If you’re over 55, special offers and deals are likely to get your attention. If you’re between 18-34 it’s most likely to be the drinks menu. Zonal’s GO Technology research explains how customer behaviour and preferences change depending on age and gender.

Pub and restaurant customers are a diverse bunch, but there are some interesting patterns when you start crunching the data: different groups of people have very different expectations when it comes to the booking and dining experience.

According to Zonal’s GO Tech research, there are distinct differences between differing age groups. Older customers are much more likely to check a pub or restaurant’s website before visiting the premises, with 34% of over-55s looking for special offers and deals compared to just 26% of 18 to 34s. The pattern repeats with booking information – 44% compared to 32% – and location information, which was required by 32% of over-55s compared to 22% of 18 to 34s.

Some things are universal, however. Across every demographic, the reasons for using a restaurant’s website are ranked in the same order of importance: the menu first (88%), followed by opening times (63%), booking information (38%), offers and deals (31%) and the drinks menu (29%). If your website people aren’t making it really easy for people to get those bits of information, you might want to have a word: when it comes to the biggest frustration with restaurant websites, 44% of people across all demographics say that it’s the lack of a viewable food menu. Difficulty in using or accessing the website is second (20%), followed by lack of booking information (12%), not listing opening times (10%) and not having a viewable drinks menu (7%).

That’s not to say that there aren’t some demographic differences in that data. The drinks menu is much more important to younger consumers: 41% of 18 to 34s check the drinks menu before visiting compared to just 21% of over-55s.

Points to remember:

• Over 55 are more interested in special offers and menus than any other age group
• Older customers are much more likely to check a pub or restaurant’s website before visiting, so make sure all of the information they are looking for is clear and easy to find
• Website features and frustrations are common across all demographics: lack of a menu is the biggest sin
• Some information is more important to specific groups: older consumers want location info and younger ones are looking for a drinks menu

• The most important thing about data is what you do with it – where you invest your valuable time, IT budget and marketing effort.

Discover more about how Zonal’s loyalty management system gives you the tools to build smart loyalty programmes that reward your most loyal customers and encourage increased spend.

In the pub and restaurant industry, trends don’t just affect what’s on your customers’ plates. They can affect every aspect of the business, often in very positive ways.

One of the most significant and important such trends is the move to cloud-based solutions, which are delivering measurable benefits to many restaurants.

From good to great

If your business is already superb at what it does, cloud technology can make a good thing even better. By moving some of your infrastructure to the cloud you can reduce hardware and software costs, cut maintenance and training costs and introduce the ability to scale your solution up or down according to demand.

Not only that, up-front costs are usually minimal, ongoing costs are predictable and the right solution enables you to take full advantage of available technologies.

Reasons to head for the cloud

For example, you might want to move at least some of your EPoS system to mobile devices such as tablets, or to integrate different data sources to provide detailed analysis of occupancy, yield, customer behaviour, inventory management and marketing effectiveness. Life in the cloud can also help you to make it easier for your employees to schedule shifts by checking rotas electronically.

Making the switch

For many restaurants, the first step is to migrate reservations and waiting lists to the cloud. Such a move can enable customers to check availability and book online or via their mobile, and it can be used to offer last-minute availability in the event of cancellations or unexpected lulls. It can also send automated reminders to help prevent the dreaded no-shows that blight many businesses’ balance sheets.

In many cases, the IT manager can then make a strong case for moving more operations online, especially when it comes to data integration. That can deliver incredibly detailed insights into occupancy and even individual customers’ behaviour, can identify more efficient use of resources and can even lead to more aggressive booking windows by identifying just how long a table of X people will be occupied.

Pause for thought

There are negatives too, of course. Some cloud-based systems are cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all operations. Many use their own branding rather than yours. Some contracts don’t fix costs in a way you’ll find acceptable, or charge a commission that can easily spiral out of control. And some vendors operate on a model where they own the data, so if you decide to cut loose and go elsewhere you can’t take your valuable data with you.

The biggest potential problem, though, is that your provider’s interests might not align with your own.

For example, if a platform is building its own brand in the consumer space, there’s a risk of your business becoming a cog in somebody else’s machine – something we’ve already seen in online retail and online ticketing, where the platform providers ended up dominating entire markets.

Making the switch

The right solution doesn’t do that. The right solution keeps you in control: control of your costs, control of your brand and, most importantly of all, control of your data.

Key points to remember:

• Cloud-based solutions require minimal disruption and little initial investment
• Make sure your provider’s interests are aligned with your own
• Ownership is crucial, especially of the data your business generates
• Data analysis can cut costs, improve efficiency and boost occupancy
• The right solution gives you control of your costs, your brand and your data

Find out more about Zonal’s range of cloud-based solutions including reservation systems, loyalty programmes and marketing campaign tools.

Every business wants to attract new customers, but not every business realises the importance of customer retention. Loyal customers not only provide a regular stream of revenue, but they generally out-spend new customers and often become vocal brand ambassadors.

So how can you increase revenue by improving the loyalty of your existing customer base? Here are 5 top strategies to help:

1) Deliver an exceptional customer experience

You could invest a lot of money in advertising, social media, and SEO, and people could still visit your restaurant once, never to return.

Before diners visit your venue, they’ll most likely have already formed expectations based on reviews or the information on your website. A consistent customer journey increases satisfaction, builds trust and boosts loyalty. Seemingly simple things like calling customers by their first name and taking notes of their preferences can make all the difference.

Another way to improve customer experience is to have an online booking system that shows real-time availability, regardless of booking size, ensuring your business can meet the expectations of customers, 24/7.

2) Supporting your community, special events

Customers love it when businesses care about the community. You don’t have to be part of a large franchise with a budget of millions in order to look at ways to give back to the local community. Taking part in local events, supporting a local cause or giving your space up for an event can help you build a stronger local network and customer base and it doesn’t take much to get started.

Special events are also a great way to encourage guests to re-visit. With the shift towards experiences, events such as trivia quizzes or bingo nights, to name a few, are making a come back!.

It helps you build a positive reputation for the business, makes you known within the community and helps form useful connections within your local area.

3) Connect with customers through social media

It goes without saying that social media is a great way to highlight your venue and interact with your customer base. By highlighting offers, sharing customer-generated content and responding to comments, social media can help you build an engaged following. Engaging with your customers via social media by running competitions, giving shout-outs or sharing and retweeting their photos and posts can make them feel special and boost customer loyalty.

4) Develop a distinctive loyalty programme

According to GO Technology a third (34%) of consumers say they would like to see schemes that track and reward their loyalty, and 33% want to receive promotions and deals.

It may seem obvious, but many restaurants still do not have loyalty programmes in place. It’s basic psychology: people are more likely to visit again if they get free stuff.

An effective loyalty programme can drive acquisition, retention and engagement post-visit if done well. With so many generic loyalty schemes out there how do you build a successful loyalty programme that’s right for your business?

Make sure your loyalty programme stands out and doesn’t just give the customer points every time they come in for a meal, or a discount when dining at a later date – everyone does that. Try offering membership levels or create offers for kids. Tailor the programme to fit your unique business and customer base and make it really stand out.

5) Use technology to make it personal

When it comes to loyalty schemes, Tesco’s Clubcard scheme is probably the oldest and well-known. However, you don’t need millions of pounds to run a programme that delights your customers the same way that Tesco’s does. By integrating your till with your other tech systems, you can build a valuable customer database  that can be used to create your loyalty scheme and incentivise customers to revisit with personalised rewards which in turn boosts your profitability.

The integration allows you to capture and analyse valuable customer data with every transaction including what they’ve ordered, how much it cost, and how frequently they have visited. This data can help you create an effective and personalised loyalty programme suited to your customer database.

With so many loyalty programmes out there, knowing what loyalty programme to implement that’s right for your business isn’t always easy. For expert advice on building a successful loyalty scheme, download our guide on how to choose a high-performing loyalty programme for your hospitality venue.

Discover how Zonal’s fully EPoS-integrated Loyalty solution, available exclusively to Zonal EPoS customers, can help you build a loyal customer base and increase revenue. Read more

Loyalty today is about so much more than waving a discount card. The smartest hospitality brands in our data-driven age are embracing technology and using customer insights to drive loyalty, increased visit frequency and spend. Zonal helps hundreds of customers to develop bespoke on-and offline loyalty programmes, mobile applications and more – all tightly integrated with EPoS for a seamless customer and operator experience.

Watch our online webinar, where you can learn:

• The importance of loyalty programmes in customer retention
• How to drive acquisition, retention and engagement post-visit with a Loyalty programme
• The different types of loyalty programmes that you can run
• How industry experts Bistrot Pierre rolled out their mobile app-based Loyalty scheme

Watch our 50-minute insightful webinar with Bistrot Pierre Director of Marketing- Arpita Anstey, and Digital Marketing Manager, Susie Clark, for top tips and advice on how to build a successful loyalty programme.

Speakers:

• Arpita Anstey, Marketing Director, Bistrot Pierre
• Susie Clark, Digital Marketing Manager, Bistrot Pierre
• David Charlton, Commercial Director, Zonal Marketing Technologies