12 Restaurant Loyalty Program Designs Put Into Action
As a restaurant owner, you’re constantly working, be it inside the eating space, helping staff, or at your home office doing paperwork. So, suffice to say that your time is already quite strained. But there’s one thing that you should always find the hours for: Marketing, and more specifically customer loyalty marketing.
With the right customer loyalty rewards program, you can not only help boost the number of patrons coming through your doors, but you will also increase your restaurant’s brand recognition at the same time. Need some help ideating some loyalty program to incorporate into your restaurant’s marketing plan? Here are 12 to marinate on.
1. Create Loyalty Programs that are Seasonal
Being an eatery, odds are you likely already have a seasonal bevy of ever-rotating products, dishes, and what not. To help bring light to those seasonal offerings, all while increasing table counts, consider offering season-based loyalty deals. This can be anything from “buy one seasonal dish, and get double the stamps” or “get one free Christmas cookie after collecting 3 stamps.” rewarding your most loyal customers with both a sale and reward stamps.
2. Use a Loyalty Program to Boost Slow Days and Times
Often, Tuesday and Wednesdays are the slowest days of the week, with lunches being even slower during those periods. To help boost sales during those times, offer time-sensitive deals, like “get 30 percent off during lunch hours Monday through Wednesday.” or “Present your card to enjoy 2 for 1 on Main courses on Monday’s only”. These loyalty deals can help funnel in both new and regular customers into times where the restaurant might otherwise be empty.
3. Give the Gift of Food
One of the most overlooked avenues to market your restaurant is offering gift packages. Think about offering special “ready-to-go” single or family meals that your loyalty program members can pick up. This not only helps to lessen the load of the wait staff, helping to funnel business outside the restaurant, but it also helps bring awareness to your place. People who might be sharing a large meal package that aren’t acquainted with your eatery will now be familiar with it.
4. Embrace Gift Card-focused Campaigns
Pretty much all ever loyalty programs for restaurants feature the option of buying gift cards, be it in physical or digital form. And given that gift cards are one of the most popular things given as presents and tokens of gratitude, it’d be wise of you to start looking into them.
5. Give Stamps for Referring a Friend
Another great avenue to help corral new business from is to create a loyalty program that offers benefits and “stamps” for referring new customers. This is an incredibly (and effective) way to boost organic exposure, all while giving even more value to your most loyal clientele.
6. Reward Online Delivery Options
Nowadays with the advent of things like UberEats and Deliveroo, you can get virtually any meal delivery to your doorstep. That, and it’s also becoming more popular, as well. Try incorporating certain deals and specials on deliverable dishes to your loyalty members can enjoy on such food delivery services, helping to increase profits outside of the physical restaurant.
7. Time-Sensitive Campaigns
Have a surplus amount of baked goods you want to sell before the end of the day? Employ a time-sensitive campaign for loyalty members. These deals can be pushed digitally, right to the member’s smartphone, and may read like “Stop by 5 pm today to get buy one, get two pastries! We made too many.”
8. Mobile-only Campaigns
One way to get people to start investing in your mobile loyalty program is to feature “mobile-only” deals. These could be anything from specials to giveaways, but they exist only on mobile, i.e. they can only be claimed via your digital stamp card. This will help you move your loyalty members away from paper and plastic cards, saving you both time and money creating them, while also keeping unnecessary paper waste out of landfills.
9. Trip Rewards
A great way to ensure people are more likely to visit your eater again is to offer “trip rewards.” On your second trip? Enjoy 15 percent off your meal? Going in for a third dinner? Have a free dessert on us. Deals like these tend to fare well with loyalty members.
10. Give Out Perks to Members Who Pass Milestones
A fantastic means to bolster both customer loyalty and expanding your loyalty program is to honor milestones members might have. This could be anything from birthdays and anniversaries, to celebrating a year being a loyalty member to your restaurant. Consider tieing in certain deals and specials for these milestones your loyalty members will have.
11. Embrace a Tier Structure and Member Level
An establishment that offers certain levels of member statues often finds that lower-ranking members are keen on spending time and money on their services to climb that ladder. In regards to your restaurant, this helps grow a loyal, profitable fan base, while also fostering customer relationships and value. It’s a win-win situation, really.
12. Offer Loyalty Deals for Date Night
Even to this day, one of the most common places to have a date is inside a restaurant. And because of this influx of dates coming through your door, why not capitalize on it, creating a loyal fan base while doing so? Consider having a loyalty program that features certain deals or specials that can be taken advantage of. Also, this is a great way to, in a way, get two birds with one stone, looping two individuals into signing up for your restaurant’s loyalty program.
Feel inspired? Let’s get digital.
If it isn’t clear by now: An engaged customer base created through loyalty programs is priceless. Creating a digital loyalty program will not only help drive up your sales but aid in fostering a loyal customer base that can lead to years, if not decades, of loyal service.
A digital loyalty card isn’t complicated to set up or expensive. You don’t need a POS. You don’t need a CRM. You certainly don’t need to be technical. All you need is an internet connection and a smartphone!
Visit https://loopyloyalty.com/ to create your very own digital loyalty program today.
