Data collection is the first stage of the direct marketing journey, the gateway to opening up the conversation with your customers. We all know that this relationship is important but how do we engage with our customers, to begin with?
Let’s take a look at some popular techniques:
Fishbowl
One very simple way to build a customer database is to use the ‘Fishbowl’ method. Quite simply place a large vessel (fishbowl) on the bar and other visible location and invite your customers to leave a business card or contact email/phone number. It’s handy to have a pen and paper in the area too, for those not equipped with their own cards. This is by far the simplest method of data collection and possibly the cheapest. What are you waiting for?
Win a bottle of fizz
This is a sure-fire winner with customers and is a really good way to get your staff engaged with data collection too. Whilst, not hugely dissimilar to the ‘Fishbowl’ method, the ‘Win a bottle…’ technique takes things a step further. By offering your customers a chance of winning a bottle of wine or bubbly you are creating a buzz and excitement around the data collection, this builds word of mouth (especially in country locals) so that your customers spread the word about your pub to their friends! And the winner is…
Without a doubt this is a must have for any pub with an eye on marketing success. Quick and easy to set up (with Footfall123 you can have this up and running in minutes), a website sign up form is low touch, so once it is set up customers are automatically added to your database, and if you are using Footfall123 customers automatically receive a follow-up email.
Social Media
Social media is an essential part of the marketing mix but in the hospitality sector, this is particularly true. It’s a great way to engage with customers, promote events at your pub and best of all its free. However, one challenge here is that these customers may not be part of your database so will be missing out on your monthly email newsletter. The best way to overcome this is to use a robust customer engagement platform, such as Coniq IQ, to launch a competition or promotion exclusively for your Facebook ‘fans’. For every customer that takes up your offer or enters your competition, Coniq will automatically add them to your database. Hey presto.
Comment cards
Our final suggestion to build a customer database is tried and tested the world over – customer comment cards. These are ideal for gathering feedback from your customers after a meal or visit, presenting them with the bill or leaving a stack with a pen beside the bar are sure to get a good response. You will need to add these to your database manually but there is no doubting the value of the quality of the feedback you’ll receive.
How to get the most from your staff
The key to success with any of these recommended techniques is staff participation. A great way to encourage this is to set up a competition with a prize for the staff member that collects the most customer emails/phone numbers. It sounds simple but the more involved the staff feel and the more they talk to customers about the benefit of the email newsletter, the more effective the data collection process will be.
