4 Ways to Focus Your Business Around Your Customers

1. Digital Convenience

A business that does not create a convenient environment for customers will undoubtedly lose out on a wider share of potential revenue. For the F&B industry, convenience comes in many forms. However, digital convenience is a rapidly-growing sector that is absolutely key to boosting customer convenience. Online ordering, User Apps, online payments and online menus are great tools to grant your customers the convenience to learn about your business, make an order, pay for said order and have the order delivered to their homes without ever having to go outside, or picking up the phone. Indeed, we can see that [1]"once customers sign up, 80 percent never or rarely leave for another platform, creating a strong winner-take-all dynamic." There's no better time to go digital in the F&B industry than now. 

2. Personalized Service

This is where investing in a solid CRM service can truly separate your business from the competition. Whether you are a restaurant, bar or café, making your service tailored to individual customers can be a great way to drive business. Using a CRM system allows you to keep track of individual customer purchases, frequency of customer visits and even spending habits. These indicators can help paint a comprehensive picture of your customers. Servers can use this information to make customers feel more comfortable, while making recommendations that will genuinely interest customers. Also, any targeted discounts can be tailored to customer spending habits. Finally, it will be easier to spot larger customer trends, which will allow your business to offer popular products exactly when customers crave them. 

3. Customer Rewards

Setting up reward or loyalty programs is a stellar way to drive up customer interest in your business while also ensuring that they get a little kickback for showing loyalty. The more a customer visits your business, the more they stand to gain. This type of simple, yet effective, sales tactic is used by the majority of large companies (Starbucks, Panera, Dominos, etc) to make their service feel tailored around their customers. It also encourages more spending and might lead to customers recommending your business to their friends, since they are members and can tout the great benefits they get, as a result. In fact, customers are likely to spend up to [2] 37% more if they are part of a loyalty program than if they are not. 

4. Operational Efficiency 

When you serve customers at your business, it is important that your operational efficiency is on point. Making customers wait can often lead to poor reviews and a lack of return visits or recommendations. Everything from the Front of House right back to the Kitchen should be running seamlessly with one another. To this end, it is beneficial to have a POS system that can allow your business to increase efficiency under one system. For example, if servers take orders through an mPOS, that mPOS order should be directly sent to the POS without the need to key anything in again. That same mPOS order, once confirmed, should also be able to be directly fired to the kitchen. This type of efficiency should be applicable to every relevant part of your business as it will not only help reduce the number of staff required to run your business, but it'll also cut down waiting time for customers and make your business run much faster. 

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-changing-market-for-food-delivery

[2]https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/03/19/1441855/0/en/Gen-Z-and-Millennial-Consumers-are-Changing-Loyalty-Open-to-Behavior-Tracking-Paid-Loyalty-and-Deeper-Brand-Engagement-Through-Technology.html