Yikes! That sounds like a nightmare. I’ve never seen that here in the states, but I’ve certainly been on the receiving end of bad actors who truly are spamming. No fun.
Absolutely. The general rule of thumb is to not over-text (annoy the customer), give them what they came looking for when they signed up to join the program (generally compelling offers and promotions), and always make it easy for them to opt-out if they aren't interested anymore (every text includes the instructions to "Reply STOP to opt-out" to make that simple).
Offer staleness is a very real thing! We generally encourage a restaurant to start with 6-12 offers, and then every 60-90 days, we review how each offer is performing and optimize their rotations. That way things that aren't resonating get removed, and we can track the trends. We also encourage variety in the type of offers as well (i.e. you don't want to send a % off offer back to back). Generally, you want to refresh your offers on a regular cadence.
Initially, this has been built for the SMB restaurant or the franchisee to do local marketing rather than large brand based marketing.
These are great suggestions! I especially love the thought of going the extra mile to make it relevant to you as an individual. I like the idea of eventually allowing the individual consumer to set the limits on what they receive, such as frequency, type of content, etc. (For example, I only want to receive messages about events happening at this restaurant and no more than 2x per month.)
Np. Even though I have never worked or owned a restaurant myself, I did have a stint as a Cafeteria worker in college and since then, my respect for food industry and workers in general has gone up by a lot. Anything to help them make more money, I am up for it.
Did you originally opt-in to receive the texts that you're referencing? If not, that would be incredibly annoying (not to mention that the government frowns on that). I've received spam texts in my time (soooo many "UPS package" scams), and those have left a bad taste in my mouth. That's why we've taken the approach of "expressly opt-in" and "easy to opt-out."
That's precisely why opt-in practices need to be observed. If you don't want to be in the club, you shouldn't receive texts and you should be pestered to join. If you did join and then you decided later that you don't want to be in, simply replying "stop" will remove you from the program. We actually include those opt-out instruction on every text, because it should be easy to know how to leave if you don't want to continue to receive those texts.
But if you really like a place and want discounts to them, this could be a good option.
Totally - a product has to be great. With that said, getting feedback from your customers is also vital to making real improvements in the product and many restaurants are blind to what their customers think. Not everyone is comfortable telling someone that their food isn't great, or that there was a service issue, and we've been able to provide a more comfortable way to give that feedback, which leads to real improvements.
I also believe that there is a difference between marketing something to new customers that they might not want and what we do here. The only people who will raise their hand to join a text club are the actual fans who like the place and the product. Then this serves as a rewards mechanism to provide additional deals and incentives to continue to purchase more. This is retention marketing--not new customer acquisition.
I hear you on the importance of food quality. If you don't have good food or service, no amount of marketing is going to save you. I also think that there is a fine line that you don't want to cross when it comes to the number of marketing messages that you send to customers. Every 2-3 days would annoy me personally as a consumer too. Anything more than once per week is way too much for such a direct channel
Since this is an opt-in program, only the people who really want to receive texts from a particular restaurant will participate. If that's not you, that's totally fine. Either way, we appreciate you sharing your thoughts!
