Shari’s Cafe & Pies Expands Rewards Program Enrollment by 30 Percent

11/22/2016
Paytronix Systems Inc., a provider of reward program solutions to restaurants and retailers, announced that family casual dining restaurant chain Shari’s Cafe & Pies expanded enrollment of guests 45 and under in its Cafe Club Rewards program by 30 percent with the help of Paytronix Data Insights. By effectively targeting and incentivizing these guests, Paytronix helped Shari’s increase visit frequency and spend among a much younger demographic.
 
Shari’s is the largest chain of family-style restaurants in the Pacific Northwest with nearly 100 locations open 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Shari’s Paytronix-powered Cafe Club Rewards program helps the chain better understand its guests and then create relevant promotions that drive guests to visit more frequently. By offering the easiest, most diverse methods for enrollment in-store, online, and via mobile apps, the Cafe Club Rewards program has been in growth mode since it launched in August 2014.
 
With many restaurants in or near college towns, Shari’s wanted to take advantage of these locations and attract a younger demographic to its restaurants. To make this happen, Shari’s turned to Paytronix Data Insights, a premium service that helps restaurants and retailers uncover actionable insights from disparate data sources. The Data Insights team helped Shari’s examine data on visit frequency, menu items ordered, and other information with the goal of using the loyalty program to incentivize guests to make at least one extra visit. 
 
Segmentation – With data in hand, Shari’s was able to segment its customers based on purchases and behavior, group them according to visit frequency within a certain time period, then update the groups quarterly to ensure guests receive promotions and offers designed to motivate the desired behavior.
 
Custom Offers – Together with the Paytronix Data Insights team, Shari’s was able to analyze guest behaviors and identify new opportunities to engage each group with custom offers that drive people to change their behavior. 
 
More frequent visits – With Paytronix providing visibility into how offers directly impact movement within each band, Shari’s verified that less active guests had visited more often and were moving up into more active groups. In recent campaigns, Shari’s tracked positive movement of 14% to 44% for guests advancing to the next active group.
 
Younger demographic – By targeting a specific age group with rich offers, Shari’s enrolled more young members in its rewards program. Today, messages coming from the brand are highly relevant to its guests. Shari’s marketing team sends specific promotions designed to drive visits during key time periods, such as after football games or for late-night dining.

“We recognized a need to attract a critical younger demographic that was missing from our loyalty base, and Paytronix has really helped to do just that — providing much more visibility into our customers’ behavior and a means to attract and retain those younger guests by targeting individual age groups with offers relevant to them,” said Carrie Henderson, marketing manager for Shari’s Cafe & Pies. “The guests we engage with Paytronix come in to see us more often, choosing our restaurant when there are a lot of other choices competing for their business.”
 
Paytronix allows Shari’s to add new incentives and promotions anytime, so they can do special, highly measurable promotions. This holiday season, Shari’s is adding a new offering: buy 12 pies and get a 13th for free.  It’s a thank-you offer, but also serves as an incentive to attract new loyalty members. Not only are guests incentivized to buy more pies, but it drives that category of holiday pie shoppers into the Cafe Club as new members for the Paytronix marketing engine to later engage. Once they’ve joined the program and are receiving other rewards, Shari’s can customize offers to get their pie-only buyers into the restaurant for a meal.
 
Explore guest engagement strategies with Carrie Henderson in the new Paytronix webinar recording:
A larger slice of the pie: How Shari’s Cafe and Pies used data analytics to broaden the reach of its loyalty program
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