A bold move to increase loyalty
Beans & Brews Coffeehouse is a Utah-based company with over 50 locations in the Salt Lake City area as well as Idaho and Nevada. Since 1993, Beans & Brews has been the original home of High Altitude Roasting. Refining the local process, until they got it just right, they’ve earned the reputation for a uniquely smooth coffee served in a friendly neighborhood setting. Over the years they’ve learned how to create not only fresh and delicious coffees, teas, smoothies and a menu of food items, but also a House environment that welcomes their guests and keeps them coming back over and over again.
That’s because Beans & Brews has always understood the value of creating loyalty among their guests. Beginning over 20 years ago, first with a punch card and then a magnetic swipe card, their loyalty program has evolved over the years just as the process of administering loyalty has been defined and redefined over time.
With mobile technology gaining popularity in usage, Beans & Brews made the initial move to an app from LevelUp. However, they were disappointed that in order to do loyalty, their guests would have do payments through LevelUp’s app, according to Carrie Mongold, Vice President of Marketing. “We didn’t want to force our customers to be tied to any one particular payment method. We wanted them to have the choice of how to pay, and also still be rewarded for their loyalty.”
Punchh platform delivers flexibility and ease
Punchh offered Beans & Brews the robust loyalty solution they were looking for, explained Mongold. They signed on in December of 2016 with plans to offer mobile payments and tipping features that would facilitate faster, easier and more secure methods of payment right from their customers’ smartphones. The technology to deliver mobile payment and Punchh’s integration already being established with their POS system, Aloha, made it easy for them to see they would now have all the important capabilities to engage customers and increase loyalty.
Beans & Brews got up and running utilizing a points-based loyalty program that allows them to increase spend lift compared to a discount approach that often hurts spend lift. They make the most of Punchh’s loyalty campaigns to regularly reach customers with weekly offers that increase their point accumulation to help them attain reward levels more quickly.
They’ve also been able to effectively capitalize on reported U.S. news events such as when a national competitor closed for an afternoon in 2018. Beans & Brews delivered a campaign offering triple points for visits after 1 p.m. to anyof their locations and enjoyed a 60 percent bump in sales during that time period, explains Mongold.
We immediately experienced the value of Punchh’s cloud-based customer platform as we were able to create customer engagement journeys that increased valuable guest connections and increased participation and frequency among our various loyalty segments.
Beans & Brews appreciates the ease of creating, sending and tracking campaigns on Punchh’s customized and user- friendly dashboard. It helps provide them with a data-driven profile of who their guests are, and gives them ultimate control over which hours, items, locations, etc. they promote, according to Mongold.
They also appreciate how easy and simple it is for their customers to participate in their loyalty program. “We are able to communicate with our loyalty members through numerous channels such as our app, emails, and push notifications whenever we need to. Our customers don’t want to keep track of a card today, they simply want to have their phone on them so we can be in contact together,” says Mongold.
Driving value for the long-term
Beans & Brews is excited for their recently relaunched app that supports their new mobile payment and tipping framework designed to give customers an engaging, digital brand experience. Mongold reports immediate favorable feedback from customers, who are enjoying the rich messaging and history timeline features on the new interface. “With our branded mobile app we have the power to build customer lifetime value by making it easier for our customers to pay with their phones, but also to join our loyalty program and start earning and redeeming points immediately.”