With the summer now sadly over, it’s never too soon to look forward to the festive season with great excitement. However, all industries are facing a very similar challenge – consumer preferences have drastically changed. One industry that has faced the most change in the last 18 months is the restaurant and casual dining sector, as lockdowns all over the world have unfortunately changed consumer dining preferences for the long term. So, as restrictions ease, how do you stand out from your competitors when you no longer know your customer?
Luckily for the industry, during the festive season people are more likely to visit bars and restaurants, which offers a great opportunity to get to know your customers again. Here’s how to capture consented preference data from your customers with two real world examples:
Making data capture fun
One of the biggest difficulties faced when capturing consumer data is the process is usually incredibly dull, and people are both increasingly fatigued by traditional approaches to data capture and aware of the value of their data. This means a different approach to data capture is needed, and 3radical has the answer – gamification.
Gamification works by providing brands with the ability to encourage certain behaviours and build trusted relationships – something that is critical in wanting to grow revenue, earn back a customer’s loyalty, as well as capturing self-reported data.
It is not always necessary to create an actual game when using gamification; only the structure around the content needs to become game-like. For example, offering customers voluntary quizzes which are rewarded with redeemable points, badges, or a higher ranking on a leaderboard when completed. By using these gamification mechanisms, it allows businesses to collect earned data as well as connect with customers in a more fun and engaging way.
Here’s how Zizzi used gamification:
In order to achieve a level of customer loyalty, engagement frequency, as well as understand their customers better, Zizzi used gamification to collect self-reported, customer behavioural and preference data. Doing this enabled them to personalise future marketing to encourage customers to dine more with Zizzi in the future.
In this instance, gamification worked by creating a fun ‘board-game’, which rewarded players with extra turns if they played each day. By providing an incentive, such as an opportunity to win a holiday, Zizzi made the customer want to keep playing in hope of winning more prizes and, in turn, giving more data to the company.
By learning more about what their customer wants through this game-style technique, Zizzi was able to modify their menu and create options that customers revealed they wanted which, in turn, built strong brand loyalty and increased customer retention.
Here’s how Bella Italia engaged customers at Christmas:
Another challenge for the industry is that a high percentage of restaurant visitors remain anonymous. To give customers a fun, interactive, Christmas-themed reason to engage, Bella Italia created the ‘Santa Run’ game.
In return for additional game ‘plays’, customers would learn more about Bella Italia, subscribe to future marketing activity and also provide self-reported data in order to help Bella better communicate with and serve them going forward.
How 3radical can help
It’s evident consumers’ needs and expectations have changed recently. They are looking for a two-way communication stream that drives mutual benefits between themselves and the restaurants they frequent. While they want to stay informed, they are also looking for a great experience, atmosphere, service etc. To deliver on this, organizations need to be better engaged with their customers, to better align with the specific needs of each customer.
3radical provides adaptive and progressive consumer-led experiences that increase engagement, illicit repeat visits and site dwell time, while providing data explicitly aligned to the relationship between the consumer and the restaurant brand.
Contact us today; we’re here to help.
Through our combined software and services, we can help brands strive towards an earned data culture by identifying where brands can make changes, redesign their processes, and manage their people to maximize benefits