Technology

The curbside revolution: Evolving your channels to drive sales

Curbside, a trend that once saw a boom in the early 2000s, is back in a big way and now is a prerequisite for any brand looking to grow, cultivate customer loyalty, and more specifically, drive new revenue channels.

Photo: iStock.

July 30, 2021 by Brittany Maroney — Sr Product Marketing Manager, Punchh

Curbside, a trend that once saw a boom in the early 2000s, is back in a big way and now is a prerequisite for any brand looking to grow, cultivate customer loyalty, and more specifically, drive new revenue channels. Many concepts have found it challenging to balance the growing demand for so many channels, including dine-in, drive-thru, curbside, takeout and third-party delivery. Still, those that are doing it successfully are thriving. Additional channels cultivate more opportunities for customer experiences and drive another layer of value to your restaurant. These alternative services to the customer make you more accessible and, in turn, more profitable.

The question still stands: How does loyalty play a role in expanding into curbside and touchless payment options?

Let's explore how you can utilize your loyalty platform to elicit more engagement and deeper connections with your customers.

Encourage app adopters

Mobile app usage in the U.S. has skyrocketed alongside the adoption of smartphones. The restaurant industry has quickly found apps an invaluable resource for connecting with customers, building loyalty, and launching other revenue channels. Coincidentally, they also find them to be a challenge when it comes to retaining app users in the long term.

Research says, most restaurant customers download apps for convenience or for discounts. Both rank the highest with consumers at (56%) tied, followed by an interest in loyalty points (48%), easy payment options (43%) and avoiding long lines (40%). What's even more interesting is 28% will delete an app after using it, but 74% of those will re-download the app when needed.

This data tells us that while apps are incredibly important for your business, it's also essential for you to keep your customers engaged with your app with tangible rewards. Redeemables, coupons, and rewards are excellent ways to use loyalty, but a curbside service or mobile payment solution could also impact adoptions, as well as engagement rates. In fact, 29% of mobile apps users plan to utilize mobile apps for curbside, making this targeted consumer segment invaluable.

Build customer loyalty with direct orders

Third-party delivery services have been both a bright light and a curse during the pandemic, and all indications show that they are not going anywhere. Third-party apps often disconnect restaurants with valuable customers, disrupting the experience and degrading brand loyalty. By ordering off a third-party app, customers are left disconnected from the brand, and restaurant marketers are faced with limited ways to communicate loyalty advantages.

By encouraging customers to order directly via an app or online, based on the availability of curbside offerings, restaurants can begin to rebuild one-to-one sales over time, improve loyalty by providing the experience via curbside, while lowering the margin for error that often occurs through the use of third party providers. By giving the guest a consistent experience within a curbside, takeout, or dine-in experience, a concept can build back trust and further encourage adoption of loyalty programs.

Rewards for visit frequency or by daypart

Optimizing the curbside experience for customers is key when integrating loyalty and takeout services. Curbside, for a customer, is all about convenience, time and quality. They want a frictionless experience throughout the ordering, pickup, and payment process, and those that receive these benefits are more likely to return and be loyal to your brand. Their satisfaction with the experience also can equate to more flexibility in future visits and being more motivated to return.

But the question is, how do you identify satisfied and motivated customers? Real-time customer personalization affords operators the opportunity to poll consumers shortly after the time of purchase in order to segment audiences and evaluate preferences. Customers who traditionally are either dine-in or curbside customers can be cross-pollinated with offers to try to drive traffic depending on staffing or even dayparts, alleviating pressures on the restaurant. They also can be encouraged to frequent more often by offering incentives to order ahead or even pay virtually, increasing speed of service.

Stronger predictive analytics

As noted, the profile of a curbside consumer is very different from that of a dine-in customer. Curbside and loyalty ultimately provide news channels for collecting customer preferences, behaviors, and activities, as well as provide predictions to prevent customer churn and inactivity. Using an AI-powered solution, brands are able to drive personalized loyalty programs across all of the new channels adopted by the restaurant. This provides a solution that enables faster decision-making, more innovative offer strategy, and personalizes the experience for the customer. The more channels and data that sync into the platform, the more likely you will turn that new customer into a lifelong guest.

About Brittany Maroney

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