For a small business, it is very important to have higher customer retention rates. Repeat business helps your business to grow without losing much of its previous customers. In a way, it creates a situation where you acquire new customers without spending almost a small fortune, every time. Since it creates a very stable foundation, you can acquire new customers at your pace.
Think of repeat business as holding your ground and building upon it. With good repeat business, you don’t need to cover the void left by previous customers but you can acquire new customers from that point.
You might not see the difference immediately but when compounded over years, good customer retention results in real growth.
Every business loses some customers, but those who recognize this loss and work upon it have lesser trouble in the future. Same holds true for the restaurant business, with so much competition out there. It is even more important to do repeat business.
An online ordering system for restaurants like Restolabs allows you to effectively use various coupons and promotions to increase your repeat business.
Following coupons are a part of our online food ordering system for restaurants.
- Discount on Subtotal: The most simple yet effective, it can be Percentage Discount with an upper limit or it can be a Flat discount.
- Discount for Select Items: You can provide only a few items on discount, consider an 'End of Season Sale'. This is a good option to increase the sale of certain items and clear your stocks.It can be used to empty old items in stock, less profit is much better than a loss!
- Discount on selected Days/ Date / Time of the day: These coupons can increase sale on a not so busy day/date/time.
- Discount based on Delivery Location: Use these if delivery to a particular location is easy and cheap, most of the time a flat discount is given to adjust the delivery fee.
- Loyalty Based Coupon: If you are still figuring out a loyalty program for your restaurant. Or you do not support a loyalty program? Use these coupons instead. Rewarding your regulars will definitely increase repeat business and improve your customer retention rates.
- Make User Based Coupons: These coupons can be used to invite your customers again, offer them a free dish or any kind of discount. These are effective in converting customers who do not visit your restaurant frequently.
- Social Media Promotion Based Coupons: Social network platform links are generated and the user who promotes it maximum (like maximum likes on Facebook) gets a discount or free dish.
- Payment Method Based Coupons: Most of the time it is used for promoting payment gateways, but restaurants can use this to avoid a particular payment gateway due to high processing fees.
- Grocery coupon: These coupons are used for upselling and cross-selling purpose. Offers like buy “3” items and get “1” free or buy a two bigger size of these items at the cost of three small items.
- Specific Code Based Coupon: To understand if a marketing campaign is successful, different coupon codes are promoted on different platforms. After an analysis, restaurants start shutting down unsuccessful campaigns and focus on what is working for them.
- Event-Based Coupons: Many Restaurants organize events on special occasions, they follow up their regular customers and invite them to these events. During such events, new menus are launched, new dishes are brought forward. The customer loyalty is increased significantly and it also contributes to the publicity of restaurant through the videos and images are shared across social media for promotion.
- Coupon Gifts: Many restaurants are launching coupon gifts, a person can buy these and gift their friends so that they can enjoy their meal on discount or free.
- Payback coupons: By using these coupons, customers pay the full amount and the discounted amount is awarded as the loyalty points which can be used to get discount in the next order. This ensures that customer will order again!
- Catalinas coupons: These coupons are awarded for the next order at the end of first order completion. Again this ensures the loyalty of a customer.
Conclusion
Coupons are great tools and when used creatively in a marketing campaign, they yield great results. You can also implement these coupons in your online ordering software.
To know how Restolabs uses various coupons to increase the revenue of client restaurants you can contact us at info@restolabs.com.
To know how to use coupons creatively click here.
