Paytronix Systems, Inc., a leading provider of reward program solutions to restaurants, today announced major enhancements to the mobile and messaging aspects of its loyalty platform. These enhancements make it easier for restaurants and retailers to reach, understand and engage their guests on smartphones.
What’s more, Paytronix introduced two additions to its premium Data Insights offering: Credit Card Insights and Platinum AcceleratorSM. These new tools are designed to help restaurants and retailers analyze and optimize data from disparate sources so they can better design a customer loyalty program and then segment, communicate with members and drive more value from their membership once a program is up and running.
Michelle Tempesta, Product Manager of Paytronix, told Loyalty360 that mobile platforms are the ideal channel through which retailers can reach their customers in a highly relevant, convenient way.
“Many outlets have confirmed the proliferation of mobile,” she said. “A recent Forbes study concluded that 91% of adults keep their smartphones within arm’s reach 100% of the time. Also, studies have shown that the mobile experience is an essential part of a guest’s path to purchase. eMarketer released a study that said in the restaurant industry in particular, 64% of smartphone users make a restaurant-related purchase within one hour of searching for a restaurant.”
Consumers are constantly looking for ways to make the identification and payment process easier, Tempesta said.
“Loyalty cards loaded with stored value does just that, on the device most relevant to the consumer,” she added. “Also, when mobile payment is coupled with a rewards program, guests can identify themselves as a loyalty member and pay for their purchase in one simple step, getting them through the line efficiently.”
Tempesta explained what prompted the launch of Credit Card Insights and Platinum Accelerator.
“The questions that initially prompted our Credit Card Insights service were two-fold,” she said. “First, merchants want to know what their most loyal guests look like before they have a loyalty program. With this view of the world, they can design a program that will appeal to their guests–motivating further behaviors. Second, we’ve believed for years that the speed at which loyalty members modify their behavior post-program launch is so fast that it’s imperceptible in standard data sets. However, with Credit Card Insights, we can now document pre-loyalty program behavior and compare it with post-program behavior to quantify the lift in spend and visits. “
Platinum Accelerator solves a different challenge, Tempesta added.
“When new members join loyalty programs, it can take months to detect behavior patterns for heavy, medium, or light users,” she explained. “With our new Platinum Accelerator, we’ve created algorithms that detect specific Platinum (heavy user) behaviors within the first few weeks of use. Marketers can then modify messaging to these guests in an effort to quickly convert them to their best guests. In one case, we saw that Platinum guests spent upwards of 40% of their checks on alcohol purchases and typically sat at the bar. The client wanted to quickly motivate these guests to visit their establishment more frequently.”
Rather than treating these new members just like everyone else for three or four months after they join the program, Tempesta said marketers can quickly invest a bit more in terms of offers and effort to engage these people differently since they know they will likely become their best guests.
Given the proliferation of mobile devices and guests’ preferred way of interacting with brands, Paytronix continues to enhance its advanced mobile “chassis” compatible with the latest iOS7 and Android 1 platforms. The mobile apps can be branded for each restaurant as is or used as a base for a completely customized app. Keeping the unique needs of QSR and FSR environments in mind, Paytronix has made it more convenient than ever for guests to engage with brands via the mobile device:
Mobile Payment: Simplifies guest identification and decreases check-out times by letting guests check-in or present a barcode at the POS to pay. Payment is in the form of a stored value account that is automatically replenished with the guest’s credit card.
Virtual Wallet: Allows loyalty program members to store their loyalty card in a virtual wallet alongside coupons and credit cards via Google Wallet or Apple Passbook. Plus, brands get an extra boost in enrollment with Paytronix’s Google Wallet single click loyalty signup feature.
Geofencing: Enables merchants to leverage spatial and temporal data to identify and message customers as they cross a radius of a specific store. It also allows brands to accrue data about popular entry and exit points on the radius to identify day part opportunities.
Mobile Check-in: Provides shortened account numbers that mobile phone app users or Google Wallet users can use to identify themselves at the POS. This feature allows guests to leave their physical cards at home and use their mobile app for the full loyalty experience.
Social Referrals: With a single click, members can post a unique link on any social channel they please, Facebook and Twitter, for example, or email the link to their friends. When friends click the link to join the program, the initial member receives referral rewards. The merchant can choose to reward the referrer only after the newly referred member has exhibited certain spend and visit behavior.
Local Store Marketing: Gives restaurant chains the ability to empower local store managers with tools to deploy email messages with relevant localized content while ensuring chain oversight of work-flow permissions, black-out dates and master templates.
Real-Time Behavior-Triggered Messaging: Enables restaurants to send relevant messages, which are deployed automatically based on actual POS transaction behavior such as LTO purchases, reward earnings, and other program benefits based on purchase behavior.
Target and Control Campaigns: Marketers can quickly and easily set target and control segments then view the results in real time to determine campaign efficacy.
With Paytronix Data Insights, restaurants and retailers can synthesize data from sources such as loyalty programs, email clubs, guest surveys, social networks, and online ordering to achieve a complete view of their guests and, ultimately, to send more relevant offers to guests and increase overall sales. Paytronix has expanded its Data Insights with new capabilities that include:
Credit Card Insights: Helps design loyalty programs prior to launch by collecting all guest data including item-level purchase information, tied to a purchasing identifier e.g. a credit card master token for each customer. This information is analyzed to understand purchase behavior of targeted customer segments and leveraged to design an effective loyalty program. Once the program is up and running, pre-loyalty behavior can be compared to post-launch activity to determine an ROI by individual customers.
Platinum Accelerator: Quickly identifies high-spend, high frequency candidates based on demographic and behavioral traits and develops a nurturing path to move these guests up in spend and frequency so that they become platinum guests. Built on a proprietary set of algorithms, the platinum accelerator helps restaurants create more high frequency or “platinum” guests who typically are 10 times more valuable than an average guest.