Whether they’re tracking their customer loyalty programs, analyzing their promotional campaigns or integrating their point of sale (POS) systems to review how much customers are spending on every visit, quick service restaurants (QSRs) need robust solutions that streamline and simplify these and other processes.
“Success in the quick-service restaurant industry is traditionally about understanding what customers want and delivering it to them with minimal friction,” QSR Magazine points out. “To achieve this, brands have typically powered single or multi-channel comms, like email and SMS, with basic customer relationship management (CRM) software that afforded them minimal personalization.”
To yield the best results, customer outreach requires a deeper understanding of the customer than just their name and email address, the publication adds. For instance, Burger King took on McDonalds in 2018 with a headline-grabbing experience. Customers could order Burger King’s signature Whopper burger in the company’s app for just one cent—provided that they ordered it from a McDonald’s parking lot.
“Likewise, [Burger King] recently pushed inactive app customers back into their mobile platform with a $2 snack box offer,” QSR Magazine adds. “They know many customers can’t/won’t eat on premise, so they encourage a new type of behavior, and they dictate the channel.”
Putting CRM Data to Work
Using CRM data, QSRs can better understand how their customers behave collectively and their preferences, buying patterns and other valuable data points. Using this information, restaurants can make more effective and relevant decisions; deliver a more personalized touch; and build strong relationships with new customers. They can also easily train new hires on how to use the system, thanks to NetSuite’s user-friendly interface.
NetSuite’s CRM module is available right out of the box. It integrates directly with many industry POSs and automates multi-channel marketing campaigns that align with the QSR’s sales and promotional efforts. By infusing automation into some or all of these processes, restaurants can significantly reduce their reliance on manpower and allow valued employees to focus on more important projects.
NetSuite also helps QSRs tackle one of their most pressing problems: the data fragmentation that sets in when myriad different systems—none of which share data with each other—are used to run a business.
“This might be caused by an abundance of extraneous data or data spread across multiple silos,” QSR Magazine points out. “These causes, individually and in concert, make it significantly more challenging to use data to shape customer experiences. If you want to grow up as a brand, then you need to tackle this head-on.”
Big Payoffs
When QSRs put time and effort into customer relationship management, the payoff can be significant. Consider these statistics cited by CustomerThink:
1.
47% of restaurant customers use at least one loyalty program.
2.
57% of restaurant program members said they would spend more at other restaurants if they offered loyalty initiatives.
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In 2020 (most recent year), the average restaurant rewards member spent $167 per month on meals eaten in-house. That’s 92% more than non-rewards program members at the same sites. The carryout figure was higher – $232.
4.
Still, nearly 40% of quick-serve restaurant (QSR) customers do not use a loyalty program because their preferred restaurant does not have one.
“A rewards program can positively shake up the value of a quick-serve restaurant – if it first invests the time to ensure the program offers the right menu of features, such as unexpected rewards, immediate earning and redemption and a digital element that is visually enticing and instructive,” the publication adds. “And always, that initiative must stay fresh.”
Using NetSuite CRM and working with an experienced implementation partner like ERP Success Partners, QSRs can effectively manage interactions with current and potential customers, partners and suppliers in a single place.
Helping QSRs Do More With Less
Offering all of the capabilities of a traditional CRM solution, such as sales force automation (SFA), customer service management and marketing automation—plus the ability to manage quotes, commissions, sales forecasts and partner relationships—NetSuite supports a seamless flow of information across the entire customer lifecycle.
NetSuite also helps QSRs:
1. Deliver engaging, relevant experiences to their customers
A unified view of customer preferences, transactions and interactions enables sales, marketing and support teams to deliver consistent and relevant experiences across all touchpoints.
2. Work from a single data source
A single view of a customer across all channels provides complete visibility into all online, in-store and drive-through interactions.
3. Improve their sales performance
Get visibility into pipeline and forecasts and streamline the sales process. Then, make decisions that lead to even more improvements in this area.
4. Manage campaigns effectively
Streamline execution of marketing campaigns across multiple channels and customer segments.
5. Simplify financial management and accounting
Leverage NetSuite’s restaurant financial segmentation, custom fiscal calendars and multi-concept/location consolidation to increase staff productivity, close the books faster and benefit from robust reporting tools that deliver insight into your QSR’s financial performance.
NetSuite also helps QSRs gain a better understanding of customer behavior through the guest service dashboard, where they can manage, resolve and track guest inquiries and complaints with case management to improve guest satisfaction. Available on a single platform, these and other benefits help QSRs grow their customer bases, expand into new opportunities and greatly simplify their operational processes.
