Case Study: Restaurant Group Integrates Data for Targeted Customer Marketing
Merchant: Fig & Olive
Size: 8 locations
Locations: New York, California, Washington, DC, Illinois
Platforms: Micros, OpenTable, Venga
Bottom Line: Data from point-of-sale and reservations systems can be used to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Managing an upscale restaurant group is full of operational challenges, but for Matthew Joseph of Fig & Olive, attempting to combine data from multiple restaurant locations into a centralized reservation center was particularly frustrating.
With eight locations spread out across the United States, Joseph was stymied by the costs associated with combining his restaurant group’s OpenTable data with the data from a Micros point-of-sale system. So, the technology and information systems director began looking for new solutions.
“Originally Venga had approached us through a random reach-out and we were not interested,” Joseph says. “Then, a fellow restaurateur brought them up to us at the time we were moving to a centralized reservation center, as one of their selling points was combining all locations data.”
Today, Fig & Olive uses Venga to power its guest management system, with the ultimate goal of increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition combining Fig & Olive’s location databases, Joseph says he uses Venga to create win-back offers when customers have not been in for 30, 60, or 90 days, collect guest feedback, track habits, and send daily review emails that combine information from OpenTable and Yelp for each business location. Joseph also creates daily reservation reports, which are emailed to his staff before each shift, and he relies on Venga to get a “general idea” of how his email marketing campaigns are performing.
Fig & Olive’s guest management system has been set up to match reservations to POS data, which allows Joseph to track the dining habits and visit frequency of guests. This information is then used to run automated marketing campaigns, such as the “we miss you campaign” that Fig & Olive ran in 2014. As part of the campaign, the restaurant group offered complimentary crostini to guests who had not visited in the last 30 days. According to Venga’s own data, the campaign resulted in 300 visits and more than $36,000 in sales—7x the cost of the program itself.
Fig & Olive also uses Venga to privately solicit guest feedback through online surveys. Venga’s data that showed that by sending branded “thank you” emails with feedback surveys to guests the day after their visits, Fig & Olive was able to decrease negative reviews on Yelp by 36%.
In addition to helping to win back customer and improve Yelp reviews, Joseph says he’s relying on Venga to assist with his restaurant group’s VIP designations and to generate improved analytics. He’s also configuring the platform with Fig & Olive’s VoIP system for a “complete CRM” since the restaurant group uses a centralized reservation center.
Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.
