I was at a restaurant called Star Briyani at Coimbatore as I was craving a chicken biryani with some tandoori chicken. Yes, cravings do come in twos!
While I was about to finish my dinner, I noticed the waiter go to another customer who was seated next to us and ask them politely if the food was good and if they had any feedback as well. The customer was really happy and he was giving detailed feedback to the waiter for a whole 5 minutes.
Something interesting happened afterwards, while the customer was filling up his google review mentioning the waiter’s name, he asked an extremely unique question to the waiter, “Do I get a discount or a coupon for putting up a google review” but unfortunately the restaurant did not have a coupon issuing feature.
Restaurateurs are faced with a new set of challenges these days : how they can avoid rising costs of raw materials while simultaneously appealing to an increasingly discerning consumers to maximize return on investment (ROI)
5 ways to craft an effective restaurant coupon strategy to minimize spends and maximize ROI:
1, Offer first-time customer discounts:
Free items (usually with a purchase), or unusually high discounts to encourage new customers to make their first purchases. This can help you gain a lifetime customer as some of these first-time buyers may become repeat buyers later on
2, Special offers for events:
For special offers you can also consider offering special deals like buy-one-get-one offers that encourage customers to bring in more people to avail their offer
3, Coupon Pop Ups:
Pop ups and standees that could be put up at other events. Restaurants can add coupon codes to these standees and increase impressions. Restaurants can also list themselves on partner apps to increase engagement with our app.
4, Retargeting and Personalized Coupons:
Restaurants can now obtain customers who have availed their coupons and can now retarget them using this data for future campaigns
5, Product Reviews:
Social proof has ruled over sales techniques since the beginning of business. While shoppers eagerly share negative feedback, it’s not the same for the positive experiences. Restaurants can incentivize surveys with a well-targeted promo offer.
Conclusion :
Restaurant promotions and coupons come in many different forms, but vary in effectiveness. To optimally perform, promotions or restaurant coupon strategies must be tailored to the market, meeting the customer where they are, which is more than likely online.
While having third-party platform partners can help acquire new customers, it is important to note that as a restaurateur, you do not have access to that customer data, therefore making it more difficult to determine how to craft an effective promotion.
Having a good tracking and metrics system in place helps to manage customer relationships, as well as restaurant performance to make the most of your marketing spend.
Bonus Feature:
With our app, Pick Pauket, you can list your coupons on the app and you do not have to pay any commissions on each of the sale you get and also increase visibility to more customers who are searching for other deals and the best part is they can add it to the ‘My Pauket’ collection and be reminded of the coupon regularly
