Restaurant Loyalty Software That Grows Your Brand with Ease

A recent William Blair customer engagement survey found that over half of restaurant patrons don’t use restaurant loyalty programs. Only 35% of customers said restaurant loyalty programs influenced where they ate.

The need for customers to enjoy the benefits of restaurant loyalty programs presents a massive opportunity for smart restaurant owners. These programs go beyond cultivating loyalty for brick-and-mortar restaurant experiences and extend to growing digital engagement and online sales.

Loyalty software is the foundation of your loyalty program. Loyalty software integrates with your point-of-sale (POS) software and online ordering platform to reward your customers for repeat engagements, like buying food or leveraging a promotion. 

How do you use restaurant loyalty software to grow your brand easily? Here’s how to choose, implement, and maximize your investment in the right restaurant loyalty software. 

2 Core Loyalty Software Features 

Most loyalty software options have multiple features to help you retain customers. To get the most from your restaurant loyalty software, you want to choose one that has these two features at a minimum: 

1. Customization capabilities: Choose software that can create customizations that meet your restaurant’s strategic goals and target audiences’ needs. You’ll also want to know if the loyalty software you’re evaluating can produce customized reports that are simple to export or share.  
2. Real-time data usage: In the business world, data—and knowing how to use it—is king. Knowing what your customers are purchasing or where they’re navigating on your site in real time is valuable insight for how to improve their experience. Data also shows you where customers abandon purchases. For example, maybe you have an online ordering function that doesn’t work well on mobile, or your pages don’t load in less than two seconds. This information helps you create an easy ordering process that customers are more likely to finish.

Evaluating Software Options 

As you continue your journey in evaluating loyalty software providers, look for platforms that go beyond the basics of providing customer rewards and provide: 

1. ​​Contactless experiences: Contactless experiences took center stage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, as customers’ safety preferences have evolved, you can still provide a great experience without human contact by allowing guests to order, pay, open tabs, and pick up their orders all from their mobile devices.  
2. Real-time customer insights and marketing automation: Gain essential zero- (0P) and first-party (1P) data, use data to create more precise campaigns, and provide a better customer experience that drives sustainable business growth. Have a guest who loves your veggie tacos? Use your loyalty software’s customer insights to provide them with a targeted, limited-time offer. Haven’t seen a customer segment engage as you expect them to in a while? Offer them a free add-on, appetizer, or drink to re-incentivize their normal purchasing habits.

Consider these additional campaigns that are effective with a wide range of audience segments: 

• Social media challenges: For your audience segments that are active on apps like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, social media challenges are a fun way to keep them engaged while raising brand awareness.  
• Themed nights: Themed events, when you have the time and resources to fulfill them, instantly set you apart in hospitality and get your customers to return—especially if they love the theme you chose.  
• Visit challenges: Incentivizing your customers to visit your storefront a certain number of times or within a defined period increases the likelihood of short-term revenue boosts. It's also a good way to instill familiarity with audience segments who may not have opted into your loyalty program yet or have lapsed. 

These popular marketing campaigns from major brands delighted customers and may inspire your own:  

• McDonald’s All-day breakfast: McDonald’s showed that they heard their customers and created all-day breakfast. Its campaign got nearly 8,000 retweets in less than 13 hours. Breakfast menus are a popular convenience store draw, too. Promote all-day breakfast to these customers to get them coming back frequently.  
• Domino’s Paving for Pizza: You might not think filling potholes is in line with a pizza chain, but Domino’s Paving for Pizza proved to be a hit with its customers. Every food delivery driver (and regular driver) has faced the frustration of hitting potholes. That frustration is compounded when said pothole impact messes up your pizza. To remedy this and get customers involved, Domino’s launched a campaign to fill potholes reported by customers. It displayed the company’s goodwill and got customers involved. As a local restaurant owner, you can model your own community support campaign based on what residents are vocal about. 
• Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl: Who doesn’t like pasta? Olive Garden leveraged widespread appreciation for the classic Italian cuisine in their limited-time Never-Ending Pasta Bowl promotions. This offering attracted diners who were interested in value and positioned the restaurant as generous and innovative.  
• Chili’s 3 for Me Deal: This beverage, appetizer, and entree for $10.99 campaign offered customers a discount as well as a full dining experience. A similar campaign at your own restaurant may net you both short-term sales and long-term loyalty. For example, someone coming for the promotion may discover they enjoy one of your offerings and come back regularly afterward. C-stores can use this tactic, too, offering discounts on certain products or menu items.  
• Burger King’s Whopper Detour: Burger King took advantage of geofencing and the universal desire for finding great deals to promote its app’s order ahead features. People who went within 600 feet of a McDonald’s between December 4 to December 12, 2018, were offered a 1 cent Whopper. The campaign resulted in 1.5 million app downloads. 
• Arby’s Hike-thru: You’ve heard of a drive-thru, but what about a hike-thru? That’s what Arby’s created when it launched a hike-through in the Colorado Rockies showcasing its Big Game Burger. Hiking enthusiasts were invited to hike a 4-mile trail all the way to a 10,000-foot summit. At the summit, the hike-thru window awaited and invited hikers to try the Big Game Burger. The hike-thru was a one-day only offering. This campaign combined out-of-the box thinking with the limited time special. 

Whether you’re considering large or small marketing campaigns for your restaurant, your loyalty software can play a big role. It can help you highlight items to promote, speak to each audience segment more congruently, and create a word-of-mouth-driven promotional flywheel. 

How 2 Brands Used Paytronix for Loyalty Program Success 

We’re your partner for building lasting guest relationships. Here’s how two leading restaurant brands used Paytronix to boost their loyalty programs: 

• Dutch Bros: In the coffee market which is dominated by national players like Starbucks and Peet’s, coffee chain Dutch Bros needed a contactless way to connect with customers during COVID-19. The coffee brand partnered with us to unveil its first digital loyalty program. Dutch Bros used our customer experience platform to replace its punch-card system and gained 1.4 million members in its first month. This business also built its app on our platform. The Dutch Bros app uses a points-based system to reward customers, provide contests, and give customers personalized experiences. In addition to gaining new loyalty program members, the new Dutch Bros program won back 220,000 lapsed program members in just one month.  
• Original ChopShop: Original ChopShop wanted to improve its guest loyalty program by making it fast, frictionless, and fantastic. To do this, they worked with us and focused on convenience, enticing customers to order and pay ahead in its app. The healthful, feel-good food brand further optimized its loyalty program by creating new, creative incentives to get people to order from the app. Original ChopShop saw a 21% increase in breakfast sales during their breakfast campaign and over 63,000 app downloads during their holiday campaign. 

Paytronix not only offers a wide variety of features to help you implement a successful loyalty program, but also helps you optimize your tech stack. Our all-in-one customer experience platform seamlessly integrates with your POS and third-party platforms like DoorDash.

Implementing Loyalty Software 

Implementing new software can be daunting regardless of the size of your organization. A smooth implementation ensures your team knows how to use the software and that it’s being used to peak potential. To have a successful implementation, follow these three steps:  

1. Know your goals: Knowing what goals and objectives you want to accomplish with your loyalty software comes first. Be as specific as possible so you can evaluate multiple options wisely. 
2. Communicate well: Implementing new loyalty software requires regular communication between employees, managers, and stakeholders. You’ll want to convey the communication timeline and provide best practices to the rest of your team (as soon as they’re available).  
3. Conduct ongoing training: Provide your staff with ongoing hands-on training and any documentation, tools, and customer support contacts. This fosters autonomy for finding their own solutions and driving organization-wide efficiency. 

Maximizing Your Investment 

You’ve chosen your restaurant loyalty software and trained your staff. You’re ready to launch or improve your loyalty program, but how do you ensure you maximize your investment?  

An easy way to maximize your software investment is to choose an all-in-one solution. This eliminates the need for multiple contracts and smooths out platform-to-platform integrations.   

Additionally, monitor how your software is being used. Are your employees using it for its intended purpose? Does the software operate as expected with little to no downtime? Does it provide an excellent experience for your customers? These are signs you’ve made the right choice. 

Restaurant Loyalty Software Trends to Know 

Recent research shows the average American consumer belongs to nearly 17 loyalty programs. To make the most out of your restaurant loyalty program, consider these future trends in loyalty programs: 

• Hyperpersonalization: It’s no longer popular or effective to have a one-size-fits-all loyalty program (and never really has been). An already fast-moving trend is focusing on each customer’s individual needs. The right loyalty program software with AI support can help you create customized offers and rewards to each guest’s preferences and actions.  
• Personalized Tiers: This is a valuable element in overall loyalty program success. Customized tiers give your buyers a higher degree of personalized value. These tiers are tailored to each customer’s preferences and order history and offer rewards based on data collected. 
• Gamification: Gamification—small activities or actions that generate feelings of anticipation toward a reward—increase brand loyalty and recognition. Gamifying portions of or all your loyalty program can keep customers engaged longer than simple discounts or one-time offers. 
• Mobile wallets: As customers increasingly use their phones to pay for goods and services, restaurants can take advantage of this by offering these payment methods in their loyalty programs. 

As customer preferences and technology evolve, restaurant loyalty programs exist to create one-of-a-kind, memorable experiences and brand loyalty. Choosing the right restaurant loyalty software and leveraging your customer and campaign data help you take your loyalty programs to the next level. 

Paytronix is more than just loyalty software; it’s an all-in-one guest experience hub. Our platform ties together online ordering, AI insights, loyalty programs, and marketing automation, giving you everything you need with a few clicks. If you’re ready to join thousands of other restaurants that are differentiating themselves with an effective loyalty program, request a demo now.