Waffle House Boosts Growth with Mobile SMS Text Locator Campaign

Waffle House, Inc. has successfully launched their first 2-way SMS text marketing campaign. First launched mid-January 2010, Waffle House already has over 47% increased growth from January to February for opted-in subscribers.

"We get a lot of travelers who come eat with us, so the 2-way SMS text locator gives customers who are on the road the ability to still find us wherever they are," says Waffle House spokesperson Kelly Thrasher. "With the way technology is developing it was a good opportunity to give our customers another way to find our restaurants." To use the program consumers must text the word WH and their zip code or city, state to LOCATE (562283) to find their closest restaurant.

Waffle House has been a Where 2 Get It business locator client for 4 years; utilizing the restaurant locator solution, send-to-phone and send-to-email capabilities with their corporate website's locator solution. Just shy of 1,600 restaurants spanning 25 states, Waffle House does much of its advertising via local, grass roots efforts. "Waffle House is not known as a technology-driven company, so for us this text program is a very big step," says Thrasher. In fact with only two opt-in points currently in-use, their corporate website and table tent collateral at the restaurants, the text marketing program has already exceeded their expectations. Where 2 Get It offers clients up to 7 opt-in points for SMS programs like this.

Waffle House has an active Facebook fan page but not due to their own efforts. Their fans are so enamored with the brand that a fan started the page for them. The page currently has over 164,000 fans. "We love the fact that it is a fan driven page," says Thrasher. Where 2 Get It's Facebook locator product will be available to clients later this spring.