Food Recommendations: How To Boost Your Customers Buying

If you walk into a McDonalds and ask for a number 2, you will be asked by the cashier if you would like to upgrade your meal by making it a medium or a large. While at first this may seem like just another up-selling opportunity, in-fact also a form of product recommendation. For example, when ordering a Big Kids Meal, the cashier won’t ask if you want to upgrade. It doesn’t make sense based on your purchase.

Today, most restaurants and QSR’s practice product recommendations in one form or another, but thanks to the technology and advance market research, targeting consumers with ‘smart’ recommendations is leading to an increase in profitability and brand awareness.

Here are 10 best practices to help integrate and manage product recommendations for your restaurant or business.

1. Smart Visual Placement
To an extent, consumers are attention-deficit in the sense that they are bombarded with hundreds of messages every where that they go that they learn to block out irrelevant noise. Restaurants should focus on showing product recommendations and visuals that influence customer buying behavior near and or with conversion points. Integrating a visual that shows the product of the month near the point of sale or a special deals window sticker in the drive-through lane would be great examples of this. Continue reading Food Recommendations: How To Boost Your Customers Buying

Well Made Video/Drama of a Gamified Future

Sight from Sight Systems on Vimeo.

Well Made Video/Drama of a Gamified Future

I’ve not really been a big fan of putting anything in eyes or integrating too much technology into our biological bodies, but the video above sure is well made with the potential future that could be enabled by technologies like Google Glasses: Continue reading Well Made Video/Drama of a Gamified Future

How to Deal With An Unhappy Customer

An unhappy customer is like a leaky faucet. You can either try and fix it yourself, call for help, or just live with it.

In the business world, these ‘leaky faucets’ can have a detrimental effect on the success of a business. Given the speed at which word travels thanks in part to sites like Yelp and Facebook, dealing with an unhappy customer should be at the top of every employees to-do list.

Whether you’re at the front of the lines working the registers or in the back office, it’s important to take every unhappy customer seriously. Remember that customer complaints are an excellent way on improving ones business based on their feedback as well as an opportunity to turn an unhappy customer into a life-long one.

A great rule of thumb is that if done right, you should never hear that complaint again.

5 Things to Remember when dealing with an Unhappy Customer

1. Act swiftly: Nothing abates a situation faster than quick, responsive action. Always make sure to respond to complaints and unhappy customers quickly and more importantly keep them updated on where things are in regards to a resolution.

2. Educate your organization: The first step in dealing with an unhappy customer is first educating others how to deal with one. Just because the manager knows how to deal with a potentially volatile situation, doesn’t mean that everyone else does. Educate your organization through seminars and handouts, as well as by adopting great customer service as part of your brand.

3. Listen and Understand: One of the keys to any good negotiation or conflict resolution is to listen and understand what is 1. upsetting the customer and 2. what will resolve it. Don’t make assumptions on what the customer wants done; let them tell you and then respond.

4. Don’t take it personally: Remember, most complaints are not personal. As an employee, it’s important to understand that a customers frustration and anger is not directed at the individual themselves, but at the brand. If you begin to take it personally, you will let your emotions play into it which can lead to negative results.

5. Be Realistic: Telling an angry customer that the CEO of the company will call them personally is probably not gonna happen. Always make sure that when coming to a resolution and making ‘promises’ that they are reachable and will not be met with disappointment later on.

 

2011 Review for RewardMe – the Year of Foundation

Chou Force

 

2011: The Year of Foundation for RewardMe

2011 finally ended. It went by faster and slower than I expected. Slower because so many things happened in this year and we got so much done, and faster because it felt like an instant and there were still so much more that we wanted to do!

 

This is an email that shares a bit on the journey we took, what led us to where we are today, and why we are doing what we are doing. When our company becomes so big that employees no longer recognize the names of everyone in the company, there is something that everyone can trace back to and see what happened among the Founding Members that built the kingdom together through hard work, persistence, faith, and loyalty towards each other.
And this is the story that will be remembered as books and movies are made about us 🙂

 

Now that you are all excited and ready, here is the Life of RewardMe in 2011 (I omit some names for privacy and confidentiality considerations):

 

January 2011

 

Having conceptualized the idea RewardMe and pivoted from Viralogy 3 months ago, we finally launched our first QR Code Phone app product. We raised about $50K in the past year and are fighting hard to spread our product everywhere and raise more funding.

 

February 2011

 

We were quickly implemented in 50 stores in Mountain View and Palo Alto with our QR Code product. We got relatively few signups and check-ins (looking back) but we were all excited about it and a small base of iPhone/Android users loved us. We made the mistake of scaling up too quickly before making 100% sure there is product/market fit, especially with the merchants. It was also by impressive fate that Adam Gervin, an Entrepreneur with $1B in exits and now our dear teammate, saw RewardMe at the store that was actually classified as a “lost cause” between Jun and Me due to poor check-ins, and liked it enough to approach us about working together. Vincent Ng, our sales helper in Vancouver, also decided to invest his own money in the company to push us forward.

Continue reading 2011 Review for RewardMe – the Year of Foundation

100 Facts you did not know about Yu-kai Chou

 

Since my co-founder Jun Loayza wrote a post about the same topic, I figured I need to write one too just to be cool. I mean, people have a lot of different opinions about me, but few can deny that I’m a pretty unique/weird guy, so I’m sure I can beat Jun in being more interesting:

    1. I can write different things with both hands at the same time
    2. I have a scar with 26 stitches on my lips because it split in two when I ran into a metal trash can at the age of 3
    3. My father has been a diplomat for Taiwan for over two decades
    4. My mother has Master’s Degree in Chinese literature
    5. I was born in Taiwan, but grew up in South Africa (6 years), Taiwan (7 years), Kansas (5 years), and California (7 years), and Vancouver Canada (1 year)
    6. I started my high school chess club and I spent 4 hours a day learning so I could coach the team
    7. My high school chess club won the State Championship in my Junior Year, and won the championship for the next 5 years. They also finished strong nationally.
    8. I married an amazing women who is quite a bit older than me
    9. I have records of gaining 15 lbs in 2 weeks as well as losing 15lbs in 2 weeks.
    10. I can play the violin on the back of my head
    11. I can beat many of my friends in chess without looking at the board (shout the moves)
    12. When I was little, my dream job was to be a factory worker in a ramen factory
    13. When I was little older, my dream job was to be either an actor/singer, or a professor at anything

    Continue reading 100 Facts you did not know about Yu-kai Chou

    What I Love About Dining Out

    When I was younger, my family rarely went out to eat without reason; there always had to be a special occasion or a guest over. While I loved (and still love) my mother’s cooking, I remember always hoping we’d be traveling somewhere for dinner because I craved the experience. I craved having other people around, being comfortable, and feeling… “cool”, for lack of a better word.

    Let me explain. Before Starbucks went McDonald’s on their concept a few years ago, people attributed a lot of their success to the experience of being inside a Starbucks. The stores had a distinct ambiance that made you feel like you were somewhere else for a little while. Even if it was just Yuppieville inside, the smell of coffee, dark color scheme, and smiley ‘bartenders’ wrapped in green aprons made me want to stay there for a while. The coffee usually tasted burnt (Pike’s Place, of course), but being there kind of made you feel as if drinking black caffeine was exactly what you needed. I figured I could have just as easily gotten my afternoon coffee for about $0.34 at home, but going to Starbucks made me feel good for just an additional $1.16! Not surprisingly, I paid that extra $1.16 all through my college years, and still pay it now — just for the ambiance. Continue reading What I Love About Dining Out

    Leveraging Customer Touchpoints to Increase Sales

    What is a Touchpoint?

    A touchpoint is a point of contact between a customer and your product, service, or brand. Whether before, during, or after an actual sale has taken place, any interaction a customer has with your business is considered a touchpoint and potential for your business to increase their customer’s perception of your brand. Touchpoints span the whole value chain, but dealing specifically with the franchise industry and the major customer touchpoints franchises have to manage in relation to customers, there are five: direct mail marketing, in-store advertising, point-of-sale advertising, social media marketing, and mobile initiatives.

    Direct Mail Marketing

    Direct mail is one of the most heavily used forms of advertisement with multiple coupons for different brands hitting mail boxes every day. The direct marketing association pegs the response rate at “Letter-sized envelopes, for instance, had a response rate this year of 3.42 percent for a house list and 1.38 percent for a prospect list.” This shotgun approach has been a consistent marketer’s tool , but with the low response rate, and even lower conversion rate, marketer’s are seeking other channels and touchpoints to reach customers. Continue reading Leveraging Customer Touchpoints to Increase Sales