A “We Miss You” Offer Yields 10.9 times the Investment in ROI
All restaurants strive to keep guests coming back again and again. But inevitably, some guests stop visiting for reasons that may not be apparent to the restaurateur. Faced with this common challenge, a fast-casual chain looked to its loyalty program for a win-back solution.
Since the economics of winning back an existing guest are far more lucrative than compelling new guest trials, the chain decided to identify guests who were not actively visiting so that it could motivate them to return for at least one more visit.
The promotion began by identifying guests who had not visited within the previous 60 days. Then, on a monthly basis, the chain sent the target audience an email with a “We Miss You” message announcing a $10 offer. If the recipients visited within the month-long promotion period, they would receive $10 off their check.
Paytronix technology enabled this promotion by:
- Using the account filter tool to determine the targeted list according to guest activity within the restaurant
- Setting rules that ensured that the offer was placed on the members’ accounts for the limited time period and was only able to be used one time within the 30-day promotion window.
- Scheduling an automated campaign to identify lapsed guests on a monthly basis, deploying an email message, and then setting the offer to expire at the end of the promo period.
- Providing results for the chain to measure the campaign’s efficacy.
Based on more than a year’s worth of results, the merchant is experiencing about a 20% response rate for the program.
During the promotional period, the merchant compelled targeted guests to dine at a greater visit rate than that of its average member. Plus, after the initial offer period, about a third of these guests continued to visit at a rate that was close to the restaurant’s average member visit rate of 1.35 visits per month.
For every $10,000 spent on rewarding these guests for returning, the chain realized an annual financial return of 10.9 times the investment.
Win-back campaigns provide a profitable opportunity for restaurants operating loyalty programs to reactivate guests who otherwise would have silently discontinued dining at their restaurants.
