News Briefs

iSeatz, a leading provider of travel loyalty technology solutions, has released its latest survey report that examines American consumers' priorities for holiday travel in 2023 and how loyalty programs can leverage opportunities to engage travelers during the upcoming season.

The report, The Tipping Point for Travel Loyalty: 2023 Holiday Travel Trends,  is based on a survey conducted by iSeatz in August 2023, which polled over 2,000 consumers in the United States belonging to a loyalty program that incorporates travel-related rewards and 151 loyalty program professionals across industries.

Among the report's key findings is the fact that travel loyalty programs are well-positioned to provide the reward and redemption options that make holiday travel more attainable for members while capitalizing on the heightened interest in travel that the season usually brings, but many don't consistently deliver the value they promise.

2023 Consumer Insights: Unpacking Holiday Travel Trends

The survey uncovers a US traveler demographic keen to journey but still way of high prices. It also reveals their appetite for more deals and value. Key insights from the report include:

• Consumers plan to travel more this holiday season than in 2022: While just 40% of U.S. adults surveyed traveled last holiday season, a notable 54% are gearing up for holiday trips this year.
   
• Price was a driving factor last year and maybe this year, too: 45% of the 60% of the consumers who didn't travel in the previous holiday season attributed their decision to affordability concerns, either due to steep prices or insufficient travel rewards. This year, value remains at the forefront of travelers' considerations.
   
• Loyalty programs can help consumers offset travel costs: 42% of consumers would travel more during the holidays if they got more discounts through their loyalty program, and 32% would if they had more points available to help offset the cost of the trip.
   
• Loyalty programs could be offering members more: Surveyed consumers said they would welcome their loyalty programs' help with holiday travel costs, but 45% reported that their loyalty programs aren't doing anything at all to offer benefits for the holiday period.

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Weldon Spangler, a longtime TGI Fridays board member and highly experienced restaurant executive, has been appointed CEO of TGI Fridays, effective immediately. He succeeds Brandon Coleman, who has resigned for personal reasons.

Spangler will lead implementation of the growth plan to revitalize the brand on a global scale. There are currently 700 TGI Fridays restaurants in 51 countries offering high quality American food and drinks. 

Spangler brings extensive background in the restaurant industry and his impressive career spans over 30 years of experience, during which he has built a reputation for his unwavering focus on customer experience, store operations, and marketing with successful tenures at Subway, Papa Murphy's, Dunkin' Brands, and Starbucks.

Rohit Manocha, Co-Founder of TriArtisan Capital, a New York-based private equity firm and the controlling shareholder of TGI Fridays with extensive experience in the restaurant sector, will continue to collaborate closely with Mr. Spangler and the dedicated team at TGI Fridays in his role as the active Chairman of the company.

Is the Great Gloom loosening its grip? Not quite. The BambooHR Employee Happiness Index examines eNPS (employee Net Promoter Scores^®) from more than 1.6 billion self-reported scores, and Q3 shows employee happiness continues to decline, but a slight bump might offer a glimpse of much-needed change.  

In September 2023, employee satisfaction reached a new three-year low:

• September 2023 eNPS dropped to 36, half a point lower than in June 2023.
• The average eNPS for Q3 is a full point lower than in Q2 2023, dropping from 38 to 37. 
• Comparing September 2022 to September 2023, there's a three-point difference, representing a significant 9.3% decrease in eNPS year-over-year (YoY).

Since the beginning of January 2023, employee happiness has been in freefall, showing a strong correlation between economic conditions and employee happiness and engagement. Job security and income stability are essential factors affecting micro job satisfaction—as well as macro consumer confidence and economic growth. 

Qualtrics 2024 Employee Experience Trends reports “gaps in recognition, low satisfaction with financial rewards, and a lack of growth and development opportunities,” which leaves workers feeling unappreciated, unheard, and unsupported at work.

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2023 report, low employee engagement is hurting the global GDP to the tune of $8.8 trillion dollars. The report says it best: “If you’re not thriving at work, you’re unlikely to be thriving at life.”

Key Data Points from BambooHR:

• Travel & Hospitality (2) continues to be the only industry with growing employee happiness. Q3 scores were four points higher than Q2 2023.
• Technology (3), Finance (5), and Restaurants, Food & Beverage (8) industries all hit three-year lows in Q3. ‌Tech’s average employee happiness was three points lower in Q3 than in Q2. 

Travel & Hospitality

For the travel and hospitality industry, Q3 2023 has brought continued positive growth in employee happiness, with eNPS scores showing a substantial increase and making it the most favorable quarter seen this year for the industry. 

The average eNPS in Q2 was 35, but it increased to 39 in Q3, representing a notable four-point improvement in employee happiness. The US Travel Association reported that air travel demand was up 12% in July compared to the same month last year, a reflection of a strong and growing travel and hospitality industry. 

Combined with a rising eNPS, this suggests the industry is recovering, resulting in a resurgence in employee morale and satisfaction.

Pent-up demand created during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create growth despite consumer spending fluctuations elsewhere. Good business spells happy employees, who likely feel more secure in their employment compared to other service industries.

How to Pierce the Gloom: Focus on Employee Experience

Similar to construction, travel and hospitality leadership should double down on employee happiness by gathering and implementing feedback to create employee loyalty. 

A great employee experience will strengthen employee satisfaction, which will in turn create excellent customer care. 

Deloitte’s travel report highlights how airports and hotels are doing this already: to address the labor gap, travel providers are leveraging new technology that’s both providing frontline workers with new skills and capabilities and improving the work experience. 

In the same report, two-thirds of travel providers said they don’t anticipate tech innovations to cause staff reductions in the next five years, meaning a win-win for workers and customers.

Technology

The tech industry has reached a worrisome record low in eNPS scores, consistent with the ongoing 2023 nose-dive. The short-term and YoY data both reflect continued decreases in employee satisfaction: Q3’s average dropped three points from Q2, with July hitting an all-time low eNPS of 36.

The reasons are dramatically clear: The all-but-dried-up venture capital funding has spelled a reckoning in the form of 240,000 lost tech jobs so far in 2023. Slowed sales and company spending have put increased pressure on remaining employees to grow profitability and do more with less, particularly headcount. And with the ever-present economic downturn, unhappy employees are hesitant to leave stable work.

How to Pierce the Gloom: Invest in Your Employees’ Future

The tech industry is undergoing seismic changes—financially with lost funding and decreased sales, and innovatively with the rise of AI. A recent Gallup poll found that 22% of workers are worried about being replaced by technology, in addition to being concerned about losing benefits (31%) and having their wages reduced (24%). 

Be open with your employees about what the organization’s plans and strategies are for a successful future: for the business, for customers, and for employees. Presenting a strong vision of a shared successful future where employees will have expanded opportunities to improve their skills can help quell financial anxieties and layoff fears. 

In addition to investing in new skills, don’t overlook the importance of investing in benefits and wages–it’s much cheaper than having to replace skilled talent.

Restaurant, F&B

The restaurant, food, and beverage industry in Q3 2023 reached a new three-year low in eNPS, with a substantial drop from the previous quarter, and a notable decrease since June 2023, a concerning and sustained decline in employee happiness. 

The average eNPS for Q3 is down by four points from Q2, marking a 10% drop since June 2023, surpassing the previous low from March 2023, and a substantial 21% or eight-point drop in September YoY scores.

The National Restaurant Association reports the restaurant industry is the second-largest private sector employer, currently employing almost 10% of the total US workforce. Yet tanking scores point to further fallout of food service businesses still being short-staffed, putting added responsibility on employees who are spread thin and wage-dependent on tips to make ends meet. 

Inflation and contested wage legislation, combined with slowing consumer spending, means paychecks that aren’t covering what they used to. 

How to Pierce the Gloom: Foster Inclusion, Stability, and Security

Almost one in five (17%) US employees work an unpredictable or unstable schedule, with short notice of changes and inconsistent hours being a barrier or burden for many, particularly for caregiver employees. Brookings research shows that asking employees to stay longer than originally scheduled has a negative effect on sales.

To create more stability and inclusion, employers in the food industry can lean on technology, like making use of scheduling systems that only schedule employees during their availability. There are also shift marketplace apps that make it easy for employees to trade or pick up shifts that keep employers in the loop. 

But while picking up extra shifts and having control over available hours greatly supports food workers, too many still struggle to make ends meet and are also food insecure at home. Those making the minimum wage are the most financially vulnerable. A little compassion, accommodation, and support can go a long way.
 

Methodology

All source data is from the BambooHR eNPS platform gathered between January 2020 and September 2023 and includes more than 1,600 companies, tracking anonymous responses from over 57,000 unique employees since January 2020. The data analyzed includes more than 1.6 billion self-reported eNPS scores that have been analyzed in an aggregated, anonymized way to protect the privacy of employees and the integrity of the metric.

Industries highlighted include healthcare, finance, construction, travel and hospitality, nonprofit, restaurant/food and beverage, education, and technology. Further demographics included are company region, company headcount, and average employee tenure at a company. Volatility is calculated monthly using the difference between that month and the previous month’s average eNPS.

Optii Solutions, a hotel operations software, announced an integration with Sojern, a digital marketing platform built for travel. This new relationship aims to provide hoteliers with a comprehensive and seamless end-to-end guest experience solution, spanning from guest messaging to operational action, enabling hotels to enhance guest satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Optii Solutions offers an advanced platform that automates and enhances hotel housekeeping, maintenance, and operations management. Their cloud-based software helps hotels boost staff productivity, reduce costs, and elevate the overall guest experience. By integrating with Sojern’s Guest Experience Solutions, which includes an AI Smart Concierge, Reputation Manager and Guest Marketing Suite with CRM, hoteliers can seamlessly connect with their guests on the guests’ preferred platform and devices, and automate and assign the necessary guest requests and actions. This streamlined workflow enables efficient management of housekeeping, maintenance, and service requests. By combining these solutions, hoteliers can create a more personalized and responsive guest experience, ultimately resulting in increased guest satisfaction, improved online review scores and loyalty. Automation and improved communication also lead to reduced labor costs and operational inefficiencies, enabling hotels to optimize their resources effectively.

Katherine Grass, CEO, Optii Solutions, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Sojern and integrate with their Guest Experience Solutions to provide hoteliers with an end-to-end solution that enables them to deliver outstanding guest experiences while optimizing their operations. This partnership aligns perfectly with our commitment to modernize hotel operations through innovative technology. This is a win for hoteliers, guests, and staff alike. Hoteliers can automate, manage, and measure guest requests, while hotel staff can avoid administrative work and focus on what they do best, ultimately resulting in an improved guest experience."

“In today's hospitality landscape, seamless communication and efficient operations are vital, and this new collaboration will empower hotels to excel in both areas, enabling engagement across the entire guest journey while elevating the guest experience," said Baskar Manivannan, VP of Guest Experience Solutions, Sojern. “We're excited to work with Optii Solutions and provide hoteliers with a powerful, integrated solution that combines our Guest Experience Solutions with their operational prowess.”

Lightspeed Commerce Inc.  is announcing a roster of new product features recently released to merchants.  

From AI-powered menu creation to self-serve assortment planning and continued expansion of Lightspeed Payments, each new feature has been custom-built with one goal in mind: eliminate mundane tasks that bog down retailers and restaurateurs, making it easier and more efficient to run their businesses. 

“Merchants start businesses out of passion, not because they love spending hours on inventory, reconciliation, or schedules,” said Ryan Tabone, Chief Product and Technology Officer of Lightspeed. “Our job as their technology partner is to empower them with the tools that simplify how they operate, so they can focus on their customers and scale their business. This latest round of new product features is the start of a string of functionality that gives them that ability, as well as an edge in their respective markets.”

Lightspeed Restaurant leverages AI, data and insights to help restaurateurs make smarter decisions, faster:

Smart Items: the AI secret ingredient to building a chef's-kiss menu in seconds

New seasons means time for new menus. But what used to take hours of inputting and updating the POS now takes seconds with Lightspeed Restaurant’s newest launch: Smart Items. This transformative solution:

• Generates compelling product information
• Creates captivating images to match
• Auto translates the menu into multiple languages to service the languages you operate in

Whether restaurateurs are managing an extensive 100-item menu or starting from scratch, Smart Items can save them valuable time: up to 30 minutes per 100-item menu, or even hours and days for those building content from the ground up.

Advanced Insights levels up with Magic Menu Quadrant and Staff Performance Tools

Lightspeed Restaurant’s proprietary Advanced Insights tool just got a powerful boost with two features, now available on our flagship product globally: 

• Magic Menu Quadrant, offering merchants insights into popular items and those that encourage repeat dining.
• Staff Performance tools help managers optimize their front-of-house team's performance, from increasing order sizes to cross-training.

When it comes to seeing these features brought to life, Jarred Drown, Owner of Terrace Bay Hotel and Freshwater Tavern in Gladstone, Michigan shared that "Lightspeed’s Magic Menu Quadrant helps us expand while turning a profit on every order." What’s more, Francine Joseph, Business Manager from Boukan in Toronto, Canada said that “One of the greatest features we have now that we didn’t have before is capturing customer data. We always encourage our staff to capture, especially our loyal customers, repeat customers, because they’re spending money here and what we want to be able to do is reward that."

Lightspeed Retail simplifies purchasing and planning for sophisticated retailers and brands: Speed up vertical and target assortment planning 

Brands that operate their own retail stores can reduce manual work (and the frequency of data-entry errors) by using NuORDER Assortments to optimize inventory allocation, identify merchandising gaps, and make more informed range planning decisions. 

“Implementing NuORDER Assortments meant more accurate roll ups and a clear process to write smarter buys,” said Stephanie Gin, Director of Buying, Brunello Cucinelli. “We now get an immediate visual of the assortment thus making it much easier to analyze and review. The tool has replaced all manual processes and has become essential to our buying process.”

For multi-brand retailers, NuORDER Assortments now allows both merchants and brands to efficiently load and manage financial or allocation targets, which enables them to compare their assortment against planned spend and making it easier to see where they are over and under invested. As they write their units, buyers can review how their totals measure against their targets for different departments, categories or other product groupings.

Additionally, onboarding new brands to NuORDER Assortments is completely self-service, allowing for automated mapping of their product schema into an assortment schema and enabling the brand to configure their setup.

Millions of products, thousands of brands, now available across all major Lightspeed Retail verticals

With Lightspeed Retail's B2B Catalog expanding across all major verticals such as Fashion & Apparel, Sporting & Outdoor goods, Bikes, Toys & Crafts, Home & Lifestyle, retailers can now add product info from millions of products from thousands of popular brands straight to their product catalog. This is significantly quicker than adding products manually, and merchants can ensure that all product info, images, descriptions, UPC and more are correct and verified from the supplier, making it quicker than ever to start selling new products.

Create, schedule, track, and sell service offerings directly inside Lightspeed Retail 

After a successful beta launch, our Services Module is now available on Lightspeed Retail everywhere. Better yet, it now lets merchants include backordered items. This module is best served by retailers with service components like bikes, sporting goods, jewelry.  

Lightspeed Payments continues to expand availability globally

Lightspeed remains dedicated to simplifying complex processes for their merchants on all fronts, including Lightspeed Payments. Unified into both flagship products—Lightspeed Retail and Restaurant—Lightspeed Payments continues its global expansion:

• Lightspeed Payments is now available for eligible merchants via Lightspeed eCom in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Belgium.
• Lightspeed Payments is now available on Lightspeed Restaurant in Belgium and the Netherlands.

With these launches, Lightspeed Payments is now available in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands, United States and United Kingdom, making international transactions more accessible and convenient for businesses of all sizes. Learn more about Lightspeed Payments on the Company’s Lightspeed Retail or Lightspeed Restaurant websites.