The Cost of Not Having an F&B CRM 

And Why It’s Absolutely Essential During the COVID-19 Crisis

A solid customer database has never been so important before as it is now. In this article, we help you understand how a CRM can help your business. But first...

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How not having a CRM hurts an F&B business

Try to remember the F&B industry before the COVID-19 crisis began. Just try.

Now imagine a customer comes to your establishment, orders a meal, pays for it and then leaves. After they leave, do you know who this customer is? Their name, their preferences, how frequently they visit your outlet, how much they’ve spent with you, etc.? The answer is probably no—or no, you don’t have enough information collected.

If your average patron spends hundreds of dollars in your establishment, then each person that leaves and doesn't return is costing your business a significant amount of revenue each year. If that happens multiple times in a year, you're on your way to "closing shop" or selling the business. In addition, having a solid customer database will help if you want to sell your business in the future. The value you can sell your business at will be lower if you don't have one or it’s incomplete.

Now, let’s fast forward to the current F&B landscape with the COVID-19 crisis. All over the world, countries are restricting movements with either full or partial-lockdowns and companies are scrambling to communicate with their customers to manage the crisis and soften the blow to their business.

The places that we’ve seen that have adapted well to this crisis are the ones that are able to connect directly with their customers to maintain the relationship. The only way they were able to do this is because they have built themselves a solid customer database with a CRM tool.

What is CRM? Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a strategic tool used in managing a business' interactions with potential and existing customers. It is designed to help nurture customer relationships, increase sales and improve customer satisfaction. 

With the right CRM you can:

1. Establish a direct relationship with customers. When you collect valuable customer data such as their contact information, birthday, preferences & more, you put yourself in a better position to maintain more personal relationships via direct methods of communication (email/call).
2. Make an unknown customer known. A good CRM will help you gain insights into their behaviour, such as a customer’s average spend per visit, their dietary preferences/restrictions and even what they think about your place.
3. Offer a loyalty/membership programme. A rewards program gives customers a reason to consistently visit and purchase from you and rewards certain milestones, e.g. every 10th visit, every time they spend a certain amount, or on their birthday.
4. Improve your marketing ROI. A CRM allows you to segment your customer database and send targeted marketing messages instead of spamming everyone in your list. Your marketing spend is being used wisely and efficiently to allow you to focus on making sure that for every dollar that's spent, you get three back.
5. Increase sales & productivity. By automating repetitive day-to-day processes (like figuring which SMSes to send to whom) time is freed up to focus on more important tasks that will help the business grow.

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How UMAI’s CRM can help you during the COVID-19 Crisis

Manage your crisis communication plan more effectively. It is important to protect your brand reputation during times of crisis. Businesses that don't address the ''elephant in the room'' will be seen as apathetic. Through effective communications, you can position yourself as a trustworthy leader and influence positive change. 

"I only had a 24-hour window to tell customers of the takeaway option and was not sure if the message would reach them," says Richard Nah, Champ's Bistro proprietor in a Malay Mail interview.

With a CRM you have all of the contact details of your customers to blast out an email or SMS to communicate directly with customers and inform them that you are still in business. We recommend to share your pick up/delivery options like some of the places we work with and promote your menu (and how delicious/nutritious & safely prepared it is).

Get more customers to buy from you with sign up rewards. Use social media to capture more customers in your database with our Sign Up Rewards feature to drive potential customers to do pickup/delivery with your business. Additionally, if you decide to do some online marketing to promote your service, you can track how well your ad dollars are working for you.

There are more features we have in the works to help you bring in more revenue for the business in these uncertain times, so stay tuned and bookmark this page!

If you're interested in setting up a CRM tool now to help you drive sales, request a demo.