Previously, Shari’s relied heavily on printed coupons to drive visits and spending but found this strategy was not driving profitable visits. The Café Club Rewards program, which signed up 50,000 members in it first month, is designed to drive more profitable visits by leveraging customer data so Shari’s can reward its best guests and incent visits during new day parts as well as encourage guests to try new menu items.

“At Shari’s and other similar chains, we’ve found that adding mobile for loyalty improves the number of guests marketers reach by at least 30 percent,” said Michelle Tempesta, head of marketing for Paytronix. “In fact, millennials are more likely to engage with a program that includes a mobile app.

“Perhaps most importantly, the more guest acquisition and engagement tools mean more opportunities for marketers to drive targeted traffic into restaurant locations,” she said “Shari’s new loyalty program with its mobile app is delivering convenience to its guests while helping it to position the brand for a broader audience.”

The new loyalty program is built on the Paytronix Rewards Platform, which is integrated into Shari’s point-of-sale system.

Shari’s is an Oregon-based chain of 24-hour family restaurants with 98 locations in the Pacific Northwest.

Relevant promotions
By partnering with Paytronix, Shari’s is able to leverage smartphone applications, mobile-friendly guest Web pages and a promotion and messaging engine to engage its guests through their mobile devices and provide compelling reasons for them to visit more frequently.

The program is helping Shari’s better understand its guests so it can create relevant promotions that are designed to drive profitable visits based on guests’ interactions with the brand.

For example, Shari’s can incent those customers who come every Saturday morning for breakfast to come back during the week and try one of the restaurant’s burgers for lunch.

One-to-one messages
Once guests download the Shari’s Café Club app, a screen appears that asks users if they have a card or need a card.  Users can then add their physical member card information to the app or they can register on the spot for a virtual card.

Shari’s offers a free slice of pie as a welcome reward to motivate a next visit quickly. Once registered via the app, the free slice of pie is immediately added to the user’s account.

When members visit a Shari’s, they can identify themselves by checking in through the app or presenting their member card.

The Paytronix software then matches the transaction behavior to the rules for the reward and then enters the discount directly into the check if there is a qualifying purchase.

“In real time, the guest can check their earned points and reward balances within the app,” Ms. Tempesta said.

“With the app, Shari’s also gains an additional, highly personal communication channel where they can deliver one-to-one messages and offers based on the guest’s behavior through push and pull messaging,” she said.