| How to Build Your Customer Database QUICKLY
One of our members told me how he quickly created a customer
database to launch an email marketing program.
First, he created a series of contests for his servers based on how
many customers they signed up each week. Then he went to his
suppliers and told them about his plans to build a customer
database to market and increase customer frequency, sales (and move
more of THEIR products).
He enlisted their support by asking them to give him products or
items he could use as incentives and prizes to give to his
waitstaff. His suppliers eagerly responded with bottles of wine,
concert tickets and other goodies any employee would like that cost
him nothing.
To get everyone in the restaurant involved he teamed up each server
with a back of the house employee.
Whenever a server won a prize, his or her partner in the kitchen or
dishroom was awarded the same prize. This created a unique
opportunity to create a positive connection between the dining room
and kitchen and build interest in the contest throughout the
restaurant.
The result of this effort was overwhelming. Not only did he quickly
build his database to over 3,000 customers in a few months but his
employees responded with lots of enthusiasm and loved the contests
and prizes.
Return to Me
Restaurant email marketing and loyalty programs boost customer loyalty and repeat business
By Scott Shaw Keeping an existing customer is always easier than attracting a new one, and email marketing and loyalty programs are helping restaurant operators meet constantly evolving customer expectations, sharpen their competitive edge and generate repeat business. Today's consumers demand personalized products and services and want to be engaged by the restaurateur. Email marketing and loyalty/frequency programs help restaurant operators deliver on those high expectations, retaining existing customers and creating more opportunities for repeat visits. In fact, according to the 2006 National Restaurant Association Forecast, 46 percent of consumers say they'd be more likely to patronize a restaurant more if it offered a rewards program. Additionally, the technology behind email marketing and loyalty programs is becoming more affordable and accessible to restaurants of all sizes. Building a restaurant loyalty marketing program is a three-step process. Email clubs are a cost-effective first step. Launching an email club helps build your customer email database, which can later be used for more extensive loyalty programs, and it allows opportunities to increase sales, boost your brand and tailor offers to individual stores. Frequency or card-based programs are the next level, capturing transactional data that allows for segmentation of customers by recency, frequency and spending, which provides valuable business insights and marketing information. The highest-level loyalty program creates true opportunities for personalization by using all these tools to determine what your best customers are buying so you can create offers and programs especially for them. Y'All Come Back
Austin Grill, a Gaithersburg-based, seven-store Tex-Mex chain with locations in suburban Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia, provides a good example of how email marketing can help retain customers and generate repeat business. Its program launched in May 2000 and more than 25,000 of its customers have signed up over the past six years. To generate a database of customer email addresses, Austin Grill sets out paper slips for customers to fill out their information and drop into a fishbowl, or delivers an email sign-up sheet to the table with the check; customers can also sign up on Austin Grill's website. The success of any opt-in program depends on restaurant staff, so Austin Grill promotes sign-ups as much as possible, offering incentives such as store-level contests to see which servers can sign up the most customers. Once a month, Austin Grill sends those email sign-ups to Fishbowl Marketing, and we enter them into a database that we created and maintain. They also receive a monthly recap of their total customer list size, as well as how many customers have joined or dropped off the list. Austin Grill creates its promotions and parameters and sends all the information to us at Fishbowl. We design and push the email out to customers. Austin Grill email club members receive a welcome message when they sign up, with an average open rate of 60 percent; a birthday message with a 55 percent average open rate; and a monthly message with a 45 percent open rate. Additionally, those customers receive a few surprise one-day offers, and a thrice-yearly loyalty gift to drive enrollment, such as a coupon for $10.40 off a tax day meal or a buy-one/get-one entr嶪 offer. While some emails are sent to all customers, others are directed at those who signed up at a particular store, with offers specific to that location. Email marketing offers restaurants like Austin Grill two critical advantages: flexibility and cost savings. An email blast can be sent to a large list of customers for next to nothing, while getting the same promotion out via direct mail requires significant printing and postage costs and a long lead time. Because email marketing and loyalty programs generate so much data, restaurants have a clearer idea of how they're performing and can implement promotions in response to a need or issue at a particular store, or chain-wide. For example, two Austin Grill locations are in high-density office areas and have busy lunch businesses. Those locations opened at 11:30 a.m., and customers would frequently be waiting outside for the doors to open. Opening time was pushed back to 11:00 a.m. to accommodate those customers, but at first, nothing happened. "People didn't realize we'd changed our hours," says Austin Grill Vice President of Operations Kurt Miller. "We sent an email blast to customers telling them we had new hours and saying that for the next 30 days, if they came in for lunch between 11:00 and 11:30, we'd give them 50 percent off. Business shot up instantly. People were coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the offer. It was free business, since we weren't normally open that early. Without putting the word out, it would have taken a lot longer for people to catch on that we opened earlier. This way, we sent an email blast out and within a week, people were changing their patterns." Seeing Results
Your customers are your business, so getting to know them, communicating with them and rewarding their loyalty through email marketing and loyalty programs will provide a significant return on your investment. "Email marketing keeps us closer in touch with the customers. It's a great method of getting a notice out really fast," says Miller. "We've also used it to promote fundraisers we've held for the USO and the victims of Hurricane Katrina. An email blast is a great way to get messages like that out to customers. It's a great way for people to feel like they're a part of something, and, it's an economical method to reach out to your customers."
Top 10 Suggestions for Launching a Successful Email Marketing Program:
- Train your staff and get their buy-in, e.g., have them sign up for your email marketing program so they know what to expect.
- Create incentives for your staff to sign up customers, e.g., friendly competition between locations, choice shift, gift certificates from local vendors.
- Build, build, build your list.
- Make your program valuable-and relevant-to your customer; send a mix of an occasional offer, 6 to 8 seasonal events, new menu items, and 4 to 6 local event-focused emails. Use your program as a tool to encourage customer feedback.
- Promote the program to your customers, e.g., use in-store signage.
- Keep your email messages brief and to the point - the more content in a single email, the higher the risk that the important part of your message will be lost.
- Entice your customers to open your email messages with compelling subject lines.
- Designate a POS key for redeemed offers relating to your email marketing program.
- Use a professional; commercial email marketing is highly regulated both on federal and state levels and avoiding SPAM filters is a full-time job in itself.
- Make it a central part of your marketing plan.
Return to Me
Restaurant email marketing and loyalty programs boost customer loyalty and repeat business
By Scott Shaw Keeping an existing customer is always easier than attracting a new one, and email marketing and loyalty programs are helping restaurant operators meet constantly evolving customer expectations, sharpen their competitive edge and generate repeat business. Today's consumers demand personalized products and services and want to be engaged by the restaurateur. Email marketing and loyalty/frequency programs help restaurant operators deliver on those high expectations, retaining existing customers and creating more opportunities for repeat visits. In fact, according to the 2006 National Restaurant Association Forecast, 46 percent of consumers say they'd be more likely to patronize a restaurant more if it offered a rewards program. Additionally, the technology behind email marketing and loyalty programs is becoming more affordable and accessible to restaurants of all sizes. Building a restaurant loyalty marketing program is a three-step process. Email clubs are a cost-effective first step. Launching an email club helps build your customer email database, which can later be used for more extensive loyalty programs, and it allows opportunities to increase sales, boost your brand and tailor offers to individual stores. Frequency or card-based programs are the next level, capturing transactional data that allows for segmentation of customers by recency, frequency and spending, which provides valuable business insights and marketing information. The highest-level loyalty program creates true opportunities for personalization by using all these tools to determine what your best customers are buying so you can create offers and programs especially for them. Y'All Come Back
Austin Grill, a Gaithersburg-based, seven-store Tex-Mex chain with locations in suburban Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia, provides a good example of how email marketing can help retain customers and generate repeat business. Its program launched in May 2000 and more than 25,000 of its customers have signed up over the past six years. To generate a database of customer email addresses, Austin Grill sets out paper slips for customers to fill out their information and drop into a fishbowl, or delivers an email sign-up sheet to the table with the check; customers can also sign up on Austin Grill's website. The success of any opt-in program depends on restaurant staff, so Austin Grill promotes sign-ups as much as possible, offering incentives such as store-level contests to see which servers can sign up the most customers. Once a month, Austin Grill sends those email sign-ups to Fishbowl Marketing, and we enter them into a database that we created and maintain. They also receive a monthly recap of their total customer list size, as well as how many customers have joined or dropped off the list. Austin Grill creates its promotions and parameters and sends all the information to us at Fishbowl. We design and push the email out to customers. Austin Grill email club members receive a welcome message when they sign up, with an average open rate of 60 percent; a birthday message with a 55 percent average open rate; and a monthly message with a 45 percent open rate. Additionally, those customers receive a few surprise one-day offers, and a thrice-yearly loyalty gift to drive enrollment, such as a coupon for $10.40 off a tax day meal or a buy-one/get-one entr嶪 offer. While some emails are sent to all customers, others are directed at those who signed up at a particular store, with offers specific to that location. Email marketing offers restaurants like Austin Grill two critical advantages: flexibility and cost savings. An email blast can be sent to a large list of customers for next to nothing, while getting the same promotion out via direct mail requires significant printing and postage costs and a long lead time. Because email marketing and loyalty programs generate so much data, restaurants have a clearer idea of how they're performing and can implement promotions in response to a need or issue at a particular store, or chain-wide. For example, two Austin Grill locations are in high-density office areas and have busy lunch businesses. Those locations opened at 11:30 a.m., and customers would frequently be waiting outside for the doors to open. Opening time was pushed back to 11:00 a.m. to accommodate those customers, but at first, nothing happened. "People didn't realize we'd changed our hours," says Austin Grill Vice President of Operations Kurt Miller. "We sent an email blast to customers telling them we had new hours and saying that for the next 30 days, if they came in for lunch between 11:00 and 11:30, we'd give them 50 percent off. Business shot up instantly. People were coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of the offer. It was free business, since we weren't normally open that early. Without putting the word out, it would have taken a lot longer for people to catch on that we opened earlier. This way, we sent an email blast out and within a week, people were changing their patterns." Seeing Results
Your customers are your business, so getting to know them, communicating with them and rewarding their loyalty through email marketing and loyalty programs will provide a significant return on your investment. "Email marketing keeps us closer in touch with the customers. It's a great method of getting a notice out really fast," says Miller. "We've also used it to promote fundraisers we've held for the USO and the victims of Hurricane Katrina. An email blast is a great way to get messages like that out to customers. It's a great way for people to feel like they're a part of something, and, it's an economical method to reach out to your customers."
Top 10 Suggestions for Launching a Successful Email Marketing Program:
- Train your staff and get their buy-in, e.g., have them sign up for your email marketing program so they know what to expect.
- Create incentives for your staff to sign up customers, e.g., friendly competition between locations, choice shift, gift certificates from local vendors.
- Build, build, build your list.
- Make your program valuable-and relevant-to your customer; send a mix of an occasional offer, 6 to 8 seasonal events, new menu items, and 4 to 6 local event-focused emails. Use your program as a tool to encourage customer feedback.
- Promote the program to your customers, e.g., use in-store signage.
- Keep your email messages brief and to the point - the more content in a single email, the higher the risk that the important part of your message will be lost.
- Entice your customers to open your email messages with compelling subject lines.
- Designate a POS key for redeemed offers relating to your email marketing program.
- Use a professional; commercial email marketing is highly regulated both on federal and state levels and avoiding SPAM filters is a full-time job in itself.
- Make it a central part of your marketing plan.
Scott Shaw is a co-founder of the Austin Grill chain and President & CEO of Fishbowl Marketing, an Alexandria, Va.-based hospitality marketing firm. | The Customer's Perception Of Value Should Always Come First
By Thomas J. Haas For years I have been impressed with the "New York Type" upscale steakhouse business, and have attempted to assess why it is that from New York to Chicago to LA to Dallas to Houston to Disney World (Shula's) to even Jackson, Mississippi (Char), steakhouses seem to be slammed every night. During a recent trip to Chicago, we had dinner at Gibson's down town. The bar was thirty deep and the line for dinner extended outside the restaurant. The food was great, despite the crowd and the fact that it was 9:30pm. Rumor has it that that location does $25 million+, and the other airport location is north of $15 million. My conclusion is that thick sirloins, chops, and grilled fish of prominent proportions seem to make the value equation easier for the customers to comprehend. Steak, lobster, shrimp, along with prime rib, are American symbols of the best in eating, which along with good spirits creates a true bonanza for this category of establishments, which is why Charlie Palmer, David Burke, Rose bud, Wolfgang Puck, etc. have all jumped onto the band wagon. The steakhouses also make side dishes a part of the normal ordering process - who doesn't order cottage fries, onion rings, mushrooms, etc.? What other restaurant group could make spinach (creamed or otherwise) a major menu item? While the rest of the industry was looking at side dishes as a give away, the "New York Steakhouse Group" was turning this forgotten category into a profit center. It is amazing how the 6 pound lobster got into the picture when a 1 ?pound lobster was considered an extravagance until the original Palm changed all that. Let's visit the original Palm in New York in the 60's or early 70's. Let's begin with the bar - order a scotch on the rocks and The Palm poured a real drink. Lifting a rocks glass filled to the brim was a delicate task, which introduced you to an experience that said, Wow! What a great way to begin your meal. Let's compare this to many ultra conservative restaurants, where small glasses are filled to the brim with ice with the spirit poking its poor, pour head, attempting to melt quickly without hopefully inflaming the trust of the consumer who is being charged $10.00 plus. The bottom line is that the consumer has excellent vision as well as taste, and knows a good steak when it is presented, a good drink when it is poured, and a wine list which allows the customer to peruse and experiment at various price points, remembering that wine appreciation is much more prevalent today resulting in recognition of value versus abusive pricing. Customers know good steakhouses are not cheap, but obviously they consider them good value and a fun experience. Restaurateurs overly concerned with value to their bottom line many times forget the customers value formula comes first. Arnie Morton said it best years ago when he discussed the importance of his check average versus food or beverage cost. Obviously, he watched his costs, but in the mid seventies, if you had a $50.00 check average you certainly had the latitude and to sell the customer a good drink, a great steak accompanied by all the goodies at an a 'la carte price. All restaurateurs can learn from the steak concepts to remember the best formula of all. "Base your price on value not cost", and remember, to get those fannies into seats you need to cook and pour for customer satisfaction first, then your success will follow. Thomas J. Haas is President of Thomas J. Haas & Associates, Inc. Mr. Haas is a food service industry consultant specializing in strategic marketing. Should we voluntarily ban foie gras in our restaurants?  We invited Chef Laurent Manrique to grace our cover and speak on the subject of foie gras in the United States. The good chef politely declined, and understandably so. He has seen enough regarding this French delicacy to last a lifetime, and while government types all over the world are looking to place the production of foie gras in the history books, there are people out there intent upon doing it their way. Call it what you will, but an appropriate name would be "domestic terrorism". These are the folks who will do anything to protect the ducks and geese of the world, and violence against this San Francisco chef was part of their plan. They spray-painted his home; they poured acid on his car; they sent him threatening letters to go along with their threatening phone calls. They attacked and damaged his place of business. Chef Manrique has earned the right to pass on our suggestion to speak on this issue, and respectfully we have turned to other chefs to present their views. It is important to note that this chef of Aqua in San Francisco, still has foie gras on his menu. Some people are tired of talking about it, but the foie gras debate has really just begun. They banned it in places like California (beginning in 2012) and Chicago, and while these bans are significant victories for the anti-foie gras sector, they won't be satisfied until it's banned worldwide. It's highly possible that this is precisely what is going to happen.  Many chefs have voluntarily taken foie gras off their menus. In plain words, they don't need the aggravation. Others are prepared to fight to the end. Their thinking is that no one from the outside has the right to tell them what they can and cannot serve in their restaurants. More importantly, they see this as only the beginning. They envision our "politically correct" mentality continuing to add food items to the list (veal, lobster, caviar, etc.).
It's a most interesting issue, and the only promise we can make is that it won't be decided in the pages of magazines such as the Restaurant Report. This is a battle that has major implications to the restaurant industry, and all we can hope for is that the final outcome is based on legal issues and not on violent behavior. We would be remiss in not taking some kind of position, and we will. We see this as a consumer choice issue. If you object to the methodology, don't order it. If enough people behave this way, foie gras will quietly go away. Maybe the restaurants that choose to serve it will quietly go away. But we are not ready to tell our chefs how to behave in the their kitchens; they will be the ones who should make this decision.
 Chef Didier Durand of Cyrano's Bistrot & Wine Bar in Chicago, is leading the education in foie gras farming as spokesperson for the Illinois Restaurant Association and co-founder of Chicago Chefs for Choice. It's important to note that he is possibly the only chef in Chicago with actual experience in foie gras production, and has said all along that force-feeding ducks is not cruel, as it may be perceived. He is quick to point out that the American Veterinary Medical Association has now twice rejected resolutions claiming that foie gras production is inhumane. Together with the Illinois Restaurant Association, he brought two experts to the city of Chicago in order for the politicians and others to hear the scientific side of this issue.
Mr. Daniel Gu幦en? PHD is highly regarded as the world's foremost authority on the physiological effects of foie gras farming. He serves as director of research and is senior scientist at the French National Institute of Agronomic Research. Mr. Lawrence Bartholl, DVM, is the immediate past president of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society. He is the first recipient of the American Veterinary Medical Association's Animal Welfare Award and has maintained a large veterinary practice in New York State for 32 years. These two highly regarded professionals have provided a considerable amount of expertise, research, and scientific responses to the false allegations in the production of foie gras. Chef Didier maintains that opponents of foie gras shared inadequate videos and photographs depicting the so-called "horrors" of foie gras farming, and misrepresented the entire issue. Singling out foie gras as being inhumane is simply not supported by the facts. The chef calls their report (below) the real "truth" on the subject of foie gras. According to Chef Durand, "It has been demonstrated that foie gras is neither torturous nor inhumane. Alderman Joe Moore has not been honest with the City of Chicago, and I very much regret the negative impact it has had on this City! Inevitably, the foie gras ban must be lifted as it has neither ground nor even jurisdiction in a court of law. Even our Mayor agrees that we are making ourselves, and Chicago look ridiculous. Enough said! Chef Didier Durand is spokesperson for the Illinois Restaurant Association; co-founder of the Chicago Chefs For Choice; and President of the Chicago Originals. Cyrano's Bistrot & Wine Bar
546 N. Wells, Chicago IL 60610
Tel: (312) 467-0546
chefdidierdurand@yahoo.com Sidebar - Clinical experimentation has shown that force-feeding does not induce any significant increase in plasma corticosterone levels in ducks kept in a pen. A similar conclusion regarding the absence of stress perception was drawn after recording the heart rate as no acceleration was detected. The researchers have concluded that force-feeding does not lead to stress.
- Neuroscience provides information about the nervous system that can help us to assess the incidence of pain. Neural activation indicating the presence of pain signals were never detected in the sensory visceral brain centers of force-fed ducks.
- Aversion to force-feeding and force-feeders has been left too often to anecdote rather than scientific measure. The experts found in conclusion of their experimentation that force-fed ducks do not develop any avoidance behavior towards the force-feeder and the force-feeding content. Additionally, familiarization with the feeder appears to have soothing effects, both on behavioral and physiological responses.
- Foie gras is not a diseased liver. For humans or mammals, this may be the case, but it is not for birds. In fact the steatosis in foie gras is fully reversible. After a three to four day fast, the liver returns to its initial composition.
- Finally, foie gras production is considered "natural" as ducks have tendency of migratory needs to over-feed. Through scientific studies, it has been observed that a single duck can ingest (without any physical constraint) up to 500 g (over 1 lb.) in a single meal.
Chef & Industry Commentary...
 "I feel that banning an ingredient from our menu is a personal choice for each and every chef. Foie Gras is quite low on the list of ingredients that are cruel, detrimental to sustainability, and potentially bad for our guests or consumers in general. I believe it is very important to listen to my guests and balance that with my personal passions as a chef. By in large, those who wish to ban foie gras are not guests of the restaurants that serve it. Besides, are we not fighting a war for our freedoms, and there is no need to dictate what we can and cannot eat. The real question becomes where does it really end? If you'd like me to expound on how waterfowl livers engorge naturally during migration I'd be happy to".
-- Jason Wilson, Crush Restaurant - Seattle
"Enough is enough here. I can't really justify this. What I have seen, it's just inappropriate. There are too many great things to eat out there that I don't believe that any animal would have to go through that for our benefit."
-- Chef Charlie Trotter, Charlie Trotter's - Chicago "Truthfully, I am torn on the subject. I am not by any stretch an advocate for animal cruelty. However, I feel the finger should be pointed at all of those in the wholesale meat business. Have any of these so-called animal rights activists ever seen a poultry plant or the work floor of a slaughterhouse? I am not making excuses for having foie gras on my menu. If I have the ability to do so within the confines of the law than I will continue to exercise my right to do so. If, at the end of the day, I do not have it on my menu and those around me do, my customers that want this dish will go to my competitors to dine. In this competitive dining market can any restaurant afford to loose a customer for a reason such as this?
-- Chef Michael Lachowicz, Restaurant Michael - Winnetka, IL "I feel we are in business to please people, and I have foie gras on my menu as an appetizer and many people order and love it. It is not our place to tell people what to eat. Those who choose not to eat it should not order it. It's that simple. The ones who do not want to eat it have no right to prevent those who do. If we allow the food police to eliminate foie gras from our menus, what comes next? Veal? Beef, chicken and fish? Are we all going to become vegetarian restaurants?"
-- Bernard Ros, Meli Melo - New York "The fattened liver of a goose or a duck. Unfortunately, an endangered menu item with the advent of angry, twisted, humorless, anti-cruelty activists who've never had any kind of good sex or laughed heartily at a joke in their whole miserable lives and who are currently threatening and terrorizing chefs and their families to get the stuff banned. Likely to disappear from tables outside France in our lifetimes."
-- Chef/author Anthony Bourdain (from Les Halles Cookbook) "Telling people what they should and shouldn't eat is cultural imperialism - and deeply disturbing. That a group of people could say, "You know, how you eat and how you've been eating for hundreds, if not thousands, of years -- traditional Jewish cuisine, Western European food since Roman times -- that is wrong and should not be allowed." I find that offensive. Ethnically insensitive, jingoistic, xenophobic, anti-human and disrespectful of the diversity of cultures on this planet, and for human history."
-- Michael Ruhlman, author of "The Soul of a Chef" "I love a good steak. I just don't believe we should torture the cow, the people producing the cow or the cow's neighborhood where hormones and antibiotics are sprayed through the air. The production of duck foie gras in this country is miniscule, but when you watch the treatment of these animals in factory farms, you are moved. I took foie gras right off my menu."
-- Chef Michael Altenberg, Bistro Campagne - Chicago "PETA has a long-running campaign against KFC, the largest purchaser of chickens in the world. We've had campaigns against McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and other major players. While the foie gras industry is small, the reason so many people, including the Pope, have condemned foie gras production is because it's so amazingly cruel. Most other animal rights and animal welfare organizations have campaigned against industries and companies much larger than foie gras."
-- Matt Prescott, spokesman for the People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals "We're at a situation where the question arises -- where do you draw the line as to what can be dictated with regard to what we can eat, what we can do? If people can't make these choices themselves, is Big Brother really going to take over?"
-- Chef Mitchell Maxwell, co-owner and executive chef of Maxwell's 148 - Natick, MA "It's egregious cruelty, and it's unnecessary. Treating other animals that way takes a piece out of our own humanity."
-- Gene Bauston of the Farm Sanctuary "Foie gras is an easy target. Next lobster, next rabbit. Myself, I believe I'm lucky to find myself on top of the food chain. I think God created rabbits and ducks for me to enjoy. And soft-shell crabs."
-- Ariane Daguin, D'Artagnan "In the chef's community and with people who eat foie gras, I've not met anyone who's pro-cruelty to animals. I'm not out to combat the animal activists. I'm out to make sure that the freedom of choice is still available in this country."
-- Chef Allen Sternweiler owner of Allen's, The New American Caf?- Chicago "As I see it, what's at stake is the individual's right to choose, the future of my profession, and good taste. Not to mention a delicious organ that dates back to the beginnings of gastronomy as we know it."
-- Anthony Bourdain
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