How restaurants & cafés can drive repeat business

If you have a restaurant or café business, you want it bustling with customers who come back time and again. You want to know your customers by name because they visit so regularly — and those customers will tell their friends, or bring their friends and colleagues with them.

Let's look at how you can use eNudge to promote your business and grow a loyal customer base.

1. Turn foot traffic into subscribers

eNudge provides a simple yet powerful way to engage 1:1 with your customers, promote your specials and keep them coming back, through strategic email and SMS marketing.

The first step is to place a QR code at your entrance, on the counter and on your tables. The QR code links to an online form that lets customers sign up to your email and SMS campaigns. Encourage them to subscribe with text below the code, such as:

“Loving your coffee? Scan here and subscribe to get 10% off your next visit.”

“Fancy a free dessert on your next visit? Scan here and be the first to receive our exclusive deals.”

If you need help setting up the form and QR code, we can help — just reach out. Here's a QR code generator that may help, and there are multiple ways to add a web form integrated with your eNudge account, explained in options for growing your contact database.

2. Capture customer data seamlessly

Once a customer submits your subscribe form, their details are immediately added to your eNudge email/SMS database. You can set the value of various attributes for each new subscriber. For example, if you have multiple locations, you might set a different category per location. You could also ask subscribers to indicate their interests — gluten‑free, vegan options, and so on. Those interests (additional categories) let you segment your customer base when sending offers.

Asking for the customer's date of birth enables you to automate a pre‑birthday special offer each year.

3. Automate your marketing efforts

At the same time as a subscriber adds themselves to your database, you can attach them to an eNudge Message Series, so they automatically receive a standard set of messages. The Message Series feature automates sending one or more emails or text messages on a timeframe you set per message, based on the date the customer subscribed (their ‘trigger date’).

Depending on your loyalty program, an example welcome series might be:

• Immediately: “Welcome to [Your Restaurant]! As a thank you, show this message to receive 10% off your next visit.”
• 5 days later: “Did you know we have a seasonal menu? Click here to view our current menu.”
• 10 weeks later: “We'd love to hear from you! Leave us a review and receive a free entrée on your next visit.”
• 1 year later: “It's a year since you subscribed — let's celebrate! Show this message for a free glass of wine with your next meal.”

A series of messages providing consistent communication builds trust, keeps your restaurant top‑of‑mind, and encourages repeat visits. In between the series, you'd also send other messages to your full database, or to a segment based on interests. If a subscriber gives you their birthday (or birthday month), you could simultaneously add them to a separate Message Series that sends a pre‑birthday message at an appropriate time, for further engagement.

4. Send personalised, tracked emails and SMS

With your customer details in your eNudge account, you can easily send messages in bulk, such as:

• Special offers — happy hour, seasonal promotions, discounts or a kids‑eat‑free night.
• New menu updates — new dishes, chef's specials or themed events.
• Event invitations — exclusive events or VIP tastings.

The more you know about your subscribers, the more tailored your offers can be — for example, emailing only your gluten‑free fans when you add an exciting new GF dish. Simple personalisation, like addressing someone by name, helps customers feel you're talking directly to them, and there's no limit to the personalisation you can achieve through eNudge. Just don't ask for too much information on your form, or fewer people will complete it.

eNudge lets you track the performance of your emails and SMS. By reviewing opens, clicks, forwards and more, you'll gain insights to refine your messaging — which messages resonate most, how frequently to send, and which days and time slots generate the most activity.

Ready to grow your restaurant or café?

eNudge provides the tools to connect with customers, promote your specials and drive repeat business. With automated email and SMS campaigns, tracking, and easy data capture using a QR code, you can create a seamless, engaging customer experience. We've described building loyalty for cafés and restaurants, but the same approach works for other retail businesses where a QR code placed in a strategic position — alongside an attention‑grabbing message — can capture in‑store customers. Since COVID, people are very familiar with QR codes and happy to use them.

Let's start building customer loyalty. Get in touch and we'll help you put this to work with eNudge.