How to Launch a Food truck Rewards Program That Will Accelerate Your Business

What is a Rewards Program?

Reward programs are incentive-driven schemes with the motive of providing benefits to the customers in the form of cash back, discounts, rewards points and freebies in exchange for getting customer loyalty
and making them spend more that helps to improve business profits.

The restaurant industry is a fickle industry that is constantly changing its menu and decor to attract its customers while coping with the changing trends. The loyalty program marketing strategy has proven to be a successful model where the customer is believed to think that they are getting benefits on every dollar spent on their purchases which makes them spend more than what they had planned. Based on the program, the customer receives different rewards and this becomes an ongoing cycle. This is the best way to retain your customers and also a way to thank them for their loyalty.

The benefits are quick gratification provided by the company to its customers and sometimes these programs are also emotionally driven. The discount coupons on customers' birthdays or anniversaries are a common practice to target them emotionally while also respecting them.

What are the Types of Rewards Programs in the Food Business?

The year 2020 was a disaster leading many restaurants to shut down completely. But brands like Ben N Jerry's, Starbucks, and Chipotle showed promising business even in distress. According to their senior staff, reward programs kept them afloat in trying times. Their customers did not leave them and the ties only has grown stronger. Besides the taste and aesthetics, people take their emotional connection with restaurant brands seriously. So, what are the types of loyalty programs you should choose to imbibe in the marketing planning that gives you a chance to create your own loyal customer base?

There are 4 types of loyalty reward programs that have proven to be a success time and again-

1. Points program- With every dollar spent, the customers get points on their punch cards or on their loyalty software within the customer's contact details. When enough points are collected by the customer, they can redeem them on their next purchase or even get a free gift. It is the most common loyalty reward program that has a high success rate of 86%.

2. Tiered program- This program provides special status to its clients on reaching different milestones. Based on clients spending power they are upgraded to a better-tiered program giving them more discounts and more points. Chick-fil-A-One is a multi-fast food chain that is successfully running its tiered loyalty program. They have divided their incentive scheme into 4 categories- Regular, silver, red, and signature members. Regular is the basic program where the customer earns 11 points on every dollar spent. Once they have accumulated 1000 loyalty points, they are upgraded to become silver members automatically.

3. Paid programs- Here a customer is expected to pay some amount to receive exclusive offers and special benefits. The customer needs to pay a subscription fee to avail early bird discounts, invite for special events, exclusive discounts, and feedback is taken while creating new menus for the season. It gives highly personalized attention to its customer where they end up spending 60% more after signing up for a subscription.

4. Value programs- These programs are meant for public welfare where part of the customer's purchase bill goes to the charity. There are no incentives involved but good intentions of giving back to society. The money usually goes to NGOs that the brand has tied u with. The donation can go to the poor, for education, or for better food safety schemes. Some restaurants running value programs do let customers earn points that they can use for donations later.

Why Should a Food Truck Run a Rewards Program?

Food trucks are becoming more and more popular as people everywhere crave a good, fresh meal. Food trucks offer a wide variety of dishes, from hot dogs to lasagna, but some are still challenging the norm. Why should a food truck offer a loyalty program you may ask? Here are the following reasons-

• It can help you build customer trust. Loyalty programs are often an indication of quality - the better the quality, the better the rewards.

• It can help increase revenue and revenue per employee. Many studies have been conducted in the past that show that when a customer comes back, they spend 45% more than their previous visit. So, giving incentives to your existing customers on every dollar they spend is always a good idea. It is human psychology that they get feel-good factors when they are made to feel important. Giving priority cards is the sense of attaining VIPness and knowing that they are a brand's exclusive members. Besides this, they connect with the brand emotionally so buying goods from them is very personal to them.

• It can increase brand awareness and customer engagement which helps grow your business. Make use of digital social media platforms such Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook by sharing pics of menu specials for the week, inviting people to try out their new smoothies for the summer, or offering them other exclusive offers

What are the Best Reward Programs for a Food Truck? cash back

Food trucks are such an intrinsic part of The united states culinary culture that you can find them from the poshest of streets to any nook and corner.

A food truck is a fast food service industry where customer feedback is of prime importance. Behind every successful food truck, there is a loyal customer base whose word-of-mouth publicity helps the brand to grow organically.
But if you want to become a bigger food truck brand with many outlets then you need to run exclusive rewards loyalty program to get more business and clientele.

2 reward loyalty programs that are best suited for food trucks are-

1. Frequent visit reward loyalty program- This type of loyalty program makes its clients visit frequently as with every dining rewards programs visit, the chances of earning free rewards like free dishes, or free coffee becomes higher. For example, on the customer's 10th visit, the customer can avail free coffee or their favorite dish on the menu. The restaurant uses a punch card system to keep records of customers visits.

2. Tiered program- a successful model for the consumer-based industry, a tiered customer reward program is best suited for retaining your existing customers. Based on your spending power, these loyalty programs reward their clients with special vouchers or exclusive discounts. They put customers into different categories and accordingly give them the priority and discount percentage. For example on spending $1000 with the food truck, that customer attains their highest priority card with maximum discounts and points earned.

Top 5 Loyalty Program Software for Food Businesses

To run the best restaurant rewards programs you need an organized software system that provides you with the customer buying behavior of every customer so that specially curated schemes for a different group of loyal customers can be created and no opportunity is lost to gain new customers.

Some of the sought after restaurant loyalty rewards program software that is helping businesses to grow and acquire more customers are-

1. Hubworks Zip Loyalty- With so much competition in the restaurant industry it is important to retain your customers and not lose them to your competitor. Zip Loyalty software lets you curate unique ideas and create a mechanism to track them. It can be integrated with your inventory software which can show you all the sales and orders placed by any customer. This way you can know how much sales each customer is getting and reward them based on it.

2. Pos IQ- It is a software that stores every information related to building a customer database for marketing purposes, knowing how much sale is made, and building a loyalty program based on available customer data from a single software. The guest can be done through multiple channels such as loyalty cards, credit cards, reservation information, beacons, and receipts. Check your return on investments that you get from each loyalty program.

3. Fishbowl- It is a loyalty-based marketing software that can track real-time promotion validity, award points, guest messaging, and can verify customers' loyalty status within seconds. To increase customer engagement, Fishbowl can customize programs and give granular insights about customers orders, payment methods, and spending power.


4. Toast- A pioneer in the industry that is especially meant to deal with restaurants' everyday needs. Toast is a great software for marketing and bringing in new customers to restaurants. Their inbuilt system allows customer to have loyalty membership tied up to their credit cards and there is no need for the customer to show their loyalty cards at the time of point of sales.

5. Upserve- Its restaurant management system comes integrated with the tools of back-end operations and marketing purposes. Cash backs are easy and intuitive as credit card details are well aligned with loyalty program system. The client gets deserved points and a hassle-free dining experience. The software subscription starts at $59 per month.

What to Consider When Investing in Loyalty program Software?

Now that you know how tough and competitive it is for restaurants to attract new customers and retain the old ones, and how much money goes waste implementing new marketing strategies; it's time you make onetime investment in restaurant rewards programs software that promises you the return on investment within a years time. Let's go through some needs that you must consider before making a purchase of loyalty software-

1. Omnichannel compatibility- Virtually connects your software with every distribution platform that includes mobile apps as well. The data can be accessed and monitored anywhere at any time of any outlet. Also, quick reminders can be sent to the customers on reaching close to their loyalty points expiry dates, so that they can redeem them and avail offers.


2. Affordability- Creating subscriptions, upgrading them, or closing them completely can all be done through a cloud-based saas software that runs on a subscription model and charges on the basis of its usage. You can't get better than that.

3. Scalability- There is no limit with respect to collecting customer data. The software can handle high traffic while managing redemption and allotment of loyalty points to customers within seconds. All you need is the customer's credit card details and the rest details will be auto-generated by the software giving information related to earning points, type of loyalty card, the validity of points, etc.


Hubworks

Loyalty Program FAQs

1. How do restaurant reward programs boos sales and make customers re-visit?

The purpose of loyalty programs is that businesses should create customers that can create more customers for them. With loyalty programs, you give your customers importance by thanking them, obliging them, and rewarding them for their loyalty. They then spread the word among their peer group which helps in brand building and new customer acquisition.

2. Why customer loyalty program important for restaurants?
In the business world, competition is part of the game, but for the restaurant industry, it is one notch up as this industry is bustling with changing trends, tastes, and audiences. Loyalty programs help restaurants to give the best customer experience through rewards and constant engagement. Greeting them from their last name and knowing their favorite dishes is a bonus that you can know with the help of loyalty program software that holds the minutest data of your customers.