Customers are the lifeblood of any business and promoting customer loyalty is imperative to your restaurant. We need returning customers to make money and keep the business operating.
Sometimes we get so busy doing our work that we forget the value of our customers and how important they are to the business.
Attracting customers is one of the hardest things to do in business, and this can be for any business, not just hospitality.
It can be the most expensive and the most energy consuming activity; and it is critical to get the best results for the time and money that you spend doing this.
Marketing is an important aspect of attracting customers. It is the way we get people to our business and spending money to keep us operating.
There is no real definite amount on how much money you should spend on marketing, and it is really hard to figure out how much it costs to acquire a new customer. But it is really important that you do something to get people spending money in your business!
There are three main areas that are important to look at when you are considering spending money on advertising:
- Look at what your competitors are doing and try to match it.
Are they advertising, what offers are they using, how often do they advertise, where are they advertising
Example:
Buy 1 Get 1 Free coffee, once a week in a free local newspaper, supermarket back of receipts, Facebook ads, and on their website - Look at your budget and allocate an amount to use.
Spend $1000 per month on six different types of marketing platforms - Know what your ‘lifetime customer value’ is.
If you want to work out what your ‘lifetime customer value’ is, there is an easy formula to work out:
Example:
(Average Dollar Sale) $25 x (No. of transactions within 1 year) 50 x (No of years they buy from you) 1 = Lifetime value of the customer $1250
So it is always important to keep the customers you have, as it costs a lot of money to get new customers, as well as continually attracting new customers to your business.
There are quite a few ways to keep your customers loyal and returning.
Many stores have loyalty programs available to keep their current customers returning as regular spenders.
- Loyalty card, buy 9 coffees and get the 10th free
- Apps like Rewardle, where points are accumulated through the app for multiple venues
- Facebook likes, so you can keep customers updated on the latest news for your business
- Mailing lists to email them different offers
Customer loyalty is very important to your business, as it the money that you can almost guarantee. They like your product, you and your staff. They trust you and want to keep coming back to buy from you.
The next step is to get them to become an Advocate, so they recommend your business when asked or will promote as they think you are the best.
