The best private domain looks like: there are catering membership cards with hundreds of millions of sales

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The membership system has almost become a consensus in the catering industry. Even small fast food restaurants will invite users to become their members, and even takeaway restaurants will establish their own member fan groups.

The membership system can be said to be a must-have for the catering industry, but the current situation has changed - in the past, only a small number of restaurants introduced the membership system, but now only a few restaurants have not introduced the membership system. Membership has become less rare, and users are gradually becoming less sensitive to membership. Coupled with the various discounts on services and prices, the catering industry seems to always be unable to break through in this competitive track.

But there is always a way. As Li Zhuocheng mentioned, different types of membership should not be managed separately, but rather we should have a mutual integration of you and me, so that the membership system has room for improvement.

In many membership systems, paid membership is also mentioned. Liu Ruiqi mentioned that according to some data tracked in the past, after becoming a paid member, the consumption frequency of users in a certain period will increase. For example, the consumption frequency of a Chinese restaurant user increased to 4.5 times in one year. Zhao Shuwei also said that the consumption frequency of users who purchased paid memberships has more than doubled that of users who did not purchase.

These contents come from a catering-themed live broadcast jointly organized by three guests: Li Zhuocheng, the founder of Jianshi and Huayin Teahouse chain and part-time lecturer at the School of Continuing Education of Renmin University of China/China Agricultural University; William Zhao Shuwei, the manager of Grace and user growth director of Qiba Lengmian; and Liu Ruiqi, the founder of the super membership system . Let us go back to the scene and see what thoughts they mentioned.

01 Don’t treat the membership system as a rigid template

The membership system is indispensable for catering business. When customers scan the code to eat, a membership window will pop up, and when customers buy milk tea, a membership window will also pop up. There are many forms and names of membership, but the core purpose is to enter your own membership pool.

Regarding the construction of the membership system, Li Zhuocheng summarized four classic membership systems. Starting from the business scenario, the membership types are mainly distinguished based on the three dimensions of customer unit price, consumption scenario and consumption type. Further refinement is divided into four categories: stored value membership, subscription membership, points membership and circle membership.

1) The characteristic of stored value membership is that it focuses on funds rather than individuals. This model is mainly for the convenience of customers and provides discounts, and is a basic customer retention strategy.

2) Subscription membership, which is characterized by time periods, such as monthly or annual memberships. Through this service, members can not only enjoy tea in directly-operated stores, but also use it in alliance merchants. It is much cheaper than buying a single cup, and plays a good role in locking customers and cash flow conversion in the alliance system.

3) Points-based membership: any behavior of members, including payment and other specific actions, can be converted into points. Points can be exchanged for currency or specific currencies, and then exchanged for various membership benefits. The simplest use is to deduct cash.

4) Circle membership is essentially a kind of community, which is similar to the concept of private domain. Circle membership focuses on people, especially those who are similar in certain identity attributes.

These four types of membership are not mutually exclusive, but intertwined. The setting of membership levels depends on the development status of the store. For stores that have just started operating, it is more suitable to develop stored-value membership. As the membership base stabilizes, in order to increase profit margins and consumption frequency, it can gradually turn to subscription membership. Regardless of which membership model is adopted, points should be used as the basic design.

Zhao Shuwei put forward his observations from the perspective of the catering industry. At present, paid membership and stored-value membership are two popular types in the catering industry, but they are not suitable for all catering formats.

For example, stored value membership may be more suitable for heavy-duty catering formats such as large-scale Chinese food, Western food, hot pot or barbecue. Take hot pot as an example. Except for the Sichuan and Chongqing regions, people in other places may only eat hot pot once or twice a month. Therefore, catering stores encourage customers to store value, not to increase the frequency of consumption in the current month, but to lock in their consumption choices for the next month. This is a strategy to lock in customers in the long term. The purpose of paid membership or super membership is to increase the frequency of consumption.

Zhao Shuwei mentioned that after they implemented the paid membership system, the average consumption frequency of the entire group increased from about 1.2 times to about 1.4 times. The consumption frequency of users who purchased paid memberships was nearly three times that of users who did not purchase, which is more than doubled.

Liu Ruiqi also emphasized the importance of paid membership to the catering industry based on his past work experience at Xibei. Due to limited resources and capabilities, stores must give priority to serving certain customers. And those who should be given priority are those who have a willingness to consume in the near future, because they are likely to consume in the next year, half a year or month. Paid membership is an effective screening threshold. If customers purchase a paid membership card, it indicates their consumption intention to a certain extent.

But the end of sales is the beginning of service. Selling membership cards is not the key, the key is whether users can enjoy the subsequent benefits 100%. For example, if users have not made any purchases within three months, they should be reminded of their unused benefits, or service work should be done in advance through interaction.

Because of this, Xibei had more than 600,000 paid membership cards in the first year of launching its paid membership. Three years later, more than 1 million cards were sold each year, and the revenue from membership cards alone reached hundreds of millions.

Liu Ruiqi also mentioned that in the process of withdrawing from paid membership, two data should be paid attention to: one is the write-off rate after the user purchases the membership card, and the other is the increase in the frequency of repurchase. If the repurchase rate in the second year is less than 30%, then this may mean that there is a problem with the design of the product itself, or the user's stickiness is insufficient.

02 The membership system is naturally compatible with private domains

In the super-volatile catering industry, pulling users into private domains is also the choice of many catering players.

Li Zhuocheng mentioned that there are two common types of customers in his tea beverage company.

The first category is customers with low average customer spending, such as tea customers who spend tens of yuan, but their consumption frequency may be high. They may come to consume every two or three days or even every day. For this type of customers, you can design a subscription membership card to increase their consumption frequency. In addition to this method, you can also attract traffic through online fission activities or issuing coupons in various scenarios, with the aim of getting them to join the community of the nearest store and promoting activity through continuous coupons and promotional activities.

However, it is difficult for tea drinks with low customer spending to increase the deposit limit. For example, it is impossible to ask customers who spend 30-50 yuan to deposit 2,000 to 3,000 yuan, because the rule of deposit is usually within three to five times the customer spending. Beyond this range, deposit becomes difficult. In addition, for customers who spend 30 yuan, depositing 300 yuan actually has little impact on cash flow. For mature stores, they can gradually shift from deposit to subscription model, because subscription can truly increase consumption frequency.

Another type of users in the store are those with high average spending but medium consumption frequency. Many of these customers are business people and can get reimbursed, and this type of people is the object of Li Zhuocheng's great attention. However, this type of people cannot be activated by simply issuing coupons or creating groups. Once they have a certain social status, they may be added to WeChat only for the purpose of issuing invoices or reserving seats, rather than for joining welfare groups.

The private domain strategy for this type of customers is to delegate power to the grassroots and let grassroots employees do it. Increase the rights and rewards, give grassroots employees full rights and sufficient bonuses, which fully mobilizes their enthusiasm. Encourage them to establish their own small communities, or even leave the company and set up a small group specifically for a few good customers to share tea knowledge or conduct social interactions. In addition, the commissions are particularly high, and there is almost no employee turnover rate, so they are more willing to delegate power to them.

Zhao Shuwei emphasized that the relationship between enterprises and private domains must be properly established. From the perspective of the catering industry, the value of private domains lies not only in direct sales, but also in its role as a moat for enterprises. Even if there are millions of members, there may be only a few who are truly willing to interact.

Therefore, the key lies in those users who truly enjoy the products and services and are willing to establish connections. They constitute the company's moat. For example, when the Meituan or Dianping accounts are deactivated, private domain users become the key to the company's continued operations.

Secondly, private domain users can help companies create greater value and voice in the public domain. For example, an electrical appliance company obtained huge traffic at low cost by allowing users to share baking course homework on Xiaohongshu and Douyin. This method is also applicable to the catering industry. By setting sharing requirements and providing rights, private domain users are encouraged to speak for the company in the public domain, thereby reducing customer acquisition costs.

In addition, private domain users can participate in product iteration and development and provide valuable feedback. Currently, Zhao Shuwei is trying to invite users to participate in the development of new products and adjust the products based on their feedback.

Liu Ruiqi then elaborated on the strategy of public-private linkage and emphasized two key points:

First of all, the core significance of company linkage lies in the source of the entire company's operation and revenue structure. The specific classification is not important, what is important is how to decompose the operating logic of the public and private domains around the revenue structure.

When the public and private sectors are linked, no matter how the company operates, it is necessary to take into account the revenue structure of the entire company. For example, different product combinations can be launched for different channels, or special products or services can be provided on certain live broadcast platforms.

Then, we can convert the strategy into specific events. For example, the promotion of new products requires the coordination of all departments of the company. We can recruit food experts in the private domain. They can become experts on different platforms because they have different resources and channels. In this way, we can promote through events, rather than just in the public and private domains or functional divisions.

The second point is that the entire company is an operating entity and usually has an annual marketing calendar. All the company's activities are carried out around the strategic operation of the entire company. For example, if the company's strategy this year is to focus on "delicious", then the content and form of output in both the public and private domains must revolve around this strategy.

Through this super calendar format, everyone focuses on one thing and keeps deepening it. Everything revolves around the strategy and business of the entire company.

03 Being a member is not just about appearance, but also about sincerity

Many companies will claim that they have a huge number of members, but in fact, only the companies themselves know the real number of active members. Therefore, it is not so important to only focus on the total number of members.

When talking about how to handle the relationship with members, Zhao Shuwei said that no matter what method is used - bait, products or services, to attract users to the membership system or private domain, the core is to establish emotional connections. This emotional connection may be based on interests or may be a resonance of ideas.

Therefore, in a private domain or membership system, users must be treated as human beings, not just as transaction objects. This people-oriented attitude helps to build long-term relationships.

The private domain or membership system is not a simple CRM or SCRM system, nor is it a community, but a field of emotional connection. As long as this field is well maintained, whether through a community, phone or offline activities, it is just a means.

The real goal is to get closer to customers and establish an intimate connection. This intimacy does not have to be too close, but a preference, such as when users choose to drink tea or coffee, they will choose your store because of your service attitude, product taste or some small details.

Don't pay too much attention to the form, but focus on the essence. Do the basic work well, and the construction of private domain and membership will naturally come to fruition.

In the current market environment, competition is far more intense than we imagined. Li Zhuocheng has a deep understanding of this. If we fail to elevate basic business tasks such as acquiring customers, retaining customers, guiding repeat purchases and referrals to the strategic level, and only learn some superficial practices in a vague way, we will fall into misunderstandings in acquiring customers.

Therefore, regardless of the size of the enterprise, as long as it is C-end oriented and mainly serves end consumers, the membership system is a key point. Different enterprises may view the membership system from different perspectives, some as a marketing section, some as a KPI performance section, and the best solution is to view it from a strategic perspective.

The methods of managing customers can be summarized into four key points: traffic generation, transaction, repurchase and fission. These four modules correspond to various aspects of customer management. Therefore, a set of logic and methodology is needed to guide the team to serve members and customers from top to bottom. Whether you call it private domain or membership system, this set of logic should be easy to understand and allow employees to understand and implement it.

For example, employees are tasked with selling membership cards, which they understand very well. Selling cards is easier than selling products, perhaps because of the psychological effect of delayed decision-making or because the products appear more cost-effective when packaged.

Liu Ruiqi mentioned that for enterprises with large chain scale and strong organizational capabilities, they need to pay more attention to private domain as a means to emphasize the innovation of products and services. In this process, they need to constantly communicate with users, and many activities are services that exceed expectations that are constantly precipitated from interactions with users.

Take Xibei's launch of professional children's meals as an example. Through the "Xibei Parent-Child Noodle Experience Camp" event, it creates a family-friendly restaurant and provides special services, thereby enhancing customer loyalty. Even common products on the market can significantly improve a company's performance through innovation.