Chances are, your restaurant has already invested in or is considering implementing a loyalty program to drive repeat purchase and collect customer data. By 2020, the popularity of loyalty programs had exploded, and they’ve become a “must-have” for restaurants, as well as many industries across the board. In 2021, Square found that 42% of restaurants planned to invest in customer loyalty programs.
Why has this strategy become so crucial for restaurants? Because there is strong evidence that consumers respond to them — not only with increased purchases, but in higher ticket amounts, as well. According to one report, 69% of respondents said loyalty platforms bring them back to a restaurant, making this an incredible way to get people back through your doors. Loyal customers also spend 60% more per transaction, making them some of your best customers.
Additionally, loyalty programs help brick-and-mortar businesses amass customer visit data in a way they previously couldn’t. In its oldest form, guest visit data was tracked with punch cards, an easy way to know if a guest had been there before, incentivize return visits, and reward loyalty. More recently, it’s through a loyalty program. Loyalty has become one of the main ways to associate visit data with specific guest profiles, allowing a business to incentivize repeat purchases and understand customer behavior.
If you’ve implemented a loyalty program for your restaurant, you’ve likely seen some of these benefits. But you may have also noticed some of the drawbacks. This article will cover some of the shortcomings of loyalty programs and share how Adentro can help fill in those gaps to complement your loyalty program.
The Limitations of Restaurant Loyalty Programs
Until the implementation of loyalty programs, restaurants lacked the ability to track in-depth customer behavior. Now, with loyalty technology, restaurants can collect more sophisticated data, specifically visit data, that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Loyalty programs have become one of the only options available to associate visit data with specific guest profiles, allowing restaurants to understand customer behavior and develop personalized marketing communications.
The problem is that restaurants can’t rely on loyalty programs as their only data source.
In a best-case scenario, loyalty programs only capture 20%-40% of the customers who walk through your door. Even Starbucks, who has one of the most robust loyalty programs, only sees 40% of their sales coming from loyalty customers. This not only means that upwards of 60% of customers go under the radar, but it also means that if you’re basing major business decisions off of insights based on a few, you could be missing some real money-making opportunities.
When you’re missing visit data on the majority of your customer base, you’re unable to get a true understanding of the individual customer segments, making it nearly impossible to develop relevant messaging and marketing to engage them. Treating all customers the same, or assuming they have the same relationship with your brand, will only degrade the quality of your marketing and communication. This results in a “spray and pray” type of marketing plan, resulting in inefficient and unoptimized campaigns.
The inability to achieve personalized messaging based on their visit behaviors will ultimately hold back the effectiveness of your efforts, as more and more businesses today are leveraging this powerful tactic.
Adentro Fills in the Data Gaps
If you’re looking for a way to achieve greater visibility into the majority of your customer base, there’s new technology that can help. Adentro goes hand-in-hand with your loyalty program, helping you build the ultimate CRM to fuel and measure your marketing efforts by capturing customer visit data for both loyalty AND non-loyalty members who visit your physical location.
How It Works
1. Pair Adentro with the guest WiFi in your restaurant.
If you’re offering guest WiFi at your restaurant, you’re already halfway there! Setting up Adentro can be as simple as adjusting the configurations on your existing WiFi access points. Our support team makes installation a breeze.
2. Automatically collect in-store customer data.
Now when a guest accesses your WiFi network through your branded portal page, both their email address AND mobile device ID are captured and sent directly to your CRM, enabling the creation of a guest profile. From there, the platform automatically captures the guest’s visit data such as visit frequency, dwell time, peak hours, demographic breakdowns, and more. The best part is, after a guest accesses the WiFi for the first time, the router can auto-detect their every future visit without additional sign-ons.
3. Leverage your in-store customer data for digital marketing.
Whether you want to send first-time visitors a welcome email or retarget your guests with online advertising, Adentro helps fuel your marketing efforts AND prove ROI with the proprietary Walk-Through Rate™— the number of people who come to your restaurant after seeing a message.
Essentially, this technology captures the same type of visit data as a loyalty program, if not more seamlessly and for a larger number of customers. Even when customers sign up for your loyalty program, they have to remember to use it every time they make a purchase. With Adentro, they just have to log in to the WiFi once, and from there, their visits are automatically tracked and associated with their profile in your CRM. When you pair this technology with your loyalty program to fuel more data collection, your visibility will significantly increase beyond the mere 20% of your loyalty customers.
What does it look like when these technologies work together? Here are just a few examples:
- You can use Adentro to seamlessly collect customer visit data via the WiFi and then leverage that visit data in your loyalty program to send rewards.
- You can set up an email that’s automatically triggered to send to new customers who have signed onto your WiFi through the Adentro platform. In this email, you can promote sign-ups for your loyalty program.
- Through Adentro, you can see in-depth visit data that your loyalty program may not be able to track automatically. Consider options like labeling “lunch guests” or “happy hour guests,” or using dwell time to designate a specific segment of customers who spend a long time in your restaurant with each visit. With this data, you can create more personalized messaging and further segment your loyalty customers.
How Anthony’s Pizza Doubled their Loyalty Program Reach with Adentro.
Many restaurants have seen incredible results by pairing their loyalty programs with Adentro. For example, Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza doubled their loyalty program reach after implementing Adentro. Read on to see how they achieved this impressive outcome.
The Challenge
Anthony’s goal was to know every customer, making them feel special and at home. But as the business grew, maintaining this level of hospitality became quite a challenge. To stay connected with customers at scale, they would have to modernize their technology. No single solution reached 100% of customers, so they needed options that paired well together.
The Solution
Anthony’s began working with Adentro and Paytronix, and the two platforms paired perfectly. Adentro was an effective way to get to know new customers, collect their contact information, and personalize communication. Paytronix, a guest loyalty platform, was valuable in rewarding them for visits, increasing loyalty, and understanding their preferences.
After integrating data flows between Adenro and Paytronix, Anthony’s was able to save a ton of time and effort. Customer contact information and visit behavior was collected through Adentro and flowed automatically to Paytronix, where it was used to reward customers for their visits. By using WiFi to connect with new guests and track visits, participation in Anthony’s rewards program grew at a much faster rate. It provided a single source of truth for guest information.
The Results
By integrating Adentro with their Paytronix customer loyalty program and removing friction from the sign-up process, Anthony’s Coal Fired Club Rewards program has doubled in size. They’ve collected 7,000+ emails every month with a database that surpassed 150,000 in under a year.
With the ability to combine contact information with each customer’s visit history, Anthony’s automatically uses email to welcome new customers and encourage visits. For example, they use Adentro Smart Emails to re-engage with customers who haven’t visited in a while. Anthony’s brought back more than 1,800 lapsed customers during their first year using this strategy.
Getting Started with Adentro
We’ve helped hundreds of restaurants like yours improve their marketing performance by up to 400%. Get started today to better understand your guests, launch more effective marketing, and increase ROI.
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