How to Create a Restaurant Loyalty Program That Works

Building customer loyalty is challenging, to say the least, but if your goal is motivating guests to visit more often and spend more when they do, then learning how to create a restaurant loyalty program is essential. Because guests aren’t all the same, the ways they want to interact with your brand will vary. 

Before you start creating a loyalty program to boost incremental visits and revenue, there are four key areas to address:  

1. Determine which loyalty program will best engage your guests.  
2. Discover the loyalty program design that best aligns with your brand and operations. 
3. Decide what kind of program your staff can effectively execute. 
4. Model your loyalty program costs, incentives, profits and losses, and tech stack (including a restaurant website builder) that fit within your restaurant marketing budget and overall restaurant marketing plan.

First, consider the type of rewards program that will resonate with your guests. This is unique to each restaurant and is influenced by your brand concept, menu, server interactions, and business needs. 

Keeping those factors in mind, you can then begin outlining your restaurant loyalty app, which consists of three main elements:  

1. Core Program: This is the heart of your loyalty program and defines the rewards and how they are earned and redeemed. Successful core programs motivate your guests to visit more often and spend more money at your business. The format of your core program can be one that automatically rewards guests for accumulating a set amount of points or one that rewards them after reaching a certain number of visits. This is where picking the program that best aligns with your brand and your business objectives is crucial to your success. 
2. Layered Programs: These are additional benefits that run concurrently with the core program. Examples include rewarding guests on their birthday and donating a portion of an individual’s spending to a brand-aligned charity. These layered programs differentiate your business and strengthen your guests’ connection to it. 
3. Promotions: These are targeted offers sent to boost traffic during slow periods, increase guest spending, or even win back lapsed guests. As a means of influencing buying behavior, promotions are fun, one-off interactions that create real urgency and drive sales. 

By considering each of these three elements, you will be able to structure your loyalty program in a way that appeals to your guests. A fast-casual restaurant wanting to increase visits may choose a core program of visit frequency that includes birthday rewards and promotions like double points and visit challenges. 

Meanwhile, a restaurant looking to build relationships may opt for a core program of bankable points layered with limited-time offers and surprise-and-delight rewards. Aligning your program with your business goals and your customers’ behavior will provide the best results.  

To learn more about the various types of loyalty programs, download our eBook “Choosing a Loyalty Program That’s Right for You.”