What if you could skyrocket your order counts, sizes and revenue through the roof by personalizing your digital ordering experiences for your customers?
Or, put another way, your guests love your brand experience so much they will come back more often and put more dollars in your pocket.
“The benefits keep getting greater and greater for brands when personalization is done right.” ~Kayvan Sotoodeh, VP of User Experience & Design Marketing, Tillster
Unfortunately, more often than not, restaurant brands don’t understand the value of personalization. And even when they do, they fall short of crafting a tailored digital ordering process that makes it simple and easy for guests to buy from them repeatedly.
This doesn’t have to be the case.
In this post, we will cover what personalization is and the many benefits restaurants brands can realize from integrating the concept into their digital operations.
What is personalization?
What is the purpose of personalization?
What are examples of personalization?
What are the benefits of personalization?
How can restaurants get personalization right?
What is personalization?
If you’re new to the concept, Gartner defines personalization as the process that creates relevant, individualized interaction between two parties designed to enhance the experience of the recipient.
It should be no surprise that conversations about personalization have entered the digital ordering landscape now more than ever. As remote life has become the new norm, more consumers have gravitated to ordering food on desktops or mobile phones. In turn, brands have been forced to elevate their digital operations to create a seamless ordering process. With the notion of tailored (personalized) experiences top of mind for many brand decision-makers, it comes down to restaurant chains learning how to do personalization right to separate themselves from their competitors.
Why is personalization important?
So, why should you care about personalization? For one, your customers expect it. In a study produced by McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized experiences, and when they don’t get it, 66% are likely to get frustrated with your brand.
It is easier than ever for a customer to forget about your restaurant in our crowded digital space if they have a less than stellar ordering experience. So don’t let them. Instead, make it a priority to learn how personalization can break down the barriers with your customers and drive better outcomes for your customers and your brand by putting the guest experience above all else.
What are some examples of personalization?
Examples of personalization can range from simple to more complex experiences, including:
Remembering your customer’s name every time they use your website or mobile app
Remembering your customers’ last or preferred order
Allowing customers to customize their order
Upselling menu items based on their buying behavior
Offering coupons and promotions for new and existing customers
Depending on your audience and menu items, all of these offerings could be a fit for your restaurant brand. The key takeaway is to invest in tailoring your digital ordering experience for each guest that comes to your platform(s). This is critical to acquiring new customers and retaining and increasing their lifetime value.
What are the benefits of personalization?
Higher user retention
Did you know 78% of consumers are more likely to repurchase and recommend your brand when their digital experience is personalized? In the highly competitive quick-service and fast casual space, effectively attracting and retaining guests all comes to down to making it simple and easy for them to order from your restaurant. By doing so, you enable your brand, specifically the digital side of your business, to become ultra-sticky with your customers. How can you become even stickier with your customers?
Remember their name every time they visit your website or mobile app
Allow them to easily reoroder their previous meal
Offer promotions relevant to their buying behavior (Don’t try to upsell me a burger when I only order the chicken sandwiches)
Reward them for being loyal customers
Getting personalized with your guests will pay dividends in the long run. Don’t settle on templated solutions or creating an online experience according to “how everyone else is doing digital.” Take the time to evaluate the touchpoints that make it fool proof for your consumers to order time and time again.
Better customer experience
Your customers want to feel special. They want to feel you have taken the time to craft a customer experience that is personable, seamless and enjoyable. When your digital investment goes beyond the transaction and is aimed at building the relationship, they are likely to respond positively. In a digital world that has never been more crowded, it is imperative to keep your customers’ engagement and experience with your brand top of mind.
Want to elevate your customers’ experience with personalization? Request a demo to learn how Tillster can help.
Higher meaningful engagements
Are you struggling to drive customer engagements that actually produce higher profits for your restaurant? Personalization can be your vehicle to generating interactions that increase your brand awareness and loyalty while adding more revenue to your bottom line. How? As you tailor your interactions to each guest, the likelihood of them interacting with your brand follows suit. With more interactions, you collect more data to create applicable experiences that will keep guests coming back; the flywheel effect.
In turn, more of your guests become loyal, lifetime customers that will increase in value and serve as champions for your brand, which help to reach new customer bases across their personal network.
Increased brand loyalty
If we haven’t hit it home enough, personalization enables you to fast-track brand loyalty across your customer base more efficiently and effectively. As previously stated, your customers expect their guest experience to be tailored to their preferences in how and what they order. By meeting this expectation from beginning to end across the customer life cycle, you emphasize the relationship with your customers as the most important aspect of your brand, rather than the transaction. As a result, your guests feel valued, empowering them to spend more frequently and on average, generating a 10-15% increase in revenue, with some brands seeing over 50% of the increase attributed to brand loyalty.
By going the extra mile to ensure your guests experience unique interactions with your brand, you set yourself apart from the competition and position your restaurant to realize more profits in a short period of time.
How can restaurants get personalization right?
The answer is in the data. If you’re not already collecting and analyzing your customers’ data you are missing a key step in personalizing your guests’ experiences that will translate into more profits for your restaurant. Without a platform or a service partner that enables you to leverage data and analytics in your decision-making, you are undoubtedly going to fall short in your personalization efforts.
If you pay attention to the data, your customers will over time inform you how they prefer to order and the items they desire the most. Think of it, all the guesswork is gone! In an industry that’s been slow to adopt and embrace analytics, you can break the norm by putting data at the center of your digita and in-store operations, which will pay dividends for years to come.
Want to learn more about Tillster’s personalization offerings?
Contact us today to receive a free demo of our online ordering and personalization capabilities that can help create customer experiences that will drive higher profits for your restaurant brand.
