Blog

Enrolling younger generations of guests into your rewards program can help your brand grow and maintain a strong core of loyal members for the foreseeable future. And these days, many brands believe that doing this requires their enrollment strategies to evolve so they keep up with the enrollment preferences of their increasingly younger guests. This is only partially true.

Your program should be a living and breathing entity. Adapting to match the engagement preferences of new customers will help your program attract new guests who are more comfortable using technology to connect with brands. Adaption is not a metamorphosis, but rather an expansion of enrollment methods to attract younger demographics.

Let’s say your program enrollment began exclusively as a card-based operation, and the only way members could enroll was by obtaining a plastic card in-store. You probably already know that attracting millennials to your program will help you build a sustainable base of loyal guests. So supplementing your card program by adding enrollment channels such as text-to-join or enabling enrollment via a mobile app or an online ordering system make sense. […]

You’ve launched a great loyalty program and your staff members are handing out a lot of activated cards to customers. Why aren’t enough of your customers registering these cards? Until the customers register their loyalty cards by entering their information, you don’t know anything about them and they can’t redeem any rewards. Your program depends on these registrations, but they’re not happening enough. Sounds like a lose-lose, right?

One restaurant chain figured out how to turn this scenario into a win-win. National Coney Island (NCI) is a quick-service restaurant serving Coney Island-style hot dogs and cuisine to the Metro Detroit area. They realized during the summer of 2014 that only 30% of their Coney Bucks^TM rewards cards were being registered. That means that a whopping 70% of customers were accepting rewards cards but not registering their account. Because NCI couldn’t get to know those guests or track their information, they weren’t able to give them the most relevant offers possible. […]

Bravo Brio Restaurant Group (BBRG) has at last found the right rewards rhythm after launching, testing, and then relaunching its rewards program. After putting a lot of resources into discovering what works best for their audience, BBRG’s program structure now suits the needs of its customers. The catchy name seamlessly ties everything together: Eat, Repeat, Reward. Naming a rewards program is a delicate task, and BBRG totally nailed it on all fronts. Here’s why: […]