a departmental one . Look for partners or vendors who are willing to work directly together on your behalf . Make sure your technology partners are sticking to core competencies , but are able to apply their expertise of solving common issues ( e . g ., getting data out of your POS ). Finally , choose partners you trust and that have industry expertise , but who are not limited by the industry — they must have their eye on what is happening beyond your industry .
Q : Working with so many different franchise restaurant brands to attract , target , and retain customers , what commonalities are you seeing ?
DG : The key is still getting the right message in front of the right customer at the right time and in the right channel . This starts with understanding who your guest is ( personas ) and how they interact with your brand ( purchase behavior ). The linchpin is connecting this data . A centralized data lake allows data to be leveraged at both the corporate and local level , giving franchisees the control they want or need to respond to localized events and marketing opportunities . [ Ed Note : A data lake is a storage repository or hub that holds a vast amount of raw data in its native format until it is needed ; it is more flexible , quicker to build , and less expensive than a data warehouse .] Additionally , regional or DMA differences in guest profiles and item or dining preferences can be easily understood . This information can be used to educate franchisees and to develop customized message strategies . Data allows clients to understand their customers ’ lifecycle from acquisition to win-back , and to develop robust journey maps that nurture the customer relationship to drive incremental visits and spend .
Q : POS systems serve as the data hub for many franchisors . What is the role of the POS systems in all this ?
DG : Traditionally , they are the central hub . However , emerging technologies and players are starting to disrupt the stronghold of POS companies . These emerging players are POS agnostics and play well with others in the ecosystem . With the introduction of EMV , POS is no longer the keeper of all data . Cloud solutions are emerging . ■
Engaging Customers
THE HABIT BURGER GRILL ADDS DATA ANALYTICS
About 2 years ago , when The Habit Burger Grill needed a better way to track consumer data to engage with customers in more personalized ways , CMO Matt Hood sent out an RFP . He was seeking a company that could help him build a consumer insight database and deliver targeted communications by email and other channels . “ We have a pretty broad spectrum of guests and we wanted to build a deeper relationship with them ,” he says .
Founded in 1969 near Santa Barbara , Calif ., The Habit has more than 150 restaurants . The brand began franchising in 2014 and opened its first franchise locations the next year , so most of its restaurants are still company-owned . Its first two franchise agreements , announced in May 2014 , were for 25 restaurants in the Seattle area and 15 in and around Las Vegas .
While the brand ’ s online ordering capability , rolled out a couple of years ago , provided some basic information about customers , that wasn ’ t enough to develop the kind of personalized marketing Hood was looking to accomplish . After considering different solutions , he selected Fishbowl , a company he ’ d worked with for about a decade at previous jobs . Hood says he chose Fishbowl because it had the tools he wanted and appeared to be moving in the direction that would meet his future needs . “ Probably the biggest thing we were able to add was the ability to layer on their analytics tool ,” he says . Habit Burger also uses Fishbowl ’ s email platform and promotions manager platform .
“ The problem , if there is one , is that we are swimming in a sea of data daily . For businesses and organizations to be successful you have to turn that into insight , and that ’ s what Fishbowl has helped us do ,” says Hood . The brand is now able to combine transactional
Matt Hood data from its POS system with personal information gleaned from online orders and its CharClub rewards program to gain insights on the frequency of customer visits , satisfaction with those visits , and , most important , he says , “ how we can better customize each experience for them .”
One of the brand ’ s first new capabilities was being able to segment its customer data into more actionable groups ( locations visited , frequency , order size and type , etc .) and start delivering customized messages to those subsets . Although The Habit doesn ’ t do discounts , Hood says that during May ( National Hamburger Month ) the brand offered a free burger to anyone who signed up for its CharClub loyalty program . To protect against fraud , the offer was linked to an individual ; and those who responded were flagged for future promotions . This summer the brand is using its email database in a social media campaign , encouraging customers to tweet , follow them on Facebook , and post on Snapchat — building engagement and gathering more customer data .
“ With the proliferation of brands in fast casual , deepening that guest relationship has never been more important . If we can endeavor to know our guest better , understand their behavior through means like Fishbowl and point-of-sale transactional data , we can serve them better ,” he says .
“ It ’ s up to us as consumer marketers to enhance and deepen the relationship with our guests — and not try to turn it into an optimized algorithm to increase sales , but to better serve our guests ,” says Hood . “ As both franchisors and franchisees are trying to deepen their relationship with each guest , data analytics and insight are certainly a great way to do that . It will never replace the one-on-one human interactions , but it will enhance it .” ■
48 Franchiseupdate ISSUE III , 2016