Case Study: Driving Incremental Visits from Lapsed Guests

The Challenge

A national, full-service sports restaurant wanted better insights into infrequent visitor behavior. They asked:

• Who are my guests who visit infrequently?
• How can I compel them to dine with us more often?

The Solution

The chain used Personica tools to evaluate the dining tendencies of different demographic groups of customers. They found that female guests made up 1/3 of their dining population and that 56% of female guests had only dined 1-time within the previous year. In addition, by looking at the transaction level data they discovered that females tended to dine with more people and have high overall checks. Based on these insights, they decided to run a campaign to drive return visits from these lapsed female guests

The Results

The promotion resulted in a significant lift in visits and net sales throughout the campaign that continued into the period of measurement following the campaign. The redemption rate for the campaign was 2.7% compared to the average 1.18% for company-wide promotions, and the average check was a full $5 higher than the control.

Moving Forward

The chain offers more segmented targeting to female customers based on their preferences. They use Personica solutions to evaluate the effect of communications and promotions on lapsed guests to continue to drive incremental sales and visits.