The Super Clients

Every small business has these special customers, you know who I mean, the regulars who come often to your place and spend nice money. They love your restaurant and are happy to enjoy a good meal at your place.

But these customers are not just good clients, they are also very powerful influencers and if you do the right thing, they can become your best sales force. Let me explain what I mean.

Whenever you have very happy clients, you can "leverage" them to spread the word about your restaurant. If you are familiar with my Formalized Referral System in a Box, you know that you can pamper these customers by offering them gift certificates for them (and this is VERY important) for their friends and family members to come again to your restaurant and get a nice discount.

Why would you like to give something to clients who come regularly anyway? Because by giving them a free meal or a discount you prove three things directly to them:

1. That you care about them. There is not just about the money but you genuinely want them to be happy and have a great experience dinning at your place.
2. That you appreciate their patronage and are willing to demonstrate it not just with words but with a gift.
3. You pamper their ego since you, as the owner or manager of the restaurant, acknowledge their presence and reward their company. Everybody likes that.

But there is another very important benefit that although it may be not obvious to them, it will happen anyway:

By surprising your best clients with a gift, you will exceed their expectations.

This will translate in them telling all their family and friends how great your place is and how nice you are. This is sales at its best. Genuine, spontaneous praise of a business by a person you trust and like. The amount of potential customers and sales that this initiative will bring to your restaurant is priceless.

I recommend you that you take a hard look at your regular customers and make a conscious decision to approach them and give them a reason to be really happy that they visited your place.

Just one word of advice: don't be cheap here. If you just give them a free dessert or glass of wine, it is a nice gesture but it won't woo your customers. If you do this, make it stand out. Complement their whole meal, bring them a bottle of a complementary good wine, give them a gift certificate that they can use in their next visit... you get the point.

Think about this as a proven marketing investment that will bring you good reputation and many new customers. It is way better to spend money with your best clients than to waste it in newspapers or yellow pages ads trying to bring new customers all the time.

Good luck and happy meals,

Jose L Riesco