5 Best Restaurant Loyalty Programs to Seamlessly Draw Customers

A restaurant’s revenue growth primarily depends on the number of its returning customers as these loyal customers spend more, thereby generating larger revenue for the restaurant business. However, keeping the customers coming back to your restaurant demands a little extra effort, the most logical move being implementation of well-structured restaurant loyalty programs.

In this blog post, we will help you understand what to consider while launching your restaurant loyalty program. Moreover, we will also give you a quick overview of the successfully running 5 best restaurant loyalty programs to help you gain a much better idea while launching your own program.

What is a Restaurant Loyalty Program?

A restaurant loyalty program is a well-structured customer rewards scheme designed for encouraging & influencing the customers to stay with the restaurant brand. It may be as simple as  the ones involving a punch card or coupons; or could be more sophisticated with inclusion of a fully-functional mobile app. The basic idea should be to design the rewards program in a way that makes sense to your customers.

What to Consider for Restaurant Loyalty Programs?

Launching a restaurant loyalty program may be tedious without the assistance of experts in this domain. However, you can always consider these 7 Tips for Creating a Successful Restaurant Loyalty Program –

“Digital” Should Be the Priority

Adopting the digital approach is the ideal way to go when launching your restaurant loyalty program. Avoid issuing punch card to your customers as they may go for some other restaurant in case they forget it at home.

A digital loyalty program is comparatively not only easy to implement but also provides an enormous wealth of actionable data  including better insights about your customer preferences, pattern of visits etc.

Simplicity has to be the Key

Just forget customers signing up for your restaurant loyalty program if it includes a list of complex rules & restrictions. You need to design your loyalty program considering the preferences of your customers without loading it with over-complication.

Focus on “Redeem” than “Earn”

The actual success of a well-designed restaurant loyalty program in real depends more on the points redemption rate than their earning rate. It’s only when your customers decide to redeem the earned points that you can witness them revisiting your restaurant and expect to get some revenue. So, ensure reminding your customers about the necessity to redeeming the earned points.

Provide Rewards on Every Visit

Yes, you can surely consider doing this as part of your loyalty program! However, this can be done specifically for the most valued customers with highest spending as you may not be willing to give away free rewards for every visit to every customer. This would definitely make them feel that they do earn something on every visit to your restaurant.

Make Customizations as Required

Add a touch of personalization to your loyalty program so that all your customers feel special. You can take into consideration their ordering history to send across more personalized offers on their birthday, anniversary and other special dates of the month to encourage them redeem their points.

Ensure Training your Internal Staff

Your staff must be well acquainted with all crucial aspects related to your offered loyalty program, be it about points earning, redemption or more. They must know how to pitch it to the customer and how to demonstrate knowledge about the program benefits when any query arises from the customer’s end. In fact, the restaurant manager should be the last person to be questioned if any query is too complicated to be answered by the general staff.

Suitably Promote your Loyalty Program

Don’t forget to do the much needed promotional activities for your restaurant loyalty program. While online promotion holds the key, you can also consider designing attractive pamphlets to spread a solid marketing copy highlighting the prominent benefits of your restaurant loyalty program to customers at other places.

5 Best Loyalty Programs for Restaurants

The best restaurant loyalty programs are structured keeping customers preferences at the focal point in order to ensure high performance. Here, we have listed the 5 best restaurant loyalty programs that should help you get a fair idea on what you can include/exclude in your own restaurant loyalty program.

“Starbucks Rewards” By Starbucks

Features:

• 13 million+ active members
• Simple, easy & convenient
• Send gift cards via app to other members
• Mobile payments and orders
• Rewards redemption via mobile app

“MyPanera” By Panera Bread

Features:

• 28 million active members
• Card-based loyalty program
• Rewards like free food, invitations to events, recipe books etc.
• Integration with Panera Delivery for quick delivery
• Personalized rewards and experiential opportunities

“DDPerks Rewards” By Dunkin’ Donuts

Features:

• 7 million+ active members
• 5 Points for every $1 spend
• Free beverage on earning 200 points
• Payment via Dunkin’s mobile app or plastic card
• Rewards sharing with anyone via app

“Chick-fil-A One” By Chick-fil-A

Features:

• Three-tier program – Member, Silver, & Gold Member
• Surprise rewards from local Chick-fil-A restaurants
• Based on “invitation-only” loyalty model
• 10 points for every $1 spend (Basic)
• Free food on birthday for all members

“Fridays Rewards™ Program” By TGI Fridays

Features:

• Free dessert/appetizer on signup
• 1 point earned per $1 spent
• Earned points can be redeemed for menu items
• Complimentary treat on every visit
• Chance to preview new additions to menu

Are you looking to get your own unique restaurant loyalty program designed and launched? You must ensure getting in touch with only the experts to get the job done for you.

Why Annex Cloud for Designing your Restaurant Loyalty Program?

Annex Cloud’s loyalty software incorporates high-end functionality and comes loaded with unique features that help in successful implementation of your restaurant loyalty program. The loyalty program experts at Annex Cloud have in-depth expertise in designing your restaurant loyalty program. Getting started is extremely easy! Starting your own restaurant loyalty program would be even easier with Annex Cloud’s experts by your side.

Our loyalty program experts will collaborate with you to design the best, fully-featured restaurant loyalty program ideally suited to your unique business needs. Right from your restaurant loyalty program configuration to final implementation and support, we ensure that your ultimate goal of customer retention gets never compromised. Feel free to connect with our experts to know more about designing your own program. Call our experts now!