What is customer loyalty?
Customer loyalty is an ongoing relationship between you and your customers, which often leads to them engaging with your brand and purchasing from you over competitors. However, some restaurants get customer loyalty completely incorrect, thinking that one good experience will turn a diner into a loyal customer.
In fact, there’s a lot more that goes into customer loyalty than the first touchpoint diners have with your restaurant. It’s about building a relationship in the long term by utilising the methods we will cover in this article.
Why restaurant customer loyalty is important
Restaurant customer loyalty is crucial to the success of your business, providing a wide range of benefits that can make the difference between success and failure in a highly competitive industry.
There are several business benefits of increasing customer loyalty in your restaurant including:
- Increased revenue: Loyal customers will visit your venue more often, spending more money with you and in turn, increasing your revenue and restaurant profits.
- Cost savings: Acquiring new customers is more expensive than retaining existing customers reducing your marketing activity spend and helping you create more streamlined and effective targeted marketing campaigns.
- Brand advocacy: Loyal customers can become advocates for your restaurant, recommending it to their friends and family and sharing pictures and posts on social media. This can help to generate new business and increase your restaurant's visibility, making customer loyalty essential for your restaurant’s marketing strategy
- Competitive advantage: In a competitive industry, customer loyalty can give your restaurant an advantage. It can help you to stand out from the competition and build a strong reputation in the community. Loyal customers are also more likely to join reward programmes and create a virtuous circle of loyalty generation.
- Feedback and improvement: Loyal customers are more likely to provide feedback to help improve your restaurant. They are also more forgiving of mistakes, giving you a chance to address any issues and retain their loyalty.
As we can see, customer loyalty is crucial for the long-term success of restaurants, but how can you as a restaurant owner build and retain customer loyalty?
How can restaurants keep customers happy and build customer loyalty?
Keeping your customers happy is key to the success of any restaurant, and there are several ways that restaurants can keep customers happy and build brand loyalty:
Provide excellent customer service
Make sure your staff are well-trained to provide exceptional customer service. Be friendly, attentive, and responsive to your customers' needs. Customers also appreciate timely service so responding quickly is important. This applies to communications outside of the restaurant too so make sure you are monitoring your social media channels and other channels so you can engage with and reply to your customers.
Personalise the customer experience
Personalise the experience for your customers by addressing them by their name or remembering their favourite dish or drink. This applies to restaurant marketing as well. Emails that address your customer by name or promotions that take in personal factors such as birthday offers make your customers feel special and valued.
Consistency in quality
Customers like to know what to expect on their visit so don’t implement changes without giving them plenty of thought and, where appropriate, letting your customer know of any major changes in advance.
Be transparent
Be transparent about menu items, pricing, and any special promotions or deals. Customers want to feel that you are delivering value and being honest, which builds trust and long term brand loyalty.
Address customer concerns
Even with the best set up and staff, not everything will go exactly to plan. Always address customer concerns quickly and professionally, take customer feedback seriously and make changes as needed.
By implementing these tips, you can keep your customers happy and create a positive experience for them, but what are some of the more unique ways to build customer loyalty to your restaurant?
5 unique ways to improve customer loyalty to your restaurant
1. Provide an experience
Today’s consumers, particularly of the younger generations increasingly value experiences over traditional transactional dining. Just look at the wealth of pop-up cinemas, themed restaurants and bars and activity-led venues in your local town or city to see the impact of experience-led dining.
Another way you can provide a memorable customer experience is by creating something more personal and tailored to your guest. That could be as simple as looking at your current offer – a bottomless brunch is a great shared experience for a group of friends, or a birthday party, or an intimate tasting menu with finger foods and candlelight to elevate a date night experience.
Creating a memorable experience will help you build loyalty and have your guests keen to recreate their positive experience.
2. Utilise customer data
From signing into the Wi-FI and booking a table online, to ordering through the restaurant EPoS or order and pay system – your customers encounter various technology touchpoints throughout their experience. Each of these points offers you an opportunity to collect customer contact details so you can retarget your customers to encourage return visits.
Connecting all these technology touchpoints in one place helps you to analyse your data, segment your audience and create actionable insights for your marketing activity.
3. Offer a customer loyalty programme
Customers love loyalty programmes. According to a 2024 YouGov survey, 9 in 10 Brits are signed up for at least one loyalty programme, with special pricing being the most appealing benefits of these schemes. Our own Access Hospitality survey revealed that 40% of consumers said that they would want to use a mobile app loyalty programme to strengthen customer loyalty.
Rewarding customers for their repeat business with a loyalty programme that offers discounts, free items and other incentives encourages them to keep coming back and builds a sense of loyalty to the restaurant. This can also be used alongside a variety of upselling techniques to further boost customer experience.
Read our guide on customer loyalty programmes for restaurants, where we showcase a variety of customer loyalty programmes and provide a seven-step walkthrough on how to set up your own customer loyalty programme at your restaurant.
4. Make it personal
According to a survey by Accenture 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them. This statistic holds true with hospitality too.
We all want to be recognised as individuals so any loyalty scheme that rewards customers in a more personal way stands a greater chance of success.
Connecting your hospitality EPoS solution to your restaurant CRM enables you to collect details of when customers visit and what they buy, which can help tailor promotions accordingly. For example, if a customer always orders a steak when they visit your restaurant, why not offer them a free side to accompany it on their next one, or suggest a wine that would complement their favourite dish.
5. Listen to feedback
Invite your customers to share their feedback in-venue, after their visit and periodically to get a full view of your customer’s opinions. And then take them seriously. Use customer feedback to make improvements and demonstrate that their opinions are valued. Getting specific with your feedback survey questions can help you get relevant insights – for example, if you are noticing a downward trend in order value, you might include a question that asks customers about whether they think your menu provides value for money or if they find it expensive – which in turn will help you develop your menu to suit your guests.
Implementing these strategies will help you start to improve restaurant customer loyalty, keeping your customers coming back and establish your reputation locally.
Build restaurant customer loyalty with dedicated hospitality software
In this article, we have explored the importance of restaurant customer loyalty beyond just repeat business and how it is crucial for the success of restaurants. However, as more and more consumers turn to technology to make bookings, leave reviews, and engage with brands, restaurant owners need to keep up by investing in restaurant software.
To further build brand loyalty for your restaurant, Access Acteol, our hospitality CRM, enables restaurant owners to gather insights about their customers' needs and preferences in one centralised system.
Find out more about our loyalty and rewards solution, as part of our CRM
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