How word of mouth publicity Impact restaurants marketing strategy
One thing we can be sure about word of mouth publicity is that it is never going out of style. It was, it is and it always will be one of the most powerful ways of marketing.
The restaurant industry is hell-bent on doing paid marketing to acquire new customers. In this competitive environment paid advertisement does not have the same impact it used to have a couple of years ago.
Word Of Mouth Marketing Can Affect These Factors At A Restaurant:
- Brand Loyalty:
Building brand loyalty assures you that it will increase your customer retention rate. According to the National law review:-
Cost of acquiring a new customer = 5 (Cost of retaining a customer)
And Bain & Co estimate that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost a company’s profitability by 75%.
The most important aspect of this is that positive word of mouth marketing will land you new customers. Then these new customers will again give you some new customers. All of a sudden you have created a machine that pumps new loyal customers for you.
- Brand Trust:
Brand trust is needed to be created to have brand loyalty. According to HubSpot, 75% of the customers don’t trust advertisement, yet 90% of the customers will trust friends and family reviews and 70% trust consumer reviews.
It is a given that people will always trust their friends and families and even strangers (via reviews) more than ads.
The 3 Es Of Word Of Mouth Marketing: Engage, Equip & Empower
- Engage:
“Make every interaction count, even the small ones. They are all relevant.”-Shep Hyken
It would be stupid to think that having good food and quick service is all customers are looking for. They want a complete experience from looking at the restaurant from outside and how they were treated once the bill is paid. The idea is to have an amazing ambiance, the perfect menu and much more.
The goal of this engagement is that people always talk about something that they liked a lot and vice versa. This engagement increases your chances to have a positive word of mouth marketing.
- Equip:
“The customer’s perception is your reality.”- Kate Zabriskie
To equip your customer you need to be unique in a certain way and be spot on in your all operations and this will get your customer talking.
This step requires you to take feedbacks as it is one of the most powerful tools to know your customer’s opinion and act on it. You can use Lysten.ai- Customer feedback platform for this. You would need to reply to every review and learn to handle the criticism in a positive manner. This will allow you to bring changes and create a positive outlook about your restaurant in the minds of your existing customers.
- Empower:
“Give consumers different ways to talk and share. Let them know that they are important to you and that sharing their opinions is important to you.” — Whitler
Going above and beyond for your customers making sure they realize how important they are to you is the key here. Having a referral program where your loyal customers can give you new customers will work wonders for you.
Make a note of this nobody will give your referral because they are getting some discount, people only refer when they like something.
