This week on Creative Marketing Ideas for Restaurants, we’re going to explain how to attract more of your best customers so that you can grow your revenue over and over and over again.
Every restaurant has a small pool of people that they consider their best customers. Typically, these customers come back frequently, maybe a couple times a week. Maybe it’s just a couple times a month.
It doesn’t matter the frequency, but for this scenario we’re going to use a couple times a week.
When you’re dealing with your best customers, what do you typically give them?
You typically give them the best service possible!
There are many schools of thought around the best service possible. It really doesn’t matter.
It means whatever it means to you and your customers.
You can’t say a blanket statement that all restaurant-goers expect the same kind of treatment everywhere they go. There are certain things that they expect the same, but every location is going to be different.
Otherwise why would they go from one place over the other if they’re going to have the exact same experience?
Customers want to have something unique to latch onto. They want you to provide them that unique experience.
Your best customers aren’t really looking for something different.
They’re looking to have that same experience every single time they come back.
Provide the best customer experience every time
What can you do to provide that best customer experience?
You’re already doing it. That’s why these people keep coming back.
It could be great service. It could great food. It could be everything you are currently doing.
Maybe you provide a nice, quiet atmosphere that they can bring their friends to or maybe bring business clients or associates to and have a quiet conversation. Some place they don’t have to yell over loud music or be bothered by a waiter or waitress too many times.
These are things that will help bring them back, but you’re already doing that. Now, what we want to talk about is how can we do more business with people like this?
How do we get more customers like our best customers?
There’s a couple ways to do this.
Identify who your best customers are
You have to identify your market.
In this example, we’re going to choose a medium priced restaurant that is close to a semi-affluent area. These are people who live in homes that are, let’s say, above $350,000, all the way up through million-dollar homes
They probably go out three to five times a week. They’re probably on the go. They have a certain level of expectation when it comes to environment & service.
In order to get more people like this, all you really have to is figure out where your best customers live.
You now know where they live, so you should start targeting their neighborhoods with your marketing efforts.
There are ways to do this online like Facebook ads or Google search ads.
You can show your ads to a certain geographic location, even a certain ZIP code.
Coupled with ads in the physical world like hiring a college student to knock on doors and hand a physical coupon or invite to your restaurant to these people.
Once you have engaged them in that way, they’re going to be more likely to come back. If you’re providing these experiences to your best customers already, why would you not also provide it to potential best customers?
You could even go as far as getting a testimonial from the best customers that you have now that these potential best customers live next to.
Show the testimonial on the printout, the ad, and on your website. Frame the conversation for the new best customers, “Hey, your neighbor, Tom, and his family love coming here every Tuesday and Friday night because we provide them the best experience around INSERT YOUR TYPE OF RESTAURANT/FOOD/EXPERIENCE.
This makes them feel like you’re actually speaking to them directly rather than just putting something in the newspaper or putting an ad in a coupon book. You’re not inviting Joe Schmoe and everybody else to your restaurant.
You don’t want to attract Joe Schmoe, as much as you want to attract these best buyers because they don’t give you any hassle. They always pay. They always tip really well. They never complain. These are the people you want more of, right? Of course it is.
Why wouldn’t you just go after these best customers with any of your marketing efforts?
Now that you have a couple ideas of what to do and who to go after, where do you get started?
Again, your first step is to really identify who your best buyers are.
Write down their traits and characteristics. Write their names down. Write down what they order. Write down how often they come.
What you’ll start to see are patterns.
You’ll start to see they order the same dishes. They come on similar types of nights, slow, packed, etc.
Maybe they’re only there for certain events that you have going on like maybe a taco Tuesday, but they’re always there for that.
That is something that will draw them in. That’s also something that will draw more people like them in.
This is something you can use in your marketing strategies and marketing efforts with more best buyers, trying to get more of your best customers in.
Step two is devise a plan.
You don’t need something that’s crazy detailed. You can go after this segment with just a few ways of approach, but you keep doing it.
The key here is repetition.
Identify your market. Figure out your plan. Put it into action, and the keep putting it back into action.
Every single week, every single month, for a period of no less than six months.
Do this consistently for six months, and you’ll definitely going to see an uptick in your best customers.
Once you start to see that uptick in your best customers, two things is going to happen.
What happens when you get more of your best customers?
One, your business is going to explode. You’re welcome.
Two, they’re going to attract more best buyers because as Chet Holmes said in his famous book, The Ultimate Sales Machine, “When best buyers buy, other best buyers buy faster.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s edition of Creative Marketing Ideas for Restaurants. Check out last week’s post, the first in our new series!
I look forward to chatting with you next week.
That’s all for now.
