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Daily coupon/discount

MPKitchen

New member
I am looking to start doing a daily coupon or discount just during my weekdays when it’s a bit slower. I’d love feedback for those that do something and what works for you.

Flat % rate off
Certain dollar amount off
Different special daily (2 pizzas and app, etc…)
 
I have been down that road and it is not good. If you are slow now what is going to happen when you are slow and bring in less for every transacton.
The big guys have trained the public to not buy pizza at full price.
One of my mentor hammered into my head (they should pay full price or free). It took me a while to get there because I am a franchise and, that is what corporate did. Fortunately I am 70 miles away and was able to evetually the break the mold.
I have a rewards program (Royalty Rewards) and my members get a free pizza for birthdays and anniveraries. They earn points towards discounts. So they buy x amount of pizzas at full price and get a $5.00 off coupon. I have about a 64% redeemption rate on those coupons.
I also do buy one and get the next size smaller with equal toppings free to my members on Tuesday. We are closed on Mondays. My food cost is 26-27% on that coupon.
On Sundays we offer 3 for the price of 2 and discount the cheapest one. It has the same food cost.
Good luck.
 
Someone once told me to stop trying to bring in business when it’s slow with specials and discounts. He said instead to use those specials and discounts for when it’s busy. His theory was when it’s slow it’s slow for a reason and that reason is customers aren’t shopping at those times. Instead target the customers at times that there are shopping and try to get more in that would normally order somewheres else. The busier you get during your rush hours the busier you’ll be during your down times.
 
I wrestled with the “slow days” problem for awhile but resisted the urge to coupon. In my mind, instead of generating more business, it would just give a discount to the folks already buying on those days.

Instead, I stayed the course with the Loyalty Program. The only way to get coupons is with the Loyalty Program. The guest gets, of course, a coupon for earning Loyalty Points. They also get coupons for awhile after first signing up. That keeps them engaged until they are reliably making purchases and therefore earning future coupons. Whenever anyone asks about coupons, I use that as an invitation to pitch the Loyalty program.

My Loyalty guests spend 50% more per meal than non-loyalty, and that is after discounts.

If you’ve ever heard the saying, “the tide raises all boats”, then keep reading, because as my Loyalty Program became more successful, my Mondays and Tuesdays also became more successful. While they’ll never be on par with the other days of the week, they now comfortably cover the costs for those days, which makes it worth staying open 7 days a week.
 
There is a pizza shop in my area that does by 1 get 1 on tuesdays.

Just before I opened 5 years ago, my neihbors told me they switched from thursday pizza nights to tuesday. I knew right then I would never have a daily discount. If I wanted to be busy, just for the sake of being busy. I could just get all those 3rd party things.
 
Just curious how do you have your loyalty program set up? Is it a dollar for dollar match?
I’m now steering away from discounts of any sort and implementing a loyalty program.
 
My POS is Foodtec and they have a turnkey program. You can change it, but I used it “out of the box” and it works great. Earn 1 point per dollar spent. When you reach 100 points, you get a $10 off coupon that’s good for 30 days.
 
You are Welcome.

I use Royalty Rewards.
I started using them in 2015.

Have a good day!
 
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I also do the same with Foodtec but I found the $100 to be too aggressive so I upped it to $150…also only valid for online orders to push the business away from phones
 
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