Developing VIP Clubs that Increase Business

"Before you begin marketing through a VIP Club, you need to take a step back and look at your restaurant. Make sure that you are ready for increased business. Don't attempt to market your restaurant unless you have above average food and service. Good marketing can actually put a restaurant that provides poor food and service out of business faster because more people will have a poor dining experience, and the negative word-of-mouth will cause them to fail faster than if they do not market at all," says Brent Davis, Director of Coaching Services for RestaurantMarketingGroup.org (RMG) a company that specializes in helping restaurants to build sound, trackable marketing systems through its easy-to-use software, "How-To" marketing manuals and personalized coaching.

Gathering the Data:
Once you have taken an internal inventory and feel good about the food and service that you provide, it's time to start using and building your database of existing customers. Remember that in most restaurants 30 percent of the customers are bringing in 70 percent of the business. For the sake of our discussion, let's say that Joe's Family Diner has 10,000 customers a month. That's 322 customers each day. Seventy percent of the diner's monthly customers would be 7,000. If the restaurant's VIP Club marketing creates only one more visit per year per customer at an average check of $25, the volume will increase by $175,000 per year or $14,538 a month and that's with only
one extra visit per existing customer per year. You can see why it's important to go after additional customer visits.

"Don't forget that your existing customers are your neighbors. A VIP Club nables you to market within your neighborhood to existing customers. It's permission based and therefore considerably more effective than if you did a
blanket coupon offer to all of your neighbors. These are folks who know and frequent your restaurant; they took the time to fill out a VIP card and have shared personal information with you," says Davis.

"VIP Clubs are a great way to build customer loyalty. Always give a thank you reward bonus for joining the club. We recommend that the offers go out by email or regular mail within 72 hours after signing up. The offer should be
without any strings attached. I like to suggest that the offer be for a dollar amount. A flat $15.00 or $10.00 amount could be enough depending on your guest check average. You could give a FREE, dinner with a $10 or $15 limit. Give them an offer they can use on anything they want. The offer is now valuable and they feel compelled to use it," says Teresa Horn, RMG Marketing Program Development

Specialist.
To enjoy the greatest return on your VIP Club enrollment campaign, you should train your employees so that they understand everything about the VIP Club. Have a contest and give prizes to the employees who sign up the most
customers. Place VIP Club displays and sign-up cards in very high-traffic, highly visible areas. Use pre-printed "Post-It" pad messages and put them on your menus so that your customers and employees will be reminded to fill them out.
Always emphasize the benefits of VIP Club membership. Enter the names and additional information into the computer software program on a daily basis, using a part time employee.

Horn suggests that your VIP Club sign-up cards include the
following information:

Name:
Address:
Birthdates of each family member, so that they can receive a
birthday surprise.
Anniversary:
Email::
Phone: (Optional)

"Carefully select your expiration date. I usually suggest using a three-week expiration date. If it's not used by then, it is usually lost. You want to create a sense of urgency," says Horn.

Processing the data:
Don't wait until you have built a large database. Start marketing to each VIP Club member the minute you get their data. You will find that this information is your most valuable marketing asset.

Creating a database of your customers and immediately communicating to them on a regular basis will increase the frequency of visits to your restaurant. For almost any reason, or sometimes for no reason at all you should send
the customer a postcard or an email with an incentive to bring them into the restaurant again. Remember, the goal is to bring the customers in at least one EXTRA time per year. By sending them a reminder postcard or email around a
holiday or during a local community event will remind them to visit your restaurant. And if they make several EXTRA visits you have exceeded your goal and dramatically increased the sales and profit of your restaurant.

Create a Birthday Club:
What is the most popular holiday for eating out? According to the National Restaurant Association, it's on your birthday. In fact, 55 percent of all Americans eat out on their birthdays. The best news of all is that people have
birthdays 365 days a year, spread out over 12 months. Birthdays are the perfect time to encourage additional business.

"Use the information gathered in your database to send out birthday cards for each VIP customer as you recognize one of the most important days in their lives. Their celebrations might as well happen at your restaurant. Always include a FREE offer such as a FREE dinner for the birthday guest.
Remember that birthday guests rarely party alone; the average size of a birthday group is five individuals," says Horn.

Go out of your way to make the birthday party a special event when a customer redeems his/her certificate. Your restaurant needs to become the "Party Place." Develop definite policies to ensure that it happens¡ªthat the parties are fun and your birthday guest is treated like royalty for
their day. You must create a special party atmosphere. One Northwest seafood chain has a crazy fish hat that the birthday person wears while they take a Polaroid or digital photo of the birthday guest and his/her friends. The photo is then slipped into a cardboard photo holder and becomes a
nice takeaway remembrance of the evening. Of course, the restaurant's name and address is on the card. If you include a "year" sticker, it can become a collectable item.

Celebrate Anniversaries:
Another great marketing campaign can be centered on your VIP customers' anniversaries. Forty-three percent of American couples say they go out to eat to celebrate their wedding anniversaries. If you own a fine dining restaurant,
try to make your guests dining experience special and romantic. Doing "little extras" is what will set your restaurant apart from the competition. Value-added incentives are more important than discounts on anniversaries. You must
make it a "special occasion."

Quick Service Restaurants and Pizza Shops can effectively wish mom and dad a happy anniversary by giving them a great offer for their children's meals that way, Mom doesn't have to cook for the children before she goes out to dine.
This let's the children celebrate the anniversary too.

Advertise Specials or New Menus:
"With a marketing database, you are prepared to communicate with your regular customers. It's a great way to introduce a new menu or a new menu item. Always include some special offer just for VIP members," says Horn.

Many companies have developed a newsletter for VIP members. Others are sending out e-newsletters. This is a great way to say thank you to your frequent customers. It's also a great medium to tell them about new menu items,
new employees, and new recipes. All this helps to make our customers take an interest in your restaurant and keep your restaurant's name in front of your VIP members. Be sure to make the newsletter newsy and fun to read. Always include some sort of incentive for those members to stop by for a
meal. Change your incentive in each newsletter and track the results.

Sponsor Contests:
One restaurateur saw a substantial increase in VIP member visits when she started having a weekly drawing. She sent out a postcard to the VIP members and asked them to bring in the postcards for a FREE offer. When redeemed, the
postcards were entered into a weekly drawing for a free lunch or "Dinner For two". Monthly drawings were also held with prizes such as a digital camera, CD player, clock radio, etc. Grand Prize Drawings held twice a year gave away a
grandfather's clock or a cruise. With every mailer, she reminded her customers of the grand prize drawings.

Additional Celebrations:
Create theme nights to attract your VIP members back to your restaurant. Tie your theme occasions with holidays. For instance, February is National Chocolate Lover's Month. Offer your VIP members a special chocolate dessert promotion for the month of February. One creative Italian restaurant
owner did a VIP promotion for its St. Patrick's Day celebration. He sent out an email invitation saying, "Come party with real Italians on St. Patrick's Day. We'll show you how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in style." Any holiday will
do. One restaurant celebrated Agatha Christie's Birthday by offering a surprise entree special.

Remember that the number of dollars that a customer is going to spend is limited. To get more than your share, you are frankly going to have to
take them away from your competition Effective marketing will help you get a larger share of your customer's dollars and includes the tools to track
each and every promotion to determine your customer response and return on investment. With good marketing and tracking you will be able to
keep your restaurant in Top OF Mind awareness with your customers.

"It's not your customer's job to remember you. It's your obligation and your responsibility to make sure the customer doesn't forget you! An effective VIP
Club will do just that," says Horn.