Since its launch in late October, the My Red Lobster Rewards loyalty program has seen a nice progression, according to Paul Quinn, Senior Director of Integrated Guest Experience, Marketing and Communications for Red Lobster.
As the world’s largest seafood restaurant company, Red Lobster ventured into the loyalty arena with the launch of My Red Lobster Rewards after successful testing in Colorado, Arizona, and Wyoming. The loyalty program rewards customers based on their spending.
Quinn talked to Loyalty360 about the progression of the My Red Lobster Rewards loyalty program since its launch more than three months ago.
“In our testing phase, we saw a measurable uptick in guest visit frequency,” Quinn said. “We’re still reading results based on our national rollout, however all responses have been extremely positive. We’re excited to see the engagement with our guests continue to strengthen. Since the launch of My Red Lobster Rewards in Fall 2017, we’re seeing great results, with great support from our restaurant teams. Red Lobster recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and in celebration we gave all of our loyalty members 50 points additional points.”
My Red Lobster Rewards marks the first mobile app for the Orlando-based company, which has a 4 million-member email club, text message offers, and a mobile-friendly website. Red Lobster officials plan to extend offers tailored to customers preferences to improve frequency and loyalty. Red Lobster will be able to make offers tailored to the customer’s preferences to improve frequency and loyalty among its 700-unit chain.
In the My Red Lobster Rewards program, customers earn one point for every $1 they spend and get rewarded at 125 points. New members get 75 points once they sign up, meaning they can get their first reward after spending $50.
Though he declined to provide specific numbers, Quinn said program membership has progressed in line with company expectations since the rollout.
“We saw increased frequency of guests’ visits in the markets where we tested the app,” Quinn said. “We’re still measuring results on a national scale, but we anticipate seeing a similar guest response.”
As for feedback so far, Quinn is very pleased.
“Guests are excited to have a way to engage with Red Lobster and love the simplicity of the program,” he explained. “We’ve heard that they are happy with the value of the rewards they earn, which is helping to deliver on what the program was designed to do—let our loyal guests know that we appreciate them.”
Customer insights drawn from the loyalty program during the past three months have proved to be invaluable.
“Our testing phase was designed to help us learn the tweaks that we need to make, and there were a number of them, both to the app and to our training model for our restaurant teams,” Quinn added. “In the coming year, we plan to add more functionality to the app, while keeping the primary focus on loyalty. We are very pleased with the amount of customer data we are collecting