Beyond Basic, Standalone Loyalty Programs: How Enterprise Restaurants Use Integrated CRM to Increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The need for a robust CRM, in a nutshell, is service personalisation, which is the holy grail of good customer service that keeps customers coming to the same restaurant or restaurant chain. A 2020 Deloitte blog titled, 5 Ways CRM Can Help Your Business Today, mentioned that understanding customer preferences drives customer satisfaction, turning guests into repeat customers. In turn, repeat customers widen the customer pool through word-of-mouth marketing. Hence, emphasising the need for restaurant CRM solutions, the blog further states that repeat customers are likely to spend up to 33% more than other guests.
However, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in enterprise restaurants can be tricky because if the customer in question was impressed by one outlet of the franchise, they are likely to expect the same service quality everywhere else. However, controlling service quality across outlets can be challenging for franchise business owners.
So, how can they ensure prolonged brand loyalty by delivering personalised service while upholding a consistent service standard?
Neither Standalone CRMs Nor Independent Cloud-Native CRM: Here’s What You Need to Consider Before Investing in CRMs!
While standalone loyalty programs only store outlet-specific loyalty points, cloud-based CRMs offer personalised insights across the franchise. However, neither of them is ideal for productivity; in fact, their flaws may incur losses, likely to be visible only after extensive audits. The central flaw of the two software systems is that they require manual data entry of customer information—an error-prone, laborious, and time-consuming process—to begin working optimally. Therefore, customers may potentially receive fewer or more loyalty points as well as invalid or extra offers, resulting in either loss of trust in the business or an unforeseen loss.
Given the flaws of the said CRM platforms and that investing in the software increases the business capital expenditure, it is important to ask:
How to increase customer repeat visits in restaurants using CRM?
That’s exactly what we will examine in this blog. Read on to know more!
The Ideal Restaurant CRM Solutions: Know Why Enterprise Restaurants Need CRM-Cloud ERP Integration
Thanks to ERP integration, the CRM software can automatically access updated customer preferences, including order history, feedback, and consumption patterns, which are centralised. Thus, with a unified interface for billing, operations management, loyalty management, promotions, etc., via the ERP, users need not suffer the inefficient and erroneous manual logging process to mine data-driven insights from CRMs.
Here’s how enterprise restaurants are using platforms such as the QPOS ERP for integrating restaurant CRM solutions, helping them go far beyond basic loyalty programs:
Hyper-Personalised Engagement for Customer Loyalty: ERP for Restaurants Integrating Restaurant CRM Solutions
CRMs can crunch customer data, including patterns in dining frequency, order ticket size, food preferences, and special days, to help enterprise restaurants elevate the dine-in experience for guests, no matter the outlet they have visited. The insights from the CRM, coupled with the loyalty point discounts, can help the F&B outlet suggest customised offers, both on special days as well as a surprise. Much like special day offers, surprise discounts also signal that the business understands the customer.
Similarly, successful promotions, i.e. the ones more likely to convert, are tailor-made and relevant. On the other hand, when guests receive irrelevant offers via SMS or e-mail, which have been forwarded to everyone on the contact list, they may begin considering the business’s promotions as spam.
Further, CRMs can help decision-makers create tiered loyalty programs for repeat customers, making them feel part of something exclusive. For example, the loyalty points, if the CRM is connected to a robust loyalty program, can be redeemed for experiential third-party rewards as well as VIP seating, event access, or invitations to the franchise’s lavish menu tasting focus groups. Another crucial use case of CRMs is storing customer feedback, which can easily be lost unless digitised immediately without much hassle. Restaurants can enhance the feel-good factor around their brand by duly implementing customer feedback, thereby further strengthening customer loyalty.
Moreover, subtle touches in the customer service, such as knowing the customers’ names, the tables they like, or being able to suggest dishes, including new menu items, based on their taste profile, can go a long way. Here, too, CRMs play a vital role as much as it does by supporting restaurant managers when they plan to extend a special gesture by helping repeat customers skip waitlists during rush hours.
Gamification of Customer Engagement Using Restaurant ERP Solutions
Modern loyalty programs enabled by CRMs often leverage gamified engagement opportunities such as digital or social media challenges to increase brand recall, which, in other words, means keeping the restaurant chain at the top of the customer’s mind.
Constant Realignment Based on Engagement for Customer Loyalty: ERP for Restaurants with CRM Integration
By evaluating customer experience through feedback and the conversion of promotions, among other strategies, integrated CRMs—particularly those with AI capabilities—can offer smart suggestions for better engagement.
Why CLV Rises with Integrated Restaurant CRM Solutions?
Better engagement implies higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Hence, by increasing data-driven decision-making and improving the degree of gamification in promotions as well as service personalisation, CRM-ERP integrations play a major role in boosting CLV.
Wondering How to Increase Customer Repeat Visits in Restaurants Using CRM? Here’s How QPOS ERP Can Help!
QPOS ERP supports effortless CRM integration, thus empowering enterprise restaurant owners with promotions management, error-free billing, report generation, and loyalty program management across locations at a single touchpoint. Moreover, QPOS’s AI-powered platform also offers smart suggestions based on the client’s historical data. Hence, even with a basic cloud-based restaurant ERP solution, customers can optimise customer engagement.
The smart and comprehensive restaurant management we have discussed so far becomes not just intuitive but also flexible, as QPOS, being a cloud-based ERP, offers remote access to restaurant metrics, thereby powering decision-making anytime and from anywhere.
Intrigued by what else QPOS could offer? Contact us today, and one of our executives will get in touch with you soon!
