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More and more hospitality operators are looking to take advantage of AI-driven marketing solutions as an opportunity to streamline their operations and support their staff.



In this guide, we will explore how hospitality operators can utilise AI to strengthen their marketing efforts, increase the visibility of their brand and drive growth at every stage of their customer journey.&nbsp;



From gaining AI-driven customer insights, and leveraging marketing automation, to in-depth data analytics and predictions. There are plenty of ways AI can be implemented in various areas of the business.



Now is the perfect time to jump on board with integrating AI into your hospitality business’s marketing plans.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-in-hospitality-marketing">AI in hospitality marketing</h2>



Artificial intelligence (AI), is the ability of computer systems to perform tasks that would usually require human intelligence.



In recent years, AI has revolutionised the hospitality industry, providing ample opportunities for businesses.&nbsp;



For instance, AI can quickly analyse large amounts of customer data to gain insights into preferences and behaviour. This can be used by staff to tailor the service and marketing campaigns. I.e. greeting a hotel guest with his favourite cocktail upon arrival or treating a customer with a restaurant voucher for their birthday.



In addition, AI can adapt the pricing strategy depending on the current market situation and provide future predictions. Managing and responding to online reviews also becomes much easier with AI tools. To name just a few, we will have a closer look at those and others in this guide.



Overall, by using AI in marketing, hospitality operators can create a seamless guest journey from the moment the customer first interacts with their brand, to the point they come back to the venue. This all leads to higher revenue and customer satisfaction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-ai">Advantages and disadvantages of AI</h2>



It is important for operators to weigh the pros and cons before deciding to incorporate AI into their business operations. We have summarised the most relevant ones in this short list below. 



You can find a more extensive list <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-ai-in-hospitality">in this article</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-main-advantages">Main advantages:</h4>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Increased operations efficiency and productivity. AI can streamline and automate repetitive tasks.</li>



<li>Cost reduction. AI allows for data-backed decision-making.</li>



<li>Tailored customer experience. AI provides insights that support personalised marketing and service.</li>



<li>Accurate forecasting. AI can identify revenue opportunities.</li>
</ol>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-main-disadvantages">Main disadvantages:</h4>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Impersonal service. AI lacks the human touch that many guests desire.</li>



<li>System failure. Operators are highly dependent on their digital tools to work seamlessly.</li>



<li>Technical limitations. Not all AI tools are able to cater for the needs of the hospitality industry.</li>



<li>High investment costs. Implementing AI is often a major investment.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ai-as-a-growth-tool-for-hospitality">AI as a growth tool for hospitality</h2>



AI technology is undoubtedly a growth tool for the hospitality industry, and those who successfully embrace it will thrive in the long run.&nbsp;



<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/4-ways-to-optimise-your-hospitality-business-with-ai">Here are 4 ways</a> it can support different areas of the business.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-operations">1. Operations</h4>



AI technology has vastly improved the way hospitality operators conduct their daily operations and provide service.&nbsp;



Chatbots are a great example, as they can scan common customer queries and answer them in real time. This relieves staff of tedious, repetitive tasks, while still ensuring customers receive an excellent level of service around the clock.



Hotels are also increasingly leaning on AI for contactless check-ins and virtual concierges, making sure guests get the most out of their stay. Self-service kiosks in restaurants on the other hand allow customers to place orders more quickly and efficiently. Again freeing up staff time for other duties.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-marketing">2. Marketing</h4>



AI can massively improve the way hospitality businesses communicate with guests and market their services. It can gather a multitude of data points in one place, coming from tech tools such as Guest WiFi, table booking platforms or loyalty scheme.&nbsp;



Marketers can use the data to better understand customer preferences, habits and needs. This then allows them to provide a more personalised experience, offer relevant promotions and optimise their marketing campaigns for maximum results.



With AI automation, tasks such as uploading data are made simpler and faster. This frees up time and reduces human errors. Trigger-based campaigns based on previous customer interactions can also be easily automated. Such as sending discounts to customers who haven’t been at your venue for a while.&nbsp;



Lastly, AI can power up digital advertising by helping with audience and campaign optimisation. On top, it can monitor social media channels for brand mentions and engagement.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-sales-revenue">3. Sales &amp; revenue</h4>



There is promising potential for integrating AI to improve sales too.&nbsp;



AI can analyse customer data to predict their preferences and suggest personalised recommendations. Equipped with these insights staff can better upsell and cross-sell when customers are in the venue. Marketers as well can take advantage of this with highly targeted campaigns that lead to higher conversion rates and ultimately create more sales opportunities.&nbsp;&nbsp;



AI can further be used for improved revenue management for hotels and restaurants. It creates accurate forecasts by analysing past data as well as external factors such as market fluctuations.&nbsp;



This enables operators to adjust their pricing in real time. So they can take advantage of peak periods while still remaining competitive during off-peak times.



For hoteliers, this also means that they can ensure guests always get the best price when booking direct.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-data-analytics-reporting">4. Data analytics &amp; reporting</h4>



By using AI to generate accurate reports hospitality businesses can become more successful in the long run through leveraging data-driven insights into customer behaviour. So that they don’t rely on guesswork anymore.



A lot of, usually manual, tasks can be automated as well. Such as the creation of monthly reports or the building of customised dashboards with the metrics that matter.



AI can present the data in a way that is accessible to the entire team and that also facilitates performance analysis from relevant KPIs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-ai-use-cases-for-hospitality">3 AI use cases for hospitality</h2>



There are already examples of hospitality businesses successfully implementing AI and it&#8217;s likely that more will follow suit in the coming years.



We’ve summarised 3 <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/4-revenue-driving-ai-tools-for-hospitality-operators">popular use cases for AI marketing</a> and operations below.



If you’re a hotelier you can find more relevant examples <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/3-clever-ai-tools-to-support-your-hotel-operations">here</a> and we also got some, especially for restaurant operators <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/3-restaurant-specific-ai-tools-that-drive-sales">here</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Personalised service</h4>



AI enables hospitality marketers to create a personalised customer experience with ease. Through the smart analysis of customer data, AI can segment customers into small groups according to patterns, demographics and historical interaction.



This empowers businesses to deliver targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with individual customers, helping them feel appreciated and increasing loyalty.&nbsp;



AI also helps to <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/another-5-step-recipe-how-to-easily-win-back-lost-customers-part-2-of-5">detect and retain lost customers</a> through automated campaigns that are triggered by pre-defined conditions.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Content creation</h4>



AI technology can be used to quickly generate various pieces of content. This ranges from email campaigns to social media posts and website copy. Plus, it can translate content into multiple languages so you can reach wider audiences.&nbsp;



AI algorithms can also analyse the most engaging social media posts and create similar ones. Plus, it can also determine the best posting schedules, hashtags and content for various platforms to grow engagement and followers.



When it comes to website content, AI can improve SEO rankings and develop search engine-optimised content by incorporating relevant keywords.&nbsp;



Another example is restaurant menus. They are often seasonal and need to be changed on a regular basis. AI can support operators to come up with enticing menu descriptions and iterations to speed up the process.



<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-speed-up-content-creation-with-ai-in-hospitality">Check out this article</a> to find out more about how you can create more hospitality marketing content in less time with AI.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Chatbots</h4>



As already mentioned, hospitality operators are now discovering the value of AI-powered chatbots in providing better customer service that is available for customers&nbsp; 24/7.



Chatbots can be used for a variety of tasks. Common examples are answering FAQs, taking orders in restaurants and helping with general service requests.&nbsp;



Plus, they can act as a concierge and support customers with their travel planning by making personalised recommendations based on past interactions.



With the ability to integrate with voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant, hospitality operators can further create a more human experience and eliminate the typing for customers.



With these advanced capabilities, hospitality operators can enhance their services while also improving staff efficiency. All without ever compromising on guest satisfaction.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-ai-can-improve-reviews-management">How AI can improve reviews management</h2>



Online reviews play a crucial role in attracting customers. However, managing these reviews can be a daunting and time-consuming task for busy hospitality operators. This is where AI comes in to lend a <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-ai-can-facilitate-reviews-management-for-hospitality-operators">helping hand with your reputation management</a>. 



For example, it takes over previous manual tasks done by staff. So instead of analysing each review platform separately and dealing with spreadsheets, AI can automatically gather all reviews in one place. This allows for quick access and a multi-channel overview. Reviews can be dealt with more efficiently and progress on each response can be tracked easily.



To avoid further complications, operators have to react to reach review in a timely manner. This way they can retain unhappy customers and show that their opinion matters to the business.&nbsp;



Depending on the number of reviews flooding in it can be challenging to keep up. With automated response generation, AI can help operators to better handle their to-do lists. Based on keywords AI can generate a personalised reply in no time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Further, AI-powered sentiment analysis can provide operators with valuable insights into customer feedback. It can detect common themes and tag them accordingly. This enables businesses to quickly identify areas for improvement to enhance their service.



With AI, hospitality operators can better stay on top of their online reputation, and improve their overall scores and customer satisfaction.



If you want to find out how AI can also make it easier for customers to leave a review, check out this article.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-summary">Summary</h2>



AI is a very beneficial tool that hospitality operators should look to explore and utilise to back up their marketing strategy.&nbsp;



AI technology has tremendous potential for increasing speed and accuracy in data collection and analysis. This allows operators to provide more tailored services for their customers based on what they&#8217;ve learned from past engagements. But also to make accurate predictions and more informed decisions which will save them time and money.



Moreover, AI can be used to aid in developing marketing content, automating and supporting daily service operations and improving reviews management.



There may be valid concerns around its adoption cost and potential impact on losing the human touch. Though, when leveraged correctly, AI can have significant positive impacts on your hospitality business.

post

AI In Hospitality Marketing: A Complete Guide

Infographic Buying Behaviour Social Media

Infographic: The Influence of Online Reviews and Social Media on Customers’ Buying Behaviour

Over the past few years, hospitality businesses have been in a rush to get up to speed with all the tech tools the market has to offer.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Many businesses, therefore, have ended up with a stack of technologies that all serve individual purposes. Most of these are haphazardly interconnected or worse not integrated at all.



What’s more, those digital tools each come with costs which can add up quickly.



With budgets being tight this year, time to review your tech solutions and find ways to reduce excess costs whilst growing your business.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-find-tools-fit-for-the-industry">Find Tools Fit For The Industry</h5>



It’s tempting to go for the big household names we are familiar with. If it’s working for other businesses, it clearly has to work for yours as well, right?



However, contemporary online businesses, such as e-commerce, come with different tech needs compared to offline i.e. brick-and-mortar ones.



Most of the time those tools are not designed specifically for industries like hospitality. They are there to satisfy the mainstream online market.



How do you find industry-specific tools?



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Ask for referrals within your industry</li><li>Be specific in your Google search terms &#8211; ‘for hospitality/restaurant/hotel…’</li><li>Do detailed research and compare tools on tech directories like <a href="https://www.g2.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">G2</a> or <a href="https://www.capterra.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Capterra</a></li><li>Check testimonials on the websites &#8211; are those from companies similar to yours?</li></ul>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Save Money With An All-In-One Solution</h5>



Think about how many repeat customers you would need to pay for your monthly subscriptions and how much effort it takes to generate those visits.&nbsp;



Another important cost factor to consider is time. Syncing and managing multiple data sources from various integrated systems is often inefficient, as well as a potential GDPR risk.



Instead, industry experts are now advocating for multi-function smart tools and technology that can pay for itself.



Simplification is the way forward here. Rather than custom building a mix and match solution from different providers, choose one platform that can do everything you need in one place.



This way you’re no longer relying on costly and complex integrations and can focus on bringing more customers back.



Looking for a <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smart all-in-one solution</a> to grow your business? <a href="https://h.stampede.ai/meetings/stampede/demo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get in touch</a> to find out more.

How To Save Money On Your Digital Tech Tools

WiFi Marketing: 3 Powerful Ways It Can Grow Your Business

EnGenius Tech now a Stampede technology partner

5 Tips for Setting Up WiFi for Your Restaurant or Pub [Updated for 2022]

The Easter countdown is officially on. Time to get your digital assets and marketing promotions Easter ready to&nbsp;bring in some extra revenue.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Many businesses will opt for a traditional brunch or roast lunch offer. Take a twist this year with a new approach to some traditional dishes. What about <a href="https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/hot-cross-scones/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hot cross scones</a> for your brunch menu? Or introducing customers to some <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/traditional-easter-foods-from-around-the-world-4161077" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dishes from other countries</a>?



But there is more you can do to create an Easter experience your customers will remember&#8230;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-easter-marketing-elements">Easter marketing elements</h4>



Sprinkle some&nbsp;Easter themes on your digital assets&nbsp;to build your customers&#8217; excitement.&nbsp;Seasonal elements, illustrations and images&nbsp;are the quickest way to get started.



Easter and Spring is all about vibrant and cheerful colours, so focus on using <a href="https://icolorpalette.com/palette-by-themes/easter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pastel colours,</a> including pinks and yellows, to make your Easter marketing instantly recognisable.



Ready-made <a href="https://unlayer.com/email-templates/easter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Easter templates </a>can help you save lots of time when it comes to designing email campaigns too



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">8 Easter social media ideas</h4>



Easter offers lot of great opportunities for fun and engaging social media campaigns too.&nbsp;Mix and match different formats&nbsp;(posts, stories and reels) to reach a wider audience.



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Caption this &#8211; use&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.countryliving.com/life/a30717299/easter-puns/" target="_blank">Easter egg puns</a></li><li>Share fun Easter memes</li><li>Host a virtual egg hunt across your socials and website</li><li>Share your staffs’ Easter traditions, favourite meals …</li><li>What’s on your Easter brunch table</li><li>Short video/reel &#8211; make your own DIY Easter decoration</li><li>Easter sneak peak &#8211; coming up at your venue</li><li>DIY bunny ears competition</li></ol>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">8 Easter in-venue event ideas</h4>



Easter-related activities are not exclusively for kids, grown-ups can have a lot of fun as well. Get the whole family involved:



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Egg hunt or scavenger egg hunt</li><li>Egg and a spoon race</li><li>Competition &#8211; egg decorating</li><li>Guessing game &#8211; jar filled with easter eggs</li><li>Host an <a href="https://quiz-questions.uk/easter-quiz-questions/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Easter-inspired pub quiz</a></li><li>Easter baking class</li><li>Team up with a local florist for a wreath-making workshop</li><li>How to set your Easter table &#8211; decoration ideas</li></ol>



Easter marketing content ready but not sure how to set up your email campaign? <a href="https://stampede.ai/company/#contact" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get in touch</a> with our team who are happy to help.

16 Rapid Ideas For Successful Easter Marketing Campaigns

24,809,748 &#8211; that’s the total number of emails that our customers sent using Stampede in 2022!&nbsp;



Big data like this is cool, but we’re more interested in big results.&nbsp;



The actual power of email marketing comes from the data it tells. So we dug deeper into this data to compare the performance of those emails to the (former) industry average.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The State of Hospitality Email Marketing in 2023</h2>



Hospitality email marketing in 2023. It’s not looking great for most. The hospitality industry is criminally underserved when it comes to high-quality email marketing tools. Especially, if you compare it to other industries like retail, eCommerce and so on.&nbsp;



As a result, email marketing is underutilised and treated as a pariah, an outcast of marketing channels.



Now, it has been another tough year for the industry. Many operators were looking for ways to stay in touch with customers to keep the revenue stream up.&nbsp;



Usually, that’s where email marketing comes in, with an average ROI of <a href="https://www.oberlo.co.uk/blog/email-marketing-statistics">$40 for every $1 </a>spent. It is possibly the most reliable tool that allows businesses to connect with their customer to keep them coming back.&nbsp;



However, to achieve maximum results, a customer database is required, which is easily built with the right tech tools.



And that’s where the problem lies. Data is worthless without the right tools to hand to work with it.



So the first key takeaway here is: if the tools provided would be a better fit for the industry and its needs, more would get the big benefits from email marketing.



Before we dive into the 2022 email marketing numbers in more detail, time to bust one common myth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Myth #1 &#8211; Emails Are Not a Thing Anymore</h2>



A common objection people have to email marketing is that it’s a channel of the past and no one is really using it anymore. And the stuff that comes through might not be of the best quality, so people will probably ignore their emails anyway.&nbsp;



Numbers tell a different story:



In 2022 <a href="https://www.oberlo.co.uk/blog/email-marketing-statistics">over 333.2 billion emails</a> were sent and received EVERY. DAY.



<a href="https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics/">61% of customers actually want to receive promotional emails</a> from their preferred brands.&nbsp;



So, if <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/3-time-saving-newsletter-tips-to-keep-people-engaged">done right</a>, your chances of standing out in a busy inbox are still better than you do on social media.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2022-key-email-marketing-figures-compared">2022 Key Email Marketing Figures Compared</h2>



For 2022 the <a href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/">average industry</a> open rates for emails were 20%.



What does that tell us? If you have 1,000 people on your mailing list, 200 of them will open it. You probably reckon that’s not worth all the effort.&nbsp;



However, when the open rate is nearly 50%, that’s when you can’t afford to avoid this channel any longer.&nbsp;



So, let’s have a look at how average results from Stampede users compare to the average industry numbers when it comes to key email marketing 2022 figures.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="633" src="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-1024x633.png" alt="" class="wp-image-22884" srcset="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-1024x633.png 1024w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-300x185.png 300w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-768x475.png 768w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-1536x950.png 1536w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-2048x1266.png 2048w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-1200x742.png 1200w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Email-performance-bar-chart-1-150x93.png 150w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Stampede emails have a higher delivery rate than the industry average with open rates being 2x higher and click rates even 6x higher. That’s a significant difference for all figures.&nbsp;



Why is that?



Customers expect a personalised experience, both in-venue and digitally. That’s when the data is needed.



With Stampede, you get access to multiple data sources from across the digital customer journey, which is automatically fed into the marketing tool.&nbsp;



Using this combined data they can foster an engaged customer mailing list. Through clever segmentation and automation, they can then send personalised campaigns that achieve much higher conversion rates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Myth #2 &#8211; Tracking Results is Hard </h2>



Another common myth in email marketing is that people think it’s harder to show results to prove campaigns are delivering.



However, compared to other digital marketing channels such as social media, emails deliver much more tangible results that go beyond engagement, likes and views.&nbsp;



With the right setup, results can easily be tracked in real money spent.



It’s also a lot easier to set up this kind of tracking than conversion tracking on Google/Meta etc. Many of these require someone with good web development skills, but tracking email results in hospitality needs no coding skills at all.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Stampede Average Campaign ROI</h2>



The Stampede Marketing Suite allows for such detailed campaign reporting where users can track the results based on returning customers.



For 2022, we measured 13.8 million in-venue visits from those that received email campaigns via Stampede.



This means that more than half of the customers getting emails revisited the venue within 12 months! A reliable, steady flow of repeat business like this is going to be critical for success in 2023.



If each of those visitors spent £30 that&#8217;s £414,000,000 worth of transactions!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Myth #3 &#8211; Too Much Work</h2>



Another big blocker for email marketing is the assumption that it is too time-consuming and too difficult to get right.&nbsp;



Plus, once the email is out it’s out, which causes insecurities, especially for new and non-marketing operators.&nbsp;



Whereas a social post can be deleted if needed and seems to be quicker to set up, so that’s where they’d rather focus.



However, creating and sending great email content is no harder than creating social media posts. Best tools make it easy for anyone to build an email with templates, functional drag-and-drop builders and great customer support.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sector-success-stories-in-2022">Sector Success Stories in 2022</h2>



Here are 5 examples of how Stampede customers have successfully used email marketing in 2022.



<figure class="wp-block-table is-style-regular"><table class="has-foreground-background-color has-background has-fixed-layout"><thead><tr><th>Venue type</th><th>Pubs &amp; Restaurants</th><th>Pubs</th><th>Eateries</th><th>Hotels</th><th>Bar</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Number of venues</td><td>19</td><td>15</td><td>4</td><td>3</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Emails sent in 2022</td><td>9,812,955</td><td>1,196,940</td><td>108,533</td><td>383,531</td><td>354,452</td></tr><tr><td>Average open rate</td><td>36%</td><td>52%</td><td>70%</td><td>61%</td><td>50%</td></tr><tr><td>Repeat visits</td><td>1,030,177</td><td>1,500,107</td><td>268,309</td><td>174,845</td><td>9,112</td></tr><tr><td>Return-on-Investment</td><td>&gt;£10,500,000</td><td>&gt;£2,322,000</td><td>&gt;£185,000</td><td>&gt;£1,167,000</td><td>&gt;£218,900</td></tr></tbody></table><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Anonymised data based on Stampede users accounts</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2023-email-marketing-forecast">2023 Email Marketing Forecast</h2>



Looking ahead to what 2023 might bring, we can say one thing for sure &#8211; email will remain the number one marketing channel for return on investment. 



Especially, for smaller hospitality brands email will become an integral part of their success strategy moving forward as tools become easier to use.



The rising trend of personalisation will continue and it will get even more powerful as more industries will figure out how to combine customer data.



Lastly, more businesses than ever will move away from big providers like Mailchimp towards industry-specific tools that meet their tailored needs.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Don’t see the results you want from your email marketing? Reach out to get started with <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/marketing">Stampede</a>&nbsp;for better marketing and more revenue this year.

2022-23 Email Marketing Report – Get 2x Higher Open Rates

A common struggle with loyalty programs is that it takes customers too long to earn enough points to redeem.&nbsp;



As a consequence, customers lose interest quickly.



By using gamification elements to support your loyalty schemes, you can speed up the whole process whilst keeping customers on the hook.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-gamification-works">Why gamification works</h2>



Gamification adds a fun element to a loyalty scheme. The concept behind it leans heavily into our competitive spirit and reward-seeking behaviour.&nbsp;



Here are 4 reasons for implementing gamification:&nbsp;



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Keep customers engaged and interested. Customers earn extra points as a top-up, quite often these are linked to instant rewards.</li>



<li>Increase brand awareness. It encourages customers to interact with your brand more often.</li>



<li>Get more customer data. Customers spread the word when they have fun, which will lead to a snowball effect.</li>



<li>Attract a wider range of customers. Gamification is ideal if you want to bring in younger generations.</li>
</ul>



To help you get started, we’ve gathered 5 gamification ideas. These will power up your loyalty scheme to keep customers thrilled.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">5 engaging gamification ideas for your loyalty scheme</h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Gamification Challenges</h4>



A limited timeframe with the chance to win something exciting hypes customers up to take part.



Monthly or seasonal challenges are probably the most cost- and time-efficient gamification tool for your loyalty scheme to boost interaction.



Simple examples:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Online quizzes</li>



<li>Guessing games</li>



<li>Tag &amp; share challenges</li>
</ul>



Advanced examples:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>DIY competition &#8211; ‘Create our new Summer cocktail’</li>



<li>Creative competition &#8211; ‘Name our new [menu item]’</li>



<li>Seasonal challenges &#8211; i.e. dress up for Halloween</li>
</ul>



Tip: Online challenges are great database growth boosters so make sure to ask customers for their contact details upon entering.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Online &amp; in-venue games</h4>



This gamification concept connects both offline and online customer interaction.



Treasure hunts are ideal for this, where customers have to look for clues on your socials, website as well as in-venue.



Tip: Whilst they are searching, you get the chance to introduce customers to other offerings or venues you might have.



Additionally, if you want to boost quieter times during the day, try a ‘secret code word share’ via your socials. When mentioning the code in the venue customers get a freebie or discount.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Badges, awards &amp; leaderboards</h4>



The most widely used advanced gamification loyalty scheme examples are badges, awards and leaderboards.&nbsp;



Customers get awarded for different interactions or milestones reached. Rewards usually go beyond in-venue and/or online transactions. You can incentivise actions such as completing an online profile, engaging on social media or leaving a review.



What makes these types so effective is it gives customers something to work towards. Plus, they can also compare their performance to others.



<a href="https://www.brewdog.com/uk/beer-visa">Brew Dog’s Beer Visa</a> is a great example of this type of gamification. Customers get a stamp for visiting every bar in one location, once completed they receive a special pin badge.



Tip: Leaderboards make it easy to spot your most loyal and engaged customers.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Tiered membership levels</h4>



A tiered membership scheme encourages customers to spend and engage more with your business in order to move up the rank.



Each tier comes with benefits that increase in value to make the whole brand experience more exclusive and personalised.&nbsp;



Another big benefit of tiered loyalty is that you can build highly targeted segments from those tiers and use them for personalised email campaigns.



Well-known industry examples are <a href="https://www.starbucks.co.uk/rewards">Starbucks</a> and <a href="https://www.pizzaexpress.com/club">PizzaExpress</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">5. Mini online games</h4>



No doubt, online arcade-style games are highly engaging and addictive but they also require some sort of app integration. This ultimately places them at the higher end when it comes to implementing gamification.



A successful example is KFC’s recently launched new loyalty app <a href="https://www.kfc.co.uk/kfc-rewards-arcade">“Rewards Arcade”</a>. Customers get the chance to play after each purchase and get instant ‘free food’ rewards.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Make sure to check out our <a href="https://stampede.ai/downloads/8-tactics-to-increase-customer-spend">FREE Loyalty Guide</a> to learn more about the different types of loyalty programs and how they can help you to increase customer spend.

5 Gamification Ideas To Take Your Loyalty Scheme To The Next Level

A proven way to <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/wifi">build your customer mailing list with minimal effort is using your WiFi</a>. It works, as customers want to stay connected when they’re out and about.



However, some operators might have noticed a shift in customers’ behaviour lately.&nbsp;



With going out becoming more of a treat, customers seem to spend less time on their phones, and more time focusing on the moment with their family &amp; friends.&nbsp;



So, how can you encourage your customers to use your WiFi again to keep growing your mailing list?



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-increase-visibility">Increase Visibility</h4>



Back in the day, when ‘free WiFi’ was still a novelty, businesses used to have signs and posters in their venue to encourage customers to sign-up.



Those have disappeared with more and more venues offering WiFi and customers expecting it as a given.&nbsp;



Time for a little reminder.&nbsp;



Here’re 3 quick steps to action:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://www.qr-code-generator.com/">Generate a QR code</a> that links to your Guest WiFi sign-up page</li>



<li>Print posters with your QR code &#8211; distribute them in your venue</li>



<li>Add the name of your network to menus, table toppers, etc.</li>
</ol>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Offer Discounts</h4>



Discounts always work as a treat, especially to boost WiFi log-ins. They become even more effective if customers can use them instantly.



Some ideas to get you started:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Sign-up to get %-off your bill today</li>



<li>Happy Hour promotion &#8211; get 2-4-1 if you sign up now</li>



<li>Post whilst in-venue, tag us, and get a freebie or voucher for the next visit</li>
</ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Run Contests</h4>



Contests are not only fun and engaging but they are also an easy way to grow your customer mailing list for low costs.



Some ideas to get you started:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Prize draw &#8211; sign up and share with a friend to increase your chances to win</li>



<li>Vote for your favourite dish &#8211; enter your email to win a voucher</li>



<li>Take the quiz to find your perfect drink &#8211; enter your email to see the results and enter a prize draw</li>



<li>Photo wall competition</li>
</ul>



Start capturing your data through your <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/wifi">Guest WiFi</a> and build your mailing list with ease. Get in touch to find out more about the <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/wifi/">Stampede Captive Portal</a>.

3 Tools To Get More Customers On Your Mailing List

Your&nbsp;table booking data&nbsp;is a treasure trove of customer insights.&nbsp;That’s the place where customers tell you about their individual needs and preferences when it comes to dining out. Though to use your data effectively it’s best to&nbsp;link your booking system to a Customer Relationship Management&nbsp;(CRM) platform. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



This creates a&nbsp;single customer view&nbsp;where all information on that particular customer is gathered together. Use those insights to&nbsp;personalise your customer experience&nbsp;and turn them into regulars.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-generate-more-sales-with-connected-bookings-and-crm-data">Generate More Sales With Connected Bookings And CRM Data</h5>



The key to&nbsp;high conversion rates&nbsp;and increased sales is personalisation. You can power your&nbsp;personalised campaigns&nbsp;with all the data you gather together in your CRM. Also access data sources such as loyalty schemes, e-commerce,&nbsp;<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/the-revenue-boosting-combo-of-wifi-and-bookings-data/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guest WiFi</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/3-ways-to-improve-customer-experience-with-bookings-reviews/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">online reviews</a>, etc. for this.



Ideally, you opt for an&nbsp;all-in-one solution. The data sync will happen automatically and your database will grow and be kept updated for you.



As a fallback, you can integrate your systems but there are risks, such as duplicate creation, transmission errors and added costs.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">How To Build A Strong Customer Profile From Your Bookings Data</h5>



Here’s what you should include in your customer profile.



Customer related:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Basic contact details, including birthday if possible</li><li>Demographics &#8211; family, couple</li><li>Preferences &#8211; favourite table, food &amp; drink</li><li>Dietary requirements</li></ul>



Booking related:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Frequency &#8211; loyal customer vs. first-time visitor, last booking</li><li>Behaviour &#8211; day of the week and times</li><li>Type &#8211; one table or group, events</li><li>Special occasions &#8211; birthdays and other anniversaries</li><li>Customer satisfaction based on reviews</li><li>Check size &#8211; big vs low spender</li><li>Previous no-shows</li></ul>



All these can be used to feed your&nbsp;<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/a-5-step-recipe-that-creates-profitable-personalised-marketing-part-1/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">personalised marketing campaigns</a>. E.g. a special deal for your customer’s favourite drink, a simple birthday offer or a win-back campaign&nbsp;if it&#8217;s been a while since the last booking.



Looking for a smart hospitality growth platform that combines CRM, bookings, marketing and much more?&nbsp;<a href="https://calendly.com/stampedeae/stampede-demo-request" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book a demo</a>&nbsp;with our team to find out more about Stampede.

How To Use Bookings Data To Supercharge Your CRM

If you’re responsible for managing a restaurant or hospitality business, it can be hard to stay on top of everything. To organise your daily tasks more effectively and streamline your processes, implementing a <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/what-is-a-hospitality-crm-system-a-full-guide">Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution</a> should definitely be part of your strategy.&nbsp;



There are three different types of CRM systems:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Analytical CRM systems that gather data useful for reporting and decision-making.</li>



<li>Operational CRMs that streamline processes and communication.</li>



<li>Collaborative CRM platforms that allow departments to work together more efficiently.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>



In this blog post, we will explore these three different approaches to running an effective CRM system for your hospitality business. This will help you make the best possible decision when choosing one.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-analytical-crm-systems">1. Analytical CRM systems</h2>



When it comes to understanding your customers and analysing the results of your marketing campaigns, analytical CRM systems are game changers.&nbsp;



With these powerful tools, you can dive deep into customer data, uncover trends, and make informed decisions based on real numbers. No more relying on gut instincts or guesswork.&nbsp;



Analytical CRMs also make it easy to create customised reports and visualisations. Those help you track progress and hone in on areas that need improvement.



By using this technology to better understand your audience, you can improve customer satisfaction, increase retention rates, and boost your bottom line.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Operational CRM systems</h2>



Operational CRMs are a vital tool for businesses to streamline their processes and improve overall customer experience.&nbsp;



They allow companies to better manage every touchpoint of the customer journey, from initial interaction to after-sales care. With automation features, operational CRMs can further enhance efficiency by reducing the amount of time spent on repetitive tasks.



Implementing an operational CRM system not only leads to <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/meet-stampede-inbox-never-miss-another-message">better communication</a> with customers but also allows businesses to make data-driven decisions for continuous improvement.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. Collaborative CRM systems</h2>



Collaborative CRM systems make sure that everyone in the business has access to the same data. So that teams can work together more efficiently in order to provide a complete customer experience.&nbsp;



With a collaborative CRM, every individual involved in the customer&#8217;s journey can view the full customer record with its entire history and previous interactions. This ensures that everyone is using the correct and up-to-date data to support the company&#8217;s decisions.&nbsp;



The integration between teams helps to ensure that customer needs are met, and ultimately, it results in a much-improved customer experience.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tips on how to choose the right CRM system for your hospitality business</h2>



As businesses continue to evolve and technology advances, it&#8217;s important for hospitality businesses to keep up with the latest tools in order to stay competitive.



However, with so many options out there, it can be challenging to choose the right CRM. The operational feature is certainly the most important feature for hospitality businesses and should be prioritised. The way data can be managed more efficiently has a significant impact on daily operations. Especially with automations as they reduce the workload by removing manual and repetitive tasks.



However, ideally, a CRM system should incorporate elements of all three CRM types &#8211; analytical, operational and collaborative. As a professional in the hospitality industry, it’s crucial to have a CRM system that provides detailed insights into customer interactions and preferences. This can help you tailor your services accordingly.&nbsp;



It&#8217;s important to emphasise the significance of finding the right fit for your needs when it comes to selecting a hospitality CRM. No two businesses are the same and therefore, there can be no one-size-fits-all solution.&nbsp;



You need to identify what your hotel, restaurant or hospitality business requires and other specific goals you want your CRM system to achieve. Then you can assess which CRM can deliver on those needs. A CRM that cannot adequately cater to your requirements could end up costing you in terms of valuable time and resources



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Closing thoughts</h2>



Technology can only truly increase efficiency if it is used effectively. After all, customer experience isn&#8217;t just about having a lot of information on hand. It&#8217;s about understanding each individual guest as well as providing personalised experiences based on your insights.



By investing in the right type of <a href="https://stampede.ai/amaze">CRM system</a>, you can unlock significant potential for your business and take your customer experiences to the next level.

The 3 Different Types Of A CRM System Explained

Hannah Morgan

Great British Inns

Tammie Hurrell

Montpeliers Group

Grant Murray

CRU Holdings

Emma Luke-Ward

Lane7 Group

Steve Watson

Signature Pub Group

Nick Gregory

Society Manchester

Shivani Kenth

Zindiya Streatery & Bar

Graham Atkinson

Butta Burger

Chris Hughes

Mele Group

Chris Aitchison

Bar Tonic

Ieuan Davis

The Coal Exchange Hotel

How to Set Up a Coworking Space in Your Coffee Shop

Give your customers the royal treatment for the long Jubilee weekend ahead and drive some extra revenue for your business.



Recent research by <a href="https://kam-media.co.uk/project/jubilee-weekend-infographic/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">KAM Media</a> has shown that 4 in 5 people will celebrate the Jubilee weekend (2nd to 5th June) in some way, with 35% planning to visit a pub and 31% a restaurant. On top of this, pubs are allowed to stay open until 1:00 AM for the period.



With less than 4 weeks to go, time to lean hard on your marketing comms to ensure your venue is buzzing. Email campaigns should be your go-to here to spread the word about your events and urge customers to book ahead.&nbsp;



Here’s what your 5-part Jubilee marketing campaign could look like:



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-jubilee-email-campaign">Jubilee Email Campaign</h5>



Email 1 &#8211; Let’s celebrate &#8211; Book your spot for our Jubilee weekend



Audience: All customers



Sending time: 19th/20th May



Content ideas:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Entertainment program &#8211; Live music, Jubilee event broadcasts</li><li>In-venue events &#8211; Traditional games, raffles, royal pub quiz</li><li>Food &amp; drink highlights &#8211; Great British Menu, showstoppers, royal cocktails</li><li>Meal kits &#8211; Jubilee picnic hamper with classic staples, coronation afternoon tea box</li><li>Early bird booking offer</li></ul>



Email 2 &#8211; Have you secured your Jubilee table yet?



Audience: All customers, excluding bookers



Sending time: 23rd/24th May



Content ideas:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Shorter version of Email 1 as a reminder</li><li>Highlight your main events, ie. ‘don’t miss our giant cake stand’</li><li>Create a sense of urgency &#8211; ‘book now’, ‘only limited availability</li><li>Special afternoon tea offer if you book this week, including free drinks</li></ul>



Email 3 &#8211; One week to go &#8211; are you ready to celebrate?



Audience: All customers



Sending time: 26th/27th May



Content ideas:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>What to look forward to on the weekend</li><li>Sneak peek &#8211; “we’re already busy prepping the venue”</li><li>Head to our socials to stay updated and get involved in competitions</li></ul>



Email 4 &#8211; Last-minute availability for this Jubilee weekend



Audience: All customers, excluding bookers



Sending time: 31st May/1st June



Content ideas:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Why you should celebrate with us &#8211; event highlights</li><li>Last sales push to fill in empty spaces &#8211; include a special deal</li></ul>



Email 5 &#8211; Your upcoming Jubilee booking



Audience: Bookers only



Sending time: Day before the booking



Content ideas:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>We can’t wait to celebrate the big Jubilee with you</li><li>Your table on the [date] at [time] for [people] is waiting for you</li><li>Get excited about &#8211; menu highlights, events</li><li>Include upsell offers &#8211; bottomless drinks&nbsp;</li></ul>



Tip &#8211; Make sure to automate this email.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Social Media Post Ideas</h5>



 All national events are usually a trending topic across all social channels. Plan about&nbsp;2 posts per week&nbsp;and&nbsp;2-3 stories&nbsp;to get customers excited and hyped up.&nbsp;



And don’t forget to use <a href="https://stampede.ai/resources/hospitality-hashtag-cheat-sheet/">relevant hashtags</a> to give your posts maximum exposure &#8211; #PlatinumJubilee #Jubilee #JubileeParty #JubileeCelebrations #LetsCelebrate.



Some inspiration for your social channels:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Competition &#8211; create a royal drink, kids/pets royal dress up</li><li>Short video sneak peeks &#8211; kitchen prep, decoration</li><li>Royal-themed quiz</li><li>Giveaway &#8211; share, tag and win</li><li>Introduce entertainment acts, menu highlights</li><li>Booking reminder posts/stories</li></ul>



Jubilee marketing content ready but not sure how to set up your campaign? <a href="https://h.stampede.ai/meetings/stampede/demo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get in touch</a> with our team who are happy to help.

Increase Your Footfall With This 5 Part Jubilee Marketing Booster Campaign

A lot of hospitality venues are offering ‘low-cost’ meal deals at the moment as a way to attract customers when budgets are tight.&nbsp;



Discounting is one option to keep your cash flow up, however, there are other tools you could use.&nbsp;



Think about how you can increase the actual value of what customers get from their experience.



Here are two ways to better retain cost-conscious customers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-customer-loyalty-program">1) Customer Loyalty Program</h2>



The past years have clearly shown how valuable loyal customers are as a reliable revenue source for businesses.



In fact, one-third of customers will spend more to secure loyalty points. So, a customer <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/making-a-success-of-loyalty-programs-part-ii">loyalty program</a> not only helps you bring customers back, but it also increases their spending.&nbsp;



To make your loyalty program a <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/making-a-success-of-loyalty-programs-part-ii">proper success</a> consider additional benefits aside from monetary incentives or freebies.&nbsp;



This could be a priority booking option or special member-only events. It’s all about adding more value to your customer&#8217;s experience and setting yourself apart from others.



Tip: Make sure to check out our <a href="https://stampede.ai/downloads/8-tactics-to-increase-customer-spend">free loyalty guide</a>, featuring 8 tactics to increase your customer spend and a breakdown of different loyalty programs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2) Exclusive Community</h2>



Whilst your customer loyalty program is open to all your customers, an exclusive community only targets certain customer groups. Adding this extra exclusivity feeling to your loyalty program will further elevate customer engagement.



Plus, such a niche customer community also allows you to really personalise your perks and better tailor your marketing messaging.



Potential segmentations ideas:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Students</li><li>Families</li><li>Gender &#8211; ladie’s/men&#8217;s club</li><li>Neighbourhood customers &#8211; based on postcodes</li><li>Emergency Services/Military workers</li><li>Early birds / Night owls (first visitors, last visitors)</li></ul>



One great example is <a href="https://noodleunion.wagamama.com/">Wagamama’s Noddle Union</a>. Their program is aimed at students and includes monthly giveaways and prizes on top of regular deals to make signing up more attractive.



Learn more about our Loyalty feature <a href="https://stampede.ai/get-loyalty/">here</a>. Or get in touch with one of our team who are happy to run you through it.

2 Ways To Keep Your Footfall Up With Customer Loyalty

Untrackable traffic is probably one of the biggest fears of any data-driven marketer.&nbsp;



“Dark social” is an example of such a dreaded source, which has been on the rise over the past couple of years.&nbsp;



We’ve compiled everything you need to know about dark social advocacy and how you can use it to your benefit.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-dark-social">What is Dark Social?</h2>



Dark social refers to any web traffic that comes from sharing links that are not trackable. They won’t be picked up by Google because they usually don’t contain any <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/3-clever-tools-that-simplify-how-you-measure-marketing-results">UTM tracking code</a>.



As a consequence the original traffic source remains unknown, instead, those leads will show up as “direct traffic” in your analytics.&nbsp;



What makes this type of sharing so dark is the fact that it happens on private messaging platforms such as chat apps or instant messengers and not on public social media platforms.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why the Channel is Growing</h2>



Recently, there has been a shift in how much people share on social media. This is mainly linked to privacy concerns and how their data is used.&nbsp;



Contrary to social media, private messaging platforms allow for end-to-end encryption, so people can better control their personal information.&nbsp;



Up to <a href="https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media/what-is-dark-social/">80% of shares are in fact happening in the dark</a>, probably more than you might have expected.



This is even more so the case in the hospitality industry where people are looking for recommendations from their family and friends. So chances are high that they will share it privately.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3 Ways Dark Social Affect Businesses</h2>



The impact of dark social on businesses can be broken down into 3 main points:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Untrackablilty</li>
</ol>



As mentioned already, the major issue is that you can’t put an exact number on this type of channel.&nbsp;



There are ways you can measure it to a certain extent, such as through Google Analytics (Source: direct traffic) or by using special tools.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="2">
<li>Exclusion from the customer conversation</li>
</ol>



The actual content that is shared through dark social remains invisible to companies.



You don’t know what is said about your business. Also, you can’t control the conversation and whether it is in line with your brand voice and values.



<ol class="wp-block-list" start="3">
<li>Lower reach</li>
</ol>



In general, your reach might be limited on dark social. People tend to share within their network, i.e. like-minded people with the same interests and behaviours.



It’s therefore not necessarily a channel to attract a new type of customer.



However, if you look into the demographics, you can reach an older audience as younger customers still tend to share their content on social media.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3 Actionable Tips For More Transparency</h2>



The good news, there are a couple of ways you can increase measurability. It’s all about making your content more traceable in the first place.



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Encourage trackable ways of sharing: add share buttons/links to your content containing <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-are-utm-tracking-codes-ht">referral data</a>.</li>



<li>Chime in on the conversation: create your own community with loyal customers, i.e. a Whatsapp group.</li>



<li>Use <a href="https://free-url-shortener.rb.gy/">URL shortener</a> for social posts: shorter links with UTMs attached look cleaner and are easier to copy and paste.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Power of Dark Social</h2>



Taking all the above into account, dark social should definitely not be seen as a threat to marketers.



Even though it is a channel that is hard to control it contributes a lot to your brand awareness and engagement.&nbsp;



Think about it this way &#8211; if customers share your content privately it’s a sign of trust and loyalty. It is a form of unexpected <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/breakdown-3-ways-customers-advocate-your-hospitality-brand">brand advocacy.</a>&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-hospitality-operators-can-use-data-to-reveal-loyal-customers">Learn more</a> about how you can identify and grow your most loyal customers using data insights and our customer retention cohort report.

Shedding A Light On Dark Social And How It Increases Brand Awareness

As the internet gets “bigger” there’s a constant need for how we interact with it to keep up in performance. People want more, and they want it faster than ever.



Keeping that in mind &#8211; plus a few prickly real-world experiences &#8211; our teams have just completed upgrades to our guest WiFi service.&nbsp;



A great WiFi login is butter smooth, lightning fast, beautifully branded and tastefully personalised. Our latest update levels up all these areas.



Many of you reading this will know that <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/wifi/">guest WiFi</a> was where <a href="https://stampede.ai/company/">we started back in 2015</a>. Our founder Patrick knew there was a better way to get customers online in hospitality venues. We’ve grown since then, but that mentality is still our driving force.



The other driving force is time. We’ve done this update now (Oct ‘23) so that Stampede users and their customers get the most from the upcoming “golden period” of Christmas.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-highlights">The Highlights</h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-speed">Speed</h4>



Three times faster. Or 320% faster to be more accurate. That is the headline result of our recent performance improvements. Customers get online quicker, even in low bandwidth areas.&nbsp;



This results in fewer complaints to staff and less time spent dealing with IT companies. It also means more customers will opt-in to your marketing &#8211; an ideal way to grow your mailing list. <a href="#technicals">Read on</a> to dive into the technical details.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-branding-and-design">Branding and Design</h4>



Consistent branding for your business across all pages with our <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/updates-september-2023">newly released brand kits</a> &#8211; you can read up on them here. Loading, welcome and email validation screens all support brand kits too.&nbsp;



This makes the entire experience more brand-focused, increasing customer recall and making your retention marketing more effective.



A lot of you ask about custom fonts &#8211; this update makes them now available on your WiFi portal and other screens, as per the brand kits.



Lastly &#8211; we’ve made the WiFi service more easily accessible for international customers without the need for them to choose language manually. Using the devices’ locale we automatically change the language in the portal. It’s a nice touch for those of you with regular international customers.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-note-on-paid-wifi">A Note on Paid WiFi</h3>



We’re still supporting many businesses who offer a paid WiFi service, and have dedicated a large amount of effort in this update to improving that side of our guest WiFi.



Using paid access we have supported £1.28m for customers across 59,600 unique payments since starting.



To improve the user experience, the updated paid access now looks and feels like a modern e-commerce shop. The goal is to make it easy for more users to get online in these use cases.



Behind the scenes, we have completely refactored the integrations between PayPal and Stripe to give the whole system a fresh start.



Device management on paid access has historically been problematic for some businesses and users. This has also been reconfigured to make it easier for guests/users to share paid access between accounts.



<code>&lt;a name="technical</code>s&#8221;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-getting-technical">Getting Technical</h3>



If you’re here then it’s time to get into the details. How have we taken world-class guest WiFi and made it even better?



Pre-generated everything



We are now pre-rendering every splash page before guests’ devices to speed up loading times. This is also done in all supported languages (14) which means &#8211; at the time of writing &#8211; we’re generating ~80,000 WiFi login pages before people even log in through them.



Bundle size&nbsp;



As all page generation is pre-generated the bundle size of our WiFi feature has decreased. To load a full page now requires ~140 KB of bandwidth &#8211; it used to be 430kb minimum. This means that WiFi portals will load quickly even in the most challenging connectivity environments.



Event-based



The WiFi feature has been moved into its own dedicated infrastructure which means API calls are entirely independent of other Stampede services. Interconnection between this service and Stampede still happens. This dedicated resource simply acts like a unique power source so it no longer shares power with other Stampede functions.



Client authentication



For true cloud-first WiFi hardware vendors &#8211; like TP-Link and Ubiquiti &#8211; we are now authenticating the guests server-to-server, previously done via client-to-server. This drastically speeds up authentication time, getting users online faster.



Streaming components



Components that affect page load speed like the phone number input, Apple Sign-in and Stripe checkout, are now being <a href="https://nextjs.org/docs/app/building-your-application/routing/loading-ui-and-streaming#what-is-streaming">streamed into the application</a>.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-signing-off">Signing off</h3>



There’s no doubt that this is a significant update. It wouldn’t have been possible without the feedback and input from our customers and partners, so a massive thanks to them.



The depth and detail of this update tell us that even the best always have room to improve. Don’t get too comfortable with the status quo, someone else will be moving the needle elsewhere.



If you want to explore any of these updated features in <a href="https://product.stampede.ai">your Stampede account</a>, or to upgrade your existing guest WiFi, <a href="https://stampede.ai/get-started">our team is here to help.</a>

October Update – 3x Faster Guest WiFi and more

Gift card sales have skyrocketed over the past years with customers being keen to support their local businesses. Though,&nbsp;how many of your sold gift cards have actually been redeemed yet? Fact is,&nbsp;<a href="https://enjovia.com/make-more-restaurant-profit-with-vouchers/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">customers spend up to 72% more than the actual value of the card when they redeem it</a>. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Time to unlock your hidden revenue with a personalised gift card reminder campaign using our simple 5 step recipe.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">1) The Data</h5>



For this campaign, you need to access your&nbsp;gift cards buyer data. The data should include the purchase date and gift card status, i.e. redeemed or unredeemed.&nbsp;



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">2) The Trigger Event</h5>



Now segment your data into customers&nbsp;who have purchased a gift card but have not redeemed&nbsp;it yet.&nbsp;



If your gift cards come with an expiration date you can use this as a trigger event, e.g. set up an automated reminder campaign for the month before.&nbsp;



Otherwise, you can choose the timeframe that works best for you. Ideally, you would run this sort of campaign during quieter times to further boost bookings.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">3) The Messaging</h5>



Your gift card reminder message should go straight to the point.&nbsp;Keep it simple with a strong call-to-action&nbsp;at the end. Also, use your subject line to tell your customers what your email is about to increase your open rates.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">4) The Offer</h5>



There’s no need for an additional offer in your campaign.&nbsp;



However, you can use your customers’ attention to&nbsp;promote certain events&nbsp;or&nbsp;fill in for last-minute cancellations&nbsp;with a prompt to book quickly due to limited availability.



Here&#8217;s how your gift card reminder email could look like:



Subject line &#8211; [Name] have you redeemed your gift card for [company] yet?



Don’t forget to pay us a visit and redeem your gift card!



Why not come by this weekend? We’ve got [event] coming up and only limited space available. So better be quick!



Book Your Space Now



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-5-the-outcome">5) The Outcome</h5>



You certainly don’t want to miss out on all this&nbsp;additional revenue&nbsp;coming with your gift card redemptions. So, keep on top of your gift card sales and make sure customers redeem them in time.&nbsp;



Besides, for many gift card holders this might be the first time at your venue. This is your chance to exceed their expectations and turn them into repeat customers.



Be sure to keep an eye out for our next part of this series on how you turn customers into regulars across all your venues.



Take your&nbsp;<a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/gift-cards/#gifting" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gift cards</a>&nbsp;to the next level and go digital.&nbsp;<a href="https://calendly.com/stampedeae/stampede-demo-request" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;with one of our team to find out more.

Unlock Hidden Gift Card Revenue: The Next 5 Step Recipe [Part 3/5]

Summer is a brilliant time for the hospitality industry. For starters, the nights draw in a lot later and the weather is warm. Both of these factors make it easy to boost trade in the evenings, none more so when it comes to hosting customers outside. It’s a unique time of year where we all feel more relaxed. What about giving your restaurant outdoor seating space a little boost and make the most out of it this summer?







Plus, with the copious amount of bank holidays, customers are more likely to arrive in large groups and stay out for longer. Summer is also a time when many sporting events happen, making beer gardens or outdoor seating a desirable location.



There are, of course, some stark differences when it comes to seating customers inside a restaurant compared with outside space. What needs to remain the same, however, is providing the same excellent customer experience.



Further reading: <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/6-restaurant-sales-promotions-which-ones-right-for-you/">https://stampede.ai/blog/6-restaurant-sales-promotions-which-ones-right-for-you/</a>



If you are interested in learning how to make the most of your restaurant outdoor seating space this summer, here are our top tips.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Give Your Space A Makeover</h4>



The great British weather can take a toll on the exterior of your premises. So if you are planning on hosting guests there, it will take more than a few tables and chairs to brighten the place up. Simple things such as a jet wash over patios along with a fresh lick of paint on fences and walls can make a huge difference. It’s also a nice idea to <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d12527182-Reviews-The_Ivy_City_Garden-London_England.html#photos;aggregationId=&amp;albumid=101&amp;filter=7&amp;ff=267262682">add hanging baskets or similar biophilia too</a>. If you’re going to be serving food outside, ensure the area is clean and appetizing. It should also comply with health and safety regulations too.&nbsp;



Aside from the obvious though, your outside space is a chance <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?q=outdoor%20restaurant&amp;rs=typed&amp;term_meta[]=outdoor%7Ctyped&amp;term_meta[]=restaurant%7Ctyped">to inject some personality and character</a> into your restaurant. Current interior design trends include rustic pieces such as exposed brick or timber. By keeping things simple, you can actually create a modern and inviting space for your summertime guests. 



As the environment is also on our minds too, <a href="https://inhabitat.com/sparkman-wharf-cargotecture-restaurants-revitalize-tampas-water-street-neighborhood/">recycling or ‘upcycling’ pieces can work well for your outdoor spaces</a> too. The benefit of reclaiming old pieces is that it can be quite cost-effective. Especially when most pieces may only need slight tweaks to make them ready for use. 



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Food Trucks</h4>



Outdoor eating, drinking and socialising brings about a whole new experience for your customers. So why not experiment with how you serve your dishes? Food trucks are perfect for this, especially during the summer. Whether you create your own grill or pizzeria or even collaborate with other food providers to offer your customers something different. It can create a really new and interesting experience for your diners. After all, who doesn’t love a burger van <a href="https://www.gravyandcustard.co.uk/crumbleshack">or even apple crumble served out of a truck</a>?



For example, if you own an Italian restaurant, why not have an Italian food festival? With great weather, food and music you can really create a buzz in the local community. Your restaurant could provide the main meals, and food trucks stationed outside could serve gelato. Food trucks also have huge social media appeal, especially as they are less formal than a sit-down meal. You could also buy your own food truck and take it to local events or festivals to spread the word about your restaurant.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Entertainment</h4>



Alfresco dining creates a serene ambience that we only have for a few months out of the year in the UK, so as a restaurant you should definitely capitalise on this by providing entertainment. For example, live music would work perfectly in courtyards or even beer gardens.



You could <a href="https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/summer-restaurant-events">also experiment with themed nights</a> such as an outdoor cinema club or a games night. Table tennis or pool tournament would be a great idea too and is really easy to set up. Don’t forget to offer a prize for the winner!



Outdoor entertainment can also extend into your functions too. Given summer is home to both wedding and prom season, this is the perfect opportunity to utilise your outdoor areas to cater for large crowds. If your restaurant has sliding doors that lead to your outdoor space, you can merge the two spaces. 



This will also give you the option to create different zones for functions, such as the dance floor outside and the buffet inside. If your restaurant also has stunning views overlooking the coast or city, this would make your outdoor areas even better for providing entertainment too. 



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h4>



UK summertime may be short-lived, but that doesn’t mean you can’t harness the abundance of potential that alfresco dining has to offer. Whether your restaurant or pub already offers outdoor dining, or if it’s something you are considering, it’s definitely worth getting on board with. After all, the sun brings people out to enjoy themselves. Why not let them do so in your fantastic restaurant?



However, in order for your restaurant outdoor seating area to be a real success this summer, you need lots of customers to visit it. Here at Stampede, we provide businesses with <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/gathering-the-right-data-for-your-restaurant-marketing/">customer insights based on their Guest WiFi connections</a>. Allowing you to market your restaurant, along with your outdoor summer events. 



Plus, if your customers are on the WiFi at your summer dining experience, this creates the perfect <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/the-importance-of-user-generated-content-on-social-media/">content to share on social media</a> &#8211; helping to promote your business further. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity"/>





<hr class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity"/>

How To Make The Most Of Your Restaurant Outdoor Seating Space In Summer

In order to ensure ongoing success, hospitality businesses need to look for innovative strategies that will help them acquire and retain customers, run their operations more smoothly and increase revenue.



More and more turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is a powerful tech tool that can support all sorts of areas in hospitality.



In this blog post, we’ll look at 4 AI use cases for hospitality operators who are serious about getting ahead with technology.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-personalised-service-with-ai">1. Personalised service with AI</h2>



Customers crave personalised experiences and services tailored to their specific needs



With the help of highly sophisticated algorithms, AI can segment customer data quickly, analysing it based on patterns, demographics, historical spending, and interactions.&nbsp;



This enables businesses to deliver targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with individual customers. AI also empowers staff to offer a more customised experience based on previous guest behaviour and preferences. This further encourages loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.&nbsp;



AI can equally help to <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/another-5-step-recipe-how-to-easily-win-back-lost-customers-part-2-of-5">detect and retain lost customers</a> by using pre-defined triggers and employing automated campaigns to bring them back and turn them into loyal customers.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-2-content-output">2. Content output</h2>



With the rise of AI, marketers can craft captivating and converting content quickly and efficiently.&nbsp;



One of the primary benefits is its ability to generate all sorts of marketing content. Common examples are social media posts, emails, and website content. It massively speeds up the creation process and helps marketers save time and resources.



Additionally, the technology can translate content into multiple languages, making it easier to reach international audiences. This is especially handy for hotels.&nbsp;



Another advantage of using AI for content creation is that it can help boost your SEO strategy. By incorporating relevant keywords into your content, you increase your website’s chances of appearing higher in Google&#8217;s search engine results.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-ai-powered-sentiment-analysis">3. AI-powered sentiment analysis</h2>



It can be overwhelming to sift through and answer mountains of online reviews and social media comments.



That&#8217;s where AI sentiment analysis comes into play. AI uses algorithms to identify common keywords and interpret customer sentiment. This way businesses can get a better understanding of their customer&#8217;s needs and how they feel about the brand. The information can then be used to identify common trends and issues that customers face and to improve products and services.&nbsp;



AI can also craft automated and customised review responses. Customers&#8217; concerns can therefore be addressed in a timely manner and if needed, passed on to a member of staff to handle them.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-chatbots">4. Chatbots</h2>



Hospitality businesses are increasingly turning to chatbots to help streamline customer service and improve the overall guest experience. Plus, they are available 24/7.



Chatbots can assist with a variety of tasks and help overcome staff shortages.&nbsp;



They can provide answers to common questions, take orders for room service or restaurant reservations, and help guests with other enquiries such as housekeeping service. They can even make recommendations based on customer preferences.



Furthermore, Chatbots can be integrated with voice assistants. This allows for a more natural user experience and eliminates the need to type out long commands.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



There are many ways AI tools can support hospitality operators nowadays which makes it worth investing no matter the size of the business.



From providing personalised service, creating more content in less time, and observing customer sentiment more accurately to making use of automated chatbots. All these things combined can result in significant increases in revenue for business owners.&nbsp;



AI is also highly adaptable, so operators can modify their strategy as the situation requires. This ensures that they can be prepared for any change that comes their way.



Make sure to <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/ai-in-hospitality-marketing-a-complete-guide">check out our full guide</a> exploring AI for hospitality marketing.

4 Revenue-Driving AI Tools For Hospitality Operators

Marketing automation on its own is powerful. However, when backed up with a <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-create-a-hospitality-crm-strategy-that-drives-results">Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system</a> hospitality businesses can take their revenue and customer loyalty to the next level.



This clever tech pairing comes with significant opportunities to engage and retain customers, drive conversions and significantly boost profit margins.



In this blog post, we&#8217;ll explore what marketing automation fueled by a CRM system means and review some best practices as well as real-life examples.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-marketing-automation">What is marketing automation?</h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-1-definition">1.1. Definition</h4>



Marketing automation is a tool for businesses to streamline their marketing efforts and effectively communicate with their customers using personalisation and targeted messaging.



The driver behind this automation is customer data, which is collected and stored in the CRM solution. Many <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/marketing">CRMs</a> now include a marketing automation feature, allowing for easier campaign management and tracking.



Emails and SMS campaigns are sent out automatically using pre-defined triggers, such as specific customer characteristics or interactions.&nbsp;



Plus, automation saves staff a lot of time and also reduces the risk of human error.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-2-trigger-based-campaign-examples">1.2. Trigger-based campaign examples</h4>



Here are some trigger-based campaign examples hospitality venues should implement.



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>New newsletter subscribers &#8211; a simple welcome message drives engagement and encourages revisits.</li>



<li>Win-back lost customers &#8211; attract them back with a special deal.</li>



<li>Birthday surprise offer &#8211; shows that you value your customers and helps strengthen your relationship.</li>



<li>Online review booster &#8211; an automated post-visit review request email will keep guest feedback flowing.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



The required customer data for those campaigns can easily be extracted from the CRM through segmentation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-key-reasons-to-implement-marketing-automation">4 key reasons to implement marketing automation</h2>



Marketing automation benefits hospitality businesses in a number of ways.



Firstly, it allows nurturing customers towards long-term loyalty through personalised and targeted content. Customers are more likely to feel valued and appreciated when the messages they receive resonate with their specific interests and needs.&nbsp;



Secondly, personalised emails have proven to be more relevant and therefore have a higher conversion rate. In fact, they have a <a href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/how-personalization-and-automation-can-supercharge-email-conversions/">2.5 times higher click-through rate</a> than a generic email.



Thirdly, marketing automation also provides businesses with additional sales and upsell opportunities based on historic customer interaction in-venue and online.



Finally, once the setup is complete, automated campaigns don’t require much work as they run automatically. This allows your team to focus on other areas of the business.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-best-practice-tips">Best practice tips</h2>



Marketing automation has become an increasingly important tool in the hospitality industry. However, to be truly effective, some best practices should be considered.&nbsp;



Firstly, input from various data sources through your CRM is crucial. By collating data from your tech tools, such as <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/wifi">Guest Wifi</a>, <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/loyalty">loyalty scheme</a> and <a href="https://stampede.ai/get-bookings">table booking platform</a>, you can build a comprehensive customer profile.



Furthermore, to make the best use of the data, it&#8217;s important to segment it into distinct customer groups. To make it easier, use the pre-defined data segments provided by CRM solutions.



Finally, operators should regularly check their triggers to ensure their automation work effectively and that customers still receive relevant and timely communications.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-hospitality-operators-succeed-with-marketing-automation">How hospitality operators succeed with marketing automation</h2>



Here are some real-life examples from hospitality businesses that have used their CRM to automate their marketing processes.



<a href="https://stampede.ai/customer/bar-tonic">Bar Tonic</a> has seen astonishing results from their automated birthday emails, offering customers a martini on the house. So far, they’ve generated over £10,000 return visit ROI from it.&nbsp;



Another marketing automation usage example comes from the <a href="https://stampede.ai/customer/signature-pub-group">Signature Pub Group</a>. By automating their review request emails, they’ve managed to collect more than 12,000 reviews in a short period of time.



Marketing automation not only increases sales but is also a real time-saver. For example, <a href="https://stampede.ai/customer/birdhouse-london">Birdhouse London</a> is able to 2 hours per week since implementing it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Takeaway</h2>



There is no doubt that marketing automation are an essential tool for any hospitality operator that wants to increase customer loyalty.



By laying down the foundation with a powerful CRM system and then leveraging it with personalised messages tailored to specific customer segments, they can make sure that their guests are engaged and keep coming back.&nbsp;

Increase Sales With Your CRM And Marketing Automation

Feature Update – Improved campaigns, reporting and imports

The UK’s irrepressible hospitality sector: 2022 Industry Growth Report

The Power of Reviews and Recommendations

Team Update

New Integration With Storekit

This article was written by Tom Saxon. Tom is the co-founder of <a href="https://www.batchcoffee.co.uk/">Batch Coffee</a>. He has been working in the speciality coffee industry for over 10 years throughout the world and in many parts of the supply chain.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



I personally love working in the hospitality industry and can’t encourage people enough to consider a career. The workforce is typically young and energetic which coupled with constantly making customers happy is why working in hospitality is a fulfilling and rewarding career. 



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Working In Hospitality &#8211; The Coffee Shop Industry</h4>



My day does start early as you’d expect in the coffee industry. The 6 am alarm is always met shortly afterwards with a delicious coffee though &#8211; one of the many perks of working with <a href="https://www.batchcoffee.co.uk/stories/best-speciality-coffee-beans-uk">speciality coffee beans</a>.



Opening up the roastery and cafe takes about 30 minutes. It involves dialling in coffee machines and preparing for customers. As they arrive each one is met with a small conversation &#8211; especially the regulars whom I would now class as friends.&nbsp;



The morning rush comes and goes quickly and I always feel pumped afterwards. The coffee industry is great as people are so thankful for their morning coffee and especially customers who dine in, their energy after they are fully caffeinated is contagious.



My responsibilities; first and foremost customer service. It&#8217;s so important that our customers leave happy and hopefully in a better mood than when they entered. Making coffee and ensuring the place is clean and tidy, stock control and various small jobs like checking the toilets every hour or so make up the rest of the day.&nbsp;



The days are quick and finishing at 4 pm means that I still have an evening to do whatever I’d like.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-tech-makes-working-in-hospitality-easier">How Tech Makes Working In Hospitality Easier&nbsp;</h4>



Working in a busy coffee shop can be occasionally stressful, especially behind the coffee machine where there is a finite number of coffees one can make per minute contrary to the odd customer&#8217;s opinion.&nbsp;



Add to this the fact that you are customer-facing, so while the orders stack up and you’re frantically trying to pull 18 shots of espresso and split a litre of steamed milk into 6 different milk-based espresso drinks you have to keep a smile on your face and appear unphased.&nbsp;



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">1. Ordering App</h5>



A really useful tool that has helped many <a href="https://baristaandco.com/">baristas</a> all over the world is an app where coffee can be ordered before a customer arrives in the coffee shop.&nbsp;



This means that the transaction takes place on the customer&#8217;s phone so there is no waiting in line and there is no time wasted serving the customer. This completely streamlines the process of ordering the coffee for the customer and the barista can immediately add the order to the queue.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">2. Customer Loyalty App</h5>



Another useful app that we use that involves the <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/the-paid-loyalty-scheme-that-works-a-treat/">customer&#8217;s experience is a loyalty app</a>. Stamp cards are now becoming a thing of the past, although they do work as a physical representation of how many coffees you have left before you receive a free one, the practicality of them from a barista&#8217;s point of view is a bit wasteful.&nbsp;



Today when customers place an order through their app they receive an e-stamp that can be visualised as a<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/bring-more-customers-back-with-a-loyalty-program/"> </a><a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/bring-more-customers-back-with-a-loyalty-program/">loyalty card</a> on their phone. If the customer orders in the coffee shop they are able to scan a QR code that appears after the purchase on a screen facing outwards from the register which again adds another e-stamp to their virtual loyalty card.&nbsp;



This again streamlines a process that in reality saves only a matter of seconds per customer, but when looked at on a larger scale saves not only hours of staff time but crucially frees up a staff member during peak hours so the wait time is reduced which keeps current customers happy and entices new customers into the cafe.&nbsp;



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">3. Staff Scheduling App</h5>



Technology is now used in all areas of hospitality and one of the most efficient pieces of technology from a manager&#8217;s point of view is a roster application.&nbsp;



Back in the day, weekly rosters would be stuck to the wall in the form of a piece of A4 paper with an excel style table where employees could read their shifts and see when their colleagues were also working.&nbsp;



Albeit a physical representation, it was also messy as by the end of the first day the roster was published it had already been annotated with shift swaps.&nbsp;



Today, all of the shift organisation is completed via an app where managers can publish weekly rosters months in advance if they wish.&nbsp;



Colleagues can liaise directly through the app and request shift swaps with the authorisation of a manager needed and the new roster is then automatically updated. Staff can add holidays up to a year in advance so when the manager sits down to plan the roster they know exactly who is available for the forthcoming week.&nbsp;



The app usually has a singing-in system too, so gone are the days of more A4 prints on the wall or punch cards. Just tap start and finish at either end of the shift on the app which then records each staff member&#8217;s weekly hours.

Working In Hospitality: Harnessing The Efficiency Of Tech

Marketing Your Restaurant Online – A Brief Guide to Getting Bums on Seats

The real countdown is about to begin – Welcome to the Stampede Advent Calendar

Today we are launching our &#8220;Snap box&#8221;, a remotely managed device to provide the best in class captive portal solution. Using the latest standards outlined by Apple and Google utilizing the DCHP option 114 which enforced captive portal compliance and experience. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-why">The Why</h3>



Running a captive portal is a must-have for all physical businesses, why? because it will deliver up to 75% of your guest traffic.



Not only this but it also provides a seriously rich dataset which tells you how long someone is in your venue, when they arrived and when they leave. 



If you are running a hotel it can also tell you which room a guest is staying in&#8230; 



So if 75% of your business comes from this data source, why does it still feel like almost all captive portals still SUCK, and why does it feel like that&#8217;s getting worse?



Guest Wi-Fi can be so powerful there are now umpteen companies out there who will do you a deal on a captive portal solution. The issue here is building a decent captive portal is really hard &#8211; In 2021 I wrote a love letter to building the worlds best captive portal &#8211; <a href="https://patrickclover.medium.com/how-to-build-the-worlds-best-captive-portal-feee1654fa8b">read here</a>. 



Captive portals have a superpower but it comes with a weak point. They give any operator the ability to track any customer within 6m of the device, but this has opened up quite a serious privacy issue.



While most operators make little use of this it is entirely possible. The main reason people can&#8217;t utilize it is that this stream of data (by design) is not connected to anything else in a business. It might get exported/imported into other systems on mass but you couldn&#8217;t use the data to say &#8220;&#8230;as soon as someone leaves the building ping them a message.&#8221;



The barrier to entry for selling captive portals is very low (given the market, supply of engineers and increasing demand). But the barrier to entry for desired user experience is very high, and has gotten higher. And because of Apple / Google&#8217;s privacy concerns, they have begun locking down the triggering of these pop-up screens. Which in the worst case will leave your guests with a broken-looking screen&#8230;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-enter-apple">Enter Apple</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-1024x576.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-23594" srcset="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-1200x675.jpeg 1200w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048-150x84.jpeg 150w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2048.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Apple has decided to do its thing and enforce operating system changes to help alleviate the privacy and experience concerns.



Apple released this spec entitled <a href="https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=q78sq5rv">&#8220;How to modernize your captive network&#8221; </a>back in 2020! Ages ago, right? Welcome to innovation in this space. Later in the year, this proposal was picked up by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) &#8211; <a href="https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8910">read more</a>. It was then implemented in the <a href="https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/features/captive-portal">Release of Android 11</a>



This solution is truly the hallmark of <a href="https://www.apple.com/">Apple</a>. It can control when the popup should be seen, and how long the guest&#8217;s session should last and also has the ability to show the guest how much bandwidth they are allowed to consume &#8211; cool right?



Woohoo! A captive portal solution that is bulletproof, privacy first and guest experience-centric.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-implementation-problem">The Implementation Problem</h3>



The issue with the approach outlined by Apple is that it requires a robust network setup, including on-premise infrastructure. In practice, this means you will need.



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Custom domains </li>



<li>DDNS support </li>



<li>Localized SSL certificates </li>



<li>A HTTP Server and web proxy</li>



<li>Content caching</li>



<li>DHCP with support Option 114</li>
</ul>



Apple wants the network owners i.e. hospitality operators to own the networking stack for this new standard to work.



The problem faced now is that very few operators will have the correct equipment on site to support these changes or few will.



And in true Apple fashion, it looks to be mandating this in a future release of iOS.



Your captive portals will ultimately become unstable when this happens, and you may have already noticed an increase in customer complaints and downtime as a result.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-oh-snap">Oh, Snap!</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-video"><video autoplay loop muted src="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/mikrotik-provisioning-steps.mp4"></video><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Snap re-provisioning from factory reset</figcaption></figure>



This month, we have launched a hardware line called Snap which solves this problem.



This line of hardware can be remotely provisioned in your Stampede dashboard. Out of the box it will ship with all the features needed to run a best in class experience and adhere to Apple&#8217;s beautiful captive portal solution.



For guests, this will mean we can serve much richer content (like videos) and deliver zero-second latency performance to local devices.



As we have been providing more functionality &#8220;on the floor&#8221; it has become obvious we need tighter control of what&#8217;s happening in the building. This device will automatically have its functionality extended over time to support a next-generation digital hospitality experience.



Imagine using a table booking system like Stampede that was accessing its information via a Snap box and then relaying that onto an iPad at the front-of-house. Or running promotions in real time to guests who were connected to the Wi-Fi&#8230; under the hood this device can be programmed/re-programmed to bring any Stampede service closer to the customer.



To recap, it has built-in redundancy, lower operating costs and performance that&#8217;d make your eyes POP. And I really mean that &#8211; when you experience response times measured in sub (ms) the guest experience is magic.



The Snap box is a powerhouse, it packs as much power as a desktop PC. Its job? To provide the best possible guest experience with no compromises and no cowboy funny business.



It is future-proofed and will end up being the central hub for all serious hospitality operators.



We are building up a network of Stampede Snap installation partners across the UK who will be able to perfectly implement this solution, with recruitment beginning in Mid-August.

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As a hospitality operator, it&#8217;s essential to efficiently manage your customer relationships which helps you provide the best customer experience. After all, this is what builds the foundation for sustainable and long-term success.&nbsp;



Putting a profound customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in place should be part of your overall game plan.&nbsp;



In this article, we&#8217;ll have a look at the role your CRM system plays in creating and executing an effective strategy that drives growth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-a-crm-strategy">What is a CRM strategy?</h2>



Put simply, a CRM strategy is a plan that outlines how a company will engage with its customers and use data to foster long-term loyalty and growth.&nbsp;



It usually consists of a mixture of company-wide processes and planned actions, which are often executed and managed with the help of technology. The overall aim is to reduce acquisition costs and increase customer lifetime value.&nbsp;



With a well-defined strategy established, companies can streamline their processes, efficiency as well as operations and also gain a better understanding of their customers&#8217; needs.&nbsp;



To accomplish the set goals, it’s vital to leverage the insights and capabilities of your tech tools. Your <a href="https://stampede.ai/amaze">CRM system</a> is most important here as it stores all the relevant customer information.



This will help you to turn your strategy into tangible action that can be tracked. You can also better analyse your data to inform your marketing and sales decisions.



However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution here, as businesses of different sizes and industries will ultimately require different approaches. 



So, before you get started, it’s important to understand what components go into a CRM strategy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-key-hospitality-crm-strategy-components">3 key hospitality CRM strategy components</h2>



A successful hospitality CRM strategy is centred around your unique business needs and your customers.&nbsp;



The following three steps will guide operators in coming up with their own CRM strategy.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Step 1 &#8211; Define your goals</h4>



The first step is to lay out clear goals that align with your business&#8217;s overall objectives and that your team can follow.&nbsp;



For example, a small restaurant might be looking to quickly grow its mailing list. A large hotel chain, on the other hand, might be seeking to increase direct bookings and get access to customer data.



Tip: Make use of the <a href="https://asana.com/resources/smart-goals">SMART goal-setting formula</a> here. Goals should always be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. And don’t forget to regularly check your goals to make sure they are still up to date.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Step 2 &#8211; Describe your customer journey</h4>



The next step is to map out your full customer journey.



This involves taking into account every single touchpoint, both online and offline, that a customer encounters when engaging with you. Consider online reservations, WiFi sign-ups, and loyalty scheme usage but also physical in-venue visits.&nbsp;



By identifying these touchpoints, you can develop action points and define goals to improve the customer experience.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Step 3 &#8211; Build a target customer profile</h4>



It&#8217;s also important to define who your customers are in order to better target your audiences.



For this step, you need to segment all your customers into distinct categories.&nbsp;



Think about the different personas that come to your venue. Include basic background information such as demographics, profession, etc. In addition, consider why they’ve chosen your venue and what they expect from you.



For a coffee shop, their main customer base is probably workers of all ages stopping by to pick up their morning coffee. But there are also social drinkers who come to meet with their family and friends and who stay in your venue for longer.&nbsp;



For a hotel, this will look totally different. Their focus might be on families and/or couples with a certain budget. Or maybe their main clientele is business travellers. All these come with different amenity expectations.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Your CRM system will be a great supporter in this step. It helps you get a deep understanding of your customers and tailor your marketing strategies accordingly for maximum impact.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crm-dashboard-management">CRM dashboard management</h2>



One key feature of your <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/crm-dashboard-definition-and-benefits-for-the-hospitality-industry">CRM solution is the dashboard</a>. With its ability to provide insights and data about your operations, you can make more informed and strategic decisions. Whilst also keeping track of the progress towards your goals. 



But to truly harness the power of this tool, <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-build-a-customisable-hospitality-crm-dashboard">customisation is necessary</a>. For hospitality businesses in particular, key performance indicators (KPIs) may vary greatly compared to other industries. So to have the ability to tailor your dashboard to your specific needs is vital.



Some KPIs that are relevant to hospitality businesses include:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Customer retention rate</li>



<li>Average spend per customer</li>



<li>Number of direct bookings /online reservations made</li>



<li>Guest satisfaction ratings</li>



<li>Number of loyalty program signups</li>
</ul>



Many CRMs come with pre-made dashboards that you can adapt or even the option to create ones from scratch using different graphs and reports.



However, it’s important not to overload your dashboard. Keep it simple and focus on the most important metrics. This way, it’s easier for staff to spot trends at one glance and act upon them immediately.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-drive-sales-with-your-crm-system">Drive sales with your CRM system</h2>



With the insights and data that a CRM system provides, hospitality marketers can <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/increase-sales-with-your-crm-and-marketing-automation">level up their sales strategy</a> and grow their customer base more effectively.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Marketing personalisation</h4>



One of the most effective marketing strategies is <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-create-personalised-marketing-campaigns-with-your-crm">personalised campaigns</a> that speak to the specific needs and interests of the individual customer.&nbsp;



This is where a CRM shines. It collects and collates data on each customer&#8217;s interactions, purchases, and preferences, which can be further segmented into categories.



Some example categories for hospitality operators could be:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>First-time visitors</li>



<li>Loyalty program users</li>



<li>Demographical &#8211; students, families, male/female</li>



<li>Geographical &#8211; locals</li>



<li>Upcoming birthday</li>



<li>Customers who have left a review</li>



<li>Customers who have made an online purchase</li>



<li>Customers who have not been at your venue for a certain period of time</li>
</ul>



By using this input to tailor marketing messages, businesses can significantly increase their chances of conversion and repeat business.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Marketing automation</h4>



Additionally, setting up marketing automation for email and SMS campaigns can save time and ensure that every customer receives targeted and relevant messages. When CRM data insights and marketing automation are used together, businesses can create a truly powerful marketing strategy.



Automated welcome emails are one common marketing automation used by hospitality businesses. These are triggered when customers make their first booking or sign up for the newsletter. The goal is to stay in touch and turn them into loyal customers.



Additionally, you could set up automated booking reminders and confirmations via email and/or SMS. This helps hospitality operators reduce no-shows and also provides an opportunity to upsell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-4-quick-crm-tips-for-hospitality-operators">4 Quick CRM tips for hospitality operators</h2>



Here are some quick tips to help you maximise your marketing strategy using the power of your CRM platform:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Invest time in proper staff CRM training</li>



<li>Collate data from various tech tools to build a full customer profile</li>



<li>Keep your data clean and regularly updated your customer records</li>



<li>Use customer history and interaction to upsell</li>
</ol>



We’ve got some more tips and tricks for you <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/8-quick-tips-to-maximise-your-hospitality-crm">in this blog post</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-summary">Summary</h2>



Any CRM strategy development for hospitality businesses should begin with defining goals that are in line with your overall strategy and values. It is therefore highly individual to each company.



Companies also need to understand and map out the customer journey as well as their customer personas to see how it fits into the overall sales, marketing and growth strategy.



Once all that is in place, operators should use their <a href="https://stampede.ai/">CRM system</a> to monitor, manage, and optimise each customer touchpoint. This can easily be done through the integrated dashboard feature, which should also be customised to only show relevant metrics.

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When business picked up after lockdown, the popular western US brand&nbsp;<a href="http://ribandchophouse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rib &amp; Chop House</a>&nbsp;decided to elevate their loyalty program to a paid scheme to reward their most dedicated customers.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Since implementing their&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fsrmagazine.com/expert-takes/rib-chop-houses-loyalty-membership-turns-guests-brand-evangelists" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">exclusive pay-to-join, limited membership ‘Royalty Program’</a>&nbsp;they have reported great results and have now shared their success story.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-customer-loyalty-vs-royalty">Customer Loyalty Vs Royalty</h5>



A royalty program allows you to reward your most loyal customers with&nbsp;unparalleled benefits&nbsp;on every visit. This way you can turn your top-tier customers into brand fanatics.



But what makes Rib &amp; Chop House&#8217;s program so successful? We had a closer look.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Finding Your Royal Customers</h5>



First things first, how do you spot your royal customers? It’s simple,&nbsp;check the analytics from your tech tools&nbsp;to get customers’ insights.



Here are the&nbsp;3 metrics&nbsp;Rib &amp; Chop House took into account:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Top-tier users of their existing loyalty program</li><li>Big spenders&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;on average their royal customers had a 14% higher spend than non-royalty</li><li>High visit frequency&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;up to 5 times per month compared to 1-3 for loyal customers</li></ul>



In addition, Rib &amp; Chop House noticed another common characteristic: Royal customers really want to&nbsp;experience the venue. Their prime motivation is not collecting points to get a freebie or discount.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">6 Royalty Club Best Practice Tips</h5>



Rib &amp; Chop House also shared some&nbsp;details of how their paid loyalty scheme benefits their customers:



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>$600 in gift cards annually&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;equals the cost of the royalty program membership</li><li>Limited the number of members&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;to make it really exclusive</li><li>Offer priority seating&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;a secured table with no pre-booking required</li><li>Allow for anytime cancellation</li><li>Host member-only events&nbsp;</li><li>Additional amenities&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;10% off every bill, free birthday entrée, a complementary set of branded steak knives</li></ol>



Stay tuned to find out more about how to identify your royal customers.

The Paid Loyalty Scheme That Works A Treat

Never miss a message from your customers again with our brand new product feature: the Stampede Inbox.



It can indeed be a challenge and time-consuming task to stay on top of your various inboxes.



<a href="https://www.superoffice.co.uk/resources/articles/customer-service-study/">A recent customer service study</a> found that a worrying number of 62% of customer enquiries are left unanswered.



Common reasons are inboxes not being connected to a CRM and only a limited number of staff having access to incoming emails.



So, what about centralising all customer communication to one platform that is accessible to the whole team?



Such a unified inbox massively improves your response times and gets you extra points for your quick and streamlined customer service.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-it-works">How It Works</h2>



All incoming customer requests and responses are received in the inbox and stored under their individual profiles.



Staff members can then reply straight away in only a few clicks which means happier customers.



There is also the option to add internal notes to keep your team updated.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why The Stampede Inbox Is Unique</h2>



What makes our inbox a one-of-a-kind is that it comes ready-linked to every other interaction your customers have via Stampede. 



There&#8217;s no more piecing together the conversations and information from disjointed platforms. 



This creates a single 360° customer view, providing you with more context based on previous customer interactions and historic data.&nbsp;



So you can craft personalised responses that are relevant to each customer.



The Stampede Inbox is now available for all customers. Head to <a href="https://product.stampede.ai/">Stampede</a> to explore our new product feature in more detail.



If you have any questions or need a hand, reach out to our <a href="https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/murdo">Customer Success team</a> who are happy to help.

Meet Stampede Inbox: Never Miss Another Message 

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Cate Triendl

The countdown to one of the biggest days for hospitality is on. Mother’s Day is coming up end of the month! Time to promote your Mother&#8217;s Day marketing offers.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Customers are keen to get out and about again. Make the most out of it and create a special day for your customers, whether this is in your venue or through your at-home offers.



Also, consider collaboration opportunities with local suppliers for flowers/seeds, chocolate, wine, etc. to offer an all-in-one Mother’s Day package deal.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-to-promote-your-mother-s-day-offers">How to promote your Mother&#8217;s Day offers</h4>



Use the full breadth of your marketing channels to get your offers out there. Best practice before you get started with Mother’s Day communications is to give your audience a chance to opt-out early on, as not everyone wants to receive them.



Email and SMS marketing is your best bet to promote any pre-bookings. Adding some free extras will make your offers even more attractive. And don’t forget to schedule a last-minute sales booster campaign the week before to fill in any empty spaces.



Social media contests are also great at creating more awareness of your offers. Re-creation and throwback photo competitions (tag to win) are fun ways to engage with your audience.&nbsp;



In addition, a simple pop-up or banner on your website, featuring your offers will help you attract even more customers.



Pro tip &#8211; tools like <a href="https://www.canva.com/search/templates?q=mothers%20day" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Canva</a> come with a wide range of ready-to-use Mother’s Day templates that will help you save some time creating your email campaigns, banners and social posts.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">10 In-venue ideas</h4>



Create a memorable experience and get inspired by some of our in-venue ideas.



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Offer classes &#8211; cooking/baking, cocktails, flower arrangement, pottery</li><li>Run a mother and child event (including adult children!)</li><li>Treat grandmas with a free drink or dessert</li><li>Get kids involved with some <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.personalcreations.com/blog/mothers-day-kids-craft-ideas" target="_blank">crafty activities</a></li><li>Host a charity event &#8211; raffle with prizes to win</li><li>Hire a photographer or photo booth</li><li>Put some live music on</li><li>Create a dedicated mum’s food/drinks special&nbsp;</li><li>Offer a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/food-and-drink/restaurant/best-unusual-afternoon-teas-in-london" target="_blank">themed afternoon tea</a></li><li>Come up with a full on family Sunday lunch offer &#8211; including kids treats</li></ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">10 E-commerce ideas</h4>



E-commerce sales at this time can make a big contribution to your revenue. Include links to your online shop on your socials and in your emails to make it easy for customers to order. Check out this article on <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-set-up-a-successful-meal-kit-e-commerce-page/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">how to set up a successful e-commerce page</a>.



Here are some extra revenue ideas to tap into.



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Full at-home experience &#8211; meal-box for brunch/afternoon tea with drinks and decoration</li><li>Breakfast-in-bed box</li><li>Family cook-at-home kits</li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://my.morrisons.com/mothers-day/mothers-day-baking/" target="_blank">Baking kits</a> for kids</li><li>Dessert-only box with flowers</li><li>Luxurious picnic hamper</li><li>“Treat your mum” gift hamper</li><li>Personalised gift cards with extra add-ons</li><li>“Me time” voucher for a mum’s night out</li><li>Double loyalty points for online orders</li></ul>



Mother&#8217;s Day marketing content ready but not sure how to set up your email campaign? <a href="https://stampede.ai/company/#contact" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get in touch</a> with one of our team who are happy to help.

20 Mother’s Day Marketing Ideas to Ramp Up Revenue

SMS marketing campaigns are not only quick to set up but also come with higher customer response rates.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



It’s common to use text messages to send automated booking confirmations and reminders. However, there are many more clever ways you can&nbsp;make SMS work harder for you.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3-proven-sms-marketing-campaign-ideas">3 Proven SMS Marketing Campaign Ideas</h2>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1) Email follow-up</h4>



<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/email-vs-sms-marketing-which-one-to-choose/?utm_source=zoho&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">In the first part</a>&nbsp;of this series, we identified that by combining email and SMS marketing campaigns you get maximum results.



In general,&nbsp;SMS marketing is great as a follow-up&nbsp;to a previous email campaign. Here are some examples of how you can use them in tandem.



Flash promotions:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Email content:&nbsp;Don’t miss our upcoming seasonal offers</li>



<li>SMS message: &#8216;Last chance, our offer is ending soon.’</li>
</ul>



Event early-bird bookings:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Email content:&nbsp;Festive season event bookings are now open</li>



<li>SMS message:&nbsp;‘Bookings are coming in quickly for Xmas, secure your place early on and get % off.’</li>
</ul>



Last-minute event availabilities:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Email content:&nbsp;Our popular pub quiz is back next Friday</li>



<li>SMS message:&nbsp;‘Didn’t get a space for our pub quiz tonight? You’re lucky, we have X spaces left, can we count you in?</li>
</ul>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2) Upsell</h4>



You can also trigger SMS marketing campaigns to be sent out once customers have booked a table as a way to&nbsp;upsell them in advance.



In these, you can highlight&nbsp;recommendations, i.e. promote a new menu,&nbsp; limited items or your happy hour.



Upsell SMS messages can also be used to&nbsp;promote your food/drink packages&nbsp;or other deals customers can book on top.



Tip &#8211; your call-to-action should allow customers to easily get in touch with you to book those options.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3)&nbsp;Survey request</h4>



Fact is, customers are more likely to leave a review when prompted. Combine this with the higher engagement rate of text messages, and&nbsp;SMS is the ideal tool to boost your online reviews.



Simply send customers an automated post-visit text. Ask them to review their experience and include a link to a feedback form or wherever you want your customers to rate you.



“Hey [name], how was your experience at [venue]? We’d love your feedback. Click here to leave a review [link]. Thank you, [company].”



Ready to start with your first&nbsp;<a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/marketing/#sms/?utm_source=zoho&amp;utm_medium=email">SMS marketing campaigns</a>?&nbsp;<a href="https://h.stampede.ai/meetings/stampede/demo/?utm_source=zoho&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;with one of our team who are happy to run you through it.

3 Clever Ways To Use SMS Campaigns To Scale Up Your Marketing ROI [Updated 2023]

New Feature – Loyalty By Stampede

Note: This article is for readers with previous experience in paid advertising.



In the hospitality industry, effective guest acquisition is crucial to staying competitive, yet traditional advertising can be costly. Enter Meta Lead Forms—a new, budget-friendly approach to attracting more guests that are quickly gaining traction in hospitality. For hotels, restaurants, bars, and event venues, Meta Lead Forms offers a more affordable alternative to other ad formats, connecting businesses directly to interested customers while funnelling data straight into your Stampede CRM.



In this post, we’ll explore why Meta Lead Forms are reshaping hospitality marketing budgets, compare them to traditional lead-generation methods, and share tips for making the most of your ad spend.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-are-meta-lead-forms">What Are Meta Lead Forms?</h2>



Meta Lead Forms are a type of advert on Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) designed to simplify the lead-capture process. Unlike traditional ads that take customers off-platform to external websites, Meta Lead Forms allow users to input their information directly within the ad itself. This streamlined process minimises barriers, boosts lead conversion rates, and reduces the cost of capturing valuable customer data. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cost-efficiency-of-meta-lead-forms">The Cost Efficiency of Meta Lead Forms</h2>



For budget-conscious hospitality businesses, this is a great choice. Traditional lead-generation methods like Google Ads, web-based lead forms, or physical marketing collateral can be effective but often come with high costs. Here’s how Meta Lead Forms offer a better value:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Lower Cost Per Lead (CPL): Meta Lead Forms generally result in more submissions than external forms, as customers don’t need to leave the platform. This is ease-of-use and reduces the cost of each successful lead.</li>



<li>Minimised Click-Through Barriers: Every extra click or redirect increases the chance a potential customer will drop off. Meta Lead Forms minimises those barriers, resulting in a higher chance of conversion for each ad interaction, which also keeps overall campaign costs down.</li>
</ol>



Better Targeting with Stampede Integration: By linking your Meta Lead Forms to the Stampede CRM, you can target and re-target ads to more specific segments, such as past guests, repeat visitors, those interested in seasonal events or from lead form submissions. This audience focus means you’re spending only on ads that reach high-potential customers, maximising ROI.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-meta-lead-forms-stack-up-against-other-lead-generation-methods">How Meta Lead Forms Stack Up Against Other Lead-Generation Methods</h2>



Here’s a quick comparison of Meta Lead Forms with other popular lead-generation tactics: 



<figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><tbody><tr><td>Lead-Generation Method</td><td>Average Cost</td><td>Conversion Efficiency</td><td>User Experience</td></tr><tr><td>Meta Lead Forms</td><td>Low</td><td>High</td><td>Seamless</td></tr><tr><td>Google Search Ads</td><td>Moderate to High</td><td>Moderate</td><td>External link needed</td></tr><tr><td>Physical Ads (Print, Flyers)</td><td>High</td><td>Low</td><td>Manual interaction needed</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>



Meta Lead Forms often outshine these alternatives by combining lower costs with high conversion efficiency. Plus, they offer the added benefit of real-time data sync with Stampede CRM, so your team can act quickly. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-maximising-impact-tips-for-optimising-your-budget-with-meta-lead-forms">Maximising Impact: Tips for Optimising Your Budget with Meta Lead Forms</h2>



To get the most out of Meta Lead Forms on a limited budget, consider these optimisation tips:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Target the Right Audience Use your Stampede CRM to segment customers based on specific interests or behaviours and build custom Meta audiences from those segments. For example, target previous guests who have shown interest in events or seasonal offerings, maximising ad relevance and cutting unnecessary ad spend.</li>



<li>Use Clear, Compelling Call-to-Actions (CTAs) Meta Lead Forms are designed to be easy for customers, but your CTA can make or break an ad’s success. Instead of generic CTAs, use something engaging and specific to your offer, like “Reserve Your Spot” or “Get Exclusive Deals.”</li>



<li>Leverage Special Offers to Boost Conversions People respond well to special offers, like a free appetiser or discounted room rate for new guests. Including a clear value proposition in your Meta Lead Form ad can lead to higher conversions without increasing ad spend.</li>



<li>Monitor and Adjust Campaigns in Real-Time With the Stampede and Meta integration, your lead data syncs instantly. Monitor which campaigns are driving the most conversions and adjust your targeting or budget allocation as needed to focus on top-performing ads.</li>



<li>Retarget Interested Leads with Custom Audiences Meta Lead Forms allow you to gather information from potential customers who may not be ready to book immediately. Using Stampede’s custom audience sync feature, you can retarget these leads with follow-up ads, helping you stay top-of-mind until they’re ready to convert.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-guest-acquisition-for-hospitality">The Future of Guest Acquisition for Hospitality</h2>



Meta Lead Forms are changing the game in guest acquisition for the hospitality industry. By seamlessly capturing leads and syncing with Stampede CRM, they allow businesses to connect with the right audience in a more personalised way. With this efficient approach, hospitality teams can increase engagement, drive more bookings, and strengthen guest relationships—all with minimal effort and resources.

Love it or hate it, we all had some time now to form our own opinion on AI-generated content such as <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/">ChatGPT</a> from OpenAI.&nbsp;



One thing is for sure, it is definitely causing one of the biggest uproars in the marketing world at the moment. You can’t escape it and it’s hard to keep up with the pace of its change.&nbsp;



With <a href="https://stampede.ai/connect">&#8216;.ai&#8217; in our web address</a> and a penchant for all things technology, we had to follow the hype and did some playing around with it to test it for you.



With every new thing, there’s the good, the bad and the ugly. So here’s our take on the latest craze of AI tools.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-take-it-with-a-pinch-of-salt">Take it with a pinch of salt</h2>



One of the great fears is that you might end up with plagiarised content. Such content could harm you in the eyes of Google (and others) in terms of search engine optimisation.



We’ve run some AI-generated content that we had written against a plagiarism checker and well, the outcome wasn’t looking good, hitting above the 90% mark. So this is something some of the platforms still need to work on.



Besides the originality of content, you also want factually correct information. There have been a good amount of examples floating around (see example below) showing incorrect output which might lead to misinformation spreading unwantedly.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="950" src="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-10-at-06.55.41-1024x950.png" alt="AI-generated faulty content" class="wp-image-22938" srcset="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-10-at-06.55.41-1024x950.png 1024w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-10-at-06.55.41-300x278.png 300w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-10-at-06.55.41-768x712.png 768w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-10-at-06.55.41-150x139.png 150w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screenshot-2023-02-10-at-06.55.41.png 1102w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Platforms have always made it clear though, that the emphasis is mostly on creativity, not on factuality. So make sure to always double-check the output and apply some common sense.



And now, the biggest question of all: will it replace the human writer?&nbsp;



No.&nbsp;



AI is a tool, like any other we use in marketing, i.e. design tools, keyword research platforms, etc. A tool that can make our daily jobs easier, quicker and more efficient.&nbsp;



It’s more like your new writing assistant than a fully-fledged digital ghost author.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The tricky bit</h2>



Getting the input right is by far the most important yet most difficult bit when generating AI content.



You might not need to write the entire content yourself but you still need to figure out how to get high-quality content or the ideal structure of a piece.



So at least at the beginning, you will spend a decent amount of time on the AI tool. It’s about trying and testing different input styles to get it where you want it to be and in line with your brand voice.



Our tip: aim for simple instructions. How would you explain this to a friend?&nbsp;



It’s also essential to read the manual. You need to be able to speak the instruction language that the tools understand. They use different jargon to how you would ask for something naturally.



Below is a quick Jasper command example.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="458" src="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-1024x458.png" alt="Jasper commands" class="wp-image-22932" srcset="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-1024x458.png 1024w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-300x134.png 300w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-768x343.png 768w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-1536x686.png 1536w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-1200x536.png 1200w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command-150x67.png 150w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Jasper-command.png 1696w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Make AI-generated content work for you</h2>



No doubt, there is a lot you can do with AI, especially in marketing where we spend much of our time producing new content.



Here are 10 quick ways AI tools can take some workload off you:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Brainstorm on certain topics/keywords</li>



<li>Generate subject/headlines</li>



<li>Create and improve headlines for ads</li>



<li>Produce long-form content, like blog articles</li>



<li>Get instant social media posts</li>



<li>Produce SEO-relevant content</li>



<li>Create sales emails &amp; workflows</li>



<li>Do keyword research&nbsp;</li>



<li>Optimise FAQs</li>



<li>Summarise content into bullet points</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Takeaway</h2>



It’s fair to say that AI is at a starting point. With time those tools will learn and improve and ultimately get better.&nbsp;



Savvy marketers will figure out pretty soon how to leverage it to their full advantage. And sooner or later, AI will probably become a part of our tech stack.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Stay tuned for <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/chatgpt-vs-jasper-the-two-most-popular-ai-tools-compared">part two of this series</a> to find out more about how ChatGPT and Jasper, two of the most used tools compare.

AI Tools for Marketers: An Insider’s View

To finish off our&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://stampede.ai/blog/tag/personalised-marketing/" target="_blank">5 part series on personalised marketing</a>, we’ve asked our team to share their favourite personalisation or automation feature of Stampede.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



These will give you some additional ideas and inspiration for your next personalised marketing campaigns to drive customer loyalty and grow your business.



In case you’ve missed one of the 5 parts, you’ll find them <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/tag/personalised-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">on our blog</a>.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-staff-favourites-automations">Staff Favourites: Automations</h5>



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Chris &#8211; Head of Growth Marketing</h6>



&#8220;My favourite is probably automated review requests. It makes such a difference when it&#8217;s done right, based on when you actually visited and left a venue, as opposed to a booking system’s best guess.&#8221;



Learn more about how you can save time gathering your reviews using <a href="https://stampede.ai/get-reviews/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automated requests</a>.



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Craig &#8211; Customer Success Manager</h6>



&#8220;My favourite automation feature has got to be the automated SMS marketing feature for segments. Specifically the segment of &#8216;people who have a birthday next month&#8217;. It takes just a few minutes to set up a &#8216;Let&#8217;s Celebrate You&#8217; campaign and keeps working for you month after month.&#8221;



Find out how <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/marketing/#sms" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">automated SMS messages</a> can help you keep customers coming back.



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Euan &#8211; Product Marketer</h6>



&#8220;One of my favourite automated campaigns definitely is ‘Not Seen In 14 days’, targeted at customers who haven’t been at the venue in a certain amount of time.&#8221; 



&#8220;It’s great to boost customer engagement, turn first-time visitors into repeat ones and is also a good opportunity to give special offers. The first big step on the journey to loyalty.&#8221;



Head to our blog to read more about how you can quickly set up a win-back<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/another-5-step-recipe-how-to-easily-win-back-lost-customers-part-2-of-5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> campaign</a> to retain lost customers. 



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Staff Favourites: Personalised Marketing Campaigns</h5>



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Jac &#8211; Operations Manager</h6>



&#8220;I love that venues can ask custom questions on their Guest WiFi sign-up. Like the date of birth, which then really helps to power their personalised marketing. And it shows customers that you’re invested in their experience and want them to have the best visit possible!&#8221;



Discover how you can customise your <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/wifi/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Guest WiFi login</a> to elevate your customer experience. 



<h6 class="wp-block-heading">Sean &#8211; Customer Support</h6>



&#8220;It’s really hard to choose one particular campaign, but what I love is our new advanced customer segment builder. We built something like 30 ready-made customer segments using it that all make for interesting personalised messages. It&#8217;s great that we can help our customers do really cool marketing like that.&#8221;



Check out our <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-bring-customers-back-using-customer-data-and-personalisation-part-ii/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">example campaigns</a> to help you get started with powerful customer segmentation building.



If you&#8217;d like to find out more about our various product features and how they could help you grow your business, <a href="https://calendly.com/stampedeae/stampede-demo-request" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">get in touch</a>. Our team is happy to show you our product in action.

For most web forms, the rule for the optimum number of fields is simple: less is more.&nbsp;For&nbsp;<a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/avoid-these-3-common-guest-wifi-mistakes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WiFi sign-up</a> forms, however, the answer isn’t as straightforward.&nbsp;



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



It’s about finding the sweet spot between ensuring a smooth&nbsp;customer experience&nbsp;and leveraging Guest WiFi as a&nbsp;clever marketing tool&nbsp;to increase revenue and boost loyalty.



Unfortunately, a lot of times, WiFi sign-up forms fall into one of the two categories below.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-case-1-too-many-fields">Case 1: Too Many Fields</h5>



If your sign-up has a large number of fields, the log-in becomes&nbsp;time-consuming.&nbsp;



The outcome: customers either start filling in wrong information to speed up the process or quit before even finishing.&nbsp;



Always remember that your customers are looking for a&nbsp;quick log-in experience. They don’t want to scroll through pages to fill in the form to get WiFi access.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Case 2: Not Enough Fields</h5>



The opposite is the case with not adding enough fields to your form. If you just ask for an email, you’re&nbsp;missing out on useful data.&nbsp;



You might still be able to reach them via email, but you are very limited in crafting personalised messages. Hence, your&nbsp;conversion rates will be very low.



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">The Ideal Number That Converts</h5>



What does the ideal WiFi sign-up form look like then?&nbsp;



Use a minimum number of fields to remove friction, but ensure you get all the data you need.&nbsp; The graph below helps you visualise how the number of fields impacts both the customer experience and the value of the data captured. You can see that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/priceonomics/2017/08/10/analyzing-conversion-rate-data/#4e7225402365" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">4-5 fields is the optimum</a>&nbsp;number.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/data-capture-graph.png"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.stampede.ai/fill/1024/498/ce/0/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdGFtcGVkZS5haS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyMi8wOC9kYXRhLWNhcHR1cmUtZ3JhcGgtMTAyNHg0OTgucG5n" alt="" class="wp-image-22085"/></a></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



So, start by thinking about what you want to do with the information. How do you want to&nbsp;segment your data&nbsp;and what kind of campaigns&nbsp;do you want to send?



Must-have fields:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Email address</li><li>First name</li><li>Date of birth</li></ul>



Nice-to-have fields:&nbsp;



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Phone number</li><li>Last name</li><li>Postcode</li><li>Custom questions, i.e. reason for visiting, how did you find us …</li></ul>



With a carefully chosen custom question, you can create some&nbsp;specific audience groups&nbsp;with ease, such as Students. Then you can do more targeted customer research.



Extra tip &#8211;&nbsp;enable social media sign-up&nbsp;as the auto-fill option makes it fast and convenient for customers.&nbsp;



Start capturing your data through your Guest WiFi and build your mailing list with ease.&nbsp;<a href="https://h.stampede.ai/meetings/stampede/demo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Book a demo</a>&nbsp;with our team to find out more about Stampede.

Unlocking The Secret To Better Data Capture

How To Speed Up Content Creation With AI In Hospitality

3 Clever AI Tools To Support Your Hotel Operations

Become A Stampede Pro With These Hidden Features

Customers are loyal for many reasons. And maybe some are not as loyal as you think they are.



Whatever drives your customers back to your venue, it’s important to find out the intention behind it and to create different loyalty segments.



This allows you to market to them on a much more personal level and turn all levels of loyal customers into true brand lovers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Customer Loyalty Matrix</h2>



In general, there are 4 main customer loyalty categories as shown in the matrix below. They differ based on their level of brand attachment and price consciousness.&nbsp;



Let’s take a closer look at each quadrant.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="715" src="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-1024x715.png" alt="4 types of customer loyalty" class="wp-image-23154" srcset="https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-1024x715.png 1024w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-300x209.png 300w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-768x536.png 768w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-1536x1072.png 1536w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-1200x837.png 1200w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766-150x105.png 150w, https://website-backend.stampede.ai/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Group-9766.png 1963w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">4 Types of Customer Loyalty</figcaption></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-1-habitual-loyals">1. Habitual loyals</h4>



This type of customer loyalty falls under the &#8216;simplest option&#8217; category.



They are driven by habit which means they don’t have a&nbsp; specific preference for a certain venue. Often there is no intention to look for an alternative as they are satisfied enough with what they get for now.



A common example is the coffee shop on the way to work. Customers are used to going there but they are no emotional connections to the venue as such.



However, as their loyalty is based on convenience they’re also at risk of switching should they come across a better option. Such as a new fancy coffee place opening up.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Transactional or offer-based loyals</h4>



What’s the ‘cheapest option’ with the best offer? That is what transactional loyal customers are looking for when choosing a venue.&nbsp;



They want to save money, more so now than ever.



Businesses can keep them hooked with regular offers and discounts, though their loyalty is, as is the case with habitual loyals, not related to a specific venue.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Loyalty-program loyals</h4>



The third type of loyalty can be categorised as the ‘satisfying option’.



Customers are engaged and actively interacting with your business based on your loyalty program and previous good experiences.



Despite the fact that their main goal is to climb up the ranks and get rewarded (price sensitive), they are certainly attached to your brand.&nbsp;



They are willing to spend more and chances are high that they tell their family and friends to join your loyalty program.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Emotional loyals</h4>



No doubt, these are your most valuable loyal customers. For them, your venue is the only option.



They are deeply connected to your brand due to ongoing value creation from your side. They identify with you. Call them your <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-use-data-to-unveil-your-true-brand-fanatics">brand fanatics</a>.



With high attachment and affinity comes advocacy. Hence they also love to spread the word about your place and attract new customers for you, for free.



This is the category you want all your customers to be in.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to move customers around in the matrix</h2>



Based on the matrix, habitual and transactional loyalty can be categorised as passive loyalty. On the contrary, loyalty-program-based and emotional loyalty as active.&nbsp;



The question is how to get customers from a passive to an active level.&nbsp;



Here are some ideas to get you started:



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">1. Personalisation&nbsp;</h4>



Customers come with their individual needs and expectations and especially habitual customers tend to also have certain behavioural patterns.



This is when customer data insights come in handy. <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/how-to-bring-customers-back-using-customer-data-and-personalisation-part-ii">Use your CRM</a> to build unique 360° customer profiles.



So, for example, instead of sending out a generic’ birthday offer’, dig into your order &amp; pay app data.&nbsp;



Let’s assume a customer always orders an espresso martini. Try this email instead: “Celebrate your birthday with us. The espresso martini is on the house today.”



Adding an extra personal touch can go a long way and convince your passive loyals to switch from a money-driven to a value-driven mindset.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">2. Online &amp; offline experience</h4>



The hospitality industry is special in the way that there are offline and online touchpoints along the customer journey.&nbsp;



To raise brand awareness and value perception you need to provide a unified experience across all. I.e. make your brand recognisable.



This way, passive customers will become more aware of whom they are actually engaging with. Even more so if the overall experience was frictionless.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">3. Gamification</h4>



Gamification can add another fun layer to your loyalty program.&nbsp;



It keeps customers engaged and encourages them to interact with your brand more frequently. Which in turn drives their emotional brand attachment.&nbsp;



Besides, if they have fun they will share it with others, win-win.



Tip: Find some clever gamification ideas <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/5-gamification-ideas-to-take-your-loyalty-scheme-to-the-next-level">in this article.</a>



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">4. Referral scheme</h4>



A referral scheme is especially useful to move already active loyals to the highest level.



Customers get rewarded for their ongoing loyalty. You can show that you really value them. 



After all, you’ve chosen them to advocate for you, so they feel proud. Which in turn enhances emotional attachment.



Tip: Here’s how you can set up a <a href="https://stampede.ai/blog/increase-your-footfall-with-a-simple-customer-referral-loop-part-5-of-5">simple referral scheme</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Need help segmenting the different types of customer loyalty from your data? <a href="https://stampede.ai/get-started">Reach out</a> to learn more about <a href="https://stampede.ai/how-it-works/marketing">Stampede Marketing</a> and how you can use it for personalised campaigns.