Double down on loyalty

​Whether you’re participating in a Restaurant Week or developing other events designed to draw traffic during normally slower periods this season, now is a good time to fine-tune your loyalty program. It can help you capture the higher volume of guest data coming to you and turn an occasional guest into a regular one. What’s more, it may help you ride out otherwise challenging market conditions. Paytronix research found that loyalty program members were responsible for a larger proportion of total sales after the onset of the pandemic, and that the top 10 percent of loyalty guests were responsible for more than half of all spending for eight months in 2020. Further, according to Waze, 40 percent of consumers feel their participation in a restaurant loyalty program would encourage them to spend more on their food orders. But at a time when consumers are receptive to loyalty programs, it can also be difficult for restaurants to make their program stand out. To do so, focus on deeper personalization. That could mean using Bluetooth technology to automatically identify a loyalty program member and pull up their most recent orders, introducing a gaming promotion to drive traffic during certain periods, or simply rewarding customers with more of what you know they love. Dunkin Donuts, for one, sends “Year in Review” emails to its DDPerks members based on their yearly purchases and activity. It’s simple and it brings people back.

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