Casuals and usuals – Treat them differently
— August 31 2009
Managing any kind of business is not so different from running a restaurant.
Restaurants have two groups of customers, and the way the marketing is done configures pretty much the share of each kind you’ll have and how will your place be for them.
- The casuals. These are the guys that are walking down the street one day and they find your restaurant. Attracted by the prices, looks or offerings, they’ll come
- The usuals. People who already know your place and they come often for more. Returning customers.
Casual-customer driven bars are about ads, and finding the right placement. Being in the quartier-latin will get you loads of customers every day, without any big effort. But it’s rare to find a returning customer.
Returning-customer driven places are about loyalty and slowly building a remarkable experience. They are about keeping old customers and trying to bring them back as often as they can. It’s about getting your passionate clients to recommend your restaurant to their friends.
If you want to get the best of both worlds..
It is your job to keep new people coming in.
It is your job to turn casuals into usuals.
It is your job to make the first-time experience different from a heavy user experience.
It is your job to offer something new each time to frequent customers.
It is your job to turn happy usuals into referrals.
In a restaurant, this means having attractive offers for new comers. A cheap basic menu, perhaps. It means serving people in an efficient way, and caring about them. It means having a special menu only on Thursdays so people who come every weekend find a good reason to visit you twice a week. It means offering discounts and making it easy to refer people with gift cards.
In a web applications, these would mean segmenting. Caring about SEO and blogging to attract new people. Landing pages to give each one what they’re looking for. Adding primers for first-time users. Giving tips to experienced users so they can out-learn the others. Affiliate programs. Listening to users.
How could you apply these lessons to your business? Leave a comment!
