You may think you already know all there is about Jack's Place Steak House and Restaurant, the household name that has existed since 1966. But even time-worn traditions can change. The restaurant's newest branches sport a brighter facade, a cuter mascot, and even slightly snazzier

Suzanne Say, director and general manager, Jack's Place Steak House and Restaurant,

checkered green-and-white placemats. Its sunlit branch in Sengkang, Singapore, is filled with the usual group of families and office workers, but also plays host to giggly teenagers let out from nearby schools.

For Suzanne Say, director and general manager of Jack's Place, the new image is vital in its strategy to bring in bigger crowds and recapture its missing audience--yuppies who have found the restaurant less than trendy.

This is also where its customer relationship management (CRM) system comes in. Implemented by Singapore-based CRM vendor LinkWare Solutions two years ago for a price of S$140,000 (US$82,000), the system, together with Jack's Place's loyalty card program, is targeted at building loyalty among its repeat customers. This business initiative, supported by IT, provides a large base from which the company can perform marketing activities and conduct in-depth customer analysis.

When you implemented your CRM system two years ago, what was the objective?
We were talking about increasing our sales by a certain percentage. Before we had this CRM system, we had an old system where we had to manually key in all the information into the computer.

We only had 3,000 cardholders based on the old CRM system. We couldn't grow it because it was just too much work for our headquarters to key in all the data. When we got our new CRM solution, it cut down on the work and we increased our members to 15,000.

"We only had 3,000 cardholders based on the old CRM system. When we got our new CRM solution, it cut down on the work and we increased our members to 15,000."

The objective is that the 15,000 members should visit us more than once a month. Our customers generally visit us on average once a month, so the CRM benchmark was to get cardholders to visit us at least twice.

Currently among our active members, we are getting an average of about 1.5. But sometimes, we have members who buy the card but do not use it that often. Based on that, we are not achieving (the target of having) every member visit at least once a month.

So what would be the average number of visits by the 15,000 members?
It would be one.

With a fluid set of "active members", do you think you're properly segmenting your audience?
That's one of the points that the CRM people are telling us as well: We should market to the 5,000 users and keep encouraging them to come back. Yes, we are getting that set up.

But we are not in the high-end market, we are a family restaurant. If you want to get them to visit every month, it may not be so practical.

How does your CRM database help you in your rebranding exercise?
With it, we can analyze the data for demographics, spending habits, favorite outlets, etc., which assists our brand consultants to better understand our customers and their needs. Perception studies are also conducted with members to find out more on how (and) what they see as important to the Jack's Place brand.

What have you found out?
A majority of our members are from the age group 25 and above--about 95 percent--in comparison to the 17 to 25 "yuppie" age group, with 79 percent married. We believe that many of our members visit us when they are young with their parents, and when they are in college or university or starting out their careers (at the yuppie stage) we tend to lose them for a while. Fortunately, many do come back to us again when they are married and have their own children.

How do you market to your users in general?
(We have) special offers exclusive to them and their guests, such as wine appreciation dinners, cooking demos, cruises or buffet dinners for special occasions. Members receive 20 percent off when they order online during their birthday month.

The first year when we started this system, we decided to communicate with our customers purely through e-mail. We realized that it didn't work. Many of the mails bounced back.

This year, we decided to go back to distribution by postage, and it got much better. A lot of people prefer the hard copy. It feels better. But the cost is very high, very taxing on the marketing fund.

"When we look at usage rates, (we find that) those whom we give complimentary cards tend not to come back that often."

Right now, you charge S$25 (US$15) per membership, which comes with a free S$30 (US$18) voucher. What if you were to waive charges completely, thus gaining a wider pool of users?
I think it's pointless if you give a lot away--the vendors will charge you more. They will be very happy for you to give membership free, but you'll get customers who don't use it. People who buy are really those who think they are going to use it.

When we look at usage rates, (we find that) those whom we give complimentary cards tend not to come back that often. Those who pay are people who actually come. If they are very regular, we give them complimentary cards, then they continue coming. I think by giving free, it isn't really a membership; it becomes a discount card.

Are there ways you can make better use of your CRM solution?
Looking at it, we are actually appealing to the mass market. If you give customers special treatment because they come more often, other customers generally get very sensitive: "Why are you treating them better?"

The expectation is that we should all be treated equal, whether I come once a month or three times a month. That's what most of our customers will expect from us. People will actually complain, you know: Why do you treat this customer better than us? I also pay the same 10 percent service charge. They write in, complaining to us.

This is one of our fears when we give a little more special treatment to our cardmembers who patronize us more. (Instead) we reward them based on the more you visit, the faster you accumulate points that you can exchange for vouchers, meals, birthdays.

The main thing we do in terms of renewal, is that for card members who are very regular, we automatically provide renewal and extend their point redemption period. For those who hardly visit us, we just send them one reminder letter. If they don't renew, we drop them.

Customer treatment for restaurants has to be equal. But if you are very regular, I'm sure our managers will recognize your face and greet you.

A taste for color  

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