Paytronix Systems, Inc., a leading provider of reward program solutions to restaurants and retailers, has partnered with Denny’s, one of America’s largest full-service family restaurant chains with more than 1,600 franchised and company-owned locations nationwide, launch a new test loyalty program in select markets.
The Paytronix EXPRESS Pilots program is designed specifically to help restaurant and retail chains to quickly create and deploy a new reward program.
Michelle Tempesta, Director of Marketing, Paytronix, discussed the Denny’s loyalty program launch in a scintillating Q&A with Loyalty360.
How did the partnership with Denny’s come about and how will the Paytronix EXPRESS Pilots program impact Denny’s new test loyalty program?
Paytronix has had a relationship with Denny’s for several years. Upon deciding to ramp up its loyalty offerings, the organization sought our expertise to guide them through its pilot. Our existing integrations with Denny’s POS systems further made the decision clear. Paytronix was the most suitable provider for their brand and they felt that could give them a full end-to-end solution including that POS integration, the messaging and campaign tools, the mobile application, as well as our data insights team that is helping them navigate the pilot data.
What makes the EXPRESS Pilots program unique?
There are several items that make it unique. At the end of the day, EXPRESS Pilots reduces the risk involved in testing a new marketing program while getting it to the market quickly. First, with the dozen POS integrations Paytronix has completed, tested, and deployed, we are in a unique position to quickly get an integrated program up and running in a short period of time.
Paytronix has been involved with hundreds of pilots over the course of the past 13 years–our customers receive the benefits of that experience. We know that time is of the essence. Marketers need market data quickly and operators need to know the program is working right away in order to keep the front line engaged enough to deliver the program’s message, acquire new members and generate enough members to make the pilot valuable across the entire organization.
Since Paytronix offers tools beyond a loyalty engine, chains don’t have to integrate to several third parties to fully test the program. With messaging, campaign tools, and smart phone applications available out of the box, the loyalty pilot comes fully equipped to test everything the marketer needs to make a decision about loyalty that makes sense for the brand.
Paytronix operates in what we refer to as a safe-path environment. Safe path refers to our methodology for gathering program requirements, setting up programs in our test environment, then testing them in the client’s environment before going live. With the experience we have, we’re able to recognized pitfalls in program setup early so that our clients can avoid costly mistakes.
What types of customer insights will Denny’s be able to glean from the program?
Denny’s will be able to determine the benefits of a loyalty program and how effective it will be in their environment. They will be able to help identify and analyze their guests’ dining habits and needs through targeted reward structures and messaging strategies to see what resonates best with them. Ultimately, the results from this test program may be used to determine ongoing guest-centric promotions for them and future core and limited time product launches. With our data insights team and its proprietary Platinum AcceleratorSM tool, they will also be able to detect likely best customer profiles early in the engagement, nurture them accordingly and add to the number that convert to their best customers.
How does the Express Pilots program make it easier for merchants like Denny’s to roll out new loyalty programs?
EXPRESS Pilots helped Denny’s get its pilot to market quickly with a fully-functioning program, smart-phone application, and campaign and messaging toolset.
What metrics are used to measure the success of the EXPRESS Pilots program?
There are several types of pilots. Technical/Operational–which chains typically do to flush out any technical hiccups in a pilot prior to rolling it out chain wide. The measure for this this type of pilot is typically friction in operations. If the pilot is running smoothly operationally and with users, the pilot typically lasts for about two weeks.
Some chains choose to run a ‘guest engagement pilot’ to determine how readily its customers will engage with the program. These pilots are uses to test the program’s value proposition effectiveness and the ease of use by the customer. The measure for this type of pilot is reach–what percent of checks in the pilot stores are associated with a loyalty program member. If the marketer can reach the target percent of checks in short order, the pilot is typically deemed a success.
ROI pilots, the third type, are the most arduous. Marketers are, in effect, testing everything to do with the loyalty program and trying to optimize it at the same time. We’ve seen ROI pilots run from between six months to six years. Typically, the longer the pilot, the less likely it is to roll out across the brand. This occurs for many reasons, the first of which is enterprise ennui and the second is caprice. As pilots age, the enterprise becomes disenchanted with its possibilities, front line staff discontinue asking for the member information and asking guests to join. Meanwhile, caprice comes into play where other projects leapfrog in order of priority pushing the loyalty pilot further into the corporation’s project queue. Measuring a pilot’s ROI is done in several different ways. Here’s a calculation that seems to be common among our customers: # Guests X (Increase in Frequency + Increase in Spend) X Variable Margin – Cost of Rewards.