Repeat sales are the biggest contributor to the restaurant’s income. In fact, many restaurants report 50% or more of their revenue comes from existing customers.
Besides, repeat customers are also one of your best referrals. They tend to talk positively about your restaurant to their friends and on social media, thereby helping bring in more customers.
Therefore, it makes sense to satisfy your customers and give them reasons to come back for more. Here are seven powerful ways to do that.
1. Take Advantage of Customer Data
To get people to revisit your restaurant, you need to know who they are. A robust sales optimized restaurant food ordering website like Eatance helps you capture customer data (email address, phone number, etc.) when they order from you.
You can then use the data to send personalized emails to customers to encourage them to order again from you. However, follow the best practices to generate the best results:
- Don’t send too many emails. Two-three emails a week is more than enough.
- Send discounts and coupon codes that are valid for a limited time to highlight urgency.
- Mention the benefits of dishes they’ve ordered previously (e.g., high protein, low carb, etc.) to show that they have made the right decision and can order it again.
- Analyze the results and optimize your email campaigns accordingly.
You can even consider running SMS campaigns to reach customers and encourage them to revisit your restaurant.
2. Provide Home Delivery Options
There are times when customers want to eat from your restaurant but cannot visit the location. By providing a home delivery option, you can attract those customers.
Besides, online ordering has garnered a lot of popularity in recent years, owing to the convenience it offers. Also, many restaurants have already started offering home delivery.
By allowing customers to order food online, you can easily encourage them to order more frequently from you and stay neck-to-neck with your competitors.
If you don’t have a website or mobile app, you can leverage Eatance restaurant solutions to get one. You will also get a restaurant management system that allows you to manage online orders, deliveries, and customer information.
However, don’t forget to let your customers know that you’re offering home delivery. You can do that by sending emails, creating social media posts, and running advertisements.
3. Leverage Remarketing Campaigns
Remarketing campaigns refer to running advertisements that target people who have visited your website or restaurant.
Remarketing campaigns generate better results as the ads are only shown to people who have previously shown interest in your business. You can use tools like AdRoll, Google Ads, or Facebook Ads to run retargeting campaigns.
When running remarketing campaigns, follow these best practices to get the best results:
- Use popular search words in your ads to increase your chances of appearing for relevant searches.
- Optimize your ad campaigns for relevancy. For instance, if someone searches at lunchtime, show them ads for your lunch menu and promotions.
- Use mouth-watering pictures to entice users into ordering right away.
- Leverage search retargeting to reach potential diners based on their previous web searches.
- Add a call-to-action button in every remarketing campaign so interested users can order food instantly.
4. Create a Loyalty Program
Loyalty programs have always proven beneficial for restaurants in driving repeat sales. Take Starbucks, for example. It has more than 16 million active members, and 40% of its total sales come from the rewards program.
Offering customers reward points based on their spending at your restaurant can make them come back for more. However, it is worth mentioning that unless your customers are redeeming your points, your loyalty program is likely to fail.
Therefore, it is essential to follow the right strategies when creating a restaurant loyalty program:
- Use the right restaurant ordering system to manage your loyalty program.
- Make your loyalty program as simple as possible.
- Give something extra to encourage repeat visits. For instance, apart from the general rewards, grant them a 10% extra discount on the 5th visit or a complimentary drink in every alternate order.
- Remind customers how much discount they can get based on their current points by sending them emails. This will encourage them to order more often.
- Collect customer feedback to understand what users feel about your loyalty program and make changes accordingly.
5. Utilize Social Media to Interact With Customers
When it comes to driving repeat sales, social media can be a gamechanger. Use your social platforms to showcase your dishes, atmosphere, and customer experiences.
Additionally, look for people who have mentioned your restaurant on their social handles (stories, posts, or tweets). Respond to their posts or reshare them from your social handles. This will make them feel valued, and their posts will also act as social proof, thereby attracting potential customers.
Besides, customers who like your services are more likely to follow you on social media. By recognizing and interacting with them regularly, you can convert them into loyal customers and drive repeat sales.
Check out the Comprehensive guide to restaurant social media marketing.
6. Train Your Employees to Delight Customers
It is easy to overlook the effects your employees have on driving repeat sales. However, they are the face of your restaurant and probably know the customers more than you do.
Therefore, you need to train them to handle different situations and customers. This will help ensure that the customer leaves your restaurant happy and satisfied, increasing the chances of them visiting again.
Additionally, use these strategies to get the best results from your efforts.
- Coach your employees to stay calm and empathetic.
- Encourage them to smile when talking with customers.
- Give them the freedom to make certain decisions like replacing the dish if the customer doesn’t like it (too spicy, salty, sweet, etc.).
- Tell your employees to ask the customers to leave a review online. This is more of a psychology trick as when writing the review, they will remember their experience with you.
7. Improve Your Services Based on Customer Feedback
Last but not least, you need to improve your services based on customer feedback. The more you listen to your customers, the more they will feel valued and likely revisit your restaurant.
However, this doesn’t mean making changes to every customer feedback. Instead, it means enhancing your services based on what most customers are saying.
For instance, you can use Eatance to manage customer reviews on your website and app. This way, you can easily determine the common concerns of your customers and make changes accordingly.
Also, look at Google, social media, and Yelp reviews. Respond to each review and let customers know what steps you’re taking as per their feedback.You can also follow some best practices to respond to negative restaurant reviews And once you’ve implemented the changes, let customers know about it and encourage them to visit your restaurant again.
Conclusion
Restaurants with loyal customers who visit or order from them frequently become more successful in the long run. By implementing the steps mentioned above, you can convert first-time customers to regulars.
Also, don’t forget to take advantage of the Eatance restaurant ordering system to streamline your orders and manage customer data. Eatance also allows you to manage email campaigns related to orders, discounts, and promotions from a single dashboard, supporting your repeat sales efforts.
