About the Store
Cafe Dongi (카페동이) opened its first store in Suseong-gu, Daegu in the spring of 2014, and now runs three locations under the company motto “sharing happiness with neighbors over a meal that’s a little more meaningful.” Even through the pandemic, the brand held a 77% repeat visit rate. We sat down with founder Nam Hye-dong to hear about her approach to running stores and managing customer relationships.
Background
With a single store, she could look after regulars personally. As more locations opened, she needed a more structured system. Paper business cards and stamp coupons proved inefficient, and after a recommendation from someone she trusted, she brought in DodoPoint.
How They Use DodoPoint
- Automatic coupons for guests who haven’t visited in 60 days — a friendly tone like “OO, we miss seeing you so often” pulled people back.
- Free seaweed soup event — the highest redemption event they’ve run, also a strong word-of-mouth driver.
- Automatic coupons for first visits, birthdays, and 60-day absences — less effort, stronger relationships.
Results
- After three years on DodoPoint, around 10,000 enrolled customers.
- 10,000 coupons sent per month → roughly 10% conversion (about 1,000 visits a month, ~10,000,000 KRW in additional revenue at a 10,000 KRW average ticket).
- Repeat visit rate up from 50% to 60~70%.
From the Owner
A restaurant is a place where people share memories with the ones they love. Being part of someone’s happy moment is a real source of meaning for me.
Full Interview
Cafe Dongi opened its first store in Suseong-gu, Daegu in the spring of 2014, and has been managing its customer relationships through DodoPoint for the past three years. Even through the height of the pandemic, the brand kept a 77% repeat visit rate. We visited founder Nam Hye-dong, who runs three stores under the motto “sharing happiness with neighbors over a meal that’s a little more meaningful,” to talk about how she runs her stores and thinks about customer care.
”We brought it in so we could keep rewarding the customers who walk through our doors.”
Q. What led you to adopt DodoPoint?
With one store, I knew the regulars and exactly how to take care of them. When we added more locations, gaps started showing up in customer management. I wanted something more systematic.
I looked at paper business cards and stamp coupons, but they felt very inefficient. I took some classes, did some research, and came across customer management tools. A friend who used DodoPoint told me it really helped, so I gave it a try — I wanted a systematic way to keep rewarding the people who actually walked into our stores.
Q. Which feature has worked best for you?
There’s a feature that automatically sends a coupon to customers who haven’t visited within a certain period. If you actually pull the data, a lot of the people who came once and liked the place simply don’t come back — and you start asking yourself why. The data showed about 70% of them just forgot about us.
So many great new restaurants open and so much advertising hits people every day, and a lot of guests would say “It was great, I just forgot.” We use 60 days as the trigger. For guests who haven’t visited in 60 days, we’ll send something like a 5,000 KRW discount coupon or a coupon for the sweet-and-sour pork, with their name in the message: “OO, we’ve missed you. Here’s a coupon — please come back and see us.” It feels personal, and people do come back. Sending tailored messages on autopilot saves time and effort while still building real relationships.
Q. Tell us about an event with a strong response.
There’s a market need we noticed: people can handle lunch on their own, but dinner is a hassle, delivery feels awkward, and they’d love a simpler option. So we made a lot of the seaweed soup that our regulars love, and figured that giving it away as a free meal would make customers happy.
It’s not painful from a cost angle — soup isn’t hard to make and isn’t expensive. We made a big batch and around 3 p.m. sent out a coupon message offering free seaweed soup. We had expected maybe 20–30 guests per store; we ended up with far more.
Some just picked up the soup, plenty bought additional items while they were there, and the goodwill spread by word of mouth. It’s the event with our highest coupon redemption rate ever.
”With a range of promotions, our repeat visit rate climbed from 50% to 60~70%.”
Q. Any memorable customer stories?
We’ve been on DodoPoint for three years now. Some customers have over 100 visits stamped. There’s a couple who went on a blind date at our first store and ended up married. One woman first came in craving home cooking while she was pregnant, and now she comes back holding her child’s hand.
I read a study on happiness recently — it said the happiest moments come from sharing good food with the people you love. That resonated with me. A restaurant is a place where people share memories with the ones they love. Being part of someone’s happy moment is what I find meaningful.
Q. You have customers with over 100 stamps. Any tricks for encouraging signups?
When you say “Please tap the points number” as part of the flow, people simply accept that’s what they do. Especially with new customers, mentioning that they get a 5,000 KRW discount coupon for signing up — or that they only need to enter a phone number — converts a lot of people who would otherwise hesitate.
Q. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen since adopting DodoPoint?
Today, Cafe Dongi has roughly 10,000 enrolled customers. It varies by store, but coupons drive about 10% conversion. Send coupons to 10,000 customers in a month and around 1,000 come back. Even at a 10,000 KRW average ticket, that’s about 10,000,000 KRW in additional revenue.
The automatic coupon feature also handles first-visit, 60-day-absence, and birthday triggers in the background, so we maximize repeat visits without micromanaging. With these various promotions, our repeat visit rate climbed from 50% to 60~70%.
”We want to be a brand that feeds the emotional hunger, not just the physical one.”
Q. Your blog and personal social channels reflect your operating philosophy. Could you share Cafe Dongi’s motto?
Cafe Dongi runs under the motto “sharing happiness with neighbors over a meal that’s a little more meaningful.” People eat out more and more these days, and home cooking is getting harder to come by. To me, “home cooking” is less about the menu and more about the feeling. We work hard to give that feeling to everyone who walks in. We want to be a brand that fills the emotional hunger, not just the physical one.
Cafe Dongi knows the value of every single customer
A large customer database means more competitive marketing. Marketing to a clearly defined audience puts you in a strong position against the competition.
When customers feel remembered, rewarded, and engaged, they come back. Cafe Dongi’s founder, who clearly values each customer, focused on building that data — and after adopting the system, both revenue and customer satisfaction climbed.
Securing customer data is no longer optional. It’s become essential to running a store today.