Digital LED Sign Creates “Front Door” To Attract Customers

Tim LeFevre owns 10 DQ stores in West Virginia. His philosophy is that people need to know what his restaurants offer, so they will turn into his parking lot. When they see a photo of something that appeals to them, that’s more likely to happen.

Welcoming customers with photos

“Signs are your front door, and you need to get people in,” he says. “If you show a picture of what you’re selling along with the name, people know what it is. A picture really is worth a thousand words. I’m a proponent of outside digital boards over inside. There’s no better way to get them in. We can advertise and get the impulse customer to come in and even try something new.”

While everyone thinks of DQ as a place to get ice cream treats, LeFevre says many customers don’t realize all the items that are on the menu. He uses his new digital signs to correct that problem.

“For example, right now we’re running 2 for $4 hot dogs, which DQ never advertises,” he says. “We will be able to tell increased sales from that. There’s no other advertising for those items.”

LeFevre is confident that hot dog sales will increase at those two locations, because in the month that they have used their digital signs, sales have risen dramatically.

“Those stores are doing really well. We put the signs up in August, and Bridgeport already has an 11% increase, and Vienna has an 8% increase.”

They installed 10mm boards in front of stores in Bridgeport and Vienna, West Virginia. They chose the higher resolution option because they wanted to show faces of people celebrating birthdays in their event rooms. They needed clarity to do that well.

Increasing digital to increase traffic

LeFever says he plans to install more digital signs at up to three more locations this year. He says it makes more sense to put his advertising dollars there than anywhere else.

“We want to drive people in,” he explains.

“You can spend all the money you want on TV advertising or radio advertising, but there’s nothing better than at the point of sale. People don’t know we have homemade ranch or some of the other food items. They’re on our menu, but it’s not out there for them to see. It’s an impulse business. We may miss them if we don’t have a picture of something they might want.”