If you have a restaurant or café business, you want it to be bustling with customers who come back time and again. You want to know your customers by name because they have visited so regularly - those customers will tell their friends, or bring their friends and colleagues with them!

Let's look at how you can use Enudge to help promote your business and grow a loyal customer base.

1. Turn Foot Traffic into Subscribers

Enudge provides a simple yet powerful way to connect with your customers so that you can engage 1:1 with your customers, promote your specials, and keep your customers coming back, through strategic email and SMS marketing.

The first step is to place a QR code at your entrance, on the counter, and your tables. The QR code provides a link to an online form that allows subscribers to sign up to your email and SMS campaigns. Encourage your customers to subscribe, with text below the QR code such as:

“Loving your coffee? Scan here and subscribe to get 10% off your next visit”

OR

“Fancy a free dessert on your next visit? Scan here and be the first to receive our exclusive deals”.

If you need help setting up the form on your website and QR code, we can help; just reach out to us via the chat below. Here's a link to a QR code generator that might help: The QR Code Generator. There are multiple ways to add a web form integrated with your Enudge account, which are explained in this article: Options for growing your contact database.

2. Capture Customer Data seamlessly

Once a customer submits your subscribe form, their details will be immediately added to your Enudge email/SMS database. You can set the value of various attributes of each new subscriber. For example, if you have multiple locations, you might set a different category per location. You could also ask a subscriber to indicate their interests e.g. gluten free food, vegan options etc. Such interests (additional categories) will allow you to segment your customer base when sending email / sms offers.

Asking for the customer's data of birth enables you to automate a pre-birthday special offer each year.

3. Automate your Marketing efforts

At the same time as the subscriber adds themselves into your Enudge database, you can also attach them into an Enudge Message Series, so that they automatically receive a standard set messages.

The Message Series feature automates sending 1 or more emails or text messages, sent out on a timeframe set per each email / SMS, based on the date that the customer subscribed (we call it their 'trigger date').

Depending on the capability of your loyalty program, the following example message series could be considered:

Example Welcome Series:

• Immediately: “Welcome to [Your Restaurant Name]! As a thank you, show this message to receive a 10% discount off your next visit.”
• 5 Days Later: “Did you know we have a seasonal menu? Click here to view our current menu.”
• 10 Weeks Later: “We'd love to hear from you! Leave us a review and receive a free entrée on your next visit.”
• 1 Year Later: “It's a year since you subscribed; let's celebrate! Show this message to receive a free glass of wine with your next meal.”

 
A series of messages providing consistent communication builds trust, keeps your restaurant top-of-mind, and encourages repeat visits. We expect that in between the message series sending messages to each subscriber, you would also send other messages to your full database, or a segment based on interests - we'll cover that next.

If the new subscriber gives you their date of birth, or perhaps their birthday month, you could simultaneously add them into a separate Enudge Message Series which automates a pre-birthday message to be sent out at an appropriate timeframe prior to their birthday, providing further engagement.

4. Send Personalised, Tracked Emails and SMS with Enudge

With your customer details in your Enudge account, you can easily send out messages in bulk such as:

• Special offers: Let your customers know about happy hour, seasonal promotions, special discounts or a kids eat free night.
• New menu updates: Announce new dishes, chef's specials, or themed events.
• Event invitations: Invite your subscribers to exclusive events or VIP tastings.

 
The more information you have about your subscribers, the more tailored you can make your offers and updates. For example, if you know which customers are interested in Gluten Free dishes, you could choose just to email them when you add a new and exciting GF dish.

Simple personalisation, such as addressing the person by name, helps the customer to feel like you are talking directly to them. There's no limit to the amount of personalisation you can achieve through Enudge. But, you don't want to ask the customer for too much information, either, because the more you ask for the less likely they will be to fill in your web form.

Enudge allows you to track the performance of your emails and SMS. By reviewing the data about how many people opened your messages, clicked on links, forwarded your message and so on, you can get important insights to help you refine your messaging. It will become clear which type of messages resonate the most with your audience. You may also get important insights about how frequently to send messages, and which days and time slots generate the most activity.

Ready to Grow Your Restaurant or Café Business?

Enudge provides the tools you need to connect with your customers, promote your specials, and drive repeat business. With automated email and SMS campaigns, tracking capabilities, and easy data capture using a QR code, you can create a seamless, automated and engaging customer experience.

We have described building loyalty in particular for cafés or restaurants, however, building loyalty can also be achieved for other retail businesses, where customers are in-store and there is potential that they will respond to a QR code placed in a strategic position, alongside an attention-grabbing message. Since COVID, people are very familiar with QR codes, and happy to use them.

Get in touch via the chat button below and let's start working on building customer loyalty using Enudge.