The Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group decided to partner with the “best in class” SMS platform to ensure they built an engaged, responsive and loyal audience the right way. They landed on the Vibes mobile engagement platform, and they aren’t looking back.
Lettuce Entertain You “saw success immediately” when they began using Vibes to send SMS and MMS messages to their guests. They launched a variety of contests, promotions and gift card campaigns, and would often watch as orders jumped exponentially, right after they’d sent a message out.
Their open rates for SMS are much higher than they are for any other channel, and the Lettuce SMS audience is considered by the company to be highly engaged. Lettuce felt that “we got a great deal of advice from Vibes on best practices, and the level of support from Vibes day-to-day is fantastic.”
Having started with only a half-dozen restaurants initially, the Lettuce text messaging program has expanded to over 30 restaurant brands, with more on the way. In the words of CMO Jennifer Bell, “We’re very happy. It’s nice to have an expert in the field of SMS. Our guests are more connected, because SMS is more personal than email. It’s more important than ever to send relevant messaging. It’s non-negotiable – we are sticking with Vibes.”
Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants is a family-owned organization that owns, manages and licenses more than 60 brands and 130 restaurants in a dozen states across the US, including Shaw’s Crab House, Wow Bao, Sushi-San, Mon Ami Gabi and many others. From fast casual to Michelin-starred fine dining, Lettuce works to innovate and develop new restaurants, while providing opportunities for its talented teams to grow and seeking to engage and delight its restaurants’ guests.
Lettuce Entertain You was actually quite early in using SMS to connect with and engage the guests of its restaurants. The company started with two different companies who helped them to set up short codes and build programs for a handful of restaurant brands. Right away, Lettuce saw that guests who’d opted in to SMS remained very loyal, and they realized they had a winning strategy on their hands - as long as their program could scale for larger volumes and more restaurants.
Unfortunately, the company found very quickly that their email-focused provider’s skills didn’t exactly translate to SMS, and they soon found that they had sending, delivery, and messaging compliance issues. In the words of CMO Jennifer Bell, “This space can be scary and rightfully ensures compliance with best standards and practices, and we got nervous. We decided to go out and find the ‘best in class’ SMS provider to make sure we built an engaged, responsive and loyal audience the right way”.
Vibes had been recommended to the Lettuce team by other brands and licensees in the industry. Bell and her team needed confidence that they were hiring a partner that truly knew the space, and especially one that cared deeply about compliance and that, in her words, “didn’t cut corners”. After a thorough vetting process, the Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants team selected Vibes as their mobile engagement partner of choice.
One key element that helped the Lettuce team select Vibes was that Vibes was a Tier 1 aggregator with direct connections to all North American carriers. This gave Lettuce the confidence that their text messages would take the fastest path to their guests, and that Vibes’ longtime relationships with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and 65 other regional carriers meant they knew everyone’s rules, and that Vibes would bring a “one-stop-shop” experience to ensure that text campaigns run smoothly and correctly.
Lettuce Entertain You “saw success immediately” when they began using Vibes to send SMS and MMS messages to their guests. They launched a variety of contests, promotions and gift card campaigns, and would often watch as orders jumped exponentially, right after they’d sent a message out.
Their open rates for SMS are much higher than they are for any other channel, and the Lettuce SMS audience is considered by the company to be highly engaged. Lettuce felt that “we got a great deal of advice from Vibes on best practices, and the level of support from Vibes day-to-day is fantastic.”
Having started with only a half-dozen restaurants initially, the Lettuce text messaging program has expanded to over 30 restaurant brands, with more on the way. In the words of CMO Jennifer Bell, “We’re very happy. It’s nice to have an expert in the field of SMS. Our guests are more connected, because SMS is more personal than email. It’s more important than ever to send relevant messaging. It’s non-negotiable – we are sticking with Vibes.”
“We saw success immediately when we started working with Vibes. They provided us with a one-stop-shop experience to ensure our text campaigns run smoothly and effectively, and they’re experts in the field of SMS. It’s non-negotiable – we are sticking with Vibes."
CMO, Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants
