By Joe Rueckert, senior director of customer engagement, The Lacek Group
Recent findings from traffic analytics company Placer show that while QSR and fast casual visits outpaced full-service visits in 2023, there was a dip in overall visits during the fourth quarter of the year. It’s causing some experts to wonder if this is a seasonal blip or indication of a lasting behavioral trend among consumers fatigued by rising prices.
Many fast casual and QSR establishments have responded by implementing programs and incentives to drive sales, including phygital experiences like kiosks and order-ahead options.
These are all sound and rational responses. But few establishments are considering the enterprise-wide, holistic and emotional solution: Deepening their consumer connections through customer relationship management (CRM).
Here are three questions brands should ask themselves to understand if they are using CRM tools to effectively counter the ebbs and flows of inflation and price increases, to maximize engagement, and to drive loyalty and sales:
1. Are we thinking emotionally as much as rationally when it comes to our CRM?
Research shows that moving beyond transactional wins to grow brand devotion requires consideration of a spectrum of consumer experiences—emotional, social, financial and structural.
It’s the emotional consumer experiences—those that make people feel personally recognized and involved, such as personalization, exclusive access and surprises—that are most often overlooked and unconsidered in CRM. Are messages and offers meaningful, relevant and specific to individual customers?
My Chili’s Rewards, for example, wins families over and over again through offers of hyper relevance and convenience.
These include free chips, salsa and non-alcoholic beverages if they visit every 60 days and spend at least $5 each time, personalized rewards in the form of free kids’ meals, appetizers and desserts, free dessert on your birthday, and free Wifi. The custom app lets members check out and use their rewards.
2. Are we treating CRM as an enterprise-wide strategy for brand success?
Brands need to recognize CRM as an enterprise-wide effort to build positive, emotionally connected relationships to meet short- and long-term marketing goals. This might require a shift away from using CRM as an isolated tool to leveraging it as a holistic engagement method instead.
Start by re-centering strategy. CRM flourishes when data, technology and strategy are interlocked. When CRM is held up only by data and technology, its functionality is probably underutilized.
Be sure, too, to confront channel silos so CRM marketers aren’t always in the same discipline as website, app, social or programmatic display owners, which often leads to disjointed data flow.
Bring all your stakeholders and channel owners into the planning process and get them invested in the engagement strategy. And remember that technology isn’t magic.
Avoid the temptation to replace underutilized technology with new technology. When results disappoint, new or better tools can have an outsized appeal, but replacing an old platform won’t solve underlying inconsistencies or blind spots in your approach.
Panera Bread’s new subscription strategy, for example, has the potential to deliver appealing value to members while generating an immediate and predictable revenue stream for the brand.
The strategy started as a coffee-only subscription and expanded to the Unlimited Sip Club for $11.99 per month, attracting 600,000 subscribers in its first two years, 43% of whom were new loyalty members. The subscription offerings prompted an eight-times higher visit frequency among subscribers.
3. How are we using our CRM to not only drive more visits and increase interactions, but to build deeper brand devotion?
According to The Lacek Group’s global research study, 81% of consumer respondents reported opting in to communications with a brand, and 73% said it was critically or somewhat important that brands know who they are and understand their preferences.
This consumer expectation, coupled with the recent maturity in CRM-related tools and techniques, creates a world of engagement possibilities.
Dunkin,’ for example, knows that to deepen relationship with their frequent customers, they must offer appealing and attainable rewards. If customers don’t find program rewards or benefits appealing, they won’t sign up in the first place.
Once enrolled, they are likely to disengage if they perceive it takes too long to earn a reward. In fact, 57% of U.S. loyalty members report abandoning a loyalty program because meeting the requirements to earn a reward felt unduly lengthy.
Dunkin’ Rewards offers appealing and easily attainable rewards, the first earned after a new member spends just $15. And members who visit a dozen or more times in a calendar month earn at a higher rate.
Consumer behavior continues to shift in a post-pandemic world, and economic headwinds remain unpredictable. As you navigate the waves and hope for calmer waters, be sure to prioritize your CRM strategy. It will serve you today and steady you for whatever tomorrow brings.
Joe Rueckert is senior director of customer engagement for The Lacek Group, a Minneapolis-based data-driven loyalty, experience, and customer engagement agency that has been delivering personalization at scale for its world-class clients for 30 years.
The Lacek Group is an Ogilvy Experience company.
