Understanding how to get returning customers is crucial for hospitality businesses that want to generate a steady income as they get back on their feet. The visitors that come back time and time again are the people that keep your business stable. So, your main focus at the minute should be providing the best possible experience for them.
If a customer has a good experience with your business on their first visit, they are 40% more likely to return for a second time. If their second experience is also positive, they are 40% more likely to come back a third time. The likelihood of them returning again increases to 70% if the customer experience is spot on during their third visit.
The way that you provide this perfect customer experience has changed because there are other factors, like safety, that you must consider on top of all of the usual things. If you are unsure how to get returning customers, these are some of the best strategies to use.
Safety First
At the moment, people are unlikely to come back for a second visit if they didn’t feel safe. The way that hospitality businesses are protecting staff and customers from coronavirus infections varies from place to place. While some businesses have lots of great measures in place, others are lacking and these venues will struggle to get returning customers.
Make sure that you have plenty of hand sanitiser stations around, always adhere to social distancing rules, and put clear markings on the floor for a one-way system. When people can see that things are well organised and you put their safety first, they are far more likely to return.
Support Your Team
The staff are a central part of the customer experience in any hospitality venue. If they are friendly and helpful throughout your stay, you always leave feeling as though you had a positive experience. But you have to remember that many staff members have been out of practice for a long time. They also need to get to grips with the new way of doing things. Make sure that you give them all of the information they need about safety measures etc and support them as much as you can. When they are able to do their jobs effectively, it has a positive impact on the customer experience and you are more likely to get returning customers.
Host Special Events
Ordinarily, loyalty schemes are a good way to get returning customers. However, people are likely to want to try lots of different places as everything opens up again, so this strategy doesn’t work as well right now. Instead, you should focus on hosting events that people will want to bring friends to. If a customer has a great experience on their first visit and they see that you have an upcoming event, they’ll tell everybody to come along. That kind of word of mouth marketing is incredibly valuable right now.
Knowing how to get returning customers is crucial at the moment and these methods are all very effective. It’s critical that you leverage digital marketing to demonstrate to customers how you are making things safe or promote events that you are hosting. Here at AsOne, we can handle this side of things for you while you focus on creating the perfect customer experience to encourage repeat visits. Get in touch today to learn more about our extensive digital marketing services and how we can help your business now.
