How to define who your customers are and what they want

The hospitality industry is becoming ever-more competitive. A multitude of new operators are entering the market every year, and even those which have been around for decades are continuing to evolve and improve their offerings for customers. From digital booking systems to data-driven menu selections, the scale of intelligence and technology used by today’s businesses is increasing. This is the curve which operators must keep up with to ensure they give themselves continued success in what is a rivalrous marketplace.

Your goal

To remain competitive in hospitality, delivering the right experiences to the right customers is critical, an experience that considers their specific needs and desires. Whether it’s to do with accessibility, dietary requirements or their favourite menu items, it is crucial that operators understand both who their customers are and what they want to help build loyalty and repeat business. By investing time and resources to understanding these factors, businesses can begin to enhance the experiences they deliver, boosting their chances of growth and sustained popularity among their customer base.

Defining your customers

At three rocks we categorise individuals into four personas; Explorers, Analysts, Sentinels and Diplomats*.

Explorers tend to be energetic, spontaneous and the life of the party. 75% of Explorers say it’s hard for them to focus on one thing for a long time, more than any other persona, and explorers can change their minds with minimal regret or second-guessing. People in this category dislike monotony, and they may stray from their obligations in order to try new things. This means they’ll usually be open to visiting new restaurants or trying new menu items. For these customers, make it easy for them to build their own experience, give them flexible options and offer them new or obscure menu items.

Analysts are logical, enterprising and have little patience for following in others’ footsteps. 58% of these personality types describe themselves as “very independent”, while 93% say they listen to their heads rather than their hearts when making decisions. Their intuitive personality trait energizes their imaginations, helping them to come up with new ideas and explore them deeply. These types of customers will be willing to try new things, but they will also want to learn lots about a new restaurant, bar or pub before they visit. When trying to attract these types of customers, it’s important you give them an offer which makes sense, while also delivering an experience which strays from the norm – make it memorable.

Sentinels are consistent, practical and cooperative. Taking inspiration from the past rather than the future, these personality types remain loyal to established traditions. 82% of Sentinels say they avoid risky or unpredictable situations. These types of individuals are likely to return to the same restaurants time and again. Following their past experiences makes more sense to them than searching around to try and find something new. Their motto is, “If it works, don’t break it.” When serving these customers, it’s important to deliver an experience which is consistent with what they’ve had before. Having data on how they like to order, what they like to eat/drink, and how they prefer to pay, can be important to making a sentinel feel at home.

Diplomats are caring, compassionate and tend to trust their gut when it comes to making decisions, especially when it involves others. They care about helping and connecting with others and prioritise being kind and generous, and in general, they’d rather cooperate than compete. Empathy seems to come naturally; it can almost seem as if their hearts and minds resonate with other people’s emotions. This is why diplomats are much more likely to agree to follow the consensus and are happy to visit a hospitality venue that everyone is happy with. 76% of Diplomats say they usually trust their gut feelings, more than any other persona. When engaging with these customers, make sure you let them know about sharing starters or dishes, and let their table take the lead in terms of how to pay. Let them be guided by their companions.

To align each of your customers with one of these personas, you first need to learn everything you can about them. By using the information you learn about your customers, you can begin to adjust your communications style and make informed decisions about what their needs look like.

Discovering your customers’ needs

Once you’ve defined your customers, the next step is to understand their needs. Whether it’s their allergens, how many people they like to visit with, or which offers they like to use, all of this information can be used to enhance experiences for customers.

In today’s evolving world of technology, there are hundreds of solutions to help operators collect this information. From takeaway delivery systems which allow businesses to track what their customers are ordering to table management solutions that collect personal information relating to a customer’s visit, as well as mobile apps which harvest data around all aspects of a customer's interaction with your brand. Whatever solutions a business has in place, it is critical that they are properly harvesting, analysing and using their data.

By harvesting customer data from all of these touch points, integrating it into a single-view dashboard, analysing it, using it to inform business decisions and then implementing these choices across your business, you will have everything you need to create highly specific, enhanced experiences for your customers. The first step towards this is understanding which persona they fit into, and how they want their experience with your brand to be shaped.

If you’d like to hear more about our range of tech solutions, or find out more about three rocks® XMS, get in touch with us at: [email protected]

*Personalities based on: https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types