Famous Dave’s, part of BBQ Holdings, was one of the few and first concepts to scale BBQ nationally. Founded by the passionate Pitmaster Famous Dave Anderson, the brand now has over 140 units across 32 states. The award-winning dine-in, take out or delivery hickory-smoked BBQ remains committed to its one purpose: To delight guests with the most enjoyable and authentic BBQ experience possible.
In 2018, Famous Dave’s partnered with Punchh to develop and power the brand’s first loyalty program and mobile rewards app. As an “occasional” type concept with a higher check average, Famous Dave’s loyalty program was designed to inspire frequency and participation. Analyzing their customer data demonstrated the value that guests bring to their business through increased loyalty sales and increased lifetime value.
“We found that locations with integrated POS, online ordering and loyalty perform seven to 10 times better in terms of loyalty KPIs,” said David Betland, Famous Dave’s Digital Marketing Manager. “That was a key finding that opened our eyes to the important value our loyalty program brings to our customers, brand and franchisees.”
The Punchh Loyalty, Engagement and Offers Platform is now the main solution they rely on daily to guide their marketing and loyalty efforts. It has helped them unburden their restaurant team to use the platform along with technology integrations, including their online ordering system through Olo to deliver more omnichannel options that meet their customers’ lifestyles and preferences.
Building Loyalty and Optimizing Relationships
Their loyalty program and integrated systems solved a major challenge for Famous Dave’s by capturing and making actionable first-party data. They now have the ability to create more personalized messaging and offers while not increasing their discount rate. Betland explains that more personalized messaging benefits both the customer and the company. “For our customers we segment based on frequency. So someone who visits once a week and is probably open to receiving more communication from us gets frequent messages, which don’t need to include a hefty incentive, and the opposite is true of someone who visits once a year.”
Taking this approach, Famous Dave’s sees higher participation rates (20% increase YoY) and redemption rates (19% increase YoY). Having the ability to analyze and react to metrics presented daily in the Punchh dashboard provides Famous Dave’s with a more holistic view of their customers. This helps Betland and his team determine when to run mass-campaigns to announce larger promotions and LTOs across email, push, and in-app messaging. Additionally, they use automated campaigns based on purchase behavior to increase frequency without sacrificing check averages, which their franchisees appreciate.