Blog

This week, Newsweek, in partnership with Statista, published a power ranking of the best loyalty programs in the country. We at Paytronix extend our congratulations to our 12 clients who made the list, accounting for more than a quarter of all restaurant brands awarded a place in the ranking, which recognized over 200 brands across 43 categories. 

Huddle House made an impressive showing, coming in as the second-highest rated program across all categories. 

Of the 10 casual dining brands recognized in the Newsweek ranking, five are Paytronix clients, including the top three – Huddle House, Beef O’Brady’s and P.F. Chang’s – along with Lettuce Entertain You and Bloomin’ Brands, which includes restaurants like Outback Steakhouse and Bonefish Grill. 

Caribou Coffee was awarded the highest score of all recognized coffee brands, beating out caffeine giants like Starbucks and Dunkin’ for the top spot. […]

The National Restaurant Association announced this month its forecasted trends for the industry in 2021. The trends largely represent a continued reliance on off-premises services and indicate that the association anticipates the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to exert a heavy influence over the industry throughout the next year.

Restaurant brands that haven’t already found their ideal technology partner must do so now, as industry trends and shifting consumer preference both indicate that omnichannel digital experiences are the future of hospitality.

“Technology that might have been ‘nice to have’ before the pandemic suddenly became ‘need to have’ to enable touchless transactions,” the association wrote in its prediction. “Many of the innovations deployed not only helped keep restaurants afloat in 2020, they also signal the trends shaping 2021.”

Here’s the technology the NRA expects to define the restaurant industry this year:

1. Off-premises foodservice takes precedence

Pre-pandemic, 80% of FSRs’ traffic was on-premises, according to the association. Now, curbside pickup and delivery are the bread and butter of all service types, not just QSRs. […]

Gift card programs are a staple of the restaurant industry. They benefit top-line revenue, create brand advocates out of guests, and can be used to bolster community relations, employee dining, and to recover guests. For all their benefits, however, gift cards can put a drain on accounting resources and add friction to franchisee relationships.

Managing a successful gift card program is far from simple. Below are six critical considerations that all restaurant brands must take into account in order to maximize the benefits of their gift programs.

[…]

Gift cards make gift-giving easier for consumers and provide a valuable revenue stream for restaurants. Unfortunately, gift card fraud is a common and pervasive problem for merchants. According to a recent report by Mercator Advisory Group, fraud affecting digital gift cards alone represents a $950 million annual loss to the gift card industry – and that doesn’t account for physical card fraud.

A common form of fraud that targets the merchant involves criminals’ use of technology to “guess” the gift account numbers at lightning speed, enabling them to test many randomly generated numbers until they hit a valid card. When successful, this approach, called a “brute force attack,” is the first step in enabling criminals to access the value on compromised cards.  

Any form of stored value is susceptible to fraud, including comp cards and stored value linked to a loyalty program. 

There are some steps merchants can take to reduce fraud exposure, typically provided by the gift card provider. When choosing a provider, ensure the following safeguards are in place:

Avoidance of sequential numbers. While using sequential numbers when issuing gift cards seems like a logical thing to do, it vastly increases the potential for fraud. Sequential numbers allow criminals to make educated guesses about subsequent card numbers in a series. You’ll want a provider that randomizes the number sequence on the gift cards it issues in order to prevent criminals from deducing entire card numbers. […]