According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Inflation has dramatically risen to almost 7%, a far cry from the 2% average inflation rates of previous decades. Still, inflation is a problem that many American consumers know how to manage, as nearly all kinds of businesses today offer promotional discounts and rewards. It’s actually just a matter of choosing those that offer the best for less.
Prices of basic consumer goods have been rising at a faster pace than what people are actually earning as daily wages. Americans though are veterans when it comes to inflation, as the country has seen several periods of recession and financial crisis.
That being the case, nearly every generation of consumers know the importance of discount store coupons and promotional discounts, bonuses and loyalty points. Actually, the trend nowadays is to sign up at smartshopping programs online that offer great deals on products that a household ordinarily buys, in exchange for completing tasks such as answering surveys or reviewing a product.
Economists say that if the methodology used by Bureau of Labor Statistics would be followed, the real inflation figure would be more than 13%. In real life, the price of ground beef alone is now 20% higher. So it’s no surprise why businesses like restaurants are also into offering loyalty rewards programs.
Should Restaurants Implement a Loyalty Program
If there is one industry that can be greatly affected by inflation, it’s the restaurant business. Inasmuch as the price increments influence customer behavior, capturing the loyalty of every regular customer makes a particular food business a stronger choice for dine outs or food deliveries.
After all, the rewards program incentivizes loyal customers to patronize the business repeatedly and in some cases, even increase their order values. Converting reward points into dollar values makes the luxury of dining out or ordering specialty food less sinful. Most customers actually like ordering from a food outlet that already knows their penchants and preferences.
This works well for food businesses because all they need to do is to keep their customers happy and completely satisfied, drawing them away would be an uphill battle for potential competitors.
Implementation of loyalty programs in food businesses has been supported by a Harvard Business study. Effective customer loyalty programs that increase patronage by at least 5%, can expect to see their revenue increase by as much as between 25% to 35%.
However, not all rewards and loyalty program are alike as the mechanics and reward schemes depend on the type of industry. Some offer discounts on basic consumer products, while others gamify by awarding points that customers can convert and use for cash purchases.
Some others use promotional campaigns that involve action-based engagements. To cite an example, this webpage: smartshopperusa contains a concept of action-based rewards program that encourage customers to spend time and effort in completing or utilizing promotion related information.