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Boosting Customer Loyalty in Back-to-School Season

As summer comes to a close and the back-to-school season approaches, restaurants face a unique opportunity to engage busy parents, students, and educators. The return to school routines can often leave little time for leisure, making it essential for restaurants to find innovative ways to maintain customer loyalty during this hectic period

As summer comes to a close and the back-to-school season approaches, restaurants face a unique opportunity to engage busy parents, students, and educators. The return to school routines can often leave little time for leisure, making it essential for restaurants to find innovative ways to maintain customer loyalty during this hectic period. In this blog, we will explore how GoTab can become a powerful tool for restaurants to foster customer loyalty, attract new guests, and provide incentives during the back-to-school hustle.

Seamless and Convenient Rewards from GoTab

This time of year is notorious for leaving families with tight schedules and limited time for dining out. By leveraging GoTab's Rewards Program, restaurants can entice customers with convenient incentives, encouraging them to dine out even amidst busy academic and extracurricular commitments. Whether it's offering discounts, guest segmented emails, or speciality coupons and rewards, the program can become a valuable ally in maintaining customer loyalty during this bustling time.

Customizing rewards to suit the back-to-school theme can captivate families and students alike. Consider offering enticing deals on family-friendly meals or discounts for students who bring their school ID. GoTab makes it effortless to tailor incentives that align with the back-to-school spirit, inspiring your guests to return for more while bringing in guests in off-peak hours (after school/late lunch, etc).

A Little Love for The Parents

The back-to-school season is a whirlwind of activity for parents. As schedules tighten and stress levels rise, the appeal of a relaxing family meal out can be a welcome respite. By transforming your restaurant into a family-friendly oasis, you can not only capture this lucrative demographic but also cultivate lasting loyalty.

GoTab's membership functionality offers the perfect toolkit to craft compelling loyalty programs tailored to families. Imagine a monthly meal plan that caters to picky eaters and hungry teens alike, or exclusive discounts on weeknight visits when the family is reunited. Even a simple perk like a dedicated kids' menu can make a world of difference.

Leverage local sports teams to supercharge your strategy. By positioning your restaurant as the ultimate post-game hangout, you can create a steady stream of hungry fans. Consider offering team-specific promotions or creating a game-day atmosphere to enhance the experience.

Restaurant Fundraisers and Community Partnerships

Back-to-school season brings opportunities for restaurants to contribute positively to their communities. GoTab can be utilized to support local schools and educational initiatives by hosting fundraisers or partnering with parent-teacher associations. By allocating a portion of sales or offering matching donations, restaurants can nurture community connections, drive customer loyalty, and make a meaningful impact on the schools they serve.

Hosting such programs also builds out the guest list for potential outreach campaigns while rich features like the GoTab Manager Dashboard enable operators to easily track fundraiser sales.

Future Growth through First-Party Data with GoTab

The data-driven insights provided by GoTab are invaluable for understanding your guests' preferences and dining habits. By analyzing this information, you can better tailor your offerings and promotions, ensuring that you deliver what your customers truly desire. Building on this data-driven strategy will undoubtedly lead to stronger guest loyalty and increased foot traffic.

By leveraging GoTab's innovative features, your restaurant can become a haven for families and students alike, providing a welcoming respite from the back-to-school rush. This season, set yourself apart from the competition by delivering a seamless and rewarding dining experience that earns top marks in customer loyalty. Cheers to a successful school year filled with straight A's and satisfied, loyal guests!

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Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.

The Situation

Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.

The Solution

Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience

Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.

“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group

According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group

Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.

The Benefits

Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.

Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.

Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.

  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
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