When an already-successful restaurant group in the UK wanted to increase repeat business, they partnered with TRIFFT to make it happen. By mixing our hospitality industry experience with customized apps, data-driven personalized content and a dash of support from Bloomreach, we were able to serve just what they were looking for:
- More digital customer engagement
- Increased visit frequency and spend
- Higher customer lifetime value
- Greater brand loyalty
- Better knowledge of each customer via data capture surveys, brand engagement activities and spend behavior so that each loyalty engagement can include personalised offers.
Read on and discover how a loyalty program powered by TRIFFT is helping to drive increased sales and meet the marketing challenges faced by restaurants in an intensely competitive industry!
Big Plans at The Big Table Group
The Big Table Group (BTG) operates nearly 250 restaurants across ten brands located all over the UK. From traditional favorites at Bella Italia to salsa-flavored accents at Las Iguanas to exotic pan-Asian fare at BananaTree and much more, BTG has found the secret sauce that diners love.
But despite having successful concepts in their portfolio and achieving impressive growth, BTG was faced with the same headwinds that challenge restaurants in any market, including how to gather and leverage data into personalized marketing outreach at scale. BTG was already good at filling tables, but creating a bigger footprint in the digital space, where current and potential customers were active, became a priority.
An expanded online presence for BTG and the new touchpoints that come with it could be leveraged to address another common challenge in the hospitality sector — brand loyalty and repeat visits in a highly competitive market.
“Consumers always want to try something new and there’s no shortage of options in the restaurant industry,” says Daniel Edmonson, Digital Marketing Manager at BTG. “Still, we believed there was room to connect with customers who had dined with us before and use that opportunity to incentivize them to visit us again.”
The missing item on their menu was an easy way for customers to interact with BTG brands and generate more visits, particularly from existing customers. The familiar marketing truth about looking to your current customers for more sales before focusing on new ones is as true in the restaurant business as it is anywhere else. BTG saw huge potential to increase the average customer visit frequency of just over once a year, which was already a very respectable result for the industry. Still, even a modest increase in that number across all their locations would translate into delicious profits.
That’s when the target began to come into focus — a way to help customers feel an emotional connection to the brand as a destination they love to visit for good times and great food. From there, it was just a short step to an additional visit or two.
In pursuit of that goal, BTG deepened their existing collaboration with TRIFFT. Our proven platform, experience in the hospitality industry and unique digital toolbox we put in the hands of marketers was just what Daniel and his team needed to add another dimension to BTG’s outreach.
An App-etite for Growth
TRIFFT understood BTG's vision and how to get there. The path forward started with apps branded for separate BTG brands. And while an app is a frequent starting point for digital expansion, TRIFFT was able to provide an effective shortcut that drastically reduced costs and time to launch.
Instead of costly and time-consuming traditional app development, the team at TRIFFT leveraged the advantages of container app technology, which is transforming the way applications are created, deployed and managed.
The result was an app that could be easily and extensively customized and integrated with Bloomreach’s Customer Engagement Platform, a flexible structure of loyalty mechanics that can send and receive data in real time from BTG’s points of sale, enabling dynamic offers while customers were in the restaurant.
A fast launch and robust prebuilt integrations between TRIFFT & Bloomreach for fast data sync were the icing on the cake.
Apps for the Bella Italia and Las Iguanas brands, developed in close collaboration with BTG and designed with a user-friendly interface and intuitive navigation, hit the ground running with key features ready one day one:
- Easy Onboarding: Customers could sign up quickly using their email or by simply scanning a QR code on the placemats at their table.
- Tiered Rewards System: To encourage deeper engagement, TRIFFT implemented a tiered loyalty system. Upon initial sign-up, customers received an immediate incentive, such as a "Free main course at Bella Italia on your next visit" or "£10 off your bill at Las Iguanas." Subsequent visits and spending would unlock higher tiers with progressively more attractive rewards, like participation gamification with visit or activity related rewards i.e. visit 3 times in 90 days and receive a discount for the next 90 days.
- Personalized Offers and Promotions: Leveraging TRIFFT’s extensive data analytics capabilities, the app was able to track customer preferences, visit history and spending patterns. This data allowed BGT to send highly personalized offers to audiences of one.
Thanks to another layer of capabilities provided through an easy integration with marketing automation platform Bloomreach, the app was ready to offer tailored experiences to diners based on their preferences and histories.
Despite initial concerns about how patrons in this segment of the industry would react to requests to install an app and join the loyalty program, Daniel says the response was overwhelmingly positive right from the start.
"Apps are everywhere now, and we’re all used to being asked to download this or that app from the brands that we like. Passing 100,000 downloads in the first three months for each brand put our fears about customer uptake to rest,” he says.
That number has more than doubled since the launch and the results are in. Within a year of launching their app powered by TRIFFT, app users visit Big Table Group brands about fifteen percent more often than non-users and the number of app users continues to grow.
How Bloomreach Adds Flavor to Every Loyalty Program
The applications TRIFFT created for BTG were supercharged thanks to the use of proprietary technologies from Bloomreach, a leading cloud-based e-commerce experience platform. Bloomreach helps businesses deliver personalized and data-driven experiences to customers using AI and machine learning to optimize the digital customer journey. It leverages big data analytics to understand individual customer needs and interests in real time. The results are increased engagement, revenue and customer loyalty. Bloomreach’s Digital Experience Platform (DXP) provides a comprehensive tool that integrates various functionalities essential for e-commerce and creates customer journeys and triggered content for more than 1,400 brands around the world.
BTG Now Serves Up A Seamless Digital Experience
Now, just a few months after launch, TRIFFT’s solutions have delivered a number of benefits for Big Table Group:
- Increased Customer Lifetime Value: A 15% increase in visit frequency among app users directly translates to higher customer lifetime value. This sustained engagement is a far more efficient growth strategy than constantly acquiring new customers, an especially tough challenge in the restaurant business.
- Enhanced Customer Understanding: The apps provide rich data on customer preferences, dining habits and brand engagement. This data is invaluable for refining marketing strategies, menu development and operational improvements.
- Stronger Brand Loyalty: The personalized offers and convenient features of the apps have fostered a deeper connection between customers and BGT brands, moving beyond transactional relationships to true loyalty.
- Optimized Marketing Spend: By targeting specific customer segments with relevant offers, BTG has been able to significantly improve the ROI of their marketing campaigns.
- Digital Footprint Expansion: The app has successfully established a more comprehensive digital presence for BTG, aligning their brands with modern customer expectations.
“TRIFFT delivered everything the Big Table Group needed to accomplish our goal of more repeat visits,” says Daniel Edmondson. “The numbers are beyond what expected and we’re already planning our future promotions based on what we’ve learned so far. It really has been a game-changer for us.”
Time to Upgrade Your Customer Loyalty? TRIFFT Can Help!
By combining TRIFFT’s engagement tools with BTG’s culinary talents and Bloomreach’s smart automation, customers now enjoy an experience that’s as satisfying as their favorite dishes.
What began as a way to drive repeat visits has evolved into a robust, data-driven ecosystem—one that brings value to both the diner and the business.
With the right ingredients in place, Big Table Group has shown that in hospitality, loyalty isn’t just about points, it’s about connection, convenience and community. Bon apetit!
Thinking about using a true loyalty program to better engage with your customers? Want to discover everything we can do to help make that happen? Reach out to us today and let’s talk!
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