Restaurant Marketing & Customer Experience Blog

Restaurant Owners: It's Wi-Fi Marketing Made Easy

Written by Robin Johnston | Jan 26, 2016 4:34:00 PM

Once upon a time, most restaurant owners knew every customer by name. They knew which days they could count on each customer being there, and they knew their favorite dishes and drinks. Somewhere along the way, this all changed. Today, it's a rare treat for most guests to be greeted with the enthusiasm with which Happy Days' Al Molinaro greeted guests at Arnold's Diner.

Thanks to modern advancements of the digital age, however, happy days are here again. Despite the challenges of staff turnover and the pressures of managing a high-volume location, restaurant owners can get to know their customers as they once did.

Attracted by free social Wi-Fi, many guests will willingly provide their name and contact information. Once their mobile device is authenticated, sophisticated Wi-Fi marketing platforms like Bloom Intelligence recognize when they return to the store and how long they stay. They can even marry this information with point of sale data, giving restaurant managers deep insight that allows them to identify their highest-value customers. Even in a busy QSR or fast casual environment, customer information is captured and recorded automatically, every single time.

With this sort of segmentation, managers can communicate directly to their best customers on a segment-by-segment or even a customer-by-customer basis. What does data like this mean to restaurant owners? It means that they can return once again to the days of knowing their customers on a personal level. They can send offers to at-risk customers who appear to have stopped visiting their store, or they can target only new customers rather than sending out an across-the-board discount that reduces sales from everyone, including those who would have come and paid full price anyhow.

A perfect marriage of automation and intelligence, this is game-changing technology for the restaurant business.

Happy Days indeed!