Punchh Brings Apple Pay to Restaurant Loyalty Programs
Punchh, a cloud-based technology platform that builds engagement, loyalty and superior, customized experiences in the restaurant industry, today announced that Apple Pay users visiting participating restaurants will soon be able to not only pay for their purchases, but earn and redeem rewards and loyalty points using Apple Wallet.
Punchh’s Restaurant Marketing Cloud™ is the first platform that bridges the gap between restaurants and customers, empowering restaurants to shape personalized offers that attract and engage more meaningfully with loyal customers. Punchh’s clients include more than 85 leading restaurant chains such as Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, El Pollo Loco, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Pieology, Quiznos, and Smashburger.
Punchh modernizes customer engagement programs within weeks, offering the ability to segment customers, predict customer behavior, create and execute targeted campaigns, and track performance in real-time. Restaurant interactions include loyalty, ordering, payments, offers, feedback, surveys, games, and gift cards.
Brands including Smashburger, Quiznos, and MOD Pizza will be offering Apple Pay with the Punchh integrated solution starting later this year.
"By adding Apple Pay to our Punchh-powered mobile app, it will not only be easier for customers to pay with their iPhone, but join our loyalty and rewards program to start earning and redeeming points immediately,'" said David Martinelli, Senior Director of Marketing, Smashburger. "Since Apple Pay users will be prompted to join our loyalty program upon payment at the register, we believe that the opportunity to drive revenue growth through repeat visits and higher sales is enormous."
Apple Pay is easy to set up and users continue to receive all of the rewards and benefits offered by credit and debit cards. For participating restaurant brands, Apple Pay users will be prompted at checkout to add the restaurant’s loyalty program to their Apple Wallet. Once added, customers will automatically begin earning points and receiving specialized offers, which can be redeemed during future visits. Restaurant brands using the integrated solution will be able to match customers who have opted in to their loyalty program with their payments and receipts, know which menu items they purchased, and incentivize them to use Apple Pay.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer Apple Pay,” said Chris Ruszkowski, Senior Vice President Marketing and Advertising, Quiznos. “As more and more customers want to use Apple Pay in stores, we believe this integration kills two birds with one stone. It enables us to offer next-generation payment solutions on-par with customer expectations, while also building loyalty and incentivizing them to come back more often.”
Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay. When a credit or debit card is used with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on the user’s device. Each transaction is authorized with a onetime unique dynamic security code.