Grow your Restaurant Business by Building a Better Customer Persona

Like most business products and services, it is critical to understand the customer’s needs. The food and restaurant industry is a highly competitive and challenging environment. There are many restaurateurs facing difficulty targeting the right set of customers and prospects in marketing and services. Therefore, an excellent way to increase sales is to understand and engage with the customers and determine what type of products they are looking for. 

Creating a Customer Persona can help in the ability to market the products more efficiently. Based on the various Customer Personas created for different products, several strategies can be launched to enhance sales. Before diving into the importance of Customer Persona, let’s find out what it means. 

What is a Customer Persona? 

Every product in any restaurant has that particular ideal customer. The complete profile of that ideal customer is created based on the market research and customer data. This profile of the ideal customer is known as Customer Persona, and it contains information like interests, demographics, behavior, financial status, characteristics, and so on. 

How are Customer Personas created?

Without customers, the business wouldn’t exist. Therefore, spending the time and resources to develop a Persona is effective for the business. Based on market research and demographic targets, the customer’s characteristics and needs are taken to find the Persona.  

Plan out accurate and relatable questions for the Customers

Asking the customers the right set of accurate and relatable questions can assist in creating an effective Persona. Such questions can target age, education, financial status, product recommendations, work, hobbies, passion, accomplishments, aspirations, and whether they will come back to the same restaurant. 

Undertake interviews through surveys

A survey with the right set of questions can help restaurateurs gain deep insights into their customers’ needs and opinions. After picking out random customers from the existing base, send out surveys or conduct interviews when possible. With the responses, trends and patterns can be analyzed to develop a Persona. 

Analyze Business Data

Every business has an existing customer database. Restaurateurs can access the CRM and discern the present trends and customer behavior. From the CRM, the order history, frequency of visits, and spend data are being used to identify ideal customers, which can be used to model Customer Personas. 

How does a Customer Persona help?

Customer Personas can help restaurateurs earn more finance from existing customers and bring in new customers. It acts as a medium for restaurant managers to find out what can keep their customers engaged with their products and make them come back for more. This will, in turn, increase conversion rates and sales. By viewing from the customer’s perspective, better marketing strategies can be implemented to make the restaurant more relatable and inviting. 

Conclusion

Customer Personas change over time to match with the trends and changing preferences. Creating new Personas regularly can help keep the restaurant business going. Customers are the central part of the business; therefore, generating Customer Personas will bring a positive change in the net sales and business operations.