4 Benefits of Linking Loyalty to Social

Modernizing loyalty is a challenge that hospitality organizations must address. Consumers have less time to spend with brands and as a result, increasingly demand utility from the relationship, meaning that they want it to be easy to do business. They want to be able to interact with favorite brands in the channels where they spend time, which today is social media and mobile.

For Silver Diner (www.silverdiner.com), these trends have led us to embrace a loyalty program that provides utility and rewards to our Eat Well, Do Well! club members for their social actions. We use a loyalty platform from Paytronix (www.paytronix.com) to manage customer wallets over mobile (as well as in-store and online) while using Chirpify (www.chirpify.com) to manage the social engagement program. By pairing these technologies, we are able to reward Silver Diner club members within social and messaging channels for specific behaviors. 

After linking a member’s number with their social profile(s), Silver Diner customers are rewarded with points for every eligible social action on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Customers can earn up to five points each month, which translates into $5 off the member’s next visit. 

Engagement loyalty is helping Silver Diner create a cycle with greater engagement and sharing that drives customer acquisition and participation. As membership and participation increases so does its impact to the business, all resulting in net new top line value. Silver Diner has experienced firsthand the benefits of rewarding loyalty program members through social channels including:

Increased participation with the brand. By keeping people in their channel of choice, they are much more likely to participate with us. In addition, social loyalty encourages greater engagement and participation because customers are rewarded for doing so.

Increased earned media. As the most loyal customers share positive experiences over social media, we receive valuable earned media. As customers advocate on our behalf, that message is shared with their network, in turn encouraging a web of people to engage — and become loyal to —  Silver Diner, increasing customer acquisition.

Greater customer knowledge. In the process of linking offline and online data about loyal customers, we are gathering important information, which we previously could not access. We are learning which demographics engage most, which campaigns are most successful in these channels, and expect to learn much more, especially as we grow to embrace geo-fencing and other tools that allow us to gate specific campaigns.

Grow revenue and lifetime customer value. Paytronix research has found that loyalty members who are active Facebook users and who are fans of the brand spend upwards of 70% more than the brand’s average program member. By applying the data we’ve collected, we are able to create a more personalized, relevant experience that directly impacts the guest and our business. 

What was your first job? Soda jerk — I made
milkshakes when I was 14. 

Who inspires you? 

Niel Degrasse Tyson, Sam Harris 

What are your hobbies? Guitar, Video Editing 

What technologies excite you? 

Anything VR, Micro-computing 

Sage Advice: The guest experience is the most important piece. The greatest loyalty program in the world can’t make up for poor service or a bad experience. Every decision made should first be concerned with what’s best for the guest. 

What is one other job that you would like to try? Video Game Promoter 

What is one goal that you would like to achieve in your life? Record
a music album.   

What three people would you invite to lunch? Barack Obama, Casey Crescenzo, and Elon Musk 

What is your favorite book/movie? Book: Ender’s Game, Movie: Ex Machina 

What is your favorite vacation spot? Bermuda