QSRs jump to digital loyalty schemes
Online and mobile loyalty programs are gaining popularity.
Stamp cards, which used to be the quintessential medium for tracking loyalty among customers, are slowly being replaced by mobile and online loyalty and ordering systems, according to Paul Robinson at Nupos Solutions, a provider of point of sale systems to restaurants, cafes and fast food outlets.
CIBO Espresso is one of many cafes that have made the leap to digital.
“In May 2012 we launched an online loyalty program called My CIBO where our customers are awarded points for coffee, tea and cold beverage purchases. CIBO awards and rewards our customers based on the value of their purchase regardless of size,” said Roberto Cardone, co-founder of CIBO Espresso.
Ali Baba also recently launched its own electronic loyalty program called The Ultimate Rewards Program, which rewards existing customers for visiting Ali Baba stores.
One of the appeals of an electronic loyalty program, is it easily works across all Ali Baba stores and allows customers to earn and redeem points at any shop, said Dominic Cain, General Manager – Operations and Marketing at Ali Baba.
An electronic loyalty program also helps in gathering store data, which is then used to deliver better service to customers. “We have invested significantly in a cutting-edge Point Of Sale system in all of our stores so we can collect data, analyse it and provide customers with the best possible experience,” said Cain.
Ali Baba’s electronic loyalty program even has a website component that allows for convenient points checking.
“Customers can log into a website using their membership details to check points and activity on their card. The program is free to join and also includes benefits such as a free kebab on your birthday and exclusive offers and promotions for members only,” said Cain.
Cain said the shift to a digital loyalty scheme has shown great results.
“We have about 30% of members who are active, which means we have their details, communicate with them regularly and they visit our stores each month. When a member joins our program, they have to log onto our website and register their card so 30% activity is a great result. As this program has been running for less than a year, we are happy with our results and hoping for even better results as the program takes shape,” said Cain.
Wok in a Box also recently launched a new digital loyalty program called Wok Wallet, which offers customers 10% of every purchase back as credit to spend at Wok in a Box.
“Previous paper loyalty cards offered a similar ‘buy 10 get one free’ deal to customers, but new technologies make Wok Wallet much more useful – both to us as a marketing tool, and to our customers,” said Andrew Pearce, National Marketing Manager at Wok in a Box.
Pearce explained that Wok Wallet is a step above the traditional physical stamp card. Wok Wallet is tied to an online account, which makes it almost impossible to cheat, and allows customers to see their rewards grow with every purchase in terms of real money.
Wok Wallet though is not a fully digital system. Customers can still sign up for Wok Wallet and collect a physical card from a store, or they can do away with the card altogether and instead use the Wok in a Box iPhone app.
The innovation though with Wok Wallet is that Wok in a Box can provide better backend support for its loyalty program and also gathering better data on customer usage. This is because customers are required to register an account and sign up to an email newsletter before securing a Wok Wallet.
“With this information, we can also target additional promotions to all or some of our Wok Wallet members, providing a more personalized experience. Additionally, the Wok Wallet backend allows us to track the spending and behavior of our regular customers, which is really valuable from a top-down analytical perspective, as well as helpful when responding to individual customer feedback,” said Pearce.
“So far, Wok Wallet cards have been flying out of our stores, and thousands of dollars of credit has been earned and spent so far. Every dollar of earned credit represents an incentive to return. It’s a bit early to see what the direct sales impact will be since the instruction of Wok Wallet, but it’s hard to put a price on opening up a whole new line of dialogue with the customers who are most engaged with our brand,” he added.
Not all QSRs though are jumping into the electronic loyalty program bandwagon. For brands like Chatime, the next evolution to its loyalty scheme lies in personalizing offers to customers.
“Chatime will soon be enhancing their loyalty program with the intention of introducing a lineup of attractive and ‘exclusive’ offers to members and providing personalised offerings,” said Karen Leong, Head of Marketing at Chatime.
This improvement comes on top of existing benefits that an estimated 100,000 Chatime members across Australia receive, which range from a 10% of the value in redemption points, a free Chatime drink on their birthday, and regular Chatime special offers.
Some restaurants like Grill’d do not even find the need for a loyalty program, suggesting that the strength of its product is enough to get customers coming back for more.
“Loyalty programs have never really been a Grill’d thing as we like to reward all of our customers in the same way. In our opinion though, we think our delicious burgers are the reason customers want to come into Grill’d every day, not loyalty cards,” said Simon Crowe, Founder of Grill’d.
