Get more people through your doors, advice from people who know
With new bars, restaurants and hotels popping up on what seems like a new corner every week the increased competition in the hospitality industry has seen many venues fighting for patronage.
We have entered an era of consumer power where demands are high and expectations are rarely met. The sudden increase in general living expenses has left many looking for more bang for their buck and it seems the old days of gaining customer loyalty by remembering peoples names and what they drink are dwindling quickly.
While loyalty cards and prizes have always been, first and foremost, a cheap way for businesses to offer a kind of incentive for patrons to return, the word loyalty has always had the negative association of “giving stuff away”. So why give the house away? Being able to able to target a specific group of customers where you know their particular preferences but more importantly, spending habits, reduces costs and increases patronage. Give them what they want.
“One of the big benefits of a successful loyalty card program is your business can quantify new-customer losses and introduce programs designed to retain or woo back the most profitable.
Without a loyalty card, one has no clue about the size of the inflow and outflow of new customers. What does this mean for the bottom line? Truly loyal consumers are 15 times more likely than high-risk customers to increase spending with a particular venue.” Says Les Valcanis of Zen Global, the leading supplier of integrated loyalty and marketing solutions to the hospitality industry. “Customer defections have a surprisingly powerful impact on the bottom line. When defections are cut in half, the average growth rate more than doubles.”
With the benefit of customer data collection, you can focus on customer retention and increasing the profit-per-customer rather focusing on pure discounting. This will enable you to target lines which provide a greater bottom line. Response time is also a key factor. Live data enables immediate relevant offers to be made. Specific loyalty promotions can be targeted by demographics.
Reward customers by instant gratification through reduced cost (redemption or discount) of your products relevant to them. Make the benefit instantly relevant to the customer.
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