Loyalty Trends 2024: Cutting-Edge Strategies Power Success

Key Takeaway: Savvy restaurant and convenience store (c-store) brands are leveraging innovative loyalty strategies like personalization, data analytics, and gamification to drive measurable increases in customer engagement, spend, and visits.  

The key trends shaping the future of loyalty marketing are fundamentally interconnected. Personalization requires robust data and analytics capabilities. Innovative program design unlocks new engagement opportunities. And effective communication ensures loyalty innovations resonate. 

While we've explored these trends individually throughout this 2024 loyalty trends series, many brands are achieving success by implementing them in unison as part of holistic loyalty transformation. Here's how some of our clients are pioneering this integrated approach. 

Personalization Powerhouses 

Several top brands are seeing huge loyalty lift by making personalization a core priority. They understand the value of making guests feel known, appreciated, and understood through individualized touchpoints. 

When Peet's Coffee™ relaunched Peetnik Rewards on the Paytronix platform, for example, it leveraged AI-driven customer insights to deploy uniquely personalized offers. Within six months, membership skyrocketed by 350% while transactions from loyalty members rose 47%.  

"With Paytronix, Peet’s tests and measures everything with control groups and we talk with our team about how best to structure offers,” says Lisa Regelman, Director of Loyalty at Peet’s. With that kind of oversight, the brand was able to generate 1.5% of retail comp sales from a single personalized offer. 

“We can see how frequently customers come in and what they like to buy, and then target campaigns in a more one-to-one manner,” Regelman says. 

In a comparable way, Dutch Bros made a successful transition to a digital-first loyalty program with personalization front and center. The brand acquired 1.4 million new loyalty members in the first month alone, attributing the success to its newfound ability to create offers based on well-defined audience segments and nurture individual guest journeys in real time. 

Dutch Bros uses a points-based system that lets guests earn rewards, win contests, and receive one-of-a-kind experiences. Paytronix data-driven insights, AI and machine learning technology, and comprehensive campaign capabilities helped the brand win back more than 220,000 lapsed loyalty members.  

While coffee outlets are great candidates for loyalty programs because so many guests are daily visitors, loyalty is just as important--if not more so--for other types of restaurants and c-stores. 

By seamlessly integrating loyalty with online ordering, Alltown Fresh® gained a much better understanding of its guests and the convenience they crave. The brand encourages Fresh with Benefits members to engage through a mobile app that also makes it easy to place orders and buy fuel without touching a PIN pad. 

“[It’s] a game changer,” says Joanna Linder, Alltown Fresh’s Vice President of Marketing.

By addressing behavior and intent, the brand dramatically improved customer lifetime value, with mobile and online orders quickly becoming a key part of overall sales. 

Smashburger is a restaurant brand that’s taken personalization to new levels, with granular guest targeting based on known behaviors and preferences. Looking to meet aggressive same-store sales growth objectives, the chain leveraged its loyalty data and Paytronix’s machine learning tools to create personalized, one-to-one marketing campaigns.

The new paradigm resulted in a 20% lift in spend, a 16% lift in visits, and an incredible 61x ROI. “Offers are tied to core behavior so that guests get what they love,” says Lexi Ryan, Loyalty Manager. “We want them to make their experience personal.” 

Successful campaigns have included: 

• A veggie burger offer for guests who don’t consume beef 
• Preferred birthday rewards  
• A free order of fries for trying a new menu item 
• Triple points for ordering online  
• Double and triple points for Gold and Platinum members

Another client that’s leveraging Paytronix’s advanced segmentation tools to deliver personalized loyalty offers is chicken sandwich maker PDQ. “We’re able to execute incremental, revenue-driving programs that enable us to punch above our weight,” says Jimmy VanValkenburg, who runs the MyPDQ loyalty program. 

Using several different tactics, VanValkenburg and his team are getting great results: 

• 15.5% spend lift from a visit challenge campaign. 
• 23% spend lift from an ongoing win-back campaign designed to reduce loyalty churn. 
• 10% visit lift through a champions campaign targeted at MyPDQ’s most active members. This campaign also generated valuable earned media through widespread social media sharing.  

Data and Analytics: The Personalization Foundation 

Of course, effective personalization strategies require unified customer data and advanced analytics muscle. Many brands are now leveraging AI to identify patterns, extract insights, and automate smart segmentation.

Primanti Bros. uses Paytronix AI to calculate “Missed Visit scores.” With this information, the brand automatically re-engaged lapsed or at-risk loyalty members with targeted win-back offers aimed at reducing churn. 

The ongoing campaign segments guests who miss one or more visits into three groups that get offers for $5, $8, or $10 off their next purchase within seven days, no strings attached. The campaign has lifted frequency (90%) and spend (50%), and has achieved an impressive average reengagement rate (16%) compared to similar industry campaigns (13%).  

Next-Gen Program Design: Redefining Loyalty 

With personalization and analytics as the foundation, leading brands are reimagining loyalty itself through innovative new program models designed to drive deeper engagement. 

HuHot Mongolian Grill rethought guest stickiness by introducing a subscription element—the “BOGO Grill Pass.” For $9.99 monthly, participating guests earn a free grill meal with every meal purchased. Despite the high-value discount, the resulting frequency and spend increases generated a significant lift in customer lifetime value and revenue: Compared to regular HuHot Rewards members, BOGO Grill Pass members spend 6 times as much during their first six months.

Taking a different approach, convenience store chain Break Time redesigned its MyTime Rewards program through an automated, multi-tier structure that awards members based on their individual buying behavior. Personalized messaging guides members along the loyalty path, encouraging them to reach new tier levels and celebrating when they do.

Soon after launch, 12,000 guests achieved top-tier status and loyalty members were responsible for 42% of all transactions. A 25.6% spend increase and a 2% increase in gas gallons pumped have been attributed directly to the program. 

Boosting Engagement Through Gamification 

With strong personalization and program design as the backbone, brands are layering on innovative engagement tactics like gamification to forge even deeper customer bonds. 

Original ChopShop creatively combined targeted incentives and challenges within their loyalty program. Highlights include a 21% breakfast sales lift from a "Rise + Shine" campaign and more than 63,000 app downloads—with $116,794 in pre-loaded funds—from a six-week "Fuel the Season" initiative. 

Jimmy John's took gamification to new levels with an audacious "Try Everything" promotion, challenging Freaky Fast Rewards® members to purchase all 25 core menu sandwiches. Those who completed the task received a special Achievement Badge called The Gauntlet, as well as a Jimmy Chips beanbag chair. 

Fast-casual chain Sweetgreen revamped its entire loyalty program, under the “Rewards + Challenges” umbrella, engaging members to complete tasks (e.g., spending $20 or adding a side item) for offers such as a $4 credit or a free beverage. Sweetgreen Co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Neman says, “We see Rewards + Challenges as a way to double-down on owned digital relationships and create a more personalized experience for our customers.” 

The Power of Effective Communication 

Of course, even the most brilliantly personalized and gamified loyalty innovations require clear communication to drive adoption and engagement. Strategic messaging is key for these pioneering brands. 

Great Harvest Bread Co. uses Paytronix AI to create exciting 1:1 challenges for members. By making goals attainable and nudging guests with fun and aspirational prompts, the program grew visits, frequency, and spend by 35%. 

"Before Paytronix, we struggled with slow seasons," says CEO Mike Ferretti. “By leveraging 1:1 campaigns, we engaged customers on a personal level and increased sales in ways we hadn't thought were possible. More campaigns and opportunities like this will only help grow our business and the future of our guest engagement strategy.” 

Again and again, we see communication playing a vital role in loyalty success, from Dutch Bros's impressive onboarding to Primanti Bros.'s perfectly timed win-back flows. 

Make the Right Investments to Drive Growth in 2024 

As this comprehensive case-study roundup demonstrates, restaurant and c- store brands are compounding business impact by combining innovative loyalty trends like data-driven personalization, game-changing program models, inventive engagement tactics, and cohesive, impactful messaging.

Paytronix's advanced loyalty solutions make it easy to orchestrate this powerful loyalty convergence. To learn more, contact us now or download our complimentary loyalty guides for restaurants and convenience stores.