A photo of the posts author

Ryan DiLello

Twice Daily Drives Huge Results

At NACS 2023 Twice Daily’s Director of Marketing Eric Rush joined Paytronix Chief Revenue Officer Charles Gray on stage to discuss how the brand is taking off thanks to its Digital Guest Engagement program. The fast-growing brand launched made-to-order in all its locations after revamping its mobile app with Paytronix Online Ordering earlier in 2023, and now it’s leveraging Paytronix Strategy & Analytics to personalize the loyalty experience. Here’s what the audience learned. 

The economics of loyalty programs: ROI and buy-in go hand-in-hand.
Since revamping its mobile app in April, Twice Daily attributes more than 34% of checks to its loyalty program. The brand’s online ordering, enhanced with personalized loyalty segmentation, has grown 400% since January. When asked for the strategies behind those numbers, Rush talked about buy-in as the fuel.

“The stores with fully engaged employees have higher mobile ordering numbers and redemption rates. If you can get a store leader or district leader involved and really believing in the program, those will be your best stores,” Rush said. 
​​​
That begins with treating loyalty as a collective business decision, he said. “This isn’t a marketing program. If it feels like a marketing thing, then it’ll get treated like marketing things. And we know how that goes… But if it’s a company-wide program, then everybody gets in on it. When the VP of operations is talking about something, that’s when ears go up, and that’s what you need internally,” Rush said.

“We had a general manager conference in May. The CEO, CFO, CMO and VP of Marketing, all on stage, at some point, spoke about the loyalty program. Since then, we’ve seen loyalty penetration throughout our stores grow by four to five percent,” Rush said. 

With sugary snacks and cigarettes on the decline, loyalty programs transition customers to food service.

After Twice Daily launched made-to-order food services, it leveraged Paytronix Strategy & Analytics to send segmented food service offers to customers who had bought the same items in prepackaged form. 

“We are establishing ourselves as a food service offering that sells fuel, not a gas station that sells some sandwiches,” Rush said. “And making that switch is real hard. It takes time. The point of a loyalty program here is to convert people over to made-to-order food with segmentation.”

And thanks to Paytronix Mobile Experience Builder, Twice Daily offers customers the same customization and speedy communications they would receive in store, on their phone. 

Leverage vendor funding to acquire customers, segment to retain them.

Twice Daily leans on vendor-funded promotions to build its marketable database with offers that appeal to everyone. From there, customers follow a personalized nurturing flow that drives them to the critical third-visit, at which point customer lifetime value triples and their likelihood to visit reaches 88%.

“You have to lean on CPG vendors,” Rush said. “It’s crucial to getting [loyalty] off the ground.” Twice Daily is leveraging Paytronix reporting to provide vendors with the data they need and more in exchange for free items to reward customers. 

As Twice Daily “fills the funnel” of new customers, Rush explained the loyalty program grows more personalized and complex to keep customers engaged. “As we get further into our program and the data gets a little richer, we have the ability to segment out and start doing promotions that feel more unique to each guest,” Rush said. “From something like National Peanut Butter Lovers Day down to individual offers based on guest preference. You start broad and work your way down. As you get more data, you get smarter and artificial intelligence kicks in,” Rush said.

“And that leads to strong retention,” Gray added. “If a customer feels like an offer is unique to them, they are more likely to visit.”

Plan for an AI-Driven Future
With 1:1 campaigns and day-of-week segmentation to drive messaging engagement, Twice Daily is already leveraging artificial intelligence. But as the brand looks toward the future of its guest engagement strategy, Rush explained he hopes to use artificial intelligence to further personalize menus, loyalty offers, and email subject lines.

“We’re trying to get AI to do as much as possible, without replacing us,” Rush said. “Right now, we’re using day-of-week scores to send customers messages based on their opening times and days. Same with push-pull messages from the app. Eventually, I’d like to use AI to test subject lines.”

“And the other piece is the mobile ordering menu optimization based on what they’re already ordering. Like Amazon, I want my menu to look different than someone else’s menu. And that way, when we run promotions based on categories we know they’re shopping, that will drive a higher return.”

Learn how mobile apps can help you deliver your brand promise.

Comments Off on Twice Daily Drives Huge Results

Playing the Game: How WOB Bar & Kitchen Gamified Loyalty

Loyalty gamification offers a great way to connect with the growing demographic of young, tech-savvy guests.

Simply put, gamification means applying “game play” to different aspects of the digital marketing.  When it comes to loyalty, this can happen at three levels: core, layers, and promotions.

World of Beer tackled this at the core level in which its entire program rests on a game. Gamified layers would be actions like adding badges to the program, while gamified promotions are short-lived game-based discounts, like a free offering when your favorite sports team wins.

World of Beer is seeing smashing results with its gamified loyalty program. Founded in 2007 in Tampa, Florida as a craft beer bar that serves a variety of brews from across the world. WOB has a long-running loyalty program that awards guests $5 for every $75 spent. It then gamifies the whole program with badges and challenges.

Two recent challenges this year saw between 10-25% increases in spend and completion rates over 90%.

“Customers can earn badges when they try different beers. The badges are to honor their achievements, which they can show off to friends,” explained Cori Rosecrans, Director of Brand & Digital Marketing for World of Beer. Customers can enter challenges for their chances at more than just bragging rights. “We encourage customers to try beers and [enter for a chance to] win trips to beer capitals of the world. These challenges help highlight our [brand] differentiators and our assortment of beers.” More than fun, the challenges have produced serious results. Two recent challenges this year saw between 10-25% increases in spend and completion rates over 90%.

World of Beer’s loyalty program shapes its brand experience. At every engagement, guests climb the ranks of badge leaderboards and try their luck at life-changing prizes. As a digital engagement strategy, WOB’s gamified loyalty program keeps guests coming back and drives revenue.

Wondering how your brand might benefit from gamification? Speak to a loyalty expert at Paytronix today.

Comments Off on Playing the Game: How WOB Bar & Kitchen Gamified Loyalty

6 Horrors of Gift Card Programs

Successful programs give brand advocates a simple way to refer your brand to friends, family, and colleagues. Some programs are also used to bolster relations throughout local communities, as well as for trade programs, employee dining, and guest recovery. Overall, gift card programs are beneficial for top-line revenue, but at the same time, they can become a drain on accounting resources and add friction to franchisee relationships.

See if you can relate to any of the gift program horror stories below. And check out the tips offered to steer clear of them.

 

Not Enough Channels
Being Chained to Spreadsheets
Recurring Auditor Nightmares
Holding Guests Hostage
The Franchisee Freak-Out
Guest Recovery Grief
previous arrow
next arrow
 
Not Enough Channels
Being Chained to Spreadsheets
Recurring Auditor Nightmares
Holding Guests Hostage
The Franchisee Freak-Out
Guest Recovery Grief
previous arrow
next arrow
 
 

To learn more about how to optimize your gift card program, click here: https://www.paytronix.com/platform/payments/

Comments Off on 6 Horrors of Gift Card Programs

What Can Restaurants Learn from Netflix?

Subscription programs have emerged as a key component in the restaurant marketing toolkit. Like the loyalty programs on which they’re based, well-designed subscription programs keep guests returning and help drive incremental value. They also reach important demographic groups to produce long-term benefits.

The latest collaborative study between Paytronix and PYMNTS, The Digital Divide: Restaurant Subscribers and Loyalty Programs, finds that subscription programs help restaurants lock in their most valuable and loyal customers.

Survey results show that 75% of non-subscribed consumers are at least “slightly interested” in joining a restaurant subscription program. And there’s a significant chance that new subscribers will become highly valuable to a brand.

Today’s restaurant subscribers are among the industry’s most engaged, and loyal customers. They visit more often, spend more, and stick around for longer.

It’s therefore no surprise that a strong correlation exists, as 80% of subscribers also use loyalty programs.

Subscription programs tap into a particularly valuable consumer demographic: the bridge millennial. College-educated, tech-savvy, and wealthy, this group takes full advantage of a brand’s loyalty offerings and spends more than the average consumer.

Subscribers have indicated that their primary needs are convenience, simplicity, and value. For most brands, implementing a subscription program is a logical step because it involves many of the elements that are already at the core of the guest experience.

Comments Off on What Can Restaurants Learn from Netflix?