The Bloom Intelligentsia

Customer ratings: they're one of the most important elements of your business. Satisfied customers are more likely to share their experience at your restaurant in a way that will bring in their friends, coworkers, and family members, while dissatisfied customers will warn everyone they know away from your restaurant. Thanks to today's highly digital society, both happy customers and unhappy ones have a wider reach than ever--and more people are turning to those online reviews to help shape the way they choose what restaurants they'll visit, from those out-of-town tourist visits to people looking for a new place to eat in their own backyards. 

Every restaurant wants to keep its customers coming back.  After all, retaining current customers is a lot less expensive than finding new ones. One effective way to increase repeat business is with an email list.  Having this kind of a marketing tool lets you stay in touch with your customers by sending them emails about upcoming drink specials, new menu items and more.  Customers will then think of your restaurant the next time that they are planning to dine out.

Loyal customers are a critical part of improving your restaurant as a whole. Repeat business--especially frequent business--offers a number of key benefits to your restaurant. Loyal customers, in general, are worth around ten times as much as the amount of their first purchase over time--and that number may be even higher in the restaurant industry. Just five percent more customer retention can increase your sales numbers by as much as 75%. Not only that, acquiring new customers for your restaurant costs around five times more than keeping the customers you already have. Clearly, the benefits of customer loyalty are extraordinary--and knowing how to create that sense of loyalty is critical for your restaurant. 

Regardless what your restaurant offers on the menu, you can be sure your customers are looking for one thing from you: free Wi-Fi. In fact, one survey showed 70% of customers felt Wi-Fi made their restaurant experience better. Restaurants that have Wi-Fi include: Atlanta Bread; Newk's Eatery; Black Rock Bar and Grill; The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company; and others. In today's society, Wi-Fi is a necessity. Restaurants use it to drive sales and visits by rewarding, identifying, and retaining their top customers.

It's also possible to send targeted promotions and messages, to enable a restaurant to strengthen customer loyalty, engage with those who visit their business, and increase the chance of return visits. Following are some of the advantages of having free Wi-Fi.

Your goal as a marketer or salesperson shouldn't be to make a single sale—it should be to build long-term relationships with prospective customers.  Why?  Well, for one thing, on average about 80% of your sales come from the top 20% of your customers.  For another, it costs about 5 times as much to attract a new customer as it does to retain an existing one.  The better you are at retaining your best customers, in other words, the more profitable your business will be. 

How long do customers spend in your restaurant? Do you know? And does it matter?

A robust analytics program is central to the success of your business.  Analytics will help you generate more leads, increase sales, gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, create effective customer profiles, measure return on investment (ROI) and maximize limited marketing dollars. 

Surprisingly, though, most businesses are still in the dark when it comes to the use of analytics.  For example, a recent survey from Harvard Business Review found that "more than 80% of respondents were dissatisfied with their ability to measure marketing ROI."

Offering customers free Wi-Fi is not only the expected standard these days but also a powerful conversion tool. Wi-Fi can convert your daily customer visits into sales by creating extended visits.

Loyal customers are the backbone of any business. Not only are they the ones driving your sales, their word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations play in important role in spreading brand awareness and expanding your reach. This is why businesses spend time, money, and resources finding ways to not just attract new customers, but to turn those individuals into loyal, repeat customers.  One of the best ways this is done is by rewarding your customers!  

In the 2018 Pew Research Center Survey, 94% of U.S. adults that are ages 18-29 own a smartphone and 89% of smartphone owners are ages 30-49. The comScore US Mobile App Report documents that millennials were the most engaged, adept and opinionated app users of any demographic.