Groupon helped this classic eatery to invest in a little extra Thunder further down the Road...

The Challenge

Despite its fame, the Thunder Road Café was having difficulty coping with recession-era spending habits, a decline in tourism and achieving a consistent rate of return customers. Jackie Reddin, Manager of Thunder Road Café, decided to follow a new path in an effort to entice new and old customers alike.

The Result

Accorting to Jackie, despite a cap of 2,000, the deal was sold out within 24 hours, a “record” for the restaurant. “This caused even more hype: the phone never stopped ringing from customers trying to buy the sold out deal from us,” she said.

Jackie Reddin, Manager of Thunder Road Café, decided to follow a new path in an effort to entice new and old customers alike.

“We found ourselves in a position of having no fund for advertising and constantly doing midweek and early bird deals that never seemed to have any upsell; and when people returned, it was for the early bird only,” said Jackie. “We had used another deal site, but decided to have a look at Groupon who seemed to have a larger market and that is what we were looking for.”

Thunder Road Café’s two deals created a huge boost in business. “I feel these deals have really reached out to people who have simply forgotten about us, or who had never been here before, reaching those we couldn’t possibly have by offering meal deals within the restaurant,” said Jackie.

Likewise, the restaurant’s Groupon deals brought tangible increases in upsell: “I find the upsell at the weekend is a lot higher than during the week – the average is about 20% during the week on food, but up to 40% at the weekend, between food and alcohol.”

Partnering with Groupon allows Thunder Road Café the flexibility to choose its own terms: “We don’t really put any restrictions on the voucher and feel this works best, as people like to come at the weekend as well as during the week. It is good for us, as we are a completely different restaurant on a Friday and Saturday night – we have live DJs and are much busier”

This freedom, combined with the real monetary and customer gains brought on by the restaurants two deals, has convinced Jackie that Groupon is a partner worth working with into 2014: “I will certainly be using Groupon again.”

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