How to Improve Your Restaurant’s Post-Purchase Experience

The Importance of Post-Purchase Customer Experience

You've served good food to your customers. Now what?

You probably think your excellent cooking skills are enough to keep customers returning. However, it's not the only factor that influences customer loyalty.

Investing in your customers' post-purchase experience is essential to improve your restaurant’s reputation and to gain repeat sales.More than 80% of business leaders admitted that investing in improving their customers’ experience has been their most significant growth engine. Improving their customer experience has allowed them to generate more revenue, gain more customers, and get better results.

Your business's post-purchase experience also allows you to determine if you've met your customers' needs and expectations and gauge whether they'll likely return.  When they do, you can expect them to spend 67% more than your first-time customers, providing your restaurant with more revenue.

Additionally, improving your post-purchase customer experience helps you save more money when encouraging customers to convert. While getting new customers is exciting for your restaurant, only 13% convert to paying customers. In fact, repeat customers have a 65% chance of converting, which is more worth your time. Statistically, it is so much easier and cheaper to convince existing customers to buy from your brand again.

Tips to Create a Great Post-Purchase Experience for Your Customers

Gain more loyal customers and let your business thrive by improving your restaurant's post-purchase experience.

Here are some tips you can follow to achieve this:

Invest in Premium Packaging

You only get to make a first impression on your customers once. So, if you want to create a pleasant experience for your customers, you should impress them right away after purchase.

One way to do this is to invest in premium packaging. Although you might think that your packaging is sufficient as long as it's containing your products properly, it can actually reflect your brand and whatever you promise to deliver.

So, if you invest in premium packaging, you're showing customers that you value their opinion and care about what they think about your brand. It also gives them a sense of satisfaction, making them more likely to come back in the future.

Include Packaging Inserts

Once you've wowed your customers with your premium packaging, you can take it a step further by including packaging inserts. Doing so will make your products even more special and is a great way of showing your appreciation to your customers.

You can insert a simple, handwritten thank-you note in your food packaging to give your customers a little surprise when they open it. This personalized appreciation token will surely make them feel valued and welcomed.

You can also send an automated email right after a customer pays for their order to show your appreciation. To make it more personalized, you can use dynamic content and add the customer's name to their thank-you email. This is much better than sending a generic message to every one of your customers.

Let Customers Share Their Thoughts About the Purchase

Show customers that you value their satisfaction. You can do this by giving them the opportunity to share their thoughts about your food and customer service through email surveys and product reviews. You can also ask them for testimonials, which you can display on your website. By doing this, you can build social proof for your products and show other customers that people enjoy your food.

To ensure that the customer has had enough time to gather their opinion about your product and customer service, give them a few days before asking for feedback. Timing your email surveys right can give you an accurate with the purchase and help you improve your post-purchase experience.

Send Regular Updates Through Emails

Regular status updates through emails let your customers know the progress of their orders. This helps give them peace of mind after ordering food online and paying for it beforehand.

Transactional emails are so useful for customers that they actually opened eight times more than any other type of email. So, you're doing your customers a favor by sending regular updates regarding their orders.

Optimize Your Transactional Emails

Your transactional emails don't need to be strictly about order updates. You can also use this type of email to gain your customers' loyalty and keep them coming back for your products.

By optimizing your transactional emails, you can ask your customers to sign up for your mailing list. You can even offer them discounts or coupon codes to encourage them to sign up.

You can also use your transactional emails to keep your customers excited about their orders. To do this, you can remind them how much they saved by showing the original price of a product beside its sale price. This will also help lessen the feeling of buyer's remorse.

Personalize Your Upsells and Cross-Sells

Recommending an item right after a customer purchased from your restaurant might seem pushy or premature. However, when done right, this strategy can present you with an opportunity to encourage a customer to visit your website again.

When you upsell or cross-sell in a transactional email, you're giving your customers recommendations that will make them enjoy their purchase even more. But you need to make sure the items you're recommending are relevant to their purchase.

To upsell and cross-sell properly, you need to personalize your recommendations.

For example, if a customer ordered a burger, you shouldn't recommend them a pasta dish. Instead, you should suggest something that will complete the meal, like fries or onion rings. This way, your customers can get the most out of their purchases.

Provide Exceptional Customer Service

One of the best ways to give your customers an excellent post-purchase experience is by providing them with top-notch customer service. To achieve this, you need to make sure that you're always available to respond to your customers' questions and concerns.

You must also let your customers know that you're open to receiving their comments or inquiries regarding your products. One way to do this is through a Facebook marketing plan. You can communicate that you're open to hearing your customers' feedback by regularly posting on your page and keeping your communication lines open.

By doing this, your customers won’t hesitate to reach out to you whenever they have questions or concerns about your products. This creates a culture of trust between your brand and target audience, causing customers to be more loyal to your brand. It also encourages them to continue supporting your restaurant because they know you’re always there to assist them whatever happens.

To show you’re always ready to address their questions or concerns, you can set up automated chat responses on your website and social media platforms. This way, customers can resolve their basic issues no matter what time of day it is. They can also get an answer right away, without having to wait for an agent for several minutes.

Reward Loyal Customers

Your loyal customers serve as the backbone of your restaurant. You must do whatever it takes to keep them happy and satisfied with your customer service.

Aside from serving delicious dishes, you can give your customers a great post-purchase experience by rewarding their loyalty. You can show your appreciation for their loyalty by giving them discounts, early access to promos, or even a free dish on their birthday. These gestures will help your customers remember why they keep coming back to you.

Conclusion

Creating a great post-purchase experience is essential for any restaurant as it allows you to keep your customers coming back for more. Investing in your restaurant’s post-purchase experience can significantly improve your bottom line because you can expect more customers to come back to support your business and spend more when they do. Doing so will also increase customer satisfaction, which can lead to more referrals and income for your business.

By following the tips listed above, you can show your customers how much you value their satisfaction and appreciate their support.