Success in the restaurants and coffee shops business is no longer just about the food quality or location. It’s about building strong customer relationships, a secret ingredient to stand out in a highly competitive sector. Enter the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
The restaurant CRM helps dining concepts collect customer data, such as preferences, frequency of visits, and feedback, among others. The aim? Provide a better and more professional experience.
As the competition intensifies, understanding customer behavior and offering a worthy service isn’t an option, it’s critical. Doing so increases customer loyalty and makes guests more likely to return to your restaurant or café. With an effective CRM strategy, restaurants can offer personalized experiences, design compelling customer-centric loyalty programs, and achieve higher profits through more accurate and impactful marketing campaigns.
CRM in restaurants: More than a contact list
To get the most out of your CRM system, you first need to understand what it offers. It has several key features, including:
- Data collection and storage: A CRM collects customer information, such as phone number, email address, and preferences, including dishes, order frequency, among others. It also tracks how customers place orders, whether via the restaurant’s website or mobile app, in-app, or via a delivery service. Data collected in a CRM can also include visit times and dates, preferred branches, among other information.
This data helps restaurants customize their customer experience by remembering previous orders and suggesting relevant dishes or suitable promotions. - Track customer behavior and feedback: CRM systems allow restaurants to analyze customer behavior, from their visit frequency and most ordered dishes to satisfaction levels and comments. This helps restaurants improve their services based on actual customer feedback.
- Customer segmentation by behavior: You can use the CRM to group customers based on their purchasing habits or preferences. This, in turn, helps you create more targeted marketing campaigns, offer special deals to loyal customers, or target inactive ones with personalized notifications.
CRM vs. traditional contact lists or marketing spreadsheets
Traditional tools, like Excel sheets or reservation books, only store customer data, but don’t analyze it or generate detailed reports. Meanwhile, a CRM restaurant system is dynamic and connects to the restaurant’s point-of-sale (POS) system.
This makes it more interactive and helps you understand customer behavior by turning data into reports and effective tools to make smarter decisions and boost profits.
The building blocks of a CRM
Your restaurant CRM is a vital, strategic foundation that helps you communicate and achieve better marketing results.
Its core pillars include:
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Data collection and guest profiles
The process starts by collecting data via various tools, like reservation systems, online ordering platforms, and loyalty programs. It’s crucial to gather accurate information, including date of birth and mobile phone number.
This is in addition to automatically collected data such as favorite dishes and visit frequency. This data helps build comprehensive customer profiles, enabling restaurants to deliver personalized services and experiences.
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Segmentation and smart targeting
Once the data is collected, customers can be divided into segments. For example, you can group customers into high spenders, inactive customers for 3 or 6 months, and brunch lovers.
This strategy helps restaurants send customized SMS messages, push notifications, or offers tailored to each group’s preferences. Targeted messaging is far more effective than mass campaigns that don’t meet all needs.
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Effective communication channels
Choosing the right communication channels and timing is crucial. Depending on customer preferences, restaurants can use SMS, email, or push notifications.
For example, birthday messages should differ from those for Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Similarly, post-visit surveys or re-engagement messages for inactive customers should be timed properly for maximum effect.
CRM in action: Real-world scenarios
Example 1: Winning back inactive or lost diners
Your CRM system is an effective tool for reactivating inactive customers. It tracks visit frequency and can help you identify guests who haven’t visited the restaurant in 30, 60, or more days. This highlights the segment that needs special treatment.
After determining the intended segment, you can send targeted promotional offers like a special discount or a free meal. The goal is to recapture their attention and encourage them to return, rebuilding their relationship with your restaurant.
Example 2: Boosting traffic on slow days
You can use the CRM to boost customer traffic on quiet days like weekdays, when your restaurant usually sees fewer visits. The CRM will help you identify those days so you can run effective marketing campaigns.
You can also target certain segments, like brunch or lunch lovers, with exclusive offers. This will encourage them to visit your restaurant, narrowing the gap in daily traffic.
Example 3: CRM-loyalty program integration
Integrating your restaurant loyalty program with your CRM will allow you to track even more insights. You can reward frequent visitors with points for their purchases.
For instance, you can offer them loyalty points or special deals related to the number of orders. You can use tools like digital receipts or POS to invite customers to join the loyalty program.
This fosters sustainable relationships, making customers more interactive with ongoing offers and rewards.
How to use your restaurant CRM and measure results
Using CRM systems in your restaurant means using various features, including improving your promotional campaigns. However, you have to measure the results to know how successful these campaigns are.
Here are some of its features and how you can use a CRM in your restaurant:
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Increase visits and average spending
CRM-powered strategies can boost customer visit frequency as well as the average spending per guest. Customized offers and personal communication encourage customers to repeat visits and favor your restaurant, which positively impacts your restaurant’s revenue.
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Improve customer satisfaction and online ratings
Delivering unique, tailored dining experiences enhances customer satisfaction and retention. It also increases the number of positive reviews on websites like Google and TripAdvisor, enhancing your restaurant’s online reputation, new customer acquisition, and word-of-mouth marketing.
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Boost marketing campaign efficiency and cut costs
CRM systems provide analytical tools that accurately help you target the most interested segment, rather than sending generic offers to everyone.
This allows you to launch more effective and focused marketing campaigns. Precise targeting contributes to delivering remarkable results on a smaller budget and reduces your marketing and operating costs.
How Foodics CRM Makes it easier and more effective
Foodics’ CRM system is a reliable tool for restaurants and cafés, enabling business owners to collect and analyze customer data from various sources, including POS systems.
The CRM seamlessly integrates with other Foodics systems, such as cashier systems, mobile-app ordering, website-ordering, among others. This is in addition to several apps and platforms, including table reservation systems, order delivery apps, self-service kiosks, and more from Foodics app marketplace.
You can segment your customers by adding tags based on specific data or criteria you set. For example, you can tag customers who visit your restaurant or café twice or more a month, those who benefit from Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day offers, and those whose bills exceed SAR 100, among other tags.
You can also issue various key reports via your CRM. These include POS reports, most-ordered meals or dishes, and more. These insights help you understand your customers’ behavior and preferences, allowing you to provide them with a spectacular and personalized experience. This, ultimately, boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Lastly…
CRM systems aren’t just for storing and organizing data, they’ve become a strategic pillar for sustainable growth and enhancing customer experience in the restaurant and café industry.
These systems empower businesses to build deeper, more effective relationships with customers through tracking behavior, understanding preferences, and delivering customized offers and services that meet individual needs.
Restaurants that invest in these relationships will reap long-term customer loyalty reflected in repeat visits, higher average spending, and improved reviews.
With Foodics’ CRM, enhancing service quality, boosting customer satisfaction, and fostering communication become a smoother process that directly impacts your business and marketing performance.
Book a demo now to find out how Foodics’ CRM system works and try it yourself.
