Business: E-Mail Call
Operators find that e-mail can be an effective medium for building relationships and consumer loyalty.
By Derek Gale, Special to R&I -- Restaurants & Institutions, 10/1/2007
Building relationships with consumers requires more than providing attentive service when guests are dining. Bonding means keeping up a conversation with guests and using incentives, special offers or educational information (such as brief food or wine tutorials) to let them know they are valued. Many operators find that e-mail is the best medium for forging such bonds.
Although some recipients may consider an e-mail offer to be intrusive, many of those who feel connected to a restaurant brand welcome the contact and opt to receive future communications. That’s how a brand such as Morton’s, The Steakhouse, amasses a database of more than 250,000 consumers to whom the company sends a monthly e-mail newsletter.
"Over the last 10 years, we made a concerted effort [to build the database] through data capture at the restaurants as well as opt-in through our Web site and online communications," says Roger Drake, vice president of communications and public relations for the Chicago-based chain.
In addition to the newsletter, Morton’s regularly sends e-mails to guests about location openings, new menu offerings or upcoming events such as wine tastings. All electronic communication has the look and feel of Morton’s, Drake says, and helps stimulate loyal customers’ interest in a cost-effective way. "If we were to do the same [newsletter as a] printed piece, the cost would be much, much higher in terms of printing and mailing," he says.
Recipients pay attention to the e-mails, he says. "In terms of read rate, ours is relatively high—in the mid-30% range," Drake says. "We feel that’s pretty successful."
From the Desk of …
Each of San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group’s more than two dozen restaurants sends out monthly newsletters, says Heather Terhune, executive chef for the multiconcept company’s Atwood Café and South Water Kitchen restaurants in Chicago.
Written by each restaurant’s chef or general manager, the newsletters include recipes, special offers and descriptions of upcoming events. Terhune says that Kimpton—like Morton’s—wants each newsletter to reflect in tone and design the restaurant it promotes.
"When I go in and build [the newsletter], I do a recipe of the month," she says. "We give out recipes that guests request often, such as the wasabi vinaigrette on the tuna salad." She adds: "I try to tie in whatever we’re promoting for that month. In July, we were celebrating National Ice Cream Month, so I enclosed a recipe for ice cream."
Guests also can use links in each newsletter to e-mail a restaurant’s chef or general manager. "That [lets me] have more interaction with guests," Terhune says. "They send stuff about how a recipe turned out great or comment on their dinner in the restaurant," she notes. "We get food-allergy requests [and] questions about whether we can handle large parties."
Deals and Diners
As with all forms of communication, operators need to find the fine line that separates maintaining a relationship from over-communicating. Also, e-mails that don’t provide useful, personalized information don’t get opened.
Some smaller, independent restaurants are sending basic promotional e-mails to drive diners through their doors. For John Modestine, owner of The Village Tavern in North Wales, Pa., a simple $5-off coupon triggers traffic without hurting the restaurant’s bottom line.
"With this, I can target certain times of the year and kick-start things," he says.
Modestine’s first e-promotion effort was the sending of a buy-one, get-one-free offer to try to build business on Halloween, traditionally a slow night for the restaurant.
"It generated business that was 30% better than we’d ever had on a Monday night, let alone Halloween," he says.
Now Modestine does two-week-long promotions, sometimes back-to-back. "In a two-week period, I’m going to generate about 100 extra parties," he says.
Outside Expertise
Modestine outsources e-mail marketing to a third-party firm. In addition to preparing and sending the actual communication, the firm gives Modestine simple gift-certificate forms to use to collect guest e-mail addresses.
"We have the certificates on the tables; we stick them in the guest checks; and I have an incentive with my servers—I pay them $1 for every one they collect," Modestine says. "That way the servers talk it up." The offer seems to be working—within the first few months of the program, Modestine saw his list of e-mail addresses increase by about 500.
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