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Loyalty Programs for Restaurant Marketing
Need Advice? Talk to an Expert
Written by: Hilary Young | Published: August 26th 2024
There are a ton of strategies you can use to market your restaurant, and one of those is implementing a loyalty program to keep your customers coming back time and again. Finding ways to not only engage and reward your loyal customers, but to also better understand their needs and behavior through data and analytics can be a key component to business growth.
We’ve identified some of the strongest loyalty programs on the market to help you grow your business, including bonus options for best digital gift card and best digital punch card system.
Three Reasons for Your Restaurant to Invest in a Loyalty Program
Not sure whether or not making the investment in a loyalty program is worth it? Here are three reasons why your restaurant should consider adding a dedicated loyalty program to your marketing efforts:
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More customer retention. Want to get more return customers back in the door? Encourage them to keep coming back with incentives and rewards. In fact, a study from LoyaltyPulse found that consumers felt that a loyalty program would increase their likelihood of visiting that restaurant by an average of 35%, and 65% reported that they’d be willing to recommend the restaurant to others if there was an appealing rewards program offered.
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Increased profits for your business. The psychology behind loyalty programs has proven to yield higher spend from customers. From higher check totals to more return trips back to your restaurant for additional meals in order to reach reward thresholds, a loyalty program is bound to pay for itself in terms of ROI.
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Improve the customer experience. A customer loyalty program has been proven to make customers feel more appreciated and thus, more loyal to the brand.
Vetted and Approved by Back of House Experts
Our Top Picks
Feeling overwhelmed by all the ordering system options out there online? We’ve got you covered. Our expert team of restaurant technology consultants have identified their top choices for order and delivery platforms for you to check out. As you review, pay close attention to more than just price–from the level of your own involvement in the process to the other types of integrations and available analytics that work well with each platform, it’s important to take your restaurant needs into careful consideration before making an investment.
Disclaimer: Any paid partnerships have no influence on our evaluations and suggestions. All our opinions are our own.
Best All-in-One Loyalty Program for Enterprise
Como is a data-driven customer engagement and loyalty solution powering food and beverage businesses to understand their customers and deliver unforgettable experiences. This platform is ideal for enterprise and multi-unit operations who are looking to take their marketing to the next level
Get up to 50% off Setup Fees
Back of House customers get 30% off setup fees, GFS Customers get 50% off setup fees
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Features
- Points shop, digital punch cards, and cash back
- Personalize member gifts and coupons
- Personalized Spin the Wheel animations and Scratch & Win experiences
- Customer packages of prepaid products and services
- Launch viral promo code campaigns
- Proprietary AI algorithms that encourage customers to spend more
Where it excels
Como is a great option because of their third-party integrations that make it seamless and easy to use.
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Best Built-in Loyalty Program in a POS System
For restaurants that are already using Toast as their POS system, their Marketing Essentials add-on (and more specifically their Loyalty Program) provides a simple way for restaurant owners to increase guest frequency.
Features
- Customize sign up bonuses
- Set accrual and redemption rates
- Offer birthday rewards
- Flat monthly fee
- Accrue guest points with each credit card swipe
- Loyalty program reporting
Where it excels
If your restaurant already uses Toast for your POS system, it’s really seamless and easy to upgrade your account to include these additional marketing services, and the pricing is reasonable.
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Pricing
Best Tried-and-True Loyalty Program
Punchh supercharges both the in-store and digital customer experience by centralizing data and creating one-to-one connections across all touchpoints. It has a machine-learning-powered customer engagement toolkit for creating retention and remarketing experiences. It’s worth noting that Punchh is not PCI compliant, making gift card integrations challenging.
Features
- Sophisticated customer journeys and automated campaigns
- Create offers and personalized incentives at scale
- Cohesive omnichannel loyalty experience
- Data-driven segmentation
- All of your data in one place with 200+ native integrations
Where it excels
The Punchh website claims to “power the loyalty and marketing programs of over 40% of the top 100 restaurant brands in the United States,” which gives you an idea of how effective it is as a platform.
