Jason’s Deli, a family-owned and community-focused restaurant, operates 245 delis across 27 states. Known for its exceptional customer service and high-quality products, Jason’s Deli launched its Punchh loyalty program, Deli Dollars, in 2022. The company’s mission, which focuses on making every customer happy, is reflected in the dedication of its long-term team members and unique brand culture.

Punchh User Group

As a member of the Punchh Voice of the Customer program, Jason’s Deli participated in a user group session to learn, share, and grow with other Punchh customers. This eye-opening experience gave Jason’s Deli the opportunity to observe the innovative ways other brands in the industry were leveraging Punchh’s capabilities. After attending, they identified significant opportunities to enhance their loyalty program and bring it to new heights. This revelation led them to recognize their desire to expand and evolve their existing loyalty program to something more robust
and engaging.

Punchh’s Strategy Services Team

Acknowledging their lean marketing team’s limitations, Jason’s Deli decided to turn to Punchh’s Strategy Services team to better manage their loyalty program and help provide strategic guidance and insight to fully leverage the Punchh platform.

The Punchh Strategy Services team have restaurant industry specific experience in designing, executing, and managing loyalty programs to help brands elevate their loyalty initiatives with proven results.

The Punchh Strategy Services team quickly became an extension of their existing team and aided them in all aspects of loyalty marketing. This included not only the strategic aspect of their efforts, but they also helped take on managing the day-to-day tasks and duties that go into running a successful loyalty program, saving them time and money.

Loyalty Program Strategy Pillars

Working closely with the Punchh Strategy Services team, they developed four 2024 Strategy Pillars that would help guide their decision-making and optimize their loyalty program.

  1. Build Routine & Frequency: Implement challenges and always-on offers to encourage regular customer visits.
  2. Activate New Members: Introduce staggered signup rewards to drive members to make at least two visits.
  3. Drive Daypart: Increase incremental traffic by targeting less-visited days and times.
  4. Test & Learn: Create playbook of reusable offers with regular testing of both small and large initiatives, such as subscriptions.

Next, the Punchh Strategy Services team helped Jason’s Deli begin to unlock the valuable data they had about their guests. Leveraging Punchh’s advanced segmentation capabilities they moved beyond segmenting just on demographics to incorporating interest level data. Jason’s Deli no longer remained tied to looking at people by only age or gender, but now segmented on preference and behaviors. Advanced segmentation campaigns offered Jason’s Deli the ability to deliver more relevant and engaging experiences to their customers, driving increased loyalty and higher sales.

With these pillars and segmentation tactics in place, Jason’s Deli and the Punchh Strategy Services team were ready to take Deli Dollars to the next level and expand on their already existing efforts.

Increase Weekend Traffic: A Strategic Initiative

Jason's Deli: Increase Weekend Traffic: A Strategic InitiativeOne of Jason’s Deli’s KPIs for springtime focused on growing weekend traffic to their many locations, aligning with their 3rd strategy pillar to drive daypart. The main goal they wanted to achieve was to drive visits by loyalty guests who hadn’t previously visited on weekends.

The Strategy Services team developed a highly segmented campaign to target and engage these guests. By utilizing segmentation and data insights from Punchh, they were able to tailor offers and messaging to this specific customer segment based on their previous guest behavior.

The Strategy: Every weekend for 9 weeks, Jason’s Deli sent an offer to guests who had been part of the program for at least 30 days but had never visited during weekend hours. The offer was sent out on Fridays with an expiration date set to the end of the day on Sunday. Once the offer was used, the customer would not receive it again the following week. Having these terms in place helped to avoid fraud such as the offer being duplicated or used outside of the intended timeframe.

The Results: Jason’s Deli engaged guests during this 9-week period to drive an additional $173K in revenue just from weekend sales. Of those members who participated and used their reward, almost 90% of them had returned and made additional weekend visits, exemplifying the effectiveness of this campaign.

“We drove an incredible amount of incremental sales from guests that probably would not have come in if they didn’t receive that offer and that was all thanks to the Punchh Strategy Services team.” Mike Griffith, Senior Marketing Manager for Jason’s Deli

Jason’s Deli’s journey with Punchh exemplifies of the power of collaboration and strategic planning when it comes to evolving a loyalty program. By participating in the User Group which led to them investing into Punchh’s Strategy Services and establishing clear strategy pillars to guide their decision making, Jason’s Deli has significantly enhanced its loyalty program. These efforts have not only increased customer engagement and satisfaction but also have driven tangible success. As they continue to grow and adapt, Jason’s Deli remains committed to making every customer happy.