat sales each year. Get a hundred or more Gold Club members and that adds up to an extra £10 000 of business a year. Not bad.

Mine that gold

Your Gold Club is a business generating machine. Consider this. If a hundred or so Gold Club members get you £10 000 of extra business, what will 200 members get you? Or 300? Think of members clicking all those emails, leading to more orders and bookings. Think about members spending 7% more than non-members.

It’s all about the numbers. As owner and manager you can take a few simple steps to recruit members to your Gold Club. It will give your restaurant’s business a huge boost. Here’s a summary:

• Recruit all customers as members, no matter where they came from – off the street, phone bookings or via online services such as Just Eat, Toptable
• Train your staff to mention your Gold Club to your customers
• Set up a registration promotion
• Just one website for your restaurant. Everyone goes through your Gold Club.
• Promote your website address on your menu and in your restaurant

So, are you getting the most from your Gold Club?

Parties make you happy

Parties are very profitable. You get a lot of people into your restaurant and more diners’ means more total profit. Bigger groups are cheaper to service per diner – one order, one service, several repeat dishes – so profits per diner are also bigger. Parties happen in addition to your regular diners, so you get more customers. In short, parties are happy events. You want more of them.

Market parties to your regulars

Regular customers who know and love your restaurant are most likely to book parties and bring in other diners. When customers join your Gold Club or loyalty programme, make sure to ask them for their birthday so that you have their permission to email them about coming to your restaurant for their birthday. This is a great opportunity for you to tell them about your restaurant.  Make sure to email your Gold Club members about any other party times such as Christmas, office parties, stag and hen parties, or sporting events taking place near your restaurant. In addition to email however, you should also promote your party packages on the Internet and your Facebook page.

Market your restaurant to your party go-ers

Parties consist of all kinds of people, many of whom won’t have been to your restaurant before. If they enjoy the occasion they will want to come back. Now is a good time to get them to become regulars by joining your Gold Club.

Hot Tip: You may want to distirbute promotional cards at your parties so that your new customers have a reason to join your Gold Club.

All the best for the holiday season.

Why people choose you is  a question I often talk about, but a key reason is a simple one: customers like you and they like your personal touch.  Job interviews often have a dreaded question, “Tell me about yourself”. The fact is, most of us hate talking about ourselves. But telling customers about your restaurant is one of the most effective forms of marketing you can do.

Tell them about it!

As I said, customers like you. Being human, they also want to know what’s going on. They are interested in hearing news about your restaurant. Restaurants are busy places with lots happening. If you tell customers what’s new and exciting at the restaurant, they will have another reason to come more often!

You have a new menu: point out some of the new dishes. You are closed for a refurbishment: Drop them an email to tell you have re-opened. They may not have noticed you were closed, but it doesn’t matter. It’s nice to be remembered and just getting the email may prompt a visit. Have you been back to your home country? People will be interested in hearing a short report – believe me! Staff member got married. You get a favourable review in a catering magazine. These are all newsworthy items.

Let’s celebrate!

As well as news that just happens, you can create your own events. These can be theme nights: Elvis nights, regional cuisine gala dinners, karaoke, midweek specials, early bird. Events create excitement which you can build on in your conversations with your customers.

Talk to your customers

Send out emails to your Gold Club members telling them about your events and major news items. And by the way, remember to keep recruiting customers to your restaurant’s Gold Club. This is when you will reap the benefit of more people to market to.

Facebook is also a great place to keep customers abreast of all your news and everyday events. Simply go to your Facebook page on a regular basis and add your short news  items. If you don’t have a Facebook page, get one! If you need help, I have created a guide with step by step instructions for setting up a Facebook account. Send me a note if you would like a copy.  To get the most out of it, you should update your Facebook page regularly with the latest news about your restaurant. It’s all really easy to do.

Jessie, owner of Posie’s café explains on her blog: “ Today one of our most loyal customers, Lucinda, came in and asked if she could use her Groupon that had expired the day before. I felt terrible, but I had to say no. She came to tell me later that she was really disappointed and that she never wanted to come back.  I explained to Lucinda, and now to all of you, how Groupon works for businesses, and why it has been the single worst decision I have ever made as a business owner…”

Jessie made the mistake of starting a promotion that could never make her money. The more business she got through the promotion the more money she lost. She ended up counting the days until the expiry date so she could pull the promotion .It’s too easy to make this kind of mistake. Let’s take a moment to discuss the right kind of marketing: sustainable marketing.

What is sustainable marketing?

Sustainable marketing contributes to your long term business value. Sustainable marketing pays for itself from first use. Sustainable marketing concentrates on getting customers to come to your restaurant in the first place and then keep returning. Sustainable marketing is not so interested in one off orders. Sustainable marketing builds your brand because that’s where the value of your business lies.

Tactical marketing

Another kind of marketing is tactical marketing. This picks up orders and bookings where it finds them. Groupon mentioned above is an example of tactical marketing. There’s nothing actually wrong with tactics: restaurant goers tend to be opportunistic and we need to find customers where we can. However, do make sure that your tactical marketing pays for itself first time, as there likely won’t be a second time. Second, put your main effort into switching these orders into long term customers – ie your sustainable marketing. This is where a sustainable marketing system in your restaurant or takeaway comes in.

What does sustainable marketing look like?

It is devoted to increasing your business value. It promotes your brand and your restaurant whether they order online, book by phone or come off the street. It gets customers to return again and again through email and Facebook.

How to convert tactical orders to sustainable customers

Very simple: point your customers towards your loyalty programme or Gold Club. Whether they have come off the street, via Groupon or Just Eat for example, they will benefit from the one-off registration promotion. This encourages them to return and we now have their details to continue marketing to them.