4 Ways Restaurants Can Use Data to Maximize Customer Loyalty

Like many industries, hospitality is constantly evolving, but that’s the beauty of it.

While it can be difficult keeping up with the latest trends or your customer's food preferences, it doesn’t need to be! When customer feedback is collected properly you can find simple and efficient ways to improve business practices, menus and dishes that truly satisfy your customers, keeping them coming back for more. 

That’s why this blog will explore 4 ways you can use data to maximize your customer loyalty.

The importance of customer feedback

It’s important to implement ways to gather customer feedback for your restaurant as it can help you understand customer satisfaction levels. This helps you make valuable changes that prevent customer issues and diners not returning as well as helping you to build a loyal customer base. 

You could collect customer feedback in various ways:

• Online surveys 
• In-person feedback
• Social media
• Online reviews on sites like Tripadvisor

But if you’re looking for a way to gather large quantities of data and have a way to extract actionable insights, you need to put a customer experience management platform into action, as part of your tech stack.

Yumpingo’s customer experience management platform for example, is a seamless way to add  customer feedback gathering to your interactions with guests. As a seamless way to unpack what they’re thinking, Yumpingo’s platform, alongside our consultancy team, will find ways to improve your business operations and menu offerings. Our business is specifically designed for hospitality so that we can help you get things right the first time. 

The platform allows you to:

• Collect guest sentiment from anywhere at any time - You can capture guest experiences across table service and self-service as well as takeout, delivery and retail through QR codes, post-dine emails or Yumpingo devices. 
• Uncover the why of customer satisfaction - Our highly engaging 1-minute surveys collect customer insights for every menu item in real-time for all of your restaurant locations. This gives you accurate data that reflects how customers perceive your restaurant, allowing you to make necessary improvements. 
• Get solutions to solve issues - Smart Actions highlights the most important things you need to improve. Smart workflows also empower teams to work on actions that can be resolved and make immediate improvements to guest experiences.

Using customer feedback to maximize customer loyalty

Did you know that 70% of customers don’t return to a restaurant? Although this can make it feel like it would be difficult to build a loyal customer base, there’s no need to fret. When customer feedback is put to use properly you create loyal customers that keep returning. So how can you use customer experience to improve customer loyalty?

1. Adapt your menu

Customer feedback can help you analyze which dishes are performing well and which aren’t. When you use Yumpingo we collect feedback for every dish, helping you pinpoint any issues and areas to improve on. Understanding this allows you to edit your menu to truly suit your customer base. 

You can also use previous months or seasonal feedback to predict what dishes your diners would prefer, based on the time of year and day of the week. For example, orders may change on a weekend compared to a weekday. People may opt for three courses instead of one or cocktails rather than a soft drink. Knowing granular details like this helps you better prepare food and drink options to ensure you fulfil the needs of your customers. 

When you understand what your customers want you’re going to  create a loyal customer base. 

2. Provide improved staff training 

Customer feedback can also be a great way to see if areas of your business need improving. For example, if you’re continually getting feedback about poor service levels, long wait times or rude staff, you may want to consider providing further training. This can cover things like product/dish knowledge and how to deal with unsatisfied customers effectively.

When staff are trained to deliver excellent customer experiences you’re more likely to create a loyal customer base. This can help to increase profits and drive a higher footfall to your restaurant.  

When Yumpingo’s customer experience management Software is used, your management team gains a clearer picture of how your restaurants are performing. This allows them to be more strategic in the way they use customer feedback.    

3. Resolve issues quickly 

No restaurant wants to waste time fixing the same issues over and over again. Unfortunately, this can be the case. However, when problems are fixed promptly you’re more likely to turn a negative experience into a positive one. For example, if you’re continually handing out vouchers to dissatisfied guests, wouldn’t it be better to get it right as soon as the first person notices any issues and gives you feedback? That’ll save you a small fortune in no time at all.

When you use Smart Actions you solve continuous issues and mistakes. You’ll also benefit from:

• Weekly insights notifications - At the start of every week you’ll receive highlights of your menu and delivery performance.
• Location specific analysis - This provides insights on each of your individual restaurants.
• Automated action-planning - Yumpingo saves you time by highlighting only what is resolvable by your teams. 

4. Improve your satisfaction growth

Improving your satisfaction growth levels is important in helping you maximize customer loyalty. With our customer experience management platform, you’ll get insights into your customers' satisfaction levels. 

Using our Outcomes as a Service (OaaS) model, we pair cutting-edge experience feedback applications with professional services to accelerate value for our clients. 

We’ll help you to change the way you act on customer insights by focusing on the most impactful areas for improvement, helping your brand to grow revenue, increase advocates, reduce churn, drive down inefficiencies that impact your profits and drive up efficiencies. 

So if you’re looking for effective support in making decisions that you get right the first time, get in touch with Yumpingo today to see how we can help.