Restaurant Owners, Conquer the Coupon Catch-22

What restaurant hasn't used coupons at one time or another?

There is no arguing that they work. At least they do what you
expect them to do, bring in the customers like crazy.

But at what cost?

Along with the big boost in sales, coupons bring big problems.
Most of the coupons are used by your old customers. Your old and
loyal customers who would normally buy your food at regular
prices are now buying it at the discount. And there are a lot
more old customers than new. The coupon inherently reduces your
value proposition. No one who buys one of your pizzas at a
discount will want to pay full price for it later, especially
if they know that by waiting until they find another coupon,
they can buy at the discount again. And how do customers who
don't have coupons feel about someone next to them buying the
same thing they are but at a lesser price? Naturally you are
going to have some unhappy customers, it's human nature.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could tempt new customers with
coupons which your existing customers couldn't use? Couldn't
see? Wouldn't even know about?

This is the concept behind coupon codes for web coupons used
with online ordering.

As part of your online ordering service, you can promote web
coupons. Most of these web coupons are visible and can be used
by anyone. They are simply a way to highlight an offer in the
specials section of your online menu.

But not all. Some of your offers are invisible until the
customer enters a coupon code during the online order process.
Once the coupon code is entered, the hidden offer becomes
visible in the special offers section. As a matter of fact it is
moved to the top and becomes the first thing the customer sees.

Without the coupon code the special offer doesn't show up on
the menu. In this way the restaurant can offer first time
customers extraordinary introductory deals to get them to place
their first order, without offering the same deal to existing
customers.

But how do you provide only new customers with the coupon code?

When someone registers for online ordering, the online order
system collects their email address. The online order control
panel can create an email list of those who have registered,
but never ordered. It is a simple matter to send this list an
email that includes a web coupon and its associated code for
the special introductory offer.

How do you prevent customers from re-using the coupon code?

The online order system's control panel lets the coupon code be
changed at any time. When this is done, the special offer
becomes invisible until the next crop of customers are
given the new code.

In this way, new customers get a chance to use the offer, but
cannot continue to use it once its code has changed.

By regularly changing the coupon code for the special offer and
getting the latest list of people who have never ordered, you
can limit your special introductory deal to only those real
first time customers.

In addition, by changing the coupon code after some
pre-announced time, you induce first time customers to take
advantage of the special before the time limit has expired and
it is no longer available.

In summary, web coupons with coupon codes let a restaurant offer
very special deals to only first time customers and can easily
prevent abuse of the special offers by regularly changing its
coupon code. This also gives the restaurant owner the ability
to create scarcity by time limiting the offer. Since
current customers will not see the special introductory offer on
the menu, they happily pay regular price. This is a good way to
convert someone to a customer without lowering your value
proposition, reducing revenues or causing customer
dissatisfaction.

About the Author

Rudy Vener is president and founder of Pizza Galaxy Internet
Marketing Services. Rudy has combined his more than two
decades of experience in software design with his love of pizza
to help independent pizza operators and restaurant owners
market to their local communities on the
internet. Visit the Pizza Galaxy website at
http://www.pizzagalaxy.com to find out how he can help you put
the Internet to work for your restaurant.

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