How Customer Engagement and Loyalty Programs Can Transform Restaurant Business?

Restaurant owners’ focus on lot of aspects to scale their business but it is important to understand that improving only on the functional side alone is not enough to have an edge over their competition. Customers have lot of options these days as new restaurants come up every day with better deals, offers and cuisines.

Customer engagement is important when it comes to reaping maximum business from your restaurant business. Informing customers about new cuisines, menu, deals, offers and discounts in an interactive manner encourages them to dine-in or takeout or order over the phone. But engaging new customers is not as simple as it seems. 9 out of 10 restaurants fail in the first year of operations because they don’t pay much attention to the customer engagement marketing and eventually they lose the battle.

Customer engagement is all about delivering the right information to the targeted audience in a precise, planned and interactive manner. When customers start believing in your brand and they see value in it, they return for more and the brand achieves customer loyalty.

Restaurant loyalty programs are ideal for retaining customers. Loyalty programs or software provide a perfect combination of multiple strategies for customer engagement since, every customer is different. Some respond to the discount on meals while some respond to the complementary drinks or dishes. Ultimately, the goal is to make sure that customers return to the restaurant. Most modern and tech savvy restaurant owners who understand the value of technology in business, run digitally enabled loyalty programs that ensures connecting with the customers over various platforms such as social media, online ads, loyalty cards and mobile ads.

Key benefits of running a restaurant loyalty program:
1. Encouraging customers to return by offering repeat visit discounts on bill.
2. Inform customers in real-time about offers and meals by pushing content on mobile phones.
3. Engaging customers by sending birthday and anniversary wishes on their mobile phones.
4. Engaging with the audience on social media platforms through targeted campaigns to encourage new customers to visit the restaurant.

Apart from running loyalty programs, technologies such as Augmented Reality can yield outstanding results by delivering most engaging and interactive experiences to the customers. Augmented reality promises immediate engagement with the audience through print ads, menu cards, brochures and bill board ads. It brings immediate results and maximum ROI.
Key benefits of augmented reality solutions for restaurants and food chains:
1. Brings dishes, food items etc. to life on smart phones and tablets.
2. Restaurant owners and brands can augment their logos to enhance the brand value.
3. One single app works with print ads in magazines, menu cards, brochures and billboard ads on the streets.
4. Promises engagement anywhere, anytime.
5. You can push content in real-time to encourage customers to visit or order more.
6. Delights both dine-in and takeout customers by bringing food menu to life.
7. Most engaging solution which is not expensive and delivers promising results.

Conclusion
Most important element for building a successful business is connecting with the customers at the right time and fulfilling their demands. Using technology for strategic marketing and improving on the functional side is the key to build a successful restaurant business. Augmented Reality technology is one such emerging trend in technology that’s enabling restaurant owners and food chains to engage and acquire new customers and increase sales. You too can take advantage of this amazing piece of technology by associating with a specialized solution provider for the restaurant industry.

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