Collectively, the team at Captain has over 80 years of experience in restaurant technology and marketing, and we’re eager to share our knowledge with our restaurant partners. Our playbook for turning customers into regulars embraces the fundamental principles of marketing: Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Retention. We think of the customer journey as a funnel, starting with Awareness and narrowing to Retention.
The key to success is attracting new people and turning them into loyal customers who keep coming back to your restaurant.
Awareness: In the digital marketplace awareness starts with making sure people can find you.
If someone searches your restaurant or browses for “restaurants near me,” it’s critical that you rise to the top. Since most searches start on Google, the best investment you can make to attract new customers online is to enhance your Google My Business Profile and take action to move up the Google search rankings.
Consideration: Next up in the marketing funnel, turning internet searches into sales by not only attracting customers, but encouraging them to interact.
Once they’ve found your website, what can you offer? Beautiful photos? Reviews? A promotional offer for placing that first order? This step is all about getting customers to place an order.
Conversion: Once they’ve decided to order, you need the technology in place to quickly convert visitors into customers.
Sadly, this is where restaurants commonly miss out. When online ordering is a bad experience, frustrated customers have no option but to bail on an order before they checkout. This is where Captain shines. 40% of customers who start an order complete it.
Retention: The final and most important step is continuing to build relationships to turn customers into regulars.
Restaurant owners know this: it's why you work so hard on customer service. And the numbers back it up. According to Invesp, acquiring a new customer is five times as expensive as retaining an existing customer, and increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits by 25-95%.
The funnel isn’t a journey with a finite destination and it’s vital to invest at every step. Ultimately you want to turn that funnel into a fountain with a steady flow of regular customers returning again and again.
