How many customers do you have that attended your venue once or twice, but haven’t returned? Or how about customers that attended often in the past, but don’t frequent as much? Chances are you have a lot of these customers, whether you’re aware of it or not. Not everyone is going to be a regular guest, but there are ways for you to engage even your most sporadic guests so they come back more often.
Here’s how to know when it’s time to re-engage, and what do do about it.
1. Understand Their Habits
To be able to re-engage someone, you first need to understand how they engaged with you the begin with. Were they at your venue for an event? Did they book a table reservation to celebrate something? Were they on the guest list or a general admission guest? The best is if you can identify when they came in, what type of guest they were, and what was happening at your venue that night. You don’t have to be a savvy analyst to find this information. It’s just a matter of collecting and tracking that data so you can always reference back at it. And moving away from pen and paper and on to a system that helps you automate this is going to be your biggest asset.
2. Suggest Like-Minded Opportunities
Now that you know their past habits, you’re able to suggest similar ways for them to engage. Maybe they came to an event to see a certain artist, and you have a similar artist booked in the near future. Send them an exclusive invitation to the event before tickets are released to the mass public. This offers a sense of personalization and exclusiveness that will catch their attention while offering something you know they’ll likely be interested in. You can use this strategy for reservation guests and general admission guests as well. The trick is to not make the message seem like the same old night that’s always promoted, but instead framed to cater to their past experiences.
3. Make Personal Up-Sales
Another option is to offer a premium service to a guest that has become disengaged. Make this offer personal, and connect the dots as to why they’re receiving this message. Maybe they attended as a general admission guest 5 times throughout a couple months, and you noticed they spent over $100 at the bar each time. Send them a personal message offering a VIP table with a bottle of comped champagne, thanking them for being a great customer. Or maybe a guest attended several events in the past but hasn’t attended one in a while. You could offer that person their first round of drinks for the next event they attend. Again, it’s important to make these up-sells unique to their habits, and to understand the the cost of throwing in an incentive is worthwhile to get a valuable customer back in your door.
4. Provide the Experience
Lastly, it’s important to provide on the experience that you offered. You’re reaching out to disengaged customers to get them back in your venue, the last thing you need is for something to go wrong and for them to have a bad experience. That will just ensure they will likely never come back. If you up-sell a guest on a VIP table with a complimentary bottle of champagne, make sure your staff knows this customer is coming in so they can be greeted at the door and are served their bottle upon being seated. Going above and beyond with service after getting them come back will build loyalty stronger than before and allow you to keep them engaged for future nights.
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