How to Incorporate SMS into a Restaurant Business

The continuous mission for every restaurant owner is to constantly increase the restaurant's sales. With so many restaurants vying for customers' business, effective marketing measures are key for attracting customer attention, as well as for establishing a restaurant's identity and enhancing customer loyalty. Word of mouth is the most cost-efficient way to increase restaurant sales, but it works both ways: Bad reviews often travel faster than positive ones. The short message system, or SMS--also known as text messaging--for mobile phones can help restaurant owners not only increase customer service but also gain important customer information. It can also be used as a dynamic pricing tool to fill tables that otherwise would go empty.

Databases of Customer Loyalty

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  Customer calling can be part of marketing. a new customer calling image by graham tomlin from Fotolia.com

  Use mobile coupons that reside on a patron's phone. They are much more likely to be used than are physical cards or paper coupons, which are easy for people to forget. Forcing a customer to carry around cards that need to be stamped during each visit is cumbersome, at best.

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  Track the use of these mobile coupons to increase customer loyalty. The restaurant can create databases filled with customer preferences. As people are more likely to respond to offers that appeal to their wants, desires and needs, restaurants can build strong loyalty by tapping into these very wants, desires and needs.

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  Automating restaurant reservations is simple with SMS. appointment book image by Gale Distler from Fotolia.com

  Accept restaurant reservations through an SMS-CRM system. It can be set up to accept a reservation text, and it can also send out a confirmation text or a text reminder an hour before the reservation time.

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  Replace expensive coaster systems with an SMS texting solution to save thousands of dollars a year. Coaster pagers are the most popular restaurant paging system, but even though they are slim and stackable, they have a lot of disadvantages over an SMS text-messaging mobile phone system. Their most glaring limitations are their costs, their limited range and their short battery life.

Instant Two-Way Communication

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  Gain customer feedback. A quick text to a patron who has dined at the restaurant can be returned instantly. If the diner had a bad experience, the restaurant will know right away and can quickly make amends. An SMS message can also contain a link to more expansive online questionnaires, where the answers can be tabulated for important customer analytics.

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  Give out the restaurant's text number to local hotel concierges. This can increase business because, rather than forcing a concierge to pick up the phone and call a restaurant and then perhaps wait on hold for an unknown amount of time, a text request can be sent quickly and conveniently, and reservation replies can be made automatically.

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  Add a "common short code"--a four-, five- or six-digit number that mobile phone users can send an SMS to receive return information about stock prices, sports scores, weather alerts, or mobile coupons--that allows users to make donations to a local charity. This is a good way for a restaurant to build community relations and to have a positive presence.

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  Interact more easily with suppliers through SMS. The system can be automated to let the restaurant know when to order supplies. With the click of a button, several suppliers can be queried instantly on pricing and availability.

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  Empty tables signal a lost opportunity. empty tables image by Lars Christensen from Fotolia.com

  Use SMS to help fill empty tables on quiet nights. With a form of dynamic (also known as time-sensitive) pricing, SMS' instant information and closed-loop feedback ability lets managers know the inherent demand for their tables. On quiet nights expected to be quiet, a restaurant can proactively send mobile coupons to former guests to entice them in, filling tables that otherwise would have gone unused.