Insights
What is customer lifetime value (LTV)?
Learn more about the single most important concept in the world of customer engagement: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).
As DoorDash Prepares to Go Public, Restaurants Discuss Strategies to Promote Direct Ordering
Last week, DoorDash released its S-1 filing in preparation of going public. Optimistic readers saw astronomical growth in 2020 – revenues from the first three quarters of 2020 reached $1.9B, an increase of 226% from the same period of the previous year. Gross margins for the delivery giant have also improved, alleviating ongoing concerns about
Know Your Customers Better with Insights
In this post, we will explore how insights will help you move your understanding of customers from the unknown to personal relationships so you can grow your business.
Solving the Challenges of Data-Driven Marketing
Using smart data to engage your customers and keep them coming back for more is what data-driven marketing is all about. Many marketers struggle to get data. Thanx has the data problem solved.
An ROI Model for Restaurant Foot Traffic
Discover an ROI model for foot traffic that will enable you to identify your best customers and shorten the time between visits.
5 Tips to Extend Your Customer Service on Social Media
This article has been reposted, with permission, as part of a content collaboration with Main Street Hub. You know how important it is to show your guests excellent customer service when they come into your business, but did you know that consumers have high expectations for business’ online customer service too? In fact, 67% of consumers now utilize networks like Twitter
The Race for Customer Loyalty
Loyal customers spend and visit more frequently and are the number one source of new referrals. Thanx provides practical tips for customer loyalty.
Building Customer Loyalty
Building Customer Loyalty It used to be that walking into a retail establishment and being given some form of a discount, special offer, or free sample was a unique and appreciated moment. Merchants saw this as a legitimate method for building customer loyalty. Now, as customers, we expect a reward in return for our consistent
Building Loyalty for Car Washes
Customer loyalty can be challenging for car washes. In this post, Thanx shares how you can build relationships and grow customer loyalty for your car wash.
Restaurants are suffering. Data can save them.
How restaurants can use data to stay competitive We’ve seen the same ominous headlines for the last few years — restaurant sales continue to slump as consumers shift their buying habits away from dining out. This past July, restaurant brands reported same-store sales decreases of 2.8% according to data from TDn2K, which represents a continuous and
Consumer Loyalty: 2017 Survey Results
Consumer loyalty matters for businesses of all sizes— industry stats indicate that increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits by up to 95% (source: Harvard Business Review). When you think about how much more likely you are to visit places you already love than to take a risk on trying out a new business,
How to Win New Customers with Your Loyalty Program
Problem Solved: Referral Programs, Made Effortless with Thanxgiving By Margaret Link Thanxgiving changes the game for mobile referral programs Have you tried launching a referral program before? Was it successful? How do you know? Most referral programs lack any type of data visibility, so you can’t be confident that you’re generating any ROI. Even when you get
How to Avoid the 3 Most Expensive Customer Loyalty Program Mistakes
Businesses love their regulars — and with good reason: research shows that 25% of customers generate almost 70% of revenue! Even with money on the line, business owners still make these 3 critical loyalty program mistakes when it comes to creating a loyalty program that actually retains customers. Avoid Common Loyalty Program Mistakes Investing in customer loyalty isn’t just the
Revenue Weighted Net Promoter Score
Today’s guest blog covers a topic we love at Thanx — Net Promoter Score! Mickey from QuestionPro breaks down the math behind identifying your high-value customers and addressing their feedback. Net Promoter Score is only one piece of the customer data puzzle. Here’s why companies should be linking NPS results to customer transaction data —
3 Reasons Happy First-Time Visitors Don’t Become Repeat Customers
From collecting better data to speaking to your customers in ways that resonate, there are many different steps businesses can take to build loyalty among their customer base and turn first-timers into repeat customers Why don’t satisfied customers turn into repeat visitors? And how do you get more of them to come back another
Building Customer Loyalty in 5 Simple Steps: Presentation Recap
Thanx teamed up with Main Street Hub to bring merchants more information on ways they can build customer loyalty — combining our expertise in loyalty, data, and social media, we covered a ton of ground in the 45-minute webinar. Here’s a recap for those of you who missed it.
How Your Loyalty Program is Hurting Your VIP customers
Your loyalty program should do more than track and accrue your customer’s loyalty points… modern, data-driven loyalty programs are the future of business intelligence for brick-and-mortar businesses. Here’s why punch cards fall short when it comes to identifying and rewarding your best customers.
Choosing a Loyalty Program: Why Customer Loyalty Matters for C-Stores
As convenience stores become more data-driven, the challenge of understanding and influencing customer behavior has been the toughest to crack: from the pump, to the carwash, to the convenience store, it becomes imperative to weave a common thread between many discrete transactions that happen within the same property. For this reason, most loyalty programs fail when it comes to driving real value for c-stores.
Thanx closes the data loop for convenience stores, seamlessly linking cross-property transactions and making it easy for c-store operators to track and influence customer behavior. Read on for a few key takeaways from one of our convenience store merchants on why they selected Thanx as their loyalty provider.
Interview with Thanx at National Restaurant Association
With NRA 2017 ending today, we wanted to provide a glimpse into some of the conversations that our staff is having in the booth with restaurateurs. The beauty of Thanx is that it works for all types of restaurants, from QSR to Fine Dining. Unlike other loyalty programs, it doesn’t require additional hardware or require staff involvement. Customers simply pay as usual and the magic happens in the background.
Push Notifications vs. Email: What’s better for reaching customers?
Merchants leverage technology to communicate with their customers in myriad ways — email, text, and social media are typical approaches for a digital-savvy marketer. However, as consumers become desensitized to brand outreach, there’s one method that continues to cut through the noise and drive transactions and engagement: push notifications. Sending relevant push notifications is a great way to drive engagement and delight with your customers. Read on to learn exactly how to use this highly lucrative communication channel.
Dining in Is Dying Because Delivery Is Killing It
Food delivery represents a $210b market, and restaurants are scrambling to be a part of it — often to their own detriment. Facing eroding margins, food quality issues, and high fees, restaurants are fighting the shortcomings of delivery to stay profitable. To compete with delivery, restaurant brands must effectively incentivize customers to stay loyalty to the restaurant themselves — not the ordering platform. Here’s why restaurants are turning to modern loyalty programs to help them achieve that goal while driving incremental revenue.
What a Great Loyalty Program Can Teach You About Your Customers
Customer loyalty isn’t just about punch cards — more sophisticated programs are taking their place. Read on to see how modern loyalty programs are driving a deeper understanding of customers and their behavior for previously underserved industries.
Top Ways to Get More Customers In Your Loyalty Program
The success of any customer loyalty program is based on getting your customers to sign up for it. Thanx provides actionable tips to help.
How Offline Retailers Can Fight Amazon
Amazon Won the Retail Battle — But Brick-and-Mortar Stores Can Use Data to Win the War — In this post, we share 5 best practices for offline retailers to compete in Amazon’s world.
The Franchise Marketing Challenge
Running and marketing a franchise business comes with its own set of unique challenges. Make sure that you’re equipped with the tools to maximize profit and minimize hassle.
Why Customer Satisfaction Surveys are the Pulse of Your Business
For restaurants and retailers, Net Promoter Score is the most valuable way to survey for customer satisfaction and feedback data. Unlike traditional feedback, NPS allows merchants to track customer satisfaction over time, granting them performance data across their entire brand, and all the way down to the individual store level.
How to Choose a Customer Loyalty Program
There are so many different types of loyalty programs out there. Consider these four points as you narrow down your company’s loyalty search.
Building a Restaurant Culture Around Loyalty
Building customer loyalty is about more than your loyalty program… it’s about creating a company culture that celebrates customers. Here’s how brands have put their customers at the heart of their brand mission.
5 Steps to Building a Customer Loyalty Program That Drives Revenue
Your loyalty program can be the backbone of your data collection, your customer outreach, and your marketing efforts. When executed well, it can also be an enormous profit-driver for your restaurant. Below are five loyalty program best practices that drive revenue by delighting your customers.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Loyalty Marketing
Investing in customer loyalty isn’t just a “check the box” initiative. It can be a businesses’ most powerful marketing channel, as it’s 7x more expensive to acquire a new customer than to encourage an additional visit from an existing customer.
Why Mobile is Not a “Check-the-Box” Initiative — FSTEC 2016
Thanx CEO Zach Goldstein spoke to the theme of “Untangling Tech” at FSTEC 2016 — presenting to restaurant owners and operators, he made a case for why a brand’s mobile presence cannot be a “check-the-box” initiative.
What Brick and Mortar Business Can Learn from SaaS Success
I worked my way through college as a hostess, waitress, and bartender in a college town restaurant. After graduation, I moved to Silicon Valley just in time for the dot com era. I began working for technology companies, but never lost my love for the restaurant industry.
Why 5 million people signed up for DD Perks loyalty program
Dunkin’ Donuts shares rose nearly 2% last week after they announced that their loyalty program had enrolled over 5 million people. Here’s why a healthy customer loyalty program is cause for investor optimism.
The Popularity Problem: How to Handle Increased Store Traffic
The croissant in your tiny bakery and café was just named the best in the country by Bon Appetit Magazine. Amazing news, right? Yes… Unless your heart is with your loyal customers who stop by every morning for a coffee and pastry on their way to work.
How great customer loyalty programs stand out from the rest
While all brands realize how valuable their loyal customers are, few brands are hitting it out of the park with their loyalty programs — just ask their customers: most consumers actively use less than half of the loyalty programs they’re enrolled in (via Survata).
Two ways to maximize ROI from your customer loyalty program
Want to give your loyalty program an extra boost? Pay attention to these critical metrics in order to supercharge your loyalty program success.
The past, present, and future of loyalty marketing
The state of loyalty marketing today Loyalty marketing seems to be having a resurgence and it’s all being driven by an increased focus on customer lifetime value and data-driven business decisions. As a result, we’re seeing overhauls of long-standing loyalty programs to be geared more toward high-LTV customers (e.g. Starbucks and American Airlines) and we’re
Gotta Catch ‘Em All: Businesses can profit from Pokémon GO traffic long-term
Savvy businesses are using Pokémon GO to drive massive traffic increases to their physical locations, but without a retention strategy in place, those customers might not come back. Here’s how evolve one-time visitors into loyal customer and ensure these temporary promotions create long-term value.
Checklist: Is your customer loyalty program working?
You’re a retention marketing superstar — which is why you’ve invested part of your marketing budget towards keeping your loyal customers happy with rewards, personalized communication, and VIP treatment. But it doesn’t stop there — not even close. Here are three ways great businesses keep their finger on the pulse of their customer loyalty program.
How businesses can fix bad Yelp reviews
There’s nothing worse than receiving a negative Yelp review — especially when it could have been prevented by some simple communication. Here’s how smart businesses address unhappy customers before they go on a Yelp rampage.
How to Supercharge Your Loyalty Program Sign-ups
A loyalty program is only as good its engaged users. At Thanx, our merchant success team focuses on maximizing three components of loyalty program success: 1) user sign-ups, 2) user retention, and 3) customer engagement. In this article, we’ll show you how we keep the sign-ups rolling in at impressive rates, even in years-old programs.
Mobile Loyalty Programs + The Silent Guest
Thanx Merchant Partner David Igel from Dewey’s Pizza has named the problem that plagues all restaurant operators: the elusive “Silent Guest”. Read on to learn how to identify and retain this high-value group of customers before they take their business elsewhere.
How a loyalty program can double as viral marketing campaign
On the surface, Thanx is an effortless experience for both merchants and their customers. However, behind that magic is a whole lot of math. We work tirelessly to scientifically prove that our incentive programs are generating real ROI for all Thanx merchants. Read on to see how we optimized our industry-first viral marketing campaign, maximizing social sharing and invite conversion and, most importantly, revenue.
Starbucks’ Loyalty Program Makes Huge Changes
Starbucks has been met with vitriol and rage following the announcement of updates to their popular rewards program. Despite this, Starbucks’ bold move towards a spend-based program is the right move for the coffee giant.
Why the Strongest Brands Have Great Customer Retention Programs
What do Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Amazon all have in common? They invest in innovative, delightful loyalty programs— and they have the loyal customers to show for it.
Why The Chipotle Loyalty Program Isn’t Working
Huge brands like Starbucks, Marriott, and Southwest have all acknowledged the power and value of a having kicka$$ loyalty program (I should know; I’m a member of all three). However, as someone who enjoys more than just the occasional Chipotle burrito bowl, I’ve often wondered why Chipotle has lost touch with its customers in the loyalty department.
Car Wash Customer Engagement with Jimmy Starnes, Wash Me Fast
Figuring out how to improve customer engagement can make or break a multi-location car wash’s future. With more engaged customers, car washes see more frequent visits, higher average spend, and significantly improved lifetime value — i.e. everything required for long-term success
In this video interview, Wash Me Fast Chief Strategic Officer Jimmy Starnes explains exactly how he uses new technology to drive higher levels of customer engagement. Watch to learn specific ways that car washes can use tools like 2-way feedback and winback marketing to increase sales and maximize profit.
The Car Wash Project Management Triangle
Car Wash Project Management Triangle (PMT) explains how to balance operational efficiency and customer service to earn max profits.
5 Ways to Get More Customers Into Your Loyalty Program
Prioritizing customer signups is the number one way to drive ROI and reap the full value of retention and loyalty marketing. With more customers enrolled, you get more data to execute personalized marketing, which drastically increases overall engagement and sales.
Below are the five easiest, most powerful ways to get more customers and drastically increase your subscriber base.
New Year’s Resolution — Let’s Fix Acquisition Marketing
Frequent readers of the Thanx Blog will know inside and out the benefits of customer retention marketing versus customer acquisition marketing. Essentially, paying money to attract new customers does not make sense unless you can earn repeat visits.
However, merchants continue to be misled about how the economics of acquisition affects their business. Case in point — a recent analysis of customer acquisition from ex Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, and a single reply from an ex-Groupon customer. Let’s take a look, as we unpack our second new year’s resolution about how to solve marketing in 2016 and beyond.
Fine Dining Strategies for the New Year
Make no mistake — fine dining restaurants’ success comes down to building proprietary data and developing personalized marketing campaigns to drive consistent repeat business.
Of course, the execution of such a straight forward goal requires implementing several best practices relevant specifically for fine dining marketers. In no particular order, here are this year’s three most important new year’s resolutions for fine dining marketers.
The Future Of Mobile App Marketing — Keynote Speech
In this Keynote presentation, titled “Apps, the Sequel — Get Effortless, or Get Out,” learn how Apple Pay, Beacons, and “No App, Apps” are changing the very nature of the way customers shop at their favorite stores. View video below or at Apps, The Sequel — Get Effortless, or Get Out.
Restaurants Win With Net Promoter: Bain Study
For a restaurant executive, success generally comes down to one capital “T” Truth — provide excellent customer service and customers will continue to return. Generally, the last mile after top-quality food and atmosphere remains the same — add a personal touch to guests’ experience, often by visiting them at the table as they dine.
Unfortunately, executives managing multiple locations simply cannot be in more than one place at the same time. That’s the challenge tackled in a podcast from Rob Markey, partner at Bain & Company, Co-author of “The Ultimate Question 2.0,” and host of the Net Promoter System Podcast
Click here to find out how restaurant chains are discovering the special sauce of Net Promoter feedback. You can see a summary of the conversation below.
Tokenization – Your Credit Card’s Best Friend
When Apple Pay came out last year, one technology stood out from the rest during Eddy Cue’s presentation on Apple Pay’s security: tokenization. In one fell swoop, Apple had a solution to solve the challenge of getting consumers to register their credit cards with Apple Pay.
Today, with the rise of card-linked offers technology, the use of tokens has started popping up in more and more consumer apps and experiences. Let’s take a look at exactly what these developments mean and how this technology protects consumers and their credit cards.
Apple Wallet & Loyalty
In what’s quickly become one of the nation’s favorite Fall events, this year’s Apple Dog and Pony Show had all eyes and ears on the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco. With upgrades to the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV headlining, we were of course extremely excited to dive into what Tim and Co. had *ahem* cooked up, especially any and all “one more things.”
Consumer fanfare aside, Apple also faces tremendous pressure to deliver innovation for merchants — especially this year. Make no mistake — Passbook seemed interesting as a concept, but failed as a product. Apple Pay received praise as a concept and product, but it’s still early. With Google Wallet, Samsung Pay, and other major players grappling to carve out market share, Apple needs to continue pushing merchant innovations forward.
And that’s where loyalty comes in. To overcome the chicken and egg paradox inherent in launching a mobile payments platform, consumers and merchants both need strong incentives to adopt a new technology. Let’s look at where Apple stands, and what we can expect from the company going forward.
Why Mobile Slays Traditional Marketing Channels
We recently pulled the numbers examining the results companies achieve when they use traditional versus new forms of marketing.
Car Wash Signs Work Well — But Only When Done Right
Is your car wash signage attracting quality customers? Thanx provides actionable car wash marketing tips for your signage to attract great customers.
Card-Linked Offers Technology: Growing with Momentum
When a new technology emerges, a few early-adopters dabble but the vast majority stays on the sideline, naturally dubious. Inevitably, if that technology solves a real, painful problem with the status quo, others quickly jump in to give it a try – they view it as a risk worth taking. It is with the success of these first waves of experimenters that the technology becomes mainstream and the average consumer or business recognizes the obvious advantages of making a switch. This is the story of Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm.
In the real world, of course, it can be hard to identify where an innovation sits in this technology hype cycle. One important indicator of forward progress is the commencement of analyst coverage – simply put, industry analysts don’t waste their time speculating. They spend their research resources on truly game-changing innovations that have begun to blossom.
6 Ways to Get Millennials to Your Car Wash
Millennials can be a confusing bunch. Reaching them can be a challenge. Thanx shares 6 ways to get millennials to your car wash.
Fine Dining Marketing Requires Good Data
When it comes to marketing data, some restaurants have the wine. Some have the opener. But having one without the other simply does not work.
Solving The Car Wash Industry’s 5 Biggest Challenges
The car wash Industry is like no other. There are unique challenges that exist in operating a carwash successfully. Thanx shares ways to solve them.
Apple Pay and Loyalty
Apple has re-branded Passbook and is adding new features in hopes of one day replacing people’s wallets. If it proves a success this time round, Apple Pay and Wallet will be a permanent fixture in the pockets of every consumer and installed in businesses around the world. That’s a huge jump from where we are now, so when will it actually happen?
The convenience culture is the major driving force behind the cashless revolution. From apps that deliver food in under 15 minutes to one-click shopping on Amazon, “quick and easy” is winning the war. Looking ahead, today’s hyper-involoved payment process (e.g. pennies are still a thing) will ultimately be simplified by mobile devices. So, let’s take a look at:
- The future for Apple Pay
- Current gaps and issues with the technology
How You Can Win with the Sharing Economy
You’ve seen them all in the news: Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Task Rabbit, AirBnB. Clearly, the sharing economy is booming. Consumer adoption is high, which means merchants – all merchants (especially brick-and-mortar) – must follow suit in order to stay relevant.
In essence, the sharing economy has changed the way customers and businesses interact with one another – consumers now expect instantaneous and personalized encounters each time they buy. Because customers’ buying experiences have changed, traditional marketing campaigns don’t have the same bite they once did.
However, the sharing economy does lack a few selling points that are integral to human nature (one example: familiar interactions)! While there are incredible benefits (which I will outline below), knowing more about what the sharing economy lacks presents the ideal business opportunity. Let’s take a look at how to capitalize on the sharing economy to our advantage (despite customers being more fickle than ever!).
Starbucks Name? A Brand Loyalty Program at Its Finest!
Starbucks name? We all think we’re unique when we tell our friends or post that picture to Instagram of an entirely fabricated name. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. Fed up with the Barista’s constant, “And how do you spell that?,” you’ve adopted a new, more witty title.
But, sorry to tell you, you’re not alone and, maybe, you’re not as funny and as you think. You’ve actually been participating in Starbucks own brand loyalty program. Essentially, you’re working for them, and for free!
The Recipe for Marketing Gluten-Free Foods
Back in 2012, Domino’s first announced that customers could purchase gluten-free pizza crust. At that time, people took notice, but the reality is that “gluten-free” has taken on new meaning since then.
To that end, let’s take a look at the current state of gluten-free products, their growth trajectory going forward, and what these insights mean for pizza operators looking to grow their business.
5 Keys to Building Awesome Apps
Ever wondered what it takes to build an app that tons of people download AND use? Welcome to a not-so-exclusive club. Statista predicts that app downloads will hit ~270 billion in 2017.
So, let’s take a look at the numbers behind consumers’ use of apps to figure out exactly what’s working, what’s not, and what to do if you want to build an app your customers will love.
How To Get Better Email Marketing Results
Email marketing serves one purpose: customer retention – essentially, existing customers subscribe to receive email updates and subsequently should visit more often. Prior to the mobile explosion, email served as a solid way to reach customers.
Now, with mobile overtaking email as customers’ preferred method of digital contact, personalization, relevance, and timeliness have become mandatory tactics for effective communication. As a result, email marketing on its own cannot change customer behavior. Fortunately, by complementing email with other data sources, email marketing has the potential to be even more effective than it was before.
What is a Good Net Promoter Score?
It’s one thing to look in the mirror – another to grasp how you look compared to others. Though Net Promoter Score (“NPS”) provides a crystal clear mirror, it takes a few smart marketing decisions to understand what is a good NPS and what scores could benefit from improvement.
Does My Customer Rewards Program Actually Work?
At the simplest level, customer rewards and promotions attempt to change customer purchasing behavior. Brands experiment with seeminlgy every type of promotion, whether monetary (e.g. discounts or BOGO offers) or non-monetary (e.g. exclusive access or brand-relevant experiences) to drive customers to spend more or spend more often.
“Experiment,” of course, being the operative verb. If nothing else, marketing success comes from iteration. In order to iterate, however, marketers have to know what’s actually working – and there’s only one way to do that: close the loop. Here’s what “close the loop” means and why it’s so important for loyalty and rewards programs.
Can Your Multi-Location Business Answer These Seven Questions?
If the answer to any is “No, we can’t,” now might be a good time to start investigating how to address this opportunity. Those multi-location merchants that do have a firm grasp on customer engagement and relationship management are best situated to increase revenue and reduce customer churn. Here’s why:
This Expert Analysis Of Customer Loyalty Sets The Stage For 2015
The following expert analysis of customer loyalty best explains how loyalty will evolve in 2015. Considered together along with the key stats from 2014, marketers should be all set to understand what it takes to build a modern and successful retention marketing program.
The Must Know Retention Marketing Stats For 2015
Planning for loyalty success in 2015? You’ve come to the right place. Here are the key retention marketing stats we’ve seen in 2014 that will shape brand success in the coming year.
3 Ways to Improve a Restaurant Loyalty Program
There’s no better time than now for restaurants to take stock of what’s working and what’s not. As technology evolves, and personalization becomes more and more important, restaurants need ways to make sure customers keep coming back. Here are three ideas to do just that.
New Study: Restaurant Revenue Down 45% During Holiday Season
. In our work with hundreds of restaurants across the country, we found that over the last several years, restaurant revenue declined by 22 to 45 percent during the post-Thanksgiving holiday period.
Branded App For Customer Loyalty – Good Idea or Bad Idea?
Picture it – you unlock your smartphone, scroll to your favorite screen, and click on your own brand’s logo. It’s enough to get any merchant excited about the prospect of having a branded app for customer loyalty, purchases, ordering, games, and whatever else. However, is a branded app something that customers actually want? Here’s how to make the best decision for your business.
The Whole Foods Loyalty Program: 4 Key Takeaways
Whole Foods made a splash announcing a loyalty pilot in Princeton, New Jersey earlier this quarter. Should the Whole Foods loyalty program prove successful, the company plans to take it to Philadelphia in the near term and then nationwide by late 2015. As with any big move from a large brand, retention marketers should take note – particularly when that big brand strays from how it traditionally has done business. Let’s have a look at the four most important takeaways:
Why Customer Retention Marketing
Trying to decide if you should focus your efforts on customer acquisition or customer retention? Thanx shares the value of customer retention marketing and how it drives long-term business success.
How Brick-and-Mortar Stores Can Win
With the rapid rise of online commerce, retailers have asked themselves how brick-and-mortar stores can win. To be clear, brick-and-mortar stores aren’t going anywhere. Smart marketers know that in this case “how” isn’t a question; it’s an opportunity to establish a competitive advantage.