Guide to Incorporating Offers for Your Customers

The pandemic’s finally over and your customers are finally stepping out of their homes to dine in. Only with the condition that your restaurant is offering value and convenience, that is. Large companies and third-party delivery services are constantly pushing various coupons and deals, and that has proven to significantly increase sales. After all, nobody can turn down a good discount, right? 

Offers can benefit your restaurant in many ways–from attracting newcomers to reconnecting with inactive customers. Studies show loyal customers spend more at restaurants than new diners because of loyalty discounts and promotions. Offers as such encourage repeat orders, impacting your bottom line significantly. Now, executing offers with no proper strategy can lead to negative profit margins and cause poor customer experience. In this post, we’ll cover some of the best practices when building an effective offer strategy.

Identify your goals

Before you get started, identify why you’re incorporating offers in the first place. Is it to attract new customers, reward your loyal customers, or run through excess inventory? Having a clear idea of what you wish to accomplish by the end of the offer period can help you make better decisions. 

Understand what is at stake

Like most things in business, there is always an upfront cost to offering discounts. Understand your restaurant’s break-even point—it provides insight into when your total revenue equals total cost, including both fixed and variable. From this formula, your accountant can determine how much sales are required to make a decent profit, and how that will fit into your greater marketing and offer strategy. 

Decide what you’re offering 

Some ways restaurants can run effective promotions for the desired outcomes are:

• Discounted price (by percentage or flat) for individual items or items in specific sections in the menu

• Bundle offers such as “Buy This, Get That” or set meals

• Loyalty points and rewards

• Seasonal discounts for special occasions and holidays

• Free delivery with minimum purchase

• Unique offer codes

Those mentioned above can be used at any given time, but we find that discounted price, seasonal, and bundle offers work well if your goal is to increase sales quickly. 

Understand customer behaviors

Identify the slowest day(s) of the week to drive more online orders (you may use the free delivery offer here), highlight holidays that are proven low ordering days, and try bundling discounted items with normal-priced items to increase sales per transaction. To encourage regular orders and visits, set up automatic loyalty rewards.

Keep your customers updated

Notify your customers of your active offers. Try the following ways to keep costs low while garnering high engagement:

• Automated emails

• Text messages

• Social media

Otherwise, on-premise promotional banners and flyers can help attain customers quickly.

Building a successful offer strategy can account for a large and consistent revenue stream. Take advantage in the wake of the pandemic, and start capitalizing on the consumer’s demand for value and convenience.