Making the most of special moments

"Make hay while the sun shines!" Read how to apply this well worn adage to your food business.

Making the most of moments when people are in the frame of mind to engage with your product is a simple concept. Think florists at Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, toy shops at Christmas, office equipment supply at the EOFY or Back to School.

What is a "Moment"?

At Cookaborough, Moments Matter. A moment itself is pretty self-explanatory – a specific event during the year that is relevant to your customers – but to make the most of a moment you must be prepared. In this resource we provide guidance on developing a ‘Moments Plan’ for your business and we also highlight how using Cookaborough is the perfect way to maximise your sales and connect with customers in these moments.

1. Make Moments Matter

Knowing which moments matter to your business is the place to start. Some moments matter more than others and depending on your business profile, who your customers are, and your location, some moments will be more relevant than others.

Choose moments that are relevant to you and your business, as well as ones that the majority of people might celebrate - Easter, Mother's Day and Christmas being a few key moments, with so many others to choose from. Choosing moments that are aligned to public holidays is also a good bet. If your business caters to a specific ethnic or religious group, or you’re located in an area with a local event (country race day, a local festival etc) you will have even more options to consider.

So start by identifying your moments and map them on a calendar. Avoid the temptation to include every moment, an ideal number is 8 – 10 moments each year, led by 2 or 3 major moments and supported by a selection of secondary moments. This number is manageable and avoids your customers feeling like they are being ‘sold to' at every opportunity.

2. What to offer

Curating a considered menu that incorporates seasonal options works with great success. Salads, seafood and meats at Christmas are always popular, while pastries sell well on Father's Day. Mother's Day can be a mix of things like a Mother's Weekly Pack so the primary meals decision-maker doesn't have to think for a week, to special items that are treats for Mother figures and Mums alike. Moments are special occasions so elevating the offering for these menus is always a good idea.

Creating special meal packs that provide customers with a 'turnkey' solution is an ideal approach. Some great examples are Meraki and Three Blue Ducks Christmas Menus, and Bread Club's Mother's Day and Easter with Tarts Anon.

Cookaborough makes it easy: Review your Analytics Dashboard to make your past work for you in the future! See clearly what sold well last time, where your customers came from, if they were regulars, how much each one ordered, whether promotions worked, if people bought gift voucher,  whether pickup was more popular than delivery, and more! 

 

3. Refining your options

Often customers will want to pick up their orders at the same time on the same day, for example, Good Friday between 9 am – 10 am can be extremely busy, with many customers arriving at the same time.

If you’re not prepared for the rush, it can create production headaches and staff stress and it risks delivering a poor customer experience with people left waiting to collect their orders.

Reduce the rush and enhance your customer's experience by setting up your pickup and delivery time slots before you open your Menu.

Cookaborough makes it easy: With Cookaborough, you set the pickup or delivery slots by day, time of day and with an option to set stock-limits on the number of orders per slot. It’s a function that allows customer to select their slot when placing an order, allowing you to be in control and deliver a seamless customer experience on collection day that avoids the challenge and stress of everyone arriving at the same time.

TIP: Moments Multiply! Having an additional moments menu is great for business as you can attract new customers, but what makes it even better is the size of each order increases significantly, so is a double bonus

4. Timing is everything

When it comes to making the most of a moment, timing is key. If you go too early or leave it too late, you’ll miss the moment! Think about when people start to plan how they’re going to celebrate a particular moment and time your launch accordingly.

You want people to associate your business with the moment, so letting your customers know that you’ll be launching a menu in advance is a good idea, it’s a good prompt to get them thinking about their plans for the moment and puts you top-of-mind in their planning.

Talking about an Easter offer on Boxing Day is too early but leaving it to a few days before Good Friday is too late. Our data indicates that the optimum timing for launching a moments offering:

• Easter - three weeks before Good Friday 
• Bastille Day - two weeks beforehand 
• Mother's / Father's Day - two weeks prior
• Footy Finals - two weeks prior
• Melbourne Cup - four weeks beforehand 
• Christmas - By the middle of November, so around six weeks out.

Cookaborough makes it easy: Cookaborough enables you to build and schedule your ‘moments menu’ and send it to your customer database at the optimum time with clear information on when the order cut-off is. With a click to order button built into your emails, it’s easy for your customers to view and order from your menu.

5. Promoting your Menu

Once you have your Menu live, make sure you are ready to shout about it! Places to promote your Menus include:

• Creating a specific banner on your Website linking to your special Menu

• Adding a Menu link into your Linktree/ Link in Bio on Instagram as well as your Facebook About section

• Creating a special social media post

• Printing on-site posters + including QR codes in the design

• Exploring PR opportunities by connecting to local media businesses

• Customising your customer communications through the platform by creating a special message in Customers > Messages > Create message

At Cookaborough, we aim to provide you with the tools to make it as easy as possible to run your business. We have developed a range of customisable posters and social media posts that are easily generate in Canva to help you promote your special menu. Click here to check out these options.

Cookaborough makes it easy: in Discounts > Create Discount, create discount codes for friends, family, VIP customers, media supporters or influencers in order to get the word out. 

6. Reminding your customers 

People will often leave it to the last minute to place their orders. To manage this situation, you need to maintain a connection with your customers in the lead up to the event and make it easy for them to place an order. 

Using social media and scheduling automated emails to your customers through Cookaborough with reminders to place orders, while showing what’s on the menu is a great way to be well-positioned for last-minute orders.

Cookaborough makes it easy: With Cookaborough you can write and schedule messages to go to your customers in the lead up to the moment. The platform also has an ‘order reminder’ function that will automatically send a notification only to those customers who have not placed an order, letting them know that the menu is closing soon. You control when the notification is sent and typically it results in a 25%- 30% increase in orders, and making sure you never miss an order.

7. Bringing It All Together

It’s exciting to receive a high number of orders, but now you must produce and fulfil those orders, which can be stressful, particularly when a lot is going on at once. 

To ensure a seamless process for both front and back of house there are two reports that you will have access to through Cookaborough, that will help you manage both production and the pick & pack process.  

1. Our Automatic Order Summary gives you all the information you need to manage production and back of house. This is going to tell you exactly what you need to make. Your Order Summary not only shows total orders but has it split by day and pickup and delivery slots, allowing the kitchen to prepare orders in batches and to identify peak production requirements ahead of time.
   
   
2. The Individual Order Summary makes pick and pack seamless. This report shows you the details of each order: the name of the customer who placed the order, the order number, the time they selected for pickup or delivery and their contact details. This report allows for quick fulfillment when the customer arrives to collect or for delivery management.
   
   

Cookaborough makes it easy: Cookaborough automatically generates a menu Order Summary report providing the information required to manage production, including units sold by menu item and by pickup and delivery slots. An Individual Order Summary report is also automatically generated when an order is made, making the pick, pack, and fulfilment process quick and easy and saving you a considerable amount of time.

8. Building a Customer Database one Moment at a Time

Having a customer database that you own and manage is one of the most valuable assets of your business. One of the great things about moments is they give you an opportunity to significantly grow your customer database at a single point in time.

The more people on your customer database, the more successful your next major moment will be, so each moment should be seen as an opportunity to grow your customer database.

If you have a store and people are coming into store but you don’t know who they are or how to communicate with them the next time, then you’re losing business. Therefore, taking pre-orders online during moments should be a key pillar of your business plan.

Cookaborough makes it easy: With Cookaborough every time a new customer places an order they become a customer on your business customer database. With your business customer database, you have full visibility on who your customers are and important information showing their order history and lifetime value.

By following the above steps, you will be well equipped to extend your database with each key moment, in fact, our data shows that Moment Menu’s result in three times the average number of orders and double the average transaction value. 

So, there you have it, in eight easy steps, your business can be well on its way to growing one moment at a time.

Maximise your Moments with Cookaborough

For Moment-specific tips please read our Christmas Moments and our Easter Moments blogs.

Managing and making the most of moments is easy with Cookaborough. Our platform has been designed and built specifically for food businesses, with features and functions that provide the perfect solution for making hay while the sun shines! 

So are you ready to get started? Download this FREE guide and planning template to make sure your food business is ready to turn the next moment into sales.