just ordered our New Loyalty Program cards

[yadama]

May I ask where you got the poker chips? We also use punch cards. Driver has a punch that he carries. All cards must be signed by my husband, my daughter or myself to be valid. They are signed as we give them out. Like the poker chips though. Thanks!

 

[NicksPizza]

This thread was mentioned in a current thread about promotions tools.

I wanted to revisit this and report back. The program didn’t skyrocket as we would have wished. What it has become is a modified success. Rather than being a big driver of new sales, it is now a tool for driving customer retention. We have several customers who remember this card almost religiously, and choose to come to us when money is tight rather than go to their other next favorite place because we give them stuff. They appreciate the free topping every visit, getting more value for their dollar. We’ve had some customers redeem multiple free pies. Some just want the free topping on their pizza.

I suspect the vast majority forget about them, and loose them in the coupon drawer. I spent $30 on the cards and around $60 on the punch. Not the single most cost-effective program, but I given the slight fade in the last 6 months in customer frequencty, I would bet those cards out there are keeping some of my regulars on their regular schedule rather then falling to once every two weeks. I don’t have a good way to track actuals, though.

The IDEA of the card drives some new customers to the store as well. We hand them out when we meet potential customers, and they like the glossy, colorful look of the card. If they have heard of us before, it gives a good chance it will bring them on in.

As a stand-alone element of marketing, it is really weak. As another piece of the puzzle that impacts a segment of my customer base, it looks to be still useful. For my goals, it works. Define your goals and find your best tool(s).

 

[pizza3.1416]

The problem with loyalty cards is this in my opinion. For sake of argument I just emptied out my wallet to see how many loyalty cards were hiding in there. 13 is the number and I know for sure I have 3 or 4 more in the car.2 local pizza places, TGI Fridays, a local fine dine establishment I frequent once or twice a year, Dicks sporting goods, a smoothie joint, 2 gas station cards and an Ultra card for my annual perfume box set gift(“your welcome honey”) are some of the Loyalty cards I have on me. I don’t know what rewards I get because no one has ever given me anything for free or even asked if I had a card with the exception of Fridays, Dicks or Ultra. They just don’t drive sales. They may drive retention but in order to motivate a consumer to do something, doesn’t there need to be a reason. A card buried in my wallet will not bring me in for pizza when I’m longing for a steak or a curry. The point is that I have to think pizza, motivate myself to go into your store and then remember that if I do this 11 times that you will give me a FREE pizza because you gave me a card. Why discount anyone who was gladly coming to your store anyway because they liked your product. Was thinking about doing them but I just don’t see the value. Somebody set me straight if I’m wrong.

P.S. I just realized I have a loyalty program with my bank card, and every quarter they email me an updated statement of how many points I’ve accumulated. ($1 = 1 point). I now have over 90,000 points but I’m nearly halfway to getting an ipod. I can’t wait as I’d love an ipod to go with my itouch and my iphone. Just saying…

 

[pizza2007]

pizza3.1416,

Pssssst.

I use a Company Rewards Credit Card for 90% of business purchases. For the current year, 9 months, I’ve got a rewards balance of $1900.00 due the business.

 

[BCPizza]

I started out with a swipe card system that tracked points for a customer. 1 point for every dollar they would spend. It was a good program but proved to be a little bit of a hassle. Most customers did not want “another card” to carry around and the ones that did often forgot to bring them in. We went to a POS tracking system and our rewards database doubled in a matter of weeks.

 

[pizza3.1416]

pizza2007:

pizza3.1416,

Pssssst.

I use a Company Rewards Credit Card for 90% of business purchases. For the current year, 9 months, I’ve got a rewards balance of $1900.00 due the business.

I haven’t opened yet(Nov 17th) but have been purchasing with my new business card as we get close. Haven’t got a statement yet but this is a nice bonus for just doing business. $200 free dollars a month will take care of one of my advertising bill(see my other post) but in all likelihood it’s will take me a little time to get up to your level. Thanks for your input though.

 

[pizza3.1416]

BCPizza:

I started out with a swipe card system that tracked points for a customer. 1 point for every dollar they would spend. It was a good program but proved to be a little bit of a hassle. Most customers did not want “another card” to carry around and the ones that did often forgot to bring them in. We went to a POS tracking system and our rewards database doubled in a matter of weeks.

I’ve just got a sms provider and although I have not advertised yet, my Facebook page has 180 fans(as of a couple of days ago). From my facebook page Ive been getting sms fans and have 171 sms subscribers and their feed back is exciting regardinf sms. I’m using a text loyalty program as thats where everyone seems to be going. Nobody in the pizza industry in my locality are doing it so the market is wide open for these texters for a pizza joint. I haven’t sent out a sms text yet as I’m not opening till Nov 17th(vip opening), but i have 10,000 postcards going out this weekend with a sweepstakes and it also promotes our FB page. When you join our text list and you can win either a $50 gift card (1:100) or $5 off(99:100) Dine in only,Alcohol excluded.Expires 12/1.There are no coupons printed on the card and we are not even saying what you could potentially win. Hopefully curiousity wins here. We’re hoping to get 10-15% join rate so we will be busy during the initial 2 weeks. i’ll keep you posted on results…

 

[pizzapirate]

I have considered doing the loyalty cards as well but I know it would tick off a lot of people to excluded deliveries. There are a lot of good promotions I think of or read about but it always comes back to not being able to include everyone or the promotion may just anger people because they don’t like how it works.

I love the poker chip idea but they are expensive, will get lost by my people and just seems like a very easy thing to find in the wrong hands. I could see getting gold doubloons made to hand out. Would be very cool.

In the end, I think loyalty programs via POS or other vendor is the best way to go. Its much more controllable, accurate and easier to track. It can be customized to reward people at different levels of activity and so on. The problem here is the initial setup costs of your more sophisticated systems. Givex has some really cool features but its steep getting into it.

 

[pizzatime]

pizzapirate:

I have considered doing the loyalty cards as well but I know it would tick off a lot of people to excluded deliveries. .

This is one of the reasons I do a loyalty card. If you want it delivered, no reward just great food. I also charge for delivery and never promise a time.

pt