Increase Your Sales Capacity and Satisfy Shopper Needs with a Text-to-Deli Program

About

Irene Marks
Lake Region IGA
Hawley, PA
LDC: Bozzuto's, Inc.

Strategy

Our store is located next to a well-known recreational lake and during the summer we have quite a line of customers grabbing lunch from our deli for their day on the water. One particularly busy day, a customer suggested on Facebook that we have a pre-order system. So, that very day we bought a laptop and set up our text-to-deli program using Google Voice so customers could pre-order their deli items via text for a quick and easy pick-up. With minimal cost to launch and maintain, our text-to-deli program has sustained consistent use by customers and our deli has seen over an 11 percent increase in sales.

$500
to implement

11%
increase in deli sales

Why it Works

For Our Shoppers

Convenience
This is all about convenience. A customer can text or email their order and received a notification just before it’s ready so when they arrive they can be in and out quickly.

For the Store

Maintains Steady Workflow
Just as much as our customers don’t like to wait in line, our team doesn’t like being overwhelmed with orders. Having the text-to-deli option helps the team maintain a steady workflow.

Increases Sales
Within weeks of launching the program we received over 300 orders. Nearly four years later, we’re still seeing a consistent number of orders coming in and have maintained our 11 percent increase in deli sales.

Tactics

Get a Computer for your Deli
We purchased a Chrome Book for around $500 that we set up in the deli. Every time an order comes through it plays the Mission Impossible theme song so our deli team knows to check the computer. It’s also turned into a fun experience for our shoppers as they can hear the alert, too.

Create a Google Voice Account
This free service through Google provides you with a number that customers can text. Google converts the text into an email for the store. The email contains the order information so our team can then get to work preparing the items. Once they’re almost ready, the deli team can alert the customer.

Raise Awareness of Your New Offering
We created business card size marketing pieces that our cashiers can hand out to new customers. The small size allows shoppers to keep our number handy in their wallets or purses. Additionally, we have a sign in the front of our deli, we post about it on our social media accounts, publish it on our website, and even run radio ads. Every time a line forms at the deli our team knows to remind them of the text-to-order option.

Pro Tip

Make sure your email notification is loud so everyone can hear it, even during the busiest of days.