Dixie Cafe increases customer database

Dixie Café is a restaurant chain with 23 locations throughout the mid-south and corporate offices in Little Rock, Arkansas. The chain promotes an image of a “down-home” family style restaurant with a southern theme. Their demographic is family centric with a large percentage of senior citizens.Dixie Cafe was interested in understanding their guests’ habits, including the media and news sources they engaged with. They would use this information to help focus future media campaigns. They also sought to create a customer loyalty campaign by awarding loyal customers with free menu items and coupons.

The solution was to gather valuable “opt-in” data from the customer (name and email address) to create a database for future marketing efforts. Branded cards were distributed by the server with the patrons’ checks.  The card directed the customer to the website with the lure of being eligible for a prize, once there the patron filled out a survey. Upon filling out the information, an email is sent to the customer with a coupon embedded in the email for redemption at the restaurant. Dixie Café also included a coupon on the card itself for patrons who could not access the internet.

“Over the course of this three month program, we added over 2,000 email addresses to our database. Our previous email program only added about 2,500 in two years.” Danny Troillett, Director of Marketing and Guest Relations