Loyalty and a Cup of Joe: a Winning Combination
One problem that restaurateurs of all types face is how best to manage their loyalty program and gift card programs. A lot of them are running programs that are handled offline entirely, or that aren’t well integrated with their POS. I want to point the spotlight at one of our customers—the Canadian coffee company Bridgehead—that faced these issues, and share with you their outstanding success story.
Bridgehead was founded in 1981 and was Canada’s first fair trade coffee company. In the year 2000 the company opened its first coffeehouse. Since then, it has opened 15 community coffeehouses, with a landmark Roastery and a scratch Kitchen in Ottawa. The company is poised for additional growth, and is a part of everyday Ottawa life.
When Bridgehead launched, it offered a loyalty program that was completely paper-based. With the company’s growth, this created significant obstacles for managing and analyzing the value of the loyalty program to the business. Beyond paper, there were also three different cards that had to be managed (!): one each for coffee, packaged coffee beans and specialty drinks. When a customer ordered something, they presented their card for a punch: when they had eleven punches they got the 12th item free.
Bridgehead also offered a gift/stored value card with no connection to the loyalty program, and with little ability to track usage. Reloading the card was something that had to happen in the store—there was no mobile or web self service available.
And there was no way to accurately track, analyze and measure the strategic value of the program. The only data record a punched card leaves is a chit in the trashcan. The rest of it is hidden: who used the card, how long it took to reach a reward, what the average purchase was, whether multiple cards were punched at one visit, and more.
Finally, there was no mobile connection: customers couldn’t check rewards status, view gift card amounts or pay with their smartphone.
Still, the program had value to Bridgehead—it did encourage people to return. But it was clear to the owners that they didn’t know how much value they received and they couldn’t track the cost of maintaining the paper programs. To turn their loyalty and gift card programs into a strategic part of the business presented a few challenges. First, they had to make the program easier for them to manage and easier for their customers. (Let’s face it, those little punch cards are as easy to lose as they are to use.) But that just scratched the surface. They needed to add increasing levels of self service: allowing people to check their loyalty points and redemption status, to reload their cards, and to purchase gift cards for friends. They had to find a way to analyze their programs: to find out the “who what where when and why” of their customers’ loyalty and gift behavior. And they had to be mobile, allowing customers full access to the program from any device at any location.
Bridgehead turned to Maitre'D and to our loyalty partner Spoonity for the answer. And they got everything they hoped for.
First of all, they got rid of the paper, replacing both the loyalty and the gift card with a single, branded card and keychain fob. The same card serves as a quick pay card, a gift card and a loyalty card. At the same time, it manages every transaction made, updating loyalty points, sending alerts when gift card balances get low, and even automatically reloading them. They integrated total member self-serve capability. Loyalty members check their redemption levels, and customers reload their gift and quick-pay cards from any computer or mobile device. Making analysis-driven strategic decisions is simple: Bridgehead now has the data and the analytics engine to really dig into the details of their customer behavior.
The results have been significant. Today, Bridgehead has 65,000 loyalty members across their operation. In 2014, they processed 1.5 million transactions through the Spoonity loyalty and gift programs. In the first year of the program, quick pay transactions increased 88%—and the bulk of that increase was from people paying with their smartphones. And of course it’s completely integrated with Maitre'D, and that integration was as simple as enabling the Maitre'D loyalty module.
No more paper. In-depth strategic data. Anywhere anytime access and self service. All implemented simply and fully integrated with Maitre'D POS. No wonder the program is successful: Bridgehead, Spoonity and Maitre'D form a can’t-lose Loyalty team.
Want to learn more on how you can implement a winning loyalty program? Click here to download our free guide to launching a winning loyalty program.
