We don't need to remind you how important it is to turn your customers into ambassadors for your restaurant. But how do you win over the most loyal of them? How can you encourage them to come back even more often - and with friends? Discover the secret to identifying your loyal customers, and turning them into ambassadors for your restaurant.
By definition, loyal customers are those who show attachment to a brand (or a restaurant, in this case). This is demonstrated by the fact of coming repeatedly, regularly and over a long period of time. Loyalty can be more or less complete: it is generally shared in the restaurant business, which makes it more difficult to consolidate. In any case, it's a stable, lasting relationship that mutually benefits both the customer and the restaurant.
Ambassadors are your most loyal customers. You may know some of them by name, but not necessarily: you don't have to come several times to be an ambassador. A customer may only have been here once, but if they loved their experience, they'll still talk about it.
The distinguishing feature of an ambassador is that he or she is a prescriber for your restaurant. They recommend you to their friends and family. This word-of-mouth is vital for restaurants.
The effects are also felt online: ambassadors are the best promoters of your e-reputation. They comment, post photos of your dishes on Instagram, leave positive reviews on all platforms...Some may even defend you by replying to negative reviews on Facebook!
As you can see, ambassadors are a godsend for restaurants that want to establish themselves over the long term. If the process seems natural, you can give it a little boost: the trick is toidentify your most loyal customers and turn them into ambassadors.
Recognizing your loyal customers is the first step in encouraging them to take action and become your spokespeople. For this, the loyalty customer file is the ultimate tool: it lets you know exactly who your best customers are, and what they love to buy from you.
Faced with a continuous flow of customers, being a physiognomist isn't enough to know who your loyal customers are! Some customers probably come once every 2 weeks or once a month, but fly under your radar. Above all, it's regularity that proves the affection they have for your table.
Other indicators reveal your loyal customers: average basket, seniority, positive signals on social networks... Most of this data would escape you without digital tools.
This is the whole point of having a customer database, integrated into a loyalty program: it enables you to identify your most loyal customers, based on their frequentation data. You can then identify a certain number of VIP customers, and launch loyalty actions targeted at this segment.
Once identified, there are a number of levers that can be used to turn your most loyal customers into ambassadors, through loyalty building. Hey Pongo is a specialist in this field!
Once you've collected the contact data, you can launch an SMS campaign targeted at your loyal customers. In this way, you can entice customers to come back again, in pairs or with friends, with the help of clever rewards. The database plays a decisive role in this: it enables you to target loyalty actions according to frequency of visit.
From a free espresso to a trip to Italy, a whole range of rewards (it's up to you to invent them) can be awarded based on regularity. Above all, the database can be used to build loyalty based on visiting behavior, with personalized messages for all your customers: the Tuesday regular, the loyal ex-customer who's forgotten about you, the new fan, the Friday night group, the prescriber, and so on...
Effectiveness is maximized by the SMS marketing channel: with no loyalty card, online account or app, it's the most direct way to create a bond with your future ambassadors. In addition to loyalty rewards, there are other levers:
The database is the ideal lever for creating ambassadors: not only does it enable you to identify loyal customers, it also enables you to pamper them with targeted loyalty programs. Combined with quality of service, it will enable you to take the customer experience to a new dimension!
