Think about your favorite restaurant. What draws you to the place?
Mine is a humble downtown Los Angeles restaurant, Maccheroni Republic. The chef there turns out a Bolognese that braises in my mind when I haven’t had it for a few weeks. But what really keeps me going back is the owner, Jean Louis, who likes to stop by the tables and pull up a chair. One night, as my wife and I lingered past closing, he sat with us while we told him about the gelato shop we’re opening a few blocks away. He gave us an hour’s worth of food business wisdom.
The cooking at Jean Louis’ place won over our palates. His personal connection to us locked in our loyalty.
At NationBuilder, we understand the key ingredient to success in the restaurant business - honest, real relationships with a community of people. Organizers create movements by identifying early supporters, moving them up the ladder of engagement, and ultimately turning them into evangelists for a cause. NationBuilder gives food business owners the digital tools to do the same thing with their customers.
While the toolkit for community building is somewhat universal, a neighborhood pizzeria, for example, will have a unique set of needs. So NationBuilder recently launched a site-type designed specifically for food establishments. It provides an out-of-the-box, customizable website fit for food sellers of all kinds, including cafés, bakeries, neighborhood butchers, cheese mongers and food trucks. Customers can easily join your newsletter, send feedback, or pre-buy special meals. They can text-in reservation requests, share your blog posts, or place an order for catering services. As they do, you’ll collect valuable data about your customers.
Here are three ways you’ll be able to use that data to build a community of regulars:
Find and activate your social media influencers
With NationBuilder, you’ll get to know the people behind the hashtags and avatars. Thanks to NationBuilder Match, you can sift through the noise on Facebook and Twitter and identify the followers that matter most to your business. You can spend time actually engaging the loyal fans already spreading the word on your behalf, then thank them by inviting them to a special menu tasting. At the end of the night, they might even Tweet about the special dinner.
Mobilize your customers with text message promotions
Imagine it’s a slow Tuesday night. You need to get people in the door. With NationBuilder, you can send a text message to your best customers offering a free glass of wine with dinner if they swing by. Unlike a generic Facebook post, a text message is direct, personal, and immediate.
Pre-sell tickets to prix fixe deals
Looking to try out a new tasting menu? With NationBuilder, you can filter your invite to select targeted customers and sell advance tickets to special events. Your customers can warn you of any food allergies, and won’t have to deal with settling the bill at the end of the night. And, since NationBuilder will match the guest’s email to social media, the chef can prepare a special cocoa-infused treat for the self-proclaimed “@chocoholic” aka #satisfiedcustomer.
To learn more about how food businesses use NationBuilder to grow their communities of customers, hit me up directly at [email protected].