Hospitality businesses across the UK have issued a damning verdict on the importance of vouchers, with just 16% of bosses saying that vouchers are important in generating 2014 sales, according to research led by Omnico Group.
Consumers think otherwise
This is in stark contrast to consumer attitudes, with 53% saying that vouchers are the top reason for revisiting a hospitality outlet, such as a restaurant, pub, bar or fast food chain. Almost 1 in 5 (18%) of business leaders claimed that their business does not use voucher schemes at all.
These results follow two surveys of over 5,000 UK consumers and 173 business leaders, conducted by Peach Factory on behalf of global hospitality technology provider Omnico Group. The results come as part of an investigation into attitudes towards customer loyalty amongst the UK’s hospitality businesses.
Half of British consumers say that if hospitality outlets deployed loyalty cards, they would be more likely to return. Email offers also prove popular with Brits, with 39% more likely to return, followed by stamp card loyalty offers (27%).
Hospitality leaders put vouchers bottom
When asked which marketing activities were very important in generating sales in 2014, hospitality business leaders put vouchers at the bottom of the pile (16%), with loyalty card programmes second lowest at 36%. Business leaders cited tracking customer feedback (82%) and social media (77%) as the most important marketing activities.
Vital to gain long term loyalty
“With so much choice available for customers in the hospitality space, it’s vital that hospitality outlets gain their customers long term loyalty.” commented Matthew Cox, Hospitality Division at Omnico Group. “Whilst it’s important to invest in tracking customer feedback, food and drink outlets must encourage spending. Having an effective system in place to provide customers with personalised vouchers tailored to their needs will ensure loyalty in a crowded market and track their behaviour.”
“We know from our work with the Anglia Co-Operative that personalised vouchers can have a sizeable impact on sales. After launching an e-coupons initiative, non-members – who previously would only have shopped once per week in store – spent more in stores as a direct result of receiving vouchers.”
Omnico Group works with a wide range of hospitality industry clients, including YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger.
Omnico Group provides loyalty software, Omni-engagement, to a range of retail and hospitality clients to deliver compelling customer engagement strategies based on the analysis of their customer behaviour.
Free data analysis
Omnico Group is currently offering hospitality businesses and retailers a free data analysis with a three day turnaround via their Data Challenge. When provided with the information (CRM data for example), Omnico Group will analyse and report back insights into the data set, giving companies a valuable source of understanding into customer behaviours. Businesses wanting to take part in the Data Challenge should visit www.omnicogroup.com
About Omnico Group
Omnico Group helps businesses worldwide offer a complete retail experience, joining up stores, e-commerce and mobile, and providing a better understanding of the customer to drive engagement and loyalty. Bringing over 20 years’ experience and forging the combined know-how of Digipos and Clarity, Omnico Group works with brands such as Superdry, Next, YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger to offer solutions that can be deployed rapidly and help to reduce total cost of ownership.
Omnico serves the complete retail market, from high street retailers to hospitality, leisure and entertainment businesses.
For more information about Omnico, please visit the company’s website www.omnicogroup.com or follow @omnicogroup on Twitter.