CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Executive Summary
TGI Fridays is a US based food service company. The company is has its branches around
the world including Malaysia. In Malaysia, this company has seen huge growth, and it has
developed a loyal customer base. It has been discussed in the study that the company has
taken many steps including quality service, friendly relationship and promotional strategy, in
order to increase the customer acquisition. It has also been successful to retain the loyal
customers through Social, Financial and Customization bond. This has also included the
retention and acquisition policies of Tony Roma’s, which is competitor of the brand. Further,
the advantages and disadvantages of TGI Fridays have also been given in the study.
Moreover, the recommendations regarding the customer relationship is also discussed in the
study.
 Table of Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4
Roma’s. ................................................................................................................................. 4
2. Acquisition and retention strategies of TGI Fridays ............................................................ 4
2.1 Acquisition ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.1.1 Advertisement............................................................................................................ 4
2.1.2 Promotions ................................................................................................................. 4
2.1.3 Loyalty Program ........................................................................................................ 5
2.1.4 Events and Contests ................................................................................................... 5
2.1.5 Gift cards for customers ............................................................................................ 5
2.2 Retention ........................................................................................................................ 5
2.2.1 Financial Bond........................................................................................................... 5
2.2.2 Social Bond ............................................................................................................... 5
2.2.3. Customization Bond ................................................................................................. 6
2.2.4 Structural Bond .......................................................................................................... 6
3. Acquisition and retention strategies of Tony Roma's Mid Valley Mall 3.1 Acquisition .. 6
3.1.1 Advertisement............................................................................................................ 6
3.1.2. Promotion ................................................................................................................. 6
3.1.3 Membership Programs............................................................................................... 7
3.1.4 Contests or events ...................................................................................................... 7
3.1.5 Gift Cards .................................................................................................................. 7
3.2 Retention ........................................................................................................................ 7
3.2.1 Financial Bond........................................................................................................... 7
3.2.2. Social Bond .............................................................................................................. 7
3.2.3. Customization Bond ................................................................................................. 7
3.3.4 Structural Bond .......................................................................................................... 8
4. Advantages and disadvantages of TGI Fridays ................................................................... 8
5. Proposals ................................................................................................................................ 8
1. Introduction
TGI Fridays is an US based food service company which offers casual dining to the
customers. The company is operational in 58 countries around the world with 1000
restaurants. Fresh foods and Americal dishes such as burgers, pasta, tacos and steaks are the
special attraction of the restaurants. Besides, it also serves cold drinks, alcohol and desserts.
TGI Fridays started its operation in Malaysia in the year 1994. The first restaurant was
opened at Life Center in Kuala Lumpur. At present there are 18 restaurants active in
Malaysia, and Setia City Mall is the latest branch of the company which was opened in 2012.
TGI Fridays is active in four states in Malaysia including Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor
and Johor. The main focus of the TGI Fridays Malaysia is to provide quality food and best
experience to the customers. TGI Fridays has already opened 18 branches between the year
1994 to 2012 and looking forward to develop stronger business chain in Malaysia. The
objective of this study is to analyze the customer relationship and marketing strategies of TGI
Malaysia, and its comparison with Tony Roma’s.
2. Acquisition and retention strategies of TGI Fridays
2.1 Acquisition

2.1.1 Advertisement

In order to attract more customers it is very important to develop a healthy relationship with
the customers. Therefore, advertisement plays a huge role in attracting more people. TGI
Fridays is basically focused in the digital marketing and it is very active in social media. TGI
Fridays Malaysia is mainly focused on building a friendship with customers. The company
believes that becoming friends with the customer can be an effective way to increase the
sales. The customer relationship manager of TGI Fridays has explained that it is very
important to make friendship with customers in order to further expansion of the business
(Jaekel, 2017).

2.1.2 Promotions

Social Media play a significant role in the advertisement of the restaurant. TGI Fridays
Malaysia is active on Facebook and Instagram and promotes its offers and services and
services through social media. More than 6 million people are connected with company in
Facebook with around 40,000 check-ins and 1700 positive recommendations. On the other
hand, more than 3,000 people are connected in its Instagram account (TGI Fridays, 2019).
This social networking platform is used for the digital marketing of the company.

2.1.3 Loyalty Program

In order to make a better relationship with customers, it also offers ‘Friday Rewards’
membership. Customers need to sign up with the TGI Friday’s official website in order to
avail free desserts or starters. It is considered as VIP membership program of the company
(TGI Fridays, 2019).

2.1.4 Events and Contests

Besides, it also offers VIP events for the customers. The company has introduced a campaign
named “People of All Stripes” on the occasion of World Kindness Day in order to promote
unity among people (FSR Magazines, 2019).

2.1.5 Gift cards for customers

The company also offers gift cards to the customer. Using this gift cards, customers can get
cash back as a bonus. There is also a ten digit mobile number to check the gift card balance
(TGI Fridays, 2019).

2.2 Retention

2.2.1 Financial Bond

Customer retention strategy is also important to make lifetime relationships with customers
and increase customer loyalty (Zahari, 2018). Customer retention is a strategy to turn the
existing customer into loyalists and eventually the loyalists can be turned into contributor.
New offers and services are very important to turn existing customers into a loyalist (Yang,
2017). TGI Fridays offers many exciting services in their restaurants such as ‘Make It Count’
and ‘Buy 1 Free 1’. In ‘Make It Count’, the restaurant offers free soft drinks such as Pepsi,
Mountain Dew and 7Up, with every entry. Besides, a customer can get one dish free in
Mondays ( (TGI Fridays, 2019). It also offers free meals for kids with the purchase of main
course (iMoney, 2018).

2.2.2 Social Bond

Besides the financial bonds, social bonds are also important for the retention strategy. TGI is
very focused towards making an emotional connection with the customers. The employees of
TGI Fridays, interacts with customers in a very positive way and develops healthy
communication with positive behaviours (Jaekel, 2017).

2.2.3. Customization Bond

Customized bonds are also important for customer satisfaction. These kinds of bonds refer to
special offers provided to the existing customers to retain those (Dastane, 2017). TGI Fridays
provides extra stripes to the customers to turn them into best friends. Besides the company
also offers many VIP events and treats to the customers. Therefore, with the help of
customized bonds, both acquisition and retention can be successfully achieved (Yang, 2017).
The customer service is also important for developing healthy relationships with customers.
In the official website of the TGI Fridays, there is an option to submit feedback as per the
experience. The management team contacts the customers according to their feedback. The
customer service team resolved the issues of customers.

2.2.4 Structural Bond

Structural bond is important to turn the friendship into partnership. There is no such option to
build partnership with customers in TGI Fridays. However, there is an option in the website
of the company to make career with the company.

3. Acquisition and retention strategies of Tony Roma's Mid Valley Mall

3.1 Acquisition

3.1.1 Advertisement

Tony Roma’s is also a US based company and the one the biggest competitor of TGI Fridays.
It is also operational in the major states like Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Advertisements a
vital part of the market acquisition of Tony Roma’s Mid Valley Mall. The company is
dependent on the online and digital marketing. People can easily know about the restaurant’s
details, including menu, offers and other services through their official websites (Tony
Roma’s, 2019).

3.1.2. Promotion
The advertisement of the company is based on their websites, TV adverts, magazines and the
recommendation of people. It is also very active in the social media like TGI Fridays. It is
active in almost every social media platform such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube. Hence, the social media play a significant role in business growth of the company.

3.1.3 Membership Programs

There is also a membership program available for the customers. In the official website of the
company, there is an option to become a member of email club. These kinds of inclusive
programs are very important for attracting customers.

3.1.4 Contests or events

In order to attract more customers, the company has also chosen contests and events. One of
the most popular contests of Tony Roma’s is the Rib Eating competition which occurs
annually. Besides it also provides gifts cards to increase the customer loyalty. These events
and services requires huge amount of investment, however it also boosts the customer
relationship and attracts new customers.

3.1.5 Gift Cards

Tony Roma’s also provides gift cards to their customers, and they can use the gift cards make
transaction while buying food. In return, customer can get cash back in their account.

3.2 Retention

3.2.1 Financial Bond

Tony Roma’s also provides various offers to their existing customers in order to retain them.
However, the does not provide discounts or offers as much as TGI does.

3.2.2. Social Bond

Tony Roma’s lacks in terms of social bonds as compared to TGI Fridays. TGI Friday is more
connected to the customer due to positive behaviour.

3.2.3. Customization Bond

The company also tries to build customized bond with the customer. As an example the
company had 45th Anniversary programs, where many kinds of combo offers were included
(Everyday On Sales, 2017).

3.3.4 Structural Bond

Unlike TGI, this company also provides an option to the customer to build up a franchise
with it. In the official website, a customer can contact the can contact the restaurant in order
to develop business.

4. Advantages and disadvantages of TGI Fridays

Advantages

● The motive of the company is based on making healthy relationship with customer.
● Providing special offers and discounts has helped the company to develop very fast.
● Social media advertising is also very crucial for the company as it helped TGI to
connect with more people (TGI Fridays, 2019).

Disadvantages

● Nowadays it has been seen that there are many issues occurring, due to bad quality of
food and it is a very serious concern.
● The growing number of competitive brands including Tony Roma’s is causing
adverse effect to the customer (Tony Roma’s Franchise, 2019).
● Lesser number of events and contest are taking it away from the customers.

5. Proposals

US based restaurant company TGI Fridays has become very successful in Malaysia, and it
has seen tremendous growth between the past two decades. The reason behind the success of
the company is their customer relationship policies and customer friendly attitude. However,
the company is facing huge competition from other brands such as Tony Roma’s, and it has
to work on many things to remain stable in the market.

● In order to attract more customers, the company needs to focus on the quality of food
and service.
● TGI requires arranging more food related contests and events such as eating
competitions and food festivals to get noticed by people.
● The company has become very successful to develop healthy relationships with
customers. However, it is unable to turn the relationship into partnership due to lack
of structural bond. Hence, it needs to create franchise program for the partnership
development.
● In the current world people are providing online food service. Hence, it can also
initiate online food delivery service in its website or software application.
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