Help guests see how they gain from dynamic pricing

Consumers are no strangers to dynamic pricing in their daily lives – whether they are buying an item on Amazon or booking a flight, they have come to expect that they will pay more for an item in high demand and may be lucky enough to snag a good deal at other times. But dynamic pricing in restaurants is relatively new to consumers – and following years of budget tightening and food inflation in restaurants and grocery stores alike, many consumers are wary of it. (When Wendy’s announced its plans to implement dynamic pricing recently, the brand had to scramble to explain itself amid consumer backlash to the news.) To be sure, it may take time for consumers to come around to dynamic pricing in their favorite restaurants – but restaurants in all categories have opportunities to frame it in ways that make their guests more loyal, not less. For example, you could mine your guest data to create segments of dynamic, limited-time offers. This can help you ramp up your ability to make a guest’s experience feel more personal and worthwhile. In practice, you might send one guest an offer for 50 percent off a large pizza after their kid’s soccer game, or alert another guest to a discount on a smoothie to help them beat the heat during your town’s Memorial Day parade nearby. Fine-dining restaurants that have more reservation requests than they can manage during the weekends but struggle to fill tables midweek could use dynamic pricing to encourage table reservations at off hours. Dynamic pricing is about guiding guests toward the specific value you offer them – value that will only increase (and hopefully translate into loyalty) as they return and share more of their preferences with you.