Steps to successfully launch a loyalty program for your restaurant

Want to know how to design and launch a loyalty program that is right for your restaurant? 

In every phase of your business journey, from the early days of a fresh coffee shop or restaurant to the seasoned operations of an established multi-location food service organization, it's crucial to not just focus on creating products that appeal to your customers.

Equally important is gaining a deep insight into the marketing lifecycle of your guests. This knowledge is a key component in developing and launching an effective loyalty program.

Understanding your audience is important for growing customer loyalty for your food and beverage service brand. Successfully growing customer loyalty requires creating widespread appeal for your brand's offerings, rewards, and benefits among various customer segments.

What You Need to Launch a Guest Lifecycle Marketing Program

Before you dive into launching a restaurant or coffee shop loyalty program, it is essential to establish a guest lifecycle marketing program. 

What is a guest lifecycle marketing program, anyway?

A guest lifecycle marketing program refers to a strategic approach in the hospitality industry, particularly in businesses like restaurants, hotels, and coffee shops, where customer interaction is a key aspect of operations. This program focuses on understanding and managing the various stages a customer (or "guest") goes through during their relationship with the business. The main stages typically include:

1. ‍Awareness: This is where potential customers first learn about the business. Marketing efforts at this stage are aimed at making potential guests aware of the brand, its values, and what it offers. At this stage in the guest marketing lifecycle the popular tools to grow awareness for your brand include social media, highly-targeted Google Ads, guest WiFi captive portals, events and door-to-door direct marketing‍
2. Acquisition: Once customers are aware of the business, the next stage involves enticing them to make their first visit or purchase. This could involve promotional offers, special events, or unique selling points that differentiate the business from competitors. At the customer acquisition point, your strategy is to entice a first-time customer to leave their personal information with permission. Here are a few popular ways to capture personal information: 
   • Ask for an email address or phone number in exchange for a digital receipt
   • Offer $5 offer that a guest can use for their next purchase. If you are selling your products online, offering a $5 coupon for an online purchase is also an attractive benefit.
   • Require guest authentication before offering access to guest amenities like fast and WiFi. ‍
3. Engagement: After the first visit, the goal is to keep the customer engaged with the brand. This involves creating a memorable experience, offering excellent service, and perhaps leveraging loyalty programs to encourage repeat visits.‍
4. Retention: This stage is about turning occasional customers into regulars. Strategies here include personalized communication, loyalty rewards, and consistently meeting or exceeding customer expectations.Advocacy: The final stage is when satisfied customers become brand advocates. They recommend the business to friends and family, leave positive reviews, and share their experiences on social media.

Throughout these stages, businesses generate data and insights on customer preferences, behaviors, and feedback, which are then used to tailor marketing efforts and improve the overall customer experience. The aim of a guest lifecycle marketing program is to create a cycle where new customers are continuously attracted, existing customers are retained, and loyal customers help in attracting more new customers through advocacy. 

Is it safe to say that you're ready to launch a loyalty program? Wait, not so fast! 

9 Reasons that Make Diners Flock to Your Restaurant!

Now that you have a data and automation workflows that is a great source of consumer or guest insights, the next step is understanding guest motivation. Guest motivation refers to the various factors or incentives that influence a customer's decision to make a purchase. Understanding a guest's motivation to choose your restaurant are crucial in marketing and sales strategies. When your restaurant marketing team can understand and effectively utilize these in-depth consumer insight can significantly increase your opportunity to close that sale!

Here are a few factors that influence a consumer's decision to make a purchase:

1. Price: This is one of the most straightforward levers. Consumers are often motivated by the cost of a product or service, with discounts, promotions, and perceived value for money being strong incentives. When a first-time customer gives you a 5-star review, there is a higher chance that they will visit your store again sooner with an offer for a high-value coupon.‍
2. Quality: The perceived quality of a product or service can strongly influence a buying decision. Consumers may be willing to pay more for higher quality, durability, or better performance.
3. ‍Convenience: This lever pertains to how easy and hassle-free it is to purchase and use a product or service. Online shopping, home delivery, easy returns, and user-friendly products are examples of convenience as a buying lever.‍
4. Brand Reputation: A strong, positive brand reputation can be a powerful incentive. Consumers often trust well-known brands and may prefer them over others, even at a higher cost.‍
5. Emotional Appeal: Emotional connection can significantly influence buying decisions. This can include how a product makes a consumer feel, the status it conveys, or the personal identity it helps to express.‍
6. Social Proof: Recommendations from friends, family, or online reviews can act as a lever, as consumers often rely on the experiences of others to make their own purchasing decisions.‍
7. Scarcity: The perception that a product is in limited supply or available for a limited time can create a sense of urgency, driving consumers to purchase more quickly.‍
8. Personalization: Offering personalized or customized products can be a strong incentive, as it appeals to the consumer’s desire for unique or tailor-made solutions.‍
9. Innovation: Consumers are often drawn to new and innovative products, especially those that offer novel solutions or advancements over existing options.‍
10. Ethical Considerations: Increasingly, consumers are motivated by ethical factors such as sustainability, fair trade, and cruelty-free practices.

Now that we have discussed the basics of guest lifecycle marketing and the reasons behind consumer purchases, let's explore some effective loyalty program ideas.

6 Restaurant Loyalty Program Ideas That Are Easy to Implement.

Before jumping in on launching a loyalty program consider the different phases of the guest's lifecycle to help ensure that each phase is covered in your multi-channel marketing implementation. Consider evaluating and implementing successful customer journey programs to encourage loyalty at every step of your process.

Here are some of easy-to-implement restaurant loyalty program ideas to get you started:

Guest Loyalty Program Idea 1: Tiered Rewards, Benefits and VIP Offers

In today's competitive market, understanding why consumers choose specific experiences over others is essential to launching a successful customer loyalty program.  A one-size fits all program is no longer an effective route to growing customer loyalty that delivers ROI.

A one-size fits all program is no longer an effective route to growing customer loyalty.

A customer loyalty program designed as tiered rewards, benefits and with the occasional VIP offer means that your loyalty program engine is capable of programmatically calculating the average spend of a guest after each visit, assigning points based on spend, understanding the current frequency of visit and the optimal spend and visit.

These types of customer loyalty programs are customized for your restaurant or retail brand and programmatically implemented and maintained outside of your basic POS loyalty programs that traditionally rely on $1 = 1 point systems. 

Guest Loyalty Program Idea 2: Messaging Automations  

It is surprisingly easy (and cost-effective!) to show your customers some love with small, meaningful gestures that show how much you value them. Celebrating your customer's special days, like a birthday or anniversary is a great way to do this.

You might want to set up an automated message for their birthday, anniversary, or a special occasion. It's a great way to connect with your customers on a personal level.

Guest Loyalty Program Idea 3: Create a Secret Menu

Okay, first up, who doesn't love a secret menu?! Secret menus are such a fantastic way to entice customers to your loyalty program. They're exciting, desirable, and give participating customers a great community feeling because they have access to something that not everyone can buy from you.

To encourage signups to your loyalty program, you can offer customers who are part of the program a secret menu. You can design your menu however you'd like and in a way that makes sense for your restaurant or hospitality business. That could be creating new dishes or simply serving fun variations of your most popular orders.

Loyal customers will enjoy a sense of special treatment, and you'll find that it's an easy way to get non-members to consider joining your loyalty program.

Guest Loyalty Program Idea 4: Provide Experiential Rewards

These days, customers want more than just a discount or to be offered an item they repeatedly buy for free. It's also hard to stand out from the competition with these generic kinds of loyalty program ideas. You'll often find that a reward or experience makes the customer feel more valued than a free product.

So, what does this look like? You could decide to invite exclusive groups of customers who are part of your loyalty program to have a unique or special experience. Be as imaginative as you like! Anything from a step to the front of the queue pass, or a special seating area would be a great way to make customers feel extra-special.

Guest Loyalty Program Idea 5: Integrate A Referral Program

Referral programs work like a charm, and they'll help you gain more loyal customers. The process can be simple to implement. For example, you could offer a small reward when a loyal customer brings a new customer to your restaurant or coffee shop. As these new customers have great experiences, sign up for your loyalty program and then bring in new customers themselves, your business will gain many more patrons.

It's the ultimate win-win. You get more clients in return for providing a small reward and your clients who refer new customers feel appreciated and valued for bringing you new business.

Guest Loyalty Program Idea 6: Implement a Digital Punch Card Loyalty Program

Recently, GoGoGuest released a new feature that makes it super easy for a single or multi-location coffee shop or restaurant launch a digital punch card program by leveraging the power of data you own. The new feature which takes your traditional punch card paper program in-store to a digital format. This feature is closely integrated with our email marketing platform and guest WiFi captive portal solutions. Learn more then book a demo.

Tips On How To Implement Your Program

We hope you've already found some inspiration for different ways you can set up your loyalty program and encourage customers to join through these restaurant loyalty program ideas.

Up next, we'll share a few ways you can implement your loyalty program as efficiently as possible. Let's go!

Make It Easy For Your Front Of The House Team

Integrating a loyal program in your POS that is unique for your brand is possible! Your POS turns into an actionable CRM that informs your front of the house team about the guest in front of them, making it easy to personalize a menu or product recommendation.

For your guest, it makes the process of enjoying loyalty benefits more streamlined. Customers like being able to enjoy the benefits of a loyalty program quickly, and they will enjoy being able to enjoy instant benefits and rewards.

Execute Through An App And Your Website

These days, your customers don't want to be fumbling in their wallets or purses for loyalty cards. Whether you're implementing a loyalty program for the first time or you're making upgrades to an existing program, consider using an app. Digital loyalty programs are very convenient, and they are also future-proof. Businesses implementing more traditional loyalty programs that require cards will need to upgrade to a digital version of their program at some point in the future. You can save costs by going through the process once.

You'll also find that your customers – especially if they are young – will be very eco-conscious. Many are thinking about reducing unnecessary plastic waste, and they will particularly appreciate not having a plastic card printed for them. It's a small detail, but one that matters.

Digital loyalty programs are easy to track. You'll also find that they capture more valuable data, which you'll be able to analyze quickly and easily.

Keep It Simple

Customers want loyalty programs that make them feel valued and appreciated, and are also easy to use and enjoy. Many restaurant-style businesses think adding all the bells and whistles to a loyalty program will make it more irresistible. Ultimately, you're likely to find that this won't be the case. If customers can't enjoy the experience—if your loyalty program is hard to use or if there are too many rules and regulations—customers will simply avoid signing up.

Customers need to understand how to enjoy your program. Keeping your loyalty program simple and easy to use is always likely to be the winning approach.

Train Your Staff

Training your staff to persuade customers into loyalty programs will help you see a significant uptake in your offering.

Even something as simple as a member of your team asking your customer if they've heard about your loyalty program can make an impact on the number of signups you get. An ideal time to raise the subject and get your staff to explain more about the program is when customers are paying.

Training your staff to explain the benefits of the loyalty program in exactly the right way to customers will also result in more signups for the program.

Always Market Your Loyalty Program Heavily

It's not enough to create a great loyalty program. To get signups, you need to invest time and effort in marketing it. Predominantly, you'll want to make sure your customers are aware of the program and understand why it's an attractive proposition.

Many restaurants tend to avoid marketing their loyalty programs, hoping that it'll get signups by itself. You may get some traction, but you're most likely to see slow registration and less interest than if you market it effectively.

In many ways, marketing a loyalty program is as important as creating one. A loyalty program is an extension of growing brand awareness and increasing audience engagement and yes, conversions!

How Do You Choose The Right Loyalty Technology Partner?

Choosing a loyalty program restaurant technology partner is a critical decision that can significantly impact the efficiency, customer experience, and overall success of a restaurant.

Here are key factors to consider when making this choice:

1. Alignment With Business Needs: The loyalty program requirements for a single restaurant location will differ from those of a multi-location fast-casual restaurant. We recommend running a loyalty analysis that is based on past purchases and frequency of visits. A loyalty analysis offers a  reliable benchmark for developing a suitable loyalty program for your business lifecycle. 
   
2. Ease of Use: The customer facing loyalty program technology should be user-friendly for both your staff and customers. Complex systems can lead to increased training time and potential errors.
3. API Integration Capabilities: Look for a partner whose customer facing loyalty technology can seamlessly integrate with a third-party loyalty program engin via API. This is going to be an advantage when designing a tiered loyalty program. 
4. Scalability: Choose partners whose technology can grow with your business. The system should be able to handle increased volume and additional locations if you plan to expand.
5. Reliability and Support: Ensure the technology is reliable with minimal downtime. Check the level of customer support provided, including availability, response time, and the quality of assistance.
6. Cost-Effectiveness: Evaluate the cost relative to the features and benefits provided. Consider not only the upfront costs but also any ongoing fees, such as subscriptions or maintenance costs.
7. Data Analytics and Reporting: The ability to gather and analyze data is crucial. Choose a partner that offers robust analytics and reporting features to help you make informed business decisions.
8. Security and Compliance: The system should be secure and comply with industry standards, especially for data protection and payment processing (like PCI DSS compliance).
9. Customer Experience Enhancement: Consider how the technology will enhance the customer experience. Features like mobile ordering, redemption and VIP offers can significantly improve customer satisfaction.

Here are some of the benefits of using GoGoGuest as your loyalty program engine. 

• GoGoGuest excels in processing unstructured data from your favorite cloud POS systems and eCommerce platforms. 
• GoGoGuest provides a loyalty program engine that can programmatically calculate complex loyalty tiered rewards, benefits, and VIP offers.
• GoGoGuest has the capability to effortlessly send and automate data-workflows from a cloud POS system, eCommerce platform, and the CMS of your loyalty program application.
• GoGoGuest comes with built-in tools including email marketing, SMS marketing, a digital loyalty punch card program, analytics and insights.

Conclusion

Understanding and implementing a successful guest marketing lifecycle program is important for successfully launching a loyalty program for your restaurant.

When resources are limited, it is essential for a restaurateur to prioritize the guest marketing and loyalty programs, establish short-term and long-term goals and validate your assumptions before fully investing in a loyalty program that does not differentiate or motivate your target audience. 

Are you ready to activate a guest lifecycle marketing program for your restaurant business? Book a demo.