5 Easy Steps To Create A Loyalty Program

Sponsored by Smooth CommerceThe best loyalty programs both encourage customers to keep coming back and help to create an unforgettable user experience that fosters word of mouth. In the National Restaurant Association’s 2022 State of the Industry report, it found that 80 percent of adults, including 90 percent of Gen Z and millennials, said they would probably join a loyalty and rewards program if it was offered at a favourite local restaurant.

Here are 5 simple tips to help you put together a robust loyalty program for your restaurant:

The Hook

Grab customer attention by showcasing your value proposition and highlighting the benefits they get from enrolling in your loyalty program. The most common ways of driving such behaviour are through discounts, coupons, and rewards. This could include cash-backs, freebies, and exclusive member benefits. An enticing incentive should not only encourage your customers to enroll in your loyalty program but also keep them engaged and drive them to keep buying again and again.

Make Sign-Up Easy

After you have conveyed your value proposition, the next important step is to ensure an easy and seamless experience for your customers to enroll in your loyalty program. Most brands minimize the number of mandatory fields to complete for sign-up, sometimes only requiring an email address along with additional optional fields like a birth date which could be used for birthday rewards.

Stay in Touch

Reaching out to your customers with constant updates, relevant offers and announcements keeps you on top of mind and increases the chances of them coming back to your restaurant, either online or in person. If your restaurant has its own branded app, this can be done through an in-app marketing feed, push notifications or both.

User Experience

The easier it is for your customers to collect rewards and claim offers and discounts the better. A digital reward card with an in-store scan to pay allows syncing rewards with online and offline purchases, and your customers do not have to carry around a physical card. Then offering automatic discounts/offers while they are cashing out in-store or online adds to a seamless user experience, and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Collect Feedback

Collecting regular feedback is important for any loyalty program to thrive. Sending out regular survey forms and asking your customers for feedback will help you identify what your customers want and tailor your loyalty program to ensure it’s a win-win for you and your customers.

As a restaurant owner or operator, the importance of fostering a lasting connection with your customers helps build their lifetime value (LTV) and that can be done through a loyalty program. With almost half of customers saying that the reason for ordering was because they could order through the restaurant’s app or website, embedding a loyalty program within a digital ordering solution is a very effective way to generate a return on your digital investment. It has been found that loyalty leaders grow revenues roughly 2.5 times faster than their industry peers.

Having your own online ordering system with a loyalty program is not only the guests’ preference but also gives you more flexibility to customize the experience for each person.

With a Smooth Commerce digital ordering, customer marketing and loyalty platform for restaurants, your guests can share their information with you directly, instead of a 3rd party and this enables you to improve the effectiveness of your marketing and loyalty program. Smooth shares your customer data through our DIY merchant portal so you can settle your accounts, know your customers and optimize your menus and operations.

To learn more about how Smooth Commerce can provide your restaurant with a digital solution that fosters customer loyalty and supercharge restaurant sales, visit Smooth.Tech