The popularity of loyalty programs has been on the rise, and in 2021, Square found that 42% of restaurants planned to invest in customer loyalty programs. This strategy has become crucial for restaurants because there is strong evidence that customers respond to them — not only with increased purchases but with higher ticket amounts. Loyal customers 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 digital loyalty programs that allow for not just data collection, but data actionability to achieve business results. 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.
While the benefits of a loyalty program are immense, getting one off the ground can take a significant amount of time, budget, and resources. When considering whether a loyalty program is right for your business, running a test or beta program before committing to a larger investment is always a good idea. This article explains the benefits that Adentro can provide as both a testing ground for a net-new loyalty program, and/or a complementary extension of an existing loyalty program.
The Benefits of Adentro
Even in a best-case scenario, many loyalty programs only capture 20-30% of the customers who walk through your door. This means that upwards of 70% of customers go under the radar. Adentro helps fill this significant gap by collecting data on every single customer who logs on to your WiFi, not just customers who decide to opt-in to your loyalty program.
So whether you decide to use the Adentro platform to test out a new loyalty program or use it to compliment your existing loyalty program, it will dramatically accelerate your data collection. Here are some of the additional benefits of using Adentro to build your CRM and optimize your marketing efforts.
Simple Setup
Adentro pairs with your in-store WiFi network to track guest visit behavior and fuel your marketing efforts. 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.
Sophisticated Data Collection
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.
Increase Loyalty Sign Ups
Due to the WiFi connection, the Adentro marketing platform can identify any customer who is new to your CRM and serve them with a Welcome email inviting them to sign up for your loyalty program. This automated feature is a set-it-and-forget-it tactic to promote your loyalty program to current customers.
Seamless User Experience
After a guest accesses your in-store WiFi for the first time, the router can auto-detect every future visit without additional sign-ons. Loyalty rewards are then automatically sent to customers without them having to do anything during their visit.
Automated Rewards
With Adentro’s Smart Email automation tool, restaurants can set up emails that are triggered based on a guest’s visit behavior. So your rewards system only takes one initial setup and then runs on its own from there.
How It Works
Once you’ve paired Adentro with the guest WiFi in your restaurant, it can act as a virtual punch card for customers who have signed into the WiFi by keeping track of their visit behavior. From there, you can set up automated emails that are triggered based on visit behavior. Let’s dive into how exactly this works.
1. Set up Smart Emails to send loyalty rewards based on visit behavior.
With Adentro, you can set up automatic emails for loyalty customer milestones that are triggered based on the number of visits to your physical location a guest has completed. These only require a one-time initial setup, helping you maintain the relationship without repetitive effort.
For example, let’s say a customer visits you three times, you can set up a Smart Email that will automatically send them an email promotion for 15% off their next appetizer to reward them for their loyalty. Later, once they have visited you 7 times, another Smart Email might trigger with a $5 off reward on their next visit. Considering the appropriate expiration dates on the promotions are key, because putting guard rails such as “must be used in 30 days” will help encourage usage and another visit sooner rather than later.
Restaurants frequently ask us how often they should reward their customers, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. You know your customers better than anyone. If your restaurant or business is one people visit several times per week, like a coffee shop, you may want to set a higher number of visits to trigger your loyalty emails.
2. Set up Labels to define customer segments.
Adentro Labels give brick-and-mortar businesses the ability to automatically segment their customers based on visit data such as time of day and day of week that a guest visited. Once a Label is set up, customers are automatically tagged based on their visit behavior. For instance, you can create a Lunch Guest or Happy Hour label and then serve those customers more relevant promotions in the future.
3. Measure real results.
Many restaurants struggle to tie online data back to in-store results such as revenue and guest visits, which is a big problem that Adentro solves. The Adentro Dashboard reveals the real results of all your marketing initiatives, including your loyalty program, by showing you how many people walked through your doors after seeing an ad or an email. This provides valuable information you need to pivot loyalty campaigns and optimize for the best possible ROI.
How Restaurants Use Adentro to Reward Guests
How exactly are Adentro customers using the platform to test out their loyalty programs? Let’s dive into some examples from a few different restaurants.
Welcome Email
To invite guests to their loyalty rewards program, Humperdinks has a Smart Email scheduled to send to anyone who visits their Greenville Ave. location for the first time. This email explains what guests will get by becoming a loyal customer so they feel incentivized to visit again.
Welcome Back Email
Once a guest returns to Humperdinks, a Smart Email is triggered to welcome them back. This email informs the guest of the weekly food specials and lets them know that they’re only one visit away from a loyalty reward.
Rewards Email
Once a guest has visited a certain number of times, Keystone Bar & Grill congratulates loyal members with a free craft burger. This email also includes a “Redeem” button that will reveal the promo code a guest can use as they pay for their meal.
