Guide to Evaluating and Understanding Audience Intelligence Programs for Restaurants
In today’s competitive restaurant industry, gathering valuable insights and translating these into meaningful actionable intelligence is essential for business growth and survival. Audience intelligence programs help restaurants gain valuable data-driven insights about their customers, competitors and markets which can then be used to inform decisions and empower teams.
This guide aims to help restaurants evaluate and understand the various types of audience intelligence programs available in the market, and the features and benefits they can bring to their business. We will look at the types of data that can be used to inform decisions, explain how to collect the right type of data, and discuss how to use the insights and deploy a successful audience intelligence program.
Types of Audience Intelligence Programs
The first step to evaluating audience intelligence programs for restaurants is to understand the types of programs available. There are two main types of audience intelligence program – internal and external.
Internal programs involve the collection, analysis and interpretation of data collected within the restaurant’s own operations. This includes sales data, customer feedback forms and customer loyalty programs, which are all used to gain a better understanding of the restaurant’s own customer base as well as the performance of the restaurant as a business.
External programs involve the gathering of data from external sources, such as competitor restaurants, customers from outside the restaurant, and other restaurants in the same geographic area. This data can be used to gain an understanding of the wider foodservice market, as well as providing insights into the competition and potential new markets.
Collecting the Right Type of Data
The type of data collected will depend on the type of audience intelligence program being used. For internal programs, restaurants should focus on collecting data such as sales data, customer feedback forms and customer loyalty programs that provide insights into the restaurant’s own operations.
For external programs, restaurants should consider collecting data such as menu trends, pricing data, customer demographics, and reviews and ratings on competitor restaurants. This data can provide valuable insights into the wider foodservice market and the competitive landscape.
Using Audience Intelligence Insights
Once the data has been collected, restaurants must ensure that it is analyzed and interpreted in the right way. This could involve using data visualization tools to identify patterns and trends or using machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify correlations between different data points.
Once the insights have been identified, restaurants should then deploy them in the most effective way. This could involve tweaking the menu to appeal to new customers, targeting specific markets through advertising campaigns, or introducing rewards and loyalty programs to keep existing customers engaged.
Deploying a Successful Audience Intelligence Program
When deploying an audience intelligence program, restaurants should ensure that they have the right tools in place to collect and analyze the data accurately. They should also ensure that they are collecting the right type of data for the insights they are looking to gain, and that they are analyzing and interpreting the data in the right way.
It is also important for restaurants to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the insights they are aiming to gather and how they are planning to use them. This will help to ensure that the program is deployed in the most effective and efficient way.
