Has what happened to me the other day ever happened to you?
I went to the local office supplies store—a large chain. I signed up for their loyalty program a long time ago, but I didn’t have my card with me. The associate at the register asked if I was a member. I could have said yes and given my phone number. But I thought a quick instant.
- I don’t understand the rules—something about points from qualified purchases accumulated over a quarter add up to dollars-off on purchases over a specific dollar amount before a specific date for specific product categories—way too tough to follow. Why not make it easy?
- I’m not intrigued by the rewards. The problem isn’t the monetary value of it—a $10 certificate for every $100 of qualified spend which is about right. But the redemption program is ancient and awkward—it takes too long to reach the first redemption point. And it’s all handled through the mail instead of anywhere anytime.
So instead of giving the clerk my phone number, with people in line within earshot, when he asked if I was a member, I just said No.
It wasn’t worth it.
My experience highlights the issues anyone—including restaurant owners and operators—faces when designing a successful loyalty program. It has to be simple to understand. Rewards have to be meaningful and easy to redeem. And it needs to be available to members whenever they want, wherever they are.
It can be a difficult mix to get just right, this perfect blend of rules and rewards. But without it, loyalty programs fall flat and the money invested in them is lost.
To help guide you, we reached out to our own loyalty partners and customers to gather some core best practices—things that work consistently—to follow. We’ve encapsulated their ideas in a brief, informative Maitre'D White Paper titled Setting the Table for Your Loyalty Program. It describes ways to make loyalty easy for you to implement and easy for your members to understand. It talks about the importance of making rewards relevant to the customer. It presents a simple formula for you to determine exactly what the monetary value of your rewards should be. And it lays out some strategic steps for ensuring high enrollment.
To get a head start down your own path to a successful loyalty program, click here for a free copy of Setting the Table for Your Loyalty Program.
