How Feast was able to activate loyal guests and increase guest retention using Check This Out
The Problem
Feast Raw Bar & Bistro is a fine dining restaurant in Bozeman, Montana. Feast serves high-quality, sustainable seafood and locally sourced meats and produce in their fusion bistro and raw bar.
The issue they were facing was that the outbreak of COVID-19 caused a dramatic change in the way restaurants could operate, and the way that guests were able to visit. As a result of the closures, lockdowns— and changing safety measures— sales dropped considerably and Feast found themselves needing to adapt their business model.
Restaurants often have finer margins than many other business models, and having guests coming through their doors and putting in orders is vital to keeping those doors open long-term. Faced with ever-changing circumstances, Feast needed to figure out how to maximize the number of guest orders, even if that meant adapting by taking a higher volume of takeout orders as opposed to the dine-in orders they had traditionally relied on.
On top of this, the owners were tired of sending mailers and counting discounts to drive business. Neighborhood mailer campaigns have high upfront expenses and come with a great deal of hassle in terms of sorting and counting to track the return on investment (ROI). Feast’s owners were looking to streamline their marketing strategy to make sure they could keep on taking guest orders, build their customer base, and keep guests coming back more often even in the face of difficult and shifting times. That’s why Feast decided to use Check This Out to thrive, not just survive, during the pandemic and beyond.
The Solution
Through Check This Out, Feast has succeeded in engaging and bolstering its loyal customer base by rewarding them for telling their friends and families about their incredible dining experience. By implementing Check This Out’s sales engine software, they are now able to create highly trackable marketing campaigns connecting the dots from referrals to guests in seats, and to see the effectiveness of their word of mouth marketing through Check This Out’s dashboard.
Word of mouth and discount marketing are typically highly anecdotal and hard to track. It can feel nearly impossible to pin down which guest referred whom, and what compels people to walk through the restaurant doors. Check This Out was a game changer for Feast’s marketing strategy, since they are now able to track the whole customer referral journey. They can see who their most vocal guests are, reward their loyal guests, and see who brought who to their restaurant. Crucially, Feast is able to see how much revenue their efforts are generating, and at a much lower cost than traditional marketing channels.
The Results
Implementing Check This Out’s referral software solution for 3 months led to:
- $18,780 in gross sales (annualized)
- 19 new guests and 27 return guests, all bringing in parties of 3 or more, just through Check This Out.
- 143 discount activations
- 5,420 eyes on their brand
In short, Check This Out gave them a way to avoid the hassle of neighborhood mailers, radio spots, print ads, and other more expensive traditional advertising. It replaced those channels with a highly trackable referral marketing option that increased their revenue and helped them acquire, retain, and reward loyal guests at a lower cost.
Feast’s success is in line with the typical client journey we see, and after implementing Check This Out’s software the gross profit ROI for clients has been between 535% – 1237%.
“Word of mouth marketing is critical in this competitive market and allowing our guests to send their friends discounts to Feast via text has been a game changer for us. Check This Out is very intuitive from the restaurant’s perspective and our patrons love using it.”
– Steve Kuntz, Feast owner and General Manager
If you’re a restaurant or small business owner and would like to bolster your customer acquisition and retention through referral marketing, we’d love to help. Let’s get more mouths at your tables and feet through your doors today by accelerating your word of mouth marketing together! Contact us today for a demo.