Measuring the customer experience in a relevant and targeted manner is an ongoing goal at Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Dunkin’ Donuts DD Perks Rewards program was born as a result of extensive research with customers, franchisees, and crew members. Customer loyalty is an absolute focus for Dunkin’ Brands.
The DD Perks Rewards program, which launched in February 2014, offers guests nationwide points toward free Dunkin’ Donuts beverages for every visit they make at participating Dunkin’ Donuts locations.
What’s more, the Dunkin’ Donuts DD Perks Rewards program earned the Silver Award in the Best Measurement in Customer Experience category of the Loyalty360 CX Awards, which were handed out at the Engagement & Experience Expo Nov. 9-11, 2015, in Dallas, TX.
Sherrill Kaplan, Senior Director, Digital Marketing & Innovation at Dunkin’ Brands, talked about the company’s commitment to measurement and targeting customers with personalized offers during the Engagement & Experience Expo.
“Year 1 was about growth,” Kaplan said, adding the DD Perks program reached 2.5 million members after the initial year. “They were spending a lot more than non-members and they were visiting more. We saw a 30% year-over-year visitation increase.”
In less than two years, Dunkin’ Brands is thrilled to have reached more than three million DD Perks members since the program’s launch, along with more than 13 million downloads of the Dunkin’ Mobile App (as of August, 2015).
The DD Perks loyalty program allows guests to earn five points for every dollar they spend on qualifying purchases at Dunkin’ Donuts when they pay using an enrolled Dunkin’ Donuts Card, either plastic or via the Dunkin’ Mobile App. Once a member accumulates 200 points, he or she receives a coupon for a free medium beverage of choice, redeemable at participating Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants.
Dunkin’ Donuts also has a new tagline, Kaplan noted: “That’s loyalty.” What’s more, Kaplan said Dunkin’ Donuts is leveraging its social channels heavily, using the hashtag: #DDPERKSLOVE.
“There’s a real opportunity in driving relevancy and customer value,” she said.
With more than three million guests, Dunkin’ Donuts monitors about 600 variables depending on whether customers shop via drive-through or in-store.
“We’ve created an incredible database,” Kaplan noted. “We developed uplift and response models to drive effective targeting. It gets us to that sweet spot of relevant and targeted offers. Predictive modeling is working incredibly hard for us.”
Kaplan noted a 2.8 times lift in targeted groups. She added that Dunkin’ Donuts is starting to use predictive analytics.
“We’re just dipping our toes in that water,” she said. “When you think about a QSR business, you don’t immediately think about predictive analytics! We are leveraging predictive analytics to be even more relevant and even more targeted with our guest outreach. We will be launching On-the-Go (mobile) ordering as a new benefit for our Perks members shortly, which will, hopefully, bring in many new Perks members. Even better, that platform will bring incremental data and insights adding more value to many departments across our organization.”
Sticking to basics aids Dunkin’ Donuts.
“We also use good old-fashioned customer feedback to tell us how they feel!” she said. “Every quarter we survey our customers. That feedback has been critical to building out our road map. We’re trying to use a mixture of quantitative and qualitative.”
What’s more, social media is another exciting piece of the customer loyalty puzzle.
“We are using social in amazing and fascinating ways,” Kaplan said. “Executing 1-to-1 marketing through social has been a great learning. We can now talk to all our guests individually, in social channels, based on what they’ve purchased in our store. Our goal is to have social act like any other consumer touch point, reiterating the same relevant, personalized messages. We also use social as a customer feedback channel. That’s becoming more and more the way cutomers are interacting with brands and it serves as another data point for us.”